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Breakthrough Builders: Three Ventures Radically Reinventing Education
Friday July 10, 2026 2:00pm - 2:45pm PDT
Main Stage Room 130-135
What does educational innovation look like when founders stop waiting for reform and start building instead? Three pioneering leaders will showcase ventures that are reshaping the future of learning from the ground up. Meredith Olson will share how VELA is fueling the nationwide Indie Education movement, empowering thousands of founders and families to create new K–12 learning environments. Joe Ross will present Reach University’s Apprenticeship Degree model, which enables working adults to earn accredited degrees through their jobs. Pano Kanelos will introduce the Global Accreditation Project (GAP), an ambitious effort to create a new, outcomes-based accreditation system designed for innovation, accountability, and institutional pluralism. Together, these ventures offer a compelling vision for how bold builders can transform education at every level.
Speakers
avatar for Pano Kanelos

Pano Kanelos

Founding Partner, Athos Group
Pano Kanelos is a senior fellow in the Civitas Institute and the Director of the Center for the Future of Higher Education. A higher education leader, public intellectual, and nationally prominent advocate for the liberal arts, Pano Kanelos was the founding president of the University... Read More →
avatar for Joe Ross

Joe Ross

President, Reach University
Joe E. Ross is president, CEO and co-founder of Reach University and its National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD). Reach is a nonprofit university advancing the Apprenticeship Degree, a work-embedded pathway that modernizes traditional higher education. Before building... Read More →
Friday July 10, 2026 2:00pm - 2:45pm PDT
Main Stage Room 130-135
  Breakout Session

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