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Amanda Strawhacker
Associate Director of the Early Childhood Technology (ECT) Graduate Online Certificate Program at Tufts University
Professional Background
Amanda Strawhacker is a highly respected researcher and educator specializing in the intersections of technology, engineering, and life sciences as they relate to young children's learning and development. With a rich academic background and extensive experience in early childhood education, Amanda has dedicated her career to enhancing educational practices that foster children's growth through innovative use of technology. Her current role as the Associate Director of the Early Childhood Technology Graduate Online Certificate Program at Tufts University positions her at the cutting edge of educational technology and its application in early learning environments.
Amanda’s professional journey is distinguished by her comprehensive work at Tufts University, where she has contributed to multiple projects aimed at understanding how technology can be integrated effectively into childhood education. She has also played pivotal roles as both a researcher and an educator, shaping curricula and strategies that empower educators and engage young learners.
Throughout her career, Amanda has been involved with various organizations focused on early childhood education and technology integration. She has served as a course manager and intern at the Early Childhood Technology Graduate Certificate Program, where she collaborated with educators and researchers to design programs that enhance children's learning experiences. Additionally, her collaboration with Project Zero underscores her dedication to fostering critical and creative thinking in educational contexts, reflecting her commitment to understanding and improving how children learn.
Education and Achievements
Amanda's academic credentials lay a solid foundation for her expertise in child development. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts University. Her advanced understanding of child psychology and educational methodologies is complemented by her Master of Arts (M.A.) in Child Development, also earned at Tufts. Furthermore, Amanda holds a Bachelor's degree in Physical and Biological Anthropology, which enriches her educational perspective by providing insights into the biological and ecological factors that influence child development.
Her academic achievements are further reflected in her robust role as a co-founder of The Amandas Consulting, LLC, where she leverages her expertise to consult with educational institutions, helping them develop effective strategies that integrate technology into their classrooms. Amanda’s contributions to early childhood education were further solidified during her time with the DevTech Research Group, where she served as a lab manager, research analyst, project coordinator, and graduate research assistant. Her comprehensive experience in these roles underscores her competency in research design, implementation, and analysis, particularly concerning the impact of technology on early learners.
Additionally, Amanda’s role as a technology/robotics education consultant at The Rashi School demonstrates her adaptability and innovative approach to education, helping integrate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) concepts into early childhood curricula. These experiences highlight her dedication to using emerging technologies to create enriching educational experiences, making her a valuable asset in the field of education.
Notable Experience
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Course Management and Instruction: In her role as Associate Director of the Early Childhood Technology Graduate Online Certificate Program at Tufts University, Amanda oversees the development and implementation of online curricula that equips future educators with the necessary skills to effectively utilize technology in teaching young children. Her leadership is vital in ensuring that the program remains relevant and impactful.
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Project and Team Leadership: Amanda has consistently showcased her leadership abilities through her various positions at the DevTech Research Group, where she has led teams in investigating and analyzing the role of technology in early childhood educational settings, producing valuable research findings that influence best practices.
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Consultative Expertise: As the co-founder of The Amandas Consulting, LLC, Amanda employs her solid understanding of educational theory and practice to assist institutions in developing and implementing technology-infused learning strategies that foster engagement and learning outcomes for children.
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Educational Innovation: Through her diverse experiences, Amanda has been at the forefront of implementing technology-driven solutions that enhance learning experiences in early childhood settings, thereby contributing to the ongoing conversation about the importance of technology in education.
Community and Collaboration
Collaboration has been a key aspect of Amanda’s career. Her time as an intern at Project Zero allowed her to work alongside educators and researchers focused on developing innovative educational practices. This collaborative spirit extends into her role at the Early Childhood Technology Graduate Certificate Program, where she engages with other educators to continually assess and enhance program offerings based on the latest research and classroom needs.
Additionally, Amanda’s work as a technology assistant teacher at Jewish Community Day School exemplifies her commitment to hands-on educational practices, allowing her to engage directly with young learners and apply her research insights in real classroom settings.
Throughout her impressive career, Amanda has maintained a focus on creating meaningful, research-based educational experiences that prioritize the developmental needs of young children. Her exploration of how technology intersects with early childhood education reflects her belief in the potential of modern tools to enrich and expand learning opportunities.
With her comprehensive background in child study and human development from Tufts University, Amanda Strawhacker stands out as a thought leader in early childhood education. Her dedication to bridging the gap between technology and education has positioned her as an influential figure in the field, with her work shaping the future of how technology can be harnessed to foster effective learning experiences for young children.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.