The KDS Team

Alvin Crawford
CEO
Alvin has over 20 years of experience in education and media. Alvin spent nearly a decade at SchoolNet, a company he helped drive from a four-person startup to its current position as a leader in educational software solutions for school districts. At SchoolNet Alvin held executive positions in areas including sales, marketing, product development and business development. Alvin has also worked at Zentropy Partners, Ogilvy One, and Digitas. Alvin holds a BS in Biology from Tufts University, and an MBA from the Wallace E. Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College.

Joan Batey
VP of Curriculum Development
Joan has 18 years of experience in curriculum and instruction, where she held a variety of positions including middle school classroom teacher, computer lab coordinator (K-8), site technology specialist, curriculum developer, and course administrator. She earned a BA in Liberal Studies, holds a Multi-Subject CLAD Teaching Credential from Notre Dame de Namur University, and an MA in Educational Technology from the University of Phoenix.

Melanie Fox
VP of Accounts and Strategic Partnership
Melanie has experience in marketing and sales with Eduware. She was also a teacher in the adult education program for English as a Second Language at Adelphi University, as well as a private tutor in the areas of English, ESL, Spanish and mathematics. Melanie holds a BA in Linguistics and Spanish and an MA in Computational Linguistics from Georgetown University.

Joe Small
VP of Sales
Joe has over 25 years experience in sales and marketing management in K-12 education print and digital publishing. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of District Partnerships for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Previously he was with Pearson Education for 15 years building high performing integrated sales teams, and last served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. Joe's early career with Control Data helped develop online learning for higher education and the Dept. of Defense markets. Joe holds a B.A. degree in English and Business Communications from Providence College.

Karlene McCormick-Lee
Director, Human Capital Management
A K-12 educator for 30 years in the fifth largest school district, Dr. Karlene McCormick-Lee demonstrated success in strategic program development, implementation, and management resulting in clearly defined positive outcomes, as well as improved schooling and organizational effectiveness. Through creative solutions to challenges, process management, data analysis, and the delivery of professional development, Karlene shaped innovative programs to achieve critical educational results for children.

Ferdi Serim
eLearning Evangelist
Ferdi Serim has worked in many venues: Board Member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the New Mexico Public Education Department's EdTech Director, Reading First Director, Program Manager for Literacy, Technology & Standards; Board Member of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN); Advisory Board for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; director of the Online Internet Institute (OII); Associate of the David Thornburg Center for Professional Development (and jazz musician). He is the author of four books: NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet; From Computers to Community: Unlocking the Potentials of the Wired Classroom; Information Technology for Learning: No School Left Behind, and Visible Thinking, Teaching & Learning: Strengthening and Assessing Digital Age Skills.