Betsey Schmidt
CEO and Founder

Elizabeth (Betsey) Hun Schmidt is the founder and CEO of MeshEd, a public benefit corporation (PBC) whose mission is to engage middle, high school, and early college adolescents with vibrant educational content and learning experiences that build meaningful skills for future success. Betsey has worked as an educator and learning designer for nearly 30 years. Since 2010, she has led large-scale educational R&D initiatives in both the public and private sectors. Betsey served as Chief Curriculum and Innovation Officer at Ascend Learning in central Brooklyn, where she led the design of a vibrant K12 liberal arts curriculum that, between 2015 and 2017, helped Ascend students close the achievement gap of race in New York State. Betsey holds a PhD in American Literature from New York University and a BA from Wesleyan University, where she served as a trustee from 2016-2019. She has taught at Barnard College, The New School, and Sarah Lawrence College. She currently teaches innovative learning design and edtech entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhart's MA program in Learning Technology and Experience Design. She also convenes an annual Symposium on AI + Education at betaworks to kickoff NY EdTechWeek. Betsey lives in Brooklyn and is the mother of two recent college graduates.