Episode description

Valerie Singer, GM of Global Education at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the vast array of cloud computing education programs AWS offers to people of all skill levels and backgrounds. Valerie explains how she manages such a large undertaking, and also sheds light on what AWS is doing to ensure their programs are truly valuable both to learners and to the broader market. Corey and Valerie discuss how generative AI is applicable to education, and Valerie explains how AWS’s education programs fit into a K-12 curriculum as well as job seekers looking to up-skill.

About Valerie

As General Manager for AWS’s Global Education team, Valerie is responsible for
leading strategy and initiatives for higher education, K-12, EdTechs, and outcome-
based education worldwide. Her Skills to Jobs team enables governments, education
systems, and collaborating organizations to deliver skills-based pathways to meet
the acute needs of employers around the globe, match skilled job seekers to good
paying jobs, and advance the adoption of cloud-based technology.

In her ten-year tenure at AWS, Valerie has held numerous leadership positions,
including driving strategic customer engagement within AWS’s Worldwide Public
Sector and Industries. Valerie established and led the AWS’s public sector global
partner team, AWS’s North American commercial partner team, was the leader for
teams managing AWS’s largest worldwide partnerships, and incubated AWS’s
Aerospace & Satellite Business Group. Valerie established AWS’s national systems
integrator program and promoted partner competency development and practice
expansion to migrate enterprise-class, large-scale workloads to AWS.

Valerie currently serves on the board of AFCEA DC where, as the Vice President of
Education, she oversees a yearly grant of $250,000 in annual STEM scholarships to
high school students with acute financial need.

Prior to joining AWS, Valerie held senior positions at Quest Software, Adobe
Systems, Oracle Corporation, BEA Systems, and Cisco Systems. She holds a B.S. in
Microbiology from the University of Maryland and a Master in Public Administration
from the George Washington University.

Links Referenced:

• AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/
• GetIT: https://aws.amazon.com/education/aws-getit/
• Spark: https://aws.amazon.com/education/aws-spark/
• Future Engineers: https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/
• code.org: https://code.org
• Academy: https://aws.amazon.com/training/awsacademy/
• Educate: https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/
• Skill Builder: https://skillbuilder.aws/
• Labs: https://aws.amazon.com/training/digital/aws-builder-labs/
• re/Start: https://aws.amazon.com/training/restart/
• AWS training and certification programs: https://www.aws.training/