Ramona Pierson

At the age of 22, Ramona Pierson was hit by a drunk driver while running and spent 18 months in a coma and 11 years blind. She relearned everything from breathing and seeing to walking and smiling. From this experience arose the drive to build companies where personalized learning and relearning were the center of all products. Ramona’s career began as a neuroscientist at the Palo Alto Brain Center and VA hospitals, which led to her advocating for students with learning challenges in the public school system. In 2005, she created The Source, one of the first online social learning solutions for educators, students and parents. It was adopted throughout the Seattle Public School system and Ramona became the CIO for the district for three years. In 2007, Ramona founded SynapticMash which developed educational solutions. SynapticMash was acquired by the British interactive learning company, Promethean World, and Ramona became the Chief Science Officer leading its expansion into the global education marketplace. In 2012, Ramona co-founded Declara and today serves as its CEO. Ramona entered University of California, Berkeley at the age of 16 and was recruited at 18 by the Marine Corps for her brilliance in mathematics and uncanny grasp of data and algorithms. She went on to receive an undergraduate degree from Fort Lewis College; master’s degrees from University of San Francisco; as well as a fellowship to the University of Washington.