Alison Pendergast

Alison Pendergast has 25+ years of experience conceptualizing, developing, and scaling pioneering digital learning and educational technology solutions. Prior to joining the postsecondary success team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pendergast was a co-founding member and chief marketing and strategy officer for Acrobatiq—a leading adaptive learning and analytics platform for higher education and corporate training. She led the go-to-market strategy and brand growth from the company’s inception in 2013 to its acquisition in 2018. Earlier, Pendergast was the chief marketing officer for Ascend Learning, leading product transformation of Jones and Bartlett from print publisher to leading provider of instructional, assessment, and learning management. Pendergast also held executive roles at Pearson Education where she co-developed the first multi-publisher e-book commerce platform and Accesstext.org, a public-private partnership delivering accessible textbooks to students with disabilities. Pendergast has an MBA from Norwich University (VT), is a Distinguished Military Graduate from University of Connecticut Army ROTC, and is a veteran U.S. Army Medical Service Corps Officer.