A highly respected educator, Mary Burns has over a decade of teaching experience, and has since 1997, worked across six continents, serving as a school-based coach, professional development provider, program designer, evaluator, curriculum designer, and policy advisor, all with a focus on technology and teacher pre- and in-service education.
Mary’s impact has spanned all levels of the education system, engaging with international donors, policymakers, teacher trainers, coaches, teachers, and students. She has worked for UNESCO, the World Bank, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Brookings Institution, ministries of education, universities, and schools. She spent the 2023-2024 academic year as an invited professor of practice and researcher at the Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti in Porto, Portugal where she helped teachers use AI in education tools.
Her work has received recognition for its excellence, including two Fulbright awards from the U.S Department of State Educational and Cultural Affairs Office; a national award from the National Staff Development Council for her role in leading the development of a technology-integrated teacher training curriculum; as the lead researcher for an award winning mixed-methods study on teacher learning with technology for the US Department of Education; and as the invited author of the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report’s think piece on technology and backgrounds chapter on teachers and technology. She has been interviewed by publications such as The Economist, U.S. News and World Report, and Portugal’s Diario de Noticias about the role of technology in education.
Mary actively conducts research on instruction, professional development, educational technology, and coaching and is a prolific writer with almost 300 publications, most recently Education Development Center’s Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods.
Mary is fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.