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Michelle Cummings
VP of Content Teachers Pay Teachers • Harvard University Graduate School of Education
Professional Background
Michelle Cummings is a highly respected leader in the field of education, known for her innovative and collaborative approach towards enhancing educational outcomes. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a remarkable ability to improve student achievement, develop staff, and cultivate strong partnerships within the community and industry. Her tenure in the Medford School District is particularly notable, during which she played a crucial role in increasing graduation rates by an impressive 15 percentage points over the past four years. This significant achievement reflects her effectiveness as a leader and her commitment to educational excellence.
In recognition of her impactful contributions to the educational landscape, Michelle was honored with the prestigious national Women in Leadership award by the AASA, an acknowledgment that highlights her influence and dedication to advancing educational opportunities for all. Furthermore, she is an advocate for recognizing outstanding educators; she co-founded the Golden Pear Awards, an initiative designed to celebrate exceptional educators who make a difference in the lives of students.
Michelle's contributions extend beyond school administrative roles. She co-founded the Young Artists Institute, which emphasizes the importance of arts in education and provides platforms for young talents. In addition to her organizational commitments, she is actively involved in enhancing the educational community through her service on the Boards of both the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Chautauqua Poets and Writers. This involvement illustrates her dedication not only to education but also to the arts, showcasing a well-rounded approach to student development.
Recognizing the rapidly changing landscape of education, Michelle has voiced her belief that, without innovation, traditional educational models may become obsolete, similar to services that have been displaced by technology. To address this concern, she has initiated Innovative Education Summits that bring together educators, students, families, and community partners. These summits aim to facilitate collaboration and drive change in educational practices. Michelle is committed to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation in education, as evidenced by the keynotes and facilitated sessions she has delivered at both state and national conferences on a variety of important topics, including "Yes Teach!", "Self-Regulation Revolution", "Project Graduation", and "Destigmatizing Mental Health Issues."
Her leadership and dedication to the holistic development of students were further recognized when the high school where she served as principal received the Whole Child Award from Oregon ASCD, a testament to her focus on nurturing all aspects of student growth and well-being.
Education and Achievements
Michelle Cummings possesses a strong educational background that has provided her with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for her successful career. She earned her Master's degree in Education from Harvard University, an institution renowned for producing leaders in the field of education. This advanced education has significantly shaped her philosophy and approach to teaching and leadership.
Earlier in her academic journey, she completed her Bachelor's degree at Brown University, where she likely honed her critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The combination of her Ivy League education not only showcases her intellectual rigor but also her commitment to understanding and addressing the diverse challenges in education today.
In addition to her formal education, Michelle's career has been marked by several key positions that demonstrate her growth and expertise in education. As the Vice President of Content at Teachers Pay Teachers, she contributes significantly to the development of educational resources that support teachers and enhance student learning experiences. Before this role, she served as Chief Academic Officer for the Medford School District, where she led initiatives aimed at improving teaching practices and student outcomes. Additionally, her experience as Principal at Ashland High School equipped her with invaluable insights into school leadership and community engagement.
Notable Achievements
- Increased Graduation Rates: Under Michelle’s leadership, the Medford School District saw a remarkable increase in graduation rates, rising by 15 percentage points in just four years, illustrating her effectiveness in driving student success.
- AASA Women in Leadership Award: This prestigious recognition attests to her outstanding contributions and impact in the field of education, particularly in empowering women leaders.
- Co-founding of the Golden Pear Awards: As a co-founder, Michelle has played a pivotal role in celebrating and recognizing exceptional educators, fostering a culture of excellence within the teaching profession.
- Innovative Education Summits: Through these summits, she actively engages with educators, students, and community members to promote innovative practices in education, addressing contemporary challenges head-on.
- Keynote Speaker and Facilitator: Michelle’s expertise has made her a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator at various state and national conferences, where she addresses critical issues in education and shares her insights on successful strategies for student engagement and mental health.
- Whole Child Award: The school Michelle led was awarded the Whole Child Award by Oregon ASCD, acknowledging her commitment to nurturing the complete well-being of students.
In conclusion, Michelle Cummings is a compelling figure in the education sector, combining her extensive educational background, leadership capabilities, and passion for innovative change to make significant strides in improving educational outcomes. Her efforts to enhance collaboration among educators, students, and the community exemplify her vision for a more effective and engaging educational system. Michelle's ongoing commitment to excellence and her proactive approach to facing the challenges of modern education continue to inspire and impact those around her. For more insights and updates on Michelle's work, follow her on Twitter at @MCummings365.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- 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.