Based in Mountain View, California, USA

Founder and CEO of Khan Academy — the free, world-class education platform now reaching over 200 million learners globally — and the individual who more than any other single person has demonstrated that high-quality education can be made universally accessible. Throughout 2025-2026, Khan Academy's integration of Khanmigo — its AI tutoring assistant — made Sal Khan the most practically credible voice on what AI in education actually looks like in deployment at scale. His TED talks, media appearances, bestselling book The One World Schoolhouse, and his continued daily presence building and communicating about Khan Academy made him the most widely followed and trusted education reformer in the world throughout the review period. The single most consequential individual in making education genuinely accessible.

Based in Seattle, Washington, USA

Co-founder and CEO of Code.org — the nonprofit that has introduced over 100 million students globally to computer science, championing the inclusion of CS education in every school's curriculum — and one of the most practically effective education policy advocates working in the US and internationally. Throughout 2025-2026, as AI made computational literacy more urgently necessary than ever, Partovi's advocacy for computer science as a core subject alongside reading, writing, and mathematics continued to gain legislative traction across US states and internationally. Former tech executive and investor, his combination of Silicon Valley credibility and genuine commitment to equity in education access makes him one of the most consequential education reformers working today.

Based in Palo Alto, California, USA

Educator, journalist, author of How to Raise Successful People and creator of the TRICK framework — Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness — which has been adopted by educators, parents, and EdTech platform designers globally as a framework for building environments where young people actually thrive. Former journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School where she built one of the most successful student media programmes in the US, mentor to some of Silicon Valley's most prominent founders, and one of the most widely followed education voices globally. Throughout 2025-2026, Wojcicki's speaking, writing, and public advocacy on what genuine student empowerment requires continued to influence educators, parents, and education technology designers globally.

Based in Paris, France

Director for Education and Skills at the OECD and architect of PISA — the Programme for International Student Assessment — which is the most widely used and most debated instrument for comparing educational outcomes across countries globally. Author of World Class: How to Build a 21st-Century School System, and the most data-driven and globally authoritative voice on what actually works in education policy across different national contexts. Throughout 2025-2026, Schleicher's OECD research on AI in education, teacher wellbeing, and learning outcomes continued to set the global policy agenda for education ministers and system leaders. The person whose research most directly shapes what governments around the world actually do in education.

Based in New York, USA

Founder of Girls Who Code — which has reached over 500,000 girls globally with computer science education — and author of Brave, Not Perfect and Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work, and one of the most prominent voices on gender equity in technology education and what the workplace needs to do to support women. Throughout 2025-2026, Girls Who Code's continued global expansion and Saujani's public advocacy on the specific barriers facing women and girls in technology — including her Marshall Plan for Moms initiative — continued to make her one of the most visible and practically impactful education equity voices in the world. Her combination of nonprofit founder credibility, bestselling author platform, and policy advocacy makes her one of the most multi-dimensional education leaders working today.

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Co-founder of Coursera alongside Andrew Ng — one of the two people most responsible for making university-level education accessible online at scale — founder and CEO of insitro, applying machine learning to drug discovery, and one of the most technically accomplished and intellectually extraordinary figures in the education technology space. Throughout 2025-2026, Koller's influence on how higher education thinks about online learning, credentialing, and the application of AI to learning personalisation continued to be felt through Coursera's continued growth and through her public commentary on the intersection of AI and human learning. A computer scientist who changed what education means by applying her technical skills to accessibility.

Based in Washington, D.C., USA

CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education, and one of the most practically experienced voices on education technology policy and what genuine digital transformation in schools actually requires. Author of Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World, active throughout 2025-2026 with speaking, writing, and ISTE community leadership. His combination of federal policy experience, non-profit leadership, and accessible public communication makes him one of the most credible and practically useful voices on EdTech for school leaders and policymakers navigating rapid technological change.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, author of Disrupting Class, Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools, and From Reopen to Reinvent, and the most rigorous and widely cited voice on disruptive innovation theory as applied to education. Throughout 2025-2026, Horn's writing, podcast appearances, and speaking continued to provide the most intellectually coherent framework for thinking about what AI and EdTech will and won't displace in traditional educational institutions — distinguishing genuine transformation from incremental improvement. His application of Clayton Christensen's disruption theory to schools has shaped how investors, policymakers, and education leaders think about technology's role in learning.

Based in Weston, Massachusetts, USA

Founder of edX — the MIT and Harvard-founded online learning platform that pioneered the MOOC alongside Coursera — CEO of edX until its acquisition by 2U, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Throughout 2025-2026, Agarwal remained one of the most prominent voices on open education, the future of credentials, and what learning at scale actually looks like when built on genuine institutional academic rigour rather than venture capital ambition. His combination of MIT faculty credibility, EdTech founding experience, and consistent public advocacy for open and accessible education makes him one of the most respected elder statesmen of the online learning revolution.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Innovation Education Fellow at Harvard University, author of The Global Achievement Gap, Creating Innovators, and Most Likely to Succeed, and one of the most widely cited voices on the gap between what schools currently teach and what the 21st-century economy and society actually require from young people. Throughout 2025-2026, Wagner's speaking, writing, and his advocacy for project-based, creativity-focused education continued to be among the most widely cited frameworks used by school reformers, educators, and policymakers globally. His work is distinctive for being grounded in both rigorous research and compelling storytelling — he is among the rare education thinkers who makes his arguments through the stories of students and teachers rather than abstract policy frameworks.

Based in New Jersey, USA

Author of Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere, co-founder of Modern Learners — the professional development platform for school leaders navigating fundamental educational change — and one of the most intellectually honest and provocative voices on what schools actually need to do differently rather than what they say they're doing differently. Active throughout 2025-2026 with the Modern Learners podcast, writing, and speaking, Richardson's willingness to ask the uncomfortable questions that most education thought leaders avoid — Is school actually designed for learning? Are we changing anything that matters? — makes him one of the most valuable voices in the profession.

Based in Orlando, Florida, USA

Author of The Innovator's Mindset and Innovate Inside the Box, educator, speaker, and one of the most widely followed and practically useful voices for classroom teachers and school leaders on what genuine innovation in schools actually looks like from the inside. Throughout 2025-2026, Couros's writing, speaking engagements, and social media presence continued to reach hundreds of thousands of educators globally who need practical, honest, and inspiring guidance on how to build learning environments that genuinely serve students in the current era. His combination of classroom credibility and accessible thought leadership makes him the most practically useful education voice for working educators rather than policymakers.

Based in Camilla, Georgia, USA

Classroom teacher, author of Reinventing Writing, host of the 10-Minute Teacher podcast — one of the most widely listened-to education podcasts globally — and one of the most practically respected and longest-serving voices in education technology for working classroom teachers. Throughout 2025-2026, Davis's podcast, writing, and teaching continued to provide the most classroom-grounded perspective on what EdTech actually looks like in daily practice — a rare and valuable corrective to the investor and policy voices that dominate much of the education technology conversation. Her 20+ years of teaching in a small rural Georgia school while simultaneously being one of the most followed educators globally makes her story one of the most compelling in education.

Based in Seattle, Washington, USA

CEO of Getting Smart — the education advocacy and learning design consultancy — former Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, author of multiple books on education innovation, prolific Forbes contributor, and one of the most widely connected and knowledgeable voices on the education investment, policy, and innovation landscape globally. Throughout 2025-2026, Vander Ark's Forbes columns, podcast, and speaking continued to make him the most consistently useful connective tissue between EdTech innovation, philanthropy, policy, and school practice — someone who understands every layer of the system and communicates across all of them.

Based in Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, author of World Class Learners, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?, and Reach for Greatness, and one of the most intellectually rigorous and culturally specific voices on what education systems across different national contexts can learn from each other — and what they are systematically getting wrong. Born and educated in China before moving to the US, Zhao's cross-cultural perspective on education reform is genuinely unique: he is simultaneously a critic of Chinese education's narrowness and American education's loss of creative breadth. Throughout 2025-2026, his writing and speaking continued to be among the most intellectually challenging and internationally grounded available in the education space.

Based in Melbourne, Australia

Finnish education professor, author of Finnish Lessons — the most widely read book on Finland's extraordinary education transformation and what other countries can learn from it — and one of the most internationally authoritative voices on what high-performing education systems actually look like when you strip away the political mythology. Active throughout 2025-2026 with writing, speaking, and public advocacy on what the evidence actually shows about education quality, equity, and wellbeing. His willingness to challenge both the standardised testing orthodoxy and its critics with actual evidence makes him one of the most practically useful international education voices available to policymakers and system leaders.

Based in Palo Alto, California, USA

President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, Professor Emerita at Stanford University, former President of the California State Board of Education, and the most credentialed and widely respected voice on teacher quality, equitable education policy, and what evidence-based school reform actually requires in practice. Throughout 2025-2026, Darling-Hammond's research, policy advocacy, and public writing continued to provide the most rigorous empirical foundation for education policy debates on teacher preparation, school funding equity, and what high-quality learning actually requires. The academic whose work most directly bridges education research and education policy at the highest levels of government.

Based in Los Angeles, California, USA

Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, author of The Trouble with Black Boys and City Schools and the American Dream, and one of the most prominent and practically experienced voices on education equity, urban school reform, and what genuinely inclusive education systems require to serve all students rather than a privileged few. Active throughout 2025-2026 as a writer, speaker, and policy advisor, Noguera's combination of academic rigour, community credibility, and willingness to name systemic inequity directly makes him one of the most important education equity voices working in public communication.

Based in Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founder of the JUST DATA Lab, author of Race After Technology and Viral Justice, and one of the most important and rigorous voices on the specific ways that technology — including EdTech — can encode and amplify racial bias rather than reduce it. Throughout 2025-2026, as AI tools entered classrooms at scale, Benjamin's research and public writing on algorithmic bias, data justice, and what genuinely equitable technology in education requires became more rather than less relevant. The academic voice who most compellingly and rigorously makes the case that EdTech is not neutral and that its implementation without an equity lens actively harms the students it claims to serve.

Based in Rajasthan, India

Professor Emeritus at NIIT University in Rajasthan, former Professor at Newcastle University, winner of the TED Prize, and pioneer of the Hole in the Wall experiment — which demonstrated that children in remote Indian villages could teach themselves computer literacy with no adult instruction — and the concept of Self-Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs). His TED talk remains one of the most watched education talks in TED history. Throughout 2025-2026, Mitra's framework for self-directed learning continued to be widely cited in discussions of AI, personalised learning, and what happens to education when information is universally accessible. A genuine original who ran the experiment that most powerfully challenged conventional assumptions about what teaching and learning require.

Based in Birmingham, UK

Nobel Peace Prize laureate, co-founder of the Malala Fund — which advocates for 12 years of free, quality education for every girl globally — author of I Am Malala, and the most globally recognised voice on girls' access to education as a fundamental human right. Throughout 2025-2026, as education access for girls deteriorated further in Afghanistan and several other countries, Malala's advocacy, media presence, and the Malala Fund's practical work on education policy in Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Brazil, and beyond made her the most consequential individual voice on education equity globally. Her combination of personal testimony, Nobel Prize credibility, and practical fund operations makes her influence uniquely cross-domain.

Based in New York City, New York, USA

Founder of Mott Hall Bridges Academy in the Brownsville neighbourhood of Brooklyn — one of the highest-poverty areas in New York City — and the educator whose story, shared in a viral Humans of New York post in 2015, raised over $1.4 million for her school and sparked a national conversation about what inspired teaching in under-resourced communities looks like in practice. Throughout 2025-2026, Lopez remained one of the most compelling and morally serious voices on what education equity requires at the school level rather than the policy level — someone who shows rather than tells what transformative teaching looks like, and whose continuing advocacy for under-resourced students gives her a credibility with communities that institutional voices cannot match.

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Former Chief Education Evangelist at Google — a role he held for over a decade, helping deploy Google tools in schools globally — and one of the most widely followed and practically useful voices on the relationship between technology, equity, and educational transformation for working educators and school leaders. Active throughout 2025-2026 with speaking, social media, and public advocacy on what schools need to do differently in the AI era. His question — "Don't ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, ask them what problems they want to solve" — has become one of the most widely shared education reframes in professional learning communities globally.

Based in San Diego, California, USA

Education consultant, author of The Google Infused Classroom and The Chromebook Infused Classroom, co-founder of The Infused Classroom — one of the most widely used professional development resources for teachers integrating technology into learning — and one of the most practically useful and teacher-centred voices in education technology. Throughout 2025-2026, Clark's writing, speaking, and professional development work continued to reach tens of thousands of classroom teachers who need practical, pedagogically sound guidance on technology integration rather than abstract innovation frameworks. Her ground-level credibility with working teachers makes her influence particularly meaningful in a space dominated by voices far removed from actual classrooms.

Based in Naperville, Illinois, USA

Middle school teacher, founder of the Teach Further Model — a project-based learning framework connecting classroom learning to real-world community problems — co-author of Teachers Deserve It, host of the Teach Further podcast, and one of the most energetic and genuinely inspiring advocates for the teaching profession working in public communication today. Named an Illinois State Teacher of the Year, Hughart's combination of active classroom teaching, platform building, and relentless public advocacy for the dignity and value of the teaching profession continued to make her one of the most widely followed and emotionally resonant education voices throughout 2025-2026. A teacher who stayed in the classroom while simultaneously building one of the most engaged educator communities in the US.