Leadership Team
Marina began her journey toward the o3.schools vision while interviewing over 3,000 students for admission to Rice University, and seeing how few of those students could answer a simple question: “What are you passionate about?” She set about creating in 1988 The John Cooper School, whose motto is From Curiosity to Wisdom: a blended learning school where students' natural curiosity could flourish for 12 years of schooling. She then supported the development of seven other quality schools. Based on her experience, she decided to create the Schoolinakit in May of 2011, packaging the key components to start personalized, mastery-based, blended learning schools.
Marina B Walne
39 years in education PK through higher education
Director of Admissions, Rice University
Founding Head, The John Cooper School
Consultant for 7 other start-up schools and 8 nonprofit organizations
Policy work at the state and federal levels
Executive Director for Institute of Public Schools Initiative
Vice President for Education, Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Stanford BA, MA, Ph.D.
Neil Dsouza
10 years in education and technology in US & Global
Founder and ex-CEO of Zaya – 300 schools and 100,000 students in India
Echoing Green Fellow
World Economic Forum – Global Shaper
Neil worked @Cisco developing 4G mobile routers
Devina Bhojwani
Owned and operated four of the Gymboree Play & Music centers in Houston which became the best performing in the nation.
Offered the Play & Music class pro-bono to the Down Syndrome Association and the United Cerebral Palsy Association.
Devina currently serves on the board of a STEAM based education franchise, Idea Lab Kids, and SOS. She consults with several non-profit organizations such as CRY, Know Autism, and Overcome.
She is a leader who is passionate about education. She moved to the United States in pursuit of better education and graduated with honors from Rice University with an MBA.
Board of Advisors
We are fortunate to have a distinguished Advisory Board who are leaders in education, many of whom have shaped the national conversation about personalized, mastery-based, blended learning.
