Rusty is a nationally recognized senior executive, policy advisor, entrepreneur, impact investor and thought leader with over 20-years of leadership experience in launching, scaling and innovating global digital learning, social impact, Higher Education and workforce development organizations, nonprofits, and businesses with global governments, institutions, and technological, non-profit and corporate partners.
He most recently served on the senior leadership team at 2U, Inc. (TWOU) a global digital Higher Education and life-long learning company as the Senior Vice President, U.S. & Global Program Management where he worked directly with university Presidents, Provosts, Chancellors and Deans while overseeing a global senior team in launching and scaling online graduate and undergraduate degrees, and certificate programs with over 40 universities and 75 degree programs including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, London School of Economics, Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina. Rusty also served on the senior team and managed growth strategy, curriculum development and revenue for GetSmarter, 2U’s life-long learning, short-course professional pathways business.
Prior to joining 2U, Rusty was on the executive team and served as Managing Director and General Partner of 1776 Global Innovative Incubator and Venture Fund. Based in DC but working across 1776’s labs in SF, NYC, Tel Aviv, and Dubai, Rusty ran 1776’s global Future of Learning and Work innovation practice and seed fund with universities, foundations, impact funds, corporate and over 2000 start up partners. Rusty and his team invested in 25 start-up companies - including Guild Education, mPower, Yellowbrick, RideScout, Twiga, EdSurge, Fluent City, Aquicore, and HopSkipDrive. Previously, Rusty served as co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SF-based Learnist, one of the fastest growing social learning content and curriculum companies in the country with over 25 million global users in its first 20 months. With the same management team, Rusty was a co-Founder and Board Members of Grockit, a pioneering social and adaptive learning test prep company serving over 10 million students globally that was successfully sold to Kaplan, Inc. in August 2013.
Before joining Grockit and Learnist, Rusty held President/GM operating positions with Educate, Inc. one of the largest supplemental education companies in the U.S., including Sylvan Learning and Catapult Learning serving over 100,000 students in 35 states, partnering with thousands of school districts in mostly underserved, at-risk communities.
Before entering the private sector, Rusty served in the Clinton Administration’s Corporation for National and Community Service launching the AmeriCorps program - a $650M government startup that has served over 1 million members, and provided over $3B in education scholarships for students and adult learners over the past 25 years. He also served as an education and technology Policy Advisor for Senator John Kerry and the Minority Leadership Office in the Democratic Senate Policy Committee.
As founder and principal of the eQ group, Rusty currently advises university Provosts and Deans on digital and hybrid life-long learning and professional pathway programs and serves as a senior advisor for private and publicly traded workforce innovation, edtech companies, foundations, and nonprofits. He has advised the Department of Education during the Clinton Administration and Obama Administration on various school success, student access, education, technology and career readiness issues. He has participated in White House conferences and committees related to Higher Education innovation, social entrepreneurship and community impact. Rusty speaks often as a keynote or panelist at global innovation conferences on education, social entrepreneurship, impact investing, disruptive learning and global public-private partnerships.
He has authored op-eds, articles and/or been quoted in publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Boston Globe, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and he has appeared on national media including C-SPAN, and broadcast and network news programs. Rusty received his B.A. at Washington University, St. Louis with Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude honors and an MBA at Harvard University. He was a Coro Leadership Fellow in New York City and studied at the London School of Economics.