In 2022, Heather Combs was appointed CEO of StraighterLine, one of edtech’s fastest growing companies and the leading provider of high-quality, affordable, online courses that helps learners earn college credit and meet their professional goals. Heather has led the company through its first acquisition of ChildCare Education Institute, one of the largest online training providers for early childhood education professionals. This acquisition is the company’s first step to significantly expand its course offerings and grow the company.
Heather brings more than two decades of experience in scaling high-growth companies. Before StraighterLine, she served as chief commercial officer and chief operations officer of the digital product development company 3Pillar Global, where she led operations, marketing, and strategic growth initiatives. Before 3Pillar, she led revenue strategy and product management as the chief business development officer at the HR Certification Institute, was the chief sales officer at Hanover Research, and spent 13 years at Corporate Executive Board, business advisory firm that was acquired by Gartner in 2017.
Heather was named a 2018 “female disrupter” of the software development world by Medium and is dedicated to women in leadership. She is a founding member of Chief, a network to connect and support women executive leaders, and a member of the advisory council for STEM for HER, an organization that empowers girls and young women to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
StraighterLine provides high quality, low cost online courses that prepare students for success. StraighterLine combines a $99 a month course subscription with guaranteed credit pathways to accredited degree programs to save up to 60% on the total cost of a degree.
Recommended Resources:
Using ROI for Strategic Planning of Online Education by Kathleen Ives and Debroah Seymour
What We're Reading by Whiteboard Advisors
Jeff Selingo books
EdTech Thoughts by Matthew Tower
Other Notes:
StraighterLine gets to the point where they can offer "courses for credit" not "accredited courses". Technically their courses are not "accredited" but they transfer for college credit at accredited institutions.
Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!
Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference
Week in Edtech 05/29/2024: OpenAI Announces a New Safety Board, Anthropic's LLM Mapping, New Chromebooks with GenAI for Educators, Guild Education Layoffs, Microsoft Partners with Khan Academy on AI T
The Next Generation of Leading EdTech Companies with Tory Patterson of Owl Ventures
The Evolution of Google for Education with Shantanu Sinha
Week in Edtech 5/8/2024: OpenAI's Search Engine, Stanford University's 2024 Report on the State of AI, 4 Traits of Successful Founders by Jennifer Carolan and More! Feat. Jason Levin of WGU Labs and B
Building an Inclusive AI Future in Education with Kunal Dalal and Wes Kriesel
Week in Edtech 5/1/2024: TIME EdTech 100, Chegg & Coursera Stocks Fall, Microsoft's Phi-3, Anthropic's New Mobile App, Penn Engineering's Master’s Degree In AI and More! Plus Special Guest, Louisa R
Special Episode: Generative AI in Education, Learn from the Pioneers with Ben Kornell of Edtech Insiders, Amanda Bickerstaff of AI for Education and Charles Foster & Steve Shapiro of Finetune at SXSW
The Credential Flywheel: How Accredible Is Building Tomorrow’s Workforce with Danny King
Student Perspectives on AI with Siya Verma, Sophie Yang and Dev Krishnamoorthy, Research Assistants at Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab
Week in Edtech 4/24/2024: Meta's New VR OS Strategy, Anthology Raises $250M, Insights on the Future of Educational Funding and More! Feat., Rebecca Kockler of Magpie Literacy and Kristen Huff & Amelia
From Memes to Mastery: Exploring Antimatter Systems’ Innovative Learning Tools with Jonathan Libov
Crafting Dynamic Educational Experiences: A Deep Dive with the Minds Behind Story Xperiential
Week in Edtech 04/10/2024: Nvidia Dominates AI Chip Competition with Google and Intel, Duolingo to Futher Tap China's Edtech Sector, Biden Rolls Out New Debt Relief Plan and More! Plus Special Guests
From Hidden Insights to Deeper Connections: Exploring the Ask Approach™ with Jeff Wetzler
Week in Edtech 04/03/2024: Edtech Funding Hits New Low, Microsoft's $100 billion 'Stargate' Datacenter for OpenAI, Kids Missing School at an Alarming Rate, AI Concerns and More! Plus Special Guest, Al
Debating the Future of EdTech: AI Tutors vs. Peer Assessment with Carine Marette of Kritik and Gabi Immelman of Mindjoy
Week in Edtech 3/27/2024: OpenAI Pitching Sora to Hollywood, Spotify in EdTech, LAUSD's AI Chatbot "Ed", Universities Build Their Own ChatGPT-like Tools and More! Plus Special Guest, Betsy Corcoran of
ESAI: Julia Dixon's Answer to the College Admissions Inequality Crisis
Week in Edtech 3/20/2024: OpenAI's Humanoid Robot: Figure 01, NVIDIA Launches Latest AI Chips: Blackwell, Google's Gemini for the iPhone, Elon and xAI Open-Source Grok and More! Feat. Pat Yongpradit o
Alejandro Gibes de Gac: Pioneering a New Era of Parental Involvement in Education with Paloma
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast