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Luess Sampson-Lizotte

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

Luess joined iCivics in January 2023 as the Chief Product Officer. In this role, Luess leads the product strategy and editorial development for the iCivics portfolio.

Prior to iCivics, Luess held many positions in the K-12 educational publishing industry focused on developing history, civics, and government curricula. Most recently, as the VP, Humanities Product Development at Savvas Learning Company (formerly Pearson K12 Learning), Luess oversaw the K-12 Social Studies and World Languages product lines. There she was instrumental in the development of several market-leading programs, including Magruder’s American Government. She started her career in educational publishing in the Educational Technology group at Houghton Mifflin. Her first experience in the publishing world was as a children’s trade editor on the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

Luess holds a M.A. in History from University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in History from Duke University. She excels at navigating complex issues and developing creative product solutions that help students learn and practice knowledge and skills they need to engage in the civic process. She is an avid gardener and downhill skier who loves reading mysteries and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Posted in Bio

Emma Humphries

Posted on by Michelle Shen

Dr. Emma Humphries joined iCivics as Chief Education Officer in February 2016.

Emma began her career in education as a classroom teacher in North Florida, where she taught all levels of American government, American history, and economics. It was there she first learned the power of innovative learning tools that allow students to engage with important content and make meaning of otherwise dry concepts such as federalism and limited government.

In 2008, she began a Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Florida, where she focused her studies and research on civic education and teacher professional development until she graduated in 2012. As luck would have it, Justice O’Connor visited the Florida legislature during this time, inspiring them to pass the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act in 2010, which mandated civics instruction at the middle school level. This timely development provided Emma with opportunities to partner with the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship in drafting a yearlong 7th-grade civics curriculum and assisting in subsequent teacher training efforts.

In 2011, Emma joined the team at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service as its Civic Engagement Coordinator. In this role, she worked with center and campus leadership to promote civic engagement at the University of Florida by developing, implementing, and coordinating innovative programs for students. During her tenure, she also created and taught an award-winning, online citizenship course entitled “Rethinking Citizenship: Identity, Collaboration, and Action.”

Emma has degrees in political science and education and was awarded a James Madison Fellowship in 2004. She was a founding member of the iCivics Educator Network and has been spreading the good word about iCivics since 2010.

Emma lives on Saint Simons Island, GA, with her husband, Michael, and their daughters, June and Julia. In her spare time, she chairs the annual St. Simons Island Wine Festival benefitting local arts and education causes.

Sue Meehan

Posted on by Michelle Shen

Sue joined iCivics as Chief Operating and Financial Officer in 2015.

Sue specializes in helping entrepreneurial, early-stage organizations successfully grow. She has more than 20 years of experience building strategically focused, high-performing, team-oriented cultures equipped to expand quickly. Across Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Operations, and Programming, Sue builds scalable infrastructures that enable operational excellence and she helps teams reach their full potential in achieving organizational goals.

Prior to joining iCivics, Sue was the COO for Year Up, a social enterprise organization with a mission to close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults skills, support, and access to opportunity. Sue led the operations of Year Up from a single site, early-stage organization to an award-winning national organization in 13 cities, with over 500 employees and a budget of over $70 million.

Earlier in her career, Sue was the COO at the Share Group. As a founding manager, she played an integral role in growing this start-up into a $20 million industry leader in fundraising for national progressive nonprofits. Sue has additional experience in political campaigns and in academia.

Sue’s passion for civic engagement started in grammar school, voting in mock presidential elections and working with her Dad on numerous political campaigns. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Colby College and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has spent her career in the social sector building organizations that increase engagement in improving our democracy.

Posted in Bio

Louise Dubé

Posted on by icivics

Louise joined iCivics as its Chief Executive Officer in July 2014.

Louise discovered the power of education in the early 1990s as a co-founder of CASES, a New York alternative-to-incarceration program for youthful offenders where education helped reshape lives. Inspired by a deep commitment to creating pathways to lives of learning and purpose, she has devoted her career to ensuring that all students are prepared for civic life.

Louise has successfully led K-12 growth organizations that use educational media to improve student achievement across the private and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, as Managing Director of Digital Learning at WGBH, Louise helped launch PBS LearningMedia, a platform with more than 87,000 classroom-ready digital resources reaching 1.5 million educators.

Louise has received national recognition for her work. She received a Civvys award from Bridge Alliance, the People’s Voice Award from the Diane Von Furstenberg/Barry Diller Foundation, and was selected as a Donaldson Fellow in 2019 at Yale SOM. She is also a Draper, Richards, Kaplan Fellow. As a civic education expert, Louise has published and been interviewed widely in national and education press.

Louise began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada. She holds a law degree from McGill University and an MBA from Yale’s School of Management.

Louise, a native of Quebec, has two children who share her love of travel, reading, debating, and learning.

Interested in interviewing Louise or having her as a speaker? Contact [email protected]