Women Who Inspire Us
Education

Yvonne Andres

Yvonne Marie Andres is the President, CEO and co-founder of the Global SchoolNet Foundation. She is former Vice President of Internet Learning Programs and Partnerships at Lightspan.com and the creator of the Global Schoolhouse.

An educator for nearly two decades, Ms. Andres has taught pre-school through university and is dedicated to discovering, demonstrating, and documenting the power of "Internet style learning." Ms. Andres has also designed and taught many courses, including "Hello Internet," "Managing Global Learning Projects," "Designing On-line Courses," and "Creating Effective Educational Websites." Ms. Andres' activities include promoting and facilitating exciting and innovative Internet learning projects, including International CyberFair.

Andres has been a champion of instructional telecommunications since 1984. She was an electronic bulletin board sysop and project director for various networks, including the AT&T Learning Network, California Online Resources in Education (CORE) Network, the California Education and Research Federation's CERFnet and the FrEdMail Network.

In 1988 Andres co-authored "TeleSensations: The Educators' Handbook to Instructional TeleComputing" and for seven years served as the editor of an international newsletter focusing on collaborative telecomputing projects. In 1992 she developed and coordinated the original Global Schoolhouse Project, electronically bringing together students from schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, Arlington, Virginia, Oceanside, California, and London, England. The project was later expanded to include 20 schools in 12 states.

In 1992 Andres authored "CERF'n Safari: An Educators' Guide to the Internet," the very first teacher's Internet guide. In 1994 Andres accepted an appointment to the Governor's Information Technology Council for the State of California. She is also a co-author of "Going to School on the Internet" (a publication of Cisco Systems) and "Harnessing the Power of the Web for Classroom Use: A Tutorial."

In 1996 Andres was selected as a Woman of Merit and, in 1997, as one of the 100 most influential people in U.S. public education. Most recently, Ms. Andres was named one of the 30 most influential people, nationwide, in education technology by eSchool News.

Ms. Andres is currently a doctoral candidate at United States International University, researching online collaborative learning.