Stephen Bird is the Founder and CEO of Bridge for Learning. He has 20+ years of experience in the education field, including being a mobile classroom teacher and administrator. Before Bridge for Learning, Stephen was the Director of Operations at Cloud 9 – an online enrichment platform focused on academics, arts, and athletics. He has been an adjunct professor of education for more than a decade, and many of Bridge for Learning’s ideas are based on his classroom teaching experiences.
- Education
Stephen holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Educational Leadership & Curriculum Development from Texas Tech University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He also obtained his T-STEM certification from Alamo Colleges. He also graduated from the New Leaders for a New School program, receiving the Texas Tech Endowment Award for Academic Excellence.
- Awards
The Texas Tech Alumni Association awarded him the 2014 Student Teacher of the Year, 2015 Alamo Colleges Teacher of the Year, 2017 Educator of the Year by – the Texas Tech Department of Education, and 2018 Educator of the Year – by Alamo Colleges. He has also received numerous other awards, including the Texas Tech EAA Endowment Award. He gained recognition from the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and was nominated as Teacher of the Year in 2014 by the San Antonio Business Journal.
He has shown a skill for innovation as a student with his successful designs of the classroom phone during his time as a student at Texas Tech in 2004. He also presented unique ideas as a teacher to integrate technology into the classroom better while teaching at San Antonio College. Stephen received his first start-up funding in 2018, and he has been able to so far raised $5.5M in funding and has attracted almost 50+ investors. He has created the nation’s first online, computerized private school for students with special needs.
More information can be found at https://www.crunchbase.com/person/stephen-bird