The team behind Empower.

For more than 23 years, Scott Bacon has partnered with education leaders to turn the ambitious vision of Competency-Based Education (CBE) into a practical reality using innovative technology. While CBE effectively addresses many longstanding challenges in education, it also introduces new complexities for organizations. Through decades of hands-on experience, these challenges have been thoroughly identified and thoughtfully solved. Today, especially with the powerful capabilities of AI, organizations can confidently adopt CBE and move rapidly from initial awareness to meaningful impact.

Scott is the CEO and founder of Empower Learning LLC. He is proud to work alongside co-owner Dr. Robert Marzano, leveraging Dr. Marzano's extensive research and deep expertise to provide the essential resources, tools, and training needed to transform education in your schools and communities.

Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is cofounder and chief academic officer of Marzano Resources in Denver, Colorado. He is also executive director at Empower Learning. During his 50+ years in the field of education, he has worked with educators as a speaker and trainer and has authored more than 50 books and 200 articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention.

His books include A Handbook for Personalized Competency-Based Education, Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading, The New Art and Science of Teaching, Leaders of Learning, Making Classroom Assessments Reliable and Valid, The Classroom Strategies Series, Managing the Inner World of Teaching, A Handbook for High Reliability Schools, and The Highly Engaged Classroom. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are known internationally and are widely practiced by both teachers and administrators.

Matthew Shea is the Executive Director of Client Services at Empower, and a former teacher, curriculum director, and district administrator in a proficiency-based district in Maine. He is experienced in leading the shift from a traditional system to a proficiency-based system as both a teacher and administrator, including developing and leading professional learning opportunities for educators.

He has presented at numerous education conferences across the country and internationally, and was Maine Curriculum Leader of the Year in 2018-2019. He is also the co-host of the nationally recognized podcast Personalized Learning with Matt and Courtney. He brings his decade-plus of experience with Empower in the classroom and at the district level to help guide and support educators in their journey to a more equitable, inclusive, and just educational system.