Board of Advisors

Mr. Bruce Friend
Mr. Friend has a leadership role in the educational group at SAS Institute. Previously, Mr. Friend was vice president of North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). He was invited by the Lt. Governor of North Carolina to help launch the North Carolina Virtual Public School as interim director, based on his experience as the chief operating officer of Florida Virtual School, the largest online K-12 school system in the United States. Florida Virtual School grew from zero to more than 50,000 students with Friend’s efforts. Friend is a regular speaker about online learning at conferences across the nation. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida. He received the Outstanding Achievement by an Individual award in 2003 from the U.S. Distance Learning Association.

Dr. Amit Tandon
Dr. Tandon is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. With a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, Dr. Tandon’s work is continuously funded by the National Science Foundation. He teaches general education as well as mathematical physics and oceanography related courses to engineering and physics students. He is committed to understanding student learning and methods of assessing learning for university students, and is a part of the multiple institutional e-learning initiatives at UMass Dartmouth, where he actively uses WebCT in his own teaching. Additionally, he has been working as the coach of the "MathCounts" team at Dartmouth Middle School for the past two years.

Dr. Cliff Blackerby
Recently retired as the Director of Educational Technology Services Department for Region 4 Education Service Center at Texas Education Agency, Dr. Blackerby has been an educational and technology pioneer, having served on both Texas Education Agency’s Educational Technology and Distance Learning Task Forces. He helped shape various policies in online education in the country as the Member of the Senior Advisory Board to the North American Counsel for Online Learning (NACOL) and Member, Chair, Gulf Coast Consortium on Distance Learning. His incessant efforts lead to the founding and growth of Texas Virtual School into a leading virtual school in Texas.