Feb 25, 2026
The new Otus Advisory Board brings together nationally recognized education leaders to help shape the future of the platform. This profile is part of a series introducing each board member and highlighting their insights around edtech innovation and the future of teaching and learning.
Dr. Vince Bertram is a two-time bestselling author and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Project Lead the Way (PLTW), the nation’s leading STEM education organization. A former superintendent, principal, and teacher, he has served on the federal STEM Education Advisory Panel and testified before Congress on workforce readiness.
Dr. Bertram is currently an assistant professor of management in the School of Business at the University of Indianapolis. He advocates for shaking up the status quo in education to allow for new structures that incentivize innovation and change, and he believes AI will be transformational for student learning and outcomes as well as teacher effectiveness and efficiency.
Growing up in Indiana, Dr. Vince Bertram gravitated toward basketball. His love of the game drew him into education, where he soon had the first of many revelations about his chosen field.
“Once I got into coaching and teaching, I discovered that it wasn't basketball that I was in love with,” he said. “I was in love with the students and making an impact.”
Those dual inspirations led Bertram to scale his career from the local to the national level. “Throughout my career, every move I've made, I've had an opportunity to impact more students. With the basketball team, I had 12. As a high school principal, I had 2,500. As a superintendent, I had 25,000. At PLTW, I had 2.5 million. I always took it as a huge responsibility but also a deep honor to be able to do that.”
Rather than distancing himself from students’ day-to-day challenges, the ascending positions reinforced his belief in the importance of care and support—and to this day, he is quick to recognize empathetic educators who are deeply committed to the success of individual students.
“There are adults around us who see potential in us, who believe in us in times when we don't believe in ourselves. There are so many opportunities for students to go down a path that can be very destructive. But when students have a strong adult system around them, those people will make sure that doesn't happen.”
Dr. Vince Bertram
Assistant Professor of Management
,
School of Business at the University of Indianapolis
Bertram is enthusiastic about the Otus Advisory Board because he feels the company exhibits a deep focus on classroom educators and their connections with students. “I love the work that Otus is doing,” he said. “I think the vision, the company, and the organization are exciting. They are making a true difference in the education space.”
Incentivizing innovation and change in education
By the time Bertram arrived at PLTW, a nonprofit that equips pre-K through grade 12 students with the technical knowledge, transferable skills, and career confidence they need to thrive, he had had another revelation about the field of education.
“Education is incentivized in a way that keeps existing structures in place,” Bertram said. “I have been a critic of educational tradition and the status quo for a long time.” Innovations might happen, but they are often restricted to a single classroom or school rather than spreading through a district or state.
Business, on the other hand, is constantly changing. “If you're not changing, you're going out of business,” he said. “That openness to change was one of the things I loved about PLTW.”
Choosing a business lens for leadership instruction
In addition, at PLTW, Bertram was responsible for expenses and revenue, unlike his previous district leadership roles, where the funding was set and all he controlled was spending. He found it revelatory.
“We had to create in-demand products, sell them, and market them, all while keeping focused on having an impact on students. And if we didn't, we weren't going to thrive as a business—or even worse, we could go out of business. I liked that tension, that excitement.”
When he entered academia, Bertram gravitated toward the business department rather than education. “I thought a school of business would give me the opportunity to work at a different pace, and perhaps more innovatively.”
At the University of Indianapolis, Bertram said, “I've challenged myself to do things differently. For example, I don't give tests. I don't use a textbook. I use real-world examples. I give students experiences, and I find out if they're learning based on those, not how well they're able to take a multiple-choice test. It's been a real joy to be able to do that, and the students have responded remarkably well.”
STEM as a foundation for transferable skills
“People say education is a great equalizer, but I think education is a great differentiator,” Bertram said. He believes that as students’ skills grow, they can more easily move and adapt to new paths. “What we often call transferable skills—or you might hear them called transportable skills or durable skills—are skills that can be used in multiple career paths.”
He saw this directly within STEM. In 2018, Bertram was appointed to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Advisory Panel by the National Science Foundation in consultation with the Department of Education, NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We often look at STEM as these discrete disciplines, but in reality, STEM is the foundation for everything,” Bertram said. “When we make musical instruments, we make the science of sound. That’s STEM.”
Thus Bertram was less focused on the disciplines of STEM and more on the career opportunities within STEM disciplines. “I was looking at these outcomes and saying, ‘If we can help students develop the skills that they need, it's going to lead to prosperity, it's going to lead to great career opportunities for them,’” he said. “Our ability to move from one path to another is based on the skills we develop.”
Adding AI as a tool for K-12 efficiency and outcomes
Bertram is responsible for standing up the Center for AI at the University of Indianapolis, which is hosting an AI summit with the theme “AI That Works for People, Organizations, and Society.”
“The kind of support systems we want to put in place for students requires a significant data and technological infrastructure, so the AI Center is helping facilitate that right now,” he said. “We're not going to be the developers of AI models. What we're doing is using what's out there and finding the most efficient, effective ways to implement it and scale it across our campus.”
This is where Bertram’s wide-ranging interests and experiences converge. “On our campus, we have the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, which we call CELL. They are very involved in how we reach out to and serve the K-12 market.”
“In K-12, AI could be transformational on a number of levels, not only on student learning and student outcomes, but also around teacher effectiveness and teacher efficiency,” he said. “I think there's a tremendous opportunity for enhanced and expedited learning. For example, right now, there are AI models that could reduce teachers’ time spent on certain tasks by 90%.”
That would free educators to do the invaluable work of connecting with students and influencing their lives for the better.
The synergy between a caring approach and impactful edtech
His conversations with college students have only fueled his belief in the power of relationships like the ones that impacted his own trajectory as a young person. “I talk with students about influential people at the university, and when they describe the teachers who matter most to them, not one student has said they're just a great teacher. They haven't even said their knowledge is extraordinary—which it is! No, students talk about how kind and respectful professors are. They believe these people care about them,” he said.
“Those are the things that last a lifetime,” he added. “Knowledge turns over. Caring lasts.”
Bertram noticed this mindset during his very first Otus Advisory Board meeting. “Everyone demonstrated the kind of empathy and compassion that allows organizations to make a real difference,” he said. “By aligning a caring approach with products and services that are transformational and impactful, Otus can do something really special within the edtech space.”
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