“There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” - Nelson Mandela
About the Author
Erika Twani is a learning enthusiast and an optimist focused on a better world built by humans with practical and useful skills and life purpose. She is co-founder and CEO of the Learning One to One Foundation, where, along with experts, she explores ways to foster human achievement through Relational Learning based on applied neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, pedagogy, and technology. Her philosophy is to simplify complex concepts and make them useful for everyone, starting with children.
Erika has advised government officials and education leaders around the world on the use of technology in education, has written various articles on the topic, and has worked with public and private schools to guide the practical use of Relational Learning. She led Learning One to One into five countries in the first year alone, touching the lives of more than 100,000 students.
A Microsoft Circle of Excellence Award winner, prior to co-founding Learning One to One Erika was Microsoft’s education industry director. She was also responsible for the company’s Partners in Learning program, which enabled 90,000 teachers per year in the use of technology. Before that, she worked in the technology giant’s Unlimited Potential Group, enabling technology to reach underserved communities around the globe. In addition to working at Microsoft for nearly seven years, Erika spent six years working at Oracle and founded and ran her own technology company.
Innovation in learning usually happens in silos, and Erika wants to empower educators to bring it out of these silos and scale it. To do this, she uses insights, skills, and experience from 20+ years of experience working with corporate technology companies enabled her to shape products and services for worldwide scalability. Her corporate experience has given her a clear understanding of large organizations’ challenges to motivate employees, foster creativity, and create long-lasting relationships with customers and partners, regardless of their locations.
Corporations benefit from the same principles identified in Erika’s work, as they implement simple learning and skill development processes that contribute to individuals’ personal growth, intrinsic motivation, and life purpose. Consequently, individual achievement results in the organization’s success.
Besides being an author, Erika is also a TEDx speaker, international speaker, adviser, avid reader, and adventurer. Most of all, she is a learner, committed to investing 20% of her time in learning. Her organization serves schools and institutions around the world with professional development, consulting services, and education technology. She has a B.S. in software engineering and an MBA in entrepreneurship. She also sits on various boards. Erika lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, with her husband, Brian.
