A TechWomen100 Award winner, #SBS winner and a leader in education. Beverly Clarke, seeks to raise the outcomes for all through understanding of and access to technology. She is an education consultant, published author, ambassador, coach, mentor, podcaster, speaker, host, panellist, trustee and founder.
She grew up without seeing computers and at the age of twelve saw her first computer, this sparked an interest in technology for her, along with an awareness of how the world was a divided place through technology and the opportunities available for those with access to the digital world.
After university, she worked in corporate IT and then retrained for a career in teaching. This saw her teaching at college and secondary school level for fourteen years. During this time, she became Head of Department, mentored colleagues, led on whole school priorities and also gained her senior leadership qualifications.
As a self-starter, she also started developing a portfolio career, this saw her consult on numerous projects such as BBC Bitesize videos to support the implementation of the new computing curriculum in England. In the UK she has also led and managed regionally and nationally on government programmes. She is skilled at bringing together others to work on common goals and visions, generally with a technology focus, with aims of bridging the digital divide and improving prospects.
Beverly has national and international experience of computing education, as a resource writer, she self-funded and founded the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools programme (now closed), with the aim of broadening participation in computing. The programme was recognised by tech giant NVIDIA. She collaborated with NVIDIA and adapted the curriculum to US standards. This curriculum has a potential reach of over fifty five thousand learners across US high schools.
She is the author of published books – “Computer Science Teacher” – insight into the Computing classroom, aimed at attracting new entrants into the computing teaching profession and of the self-published series – “The Digital Adventures of Ava and Chip” a children’s book series with the aim of making tech concepts exciting, relatable and easy to understand. This series saw her gain recognition in the #SueAtkinsBookClub and become a #SBS Winner.
Beverly has been a member of the BETT Advisory Board and is currently a BETT Awards judge, a Trustee for the Learning Foundation and an ambassador for the Digital Poverty Alliance. She is also the founder/CEO of the charity – Technology Books for Children.