Douglas Levin, Senior Director, Education Policy

For over fifteen years, Douglas Levin has bridged the fields of education policy, research, and technology. He was instrumental in the development of the nation’s first educational technology plan and its two subsequent updates across both the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

At Cable in the Classroom (CIC), Mr. Levin oversees all aspects of the industry's outreach to education, including leading a growing research effort, overseeing a suite of award-winning publications, and continuing to build the foundation's relationship with the education and public policy communities. He was the primary author of Navigating the Children's Media Landscape, the latest media literacy report of the National PTA and Cable in the Classroom. And, in September 2005, Mr. Levin spearheaded a major education technology-related relief effort (vSKOOL) for K-12 students, educators, and families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Formerly a principal research analyst with the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC, Mr. Levin has directed or played leadership roles in prominent research studies on a wide variety of topics at all levels of education. He directed the groundbreaking Pew Internet & American Life study, The Digital Disconnect, which used qualitative methods to highlight the widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools, and has testified to and/or supported the work of several Congressional commissions, including the National Education Commission on Time and Learning, the Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, and the Web-based Education Commission.

Mr. Levin also served as associate director of a project to design the ongoing Congressionally-mandated experimental study of the effectiveness of educational technology. He helped direct evaluations of the U.S. Department of Education’s flagship educational technology programs: the Enhancing Education through Technology program (and its predecessor program, the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund) and the Technology Innovation Challenge Grants Program.

A regular speaker on educational technology trends, policy, and research to a variety of audiences - including educators, policymakers, researchers, and industry executives - Mr. Levin is an alumnus of the Institute for Educational Leadership Policy Fellowship Program. He currently serves on numerous boards, including the editorial review board of the International Journal on E-Learning, the board of directors of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training, and the advisory boards of the Generation Y Foundation, the New York City-based MOUSE, and the National Childhood Obesity Foundation.

Mr. Levin is a 2006 recipient of the prestigious Making It Happen award for educational technology leadership. A record of work to which he contributed can also be found in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian - cited for its visionary use of information technology to produce positive social, economic, and educational change in medicine. Mr. Levin holds an M.A. in quantitative sociology from the George Washington University and an A.B. in English literature from the College of William and Mary.