Verna Lalbeharie

Verna Lalbeharie is the executive director of the EdTech Hub, leading the Hub in advancing its mission to empower governments and leaders towards evidence-based applications of technology in education, in service of building an evidence-driven movement for the use of technology to help address the global learning crisis. Verna, a native of South Africa now based in the US, has over 25 years of experience in strategic leadership and business development in education technology, personalised learning, research, and technical assistance. She has focused her career on evidence and the advancement of education technology to create a more equitable future for all students. Her early career was spent on initiatives and research efforts to advance student success, focusing on secondary and post-secondary education reform.

In an R&D capacity in non-profits, Verna worked on complex, large-scale, national, multi-component, multi-partner, and multi-year education initiatives. Prior to her role at the EdTech Hub, Ms. Lalbeharie served as the managing director for digital age personalised learning at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). She guided state and local education departments in the implementation of personalised learning and EdTech initiatives. She led business development for AIR’s portfolio of research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects. She has served as the co-chair of a national steering committee for the EdTech Genome Project, a research network creating a framework for supporting informed EdTech purchasing decisions based on evidence, and is currently a member of the Brookings Global Taskforce on AI and Education. Ms. Lalbeharie holds a BA from Smith College and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.