Steve Poizner, a successful technology entrepreneur and education reform advocate, is a member of the boards of councilors for both the Rossier School of Education and Viterbi School of Engineering.
A lifelong education advocate, Steve spent a year as a volunteer teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, Calif., where he taught 12th grade American government, and wrote Mount Pleasant, a New York Times bestselling book about his teaching experience. He went on to co-found EdVoice, a statewide organization that advocates education reform and promotes issues such as charter schools, accountability and local control; and the California Charter Schools Association, the state's leading charter school organization. Most recently, he launched Encore Career Institute, a new Web-based company that aims to offer online education courses designed for Baby Boomers.
A Texas native, Steve Poizner was recognized as one of the top electrical engineering students in the nation as an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin. He moved to California in 1978 to attend Stanford, where he earned an MBA with honors. Steve has spent the last three decades in Silicon Valley, where he has founded a number of technology companies, including SnapTrack and Strategic Mapping, Inc. He and his wife, Carol, live in Los Gatos, and their daughter, Rebecca, is an undergraduate at USC.
Q: Who was the teacher that the most impact on your life?
A: Dr. Margaret Berry at the University of Texas, who turns 96 next month. She really helped mentor me to be a student leader on campus. I was a very serious student who got good grades, but I was very involved in extracurricular activities. She had an impact on me as a freshman.
Q: What inspires you about USC?
A: My daughter is a freshman in Thornton Music School, and she had a fantastic time in her first semester. Now, I feel a part of the USC family, and have a passion and devotion to USC. Also, Ira Krinsky (Rossier Board of Councilors chair) is someone I worked with many years in the charter school movement, so it was an easy decision to be a part of the board. It's a real privilege to be a part of the BOC, and the cutting edge work of the school, especially the MAT, is just really impressive. I'm excited to be a part of it.
Q: How do you see the BOC helping the school reach its goals?
A: The public education system in the U.S. is in trouble, as it is in California. Fifty percent of 4th graders can't graduate basic reading proficiency tests. There's a huge shortage of teachers in the system. There needs to be some change and reforms. The public education system was designed 150 years ago. The BOC can help Rossier think in big and bold ways in playing a role in the reform of the public education system in the country. Rossier now has over 1,500 people in the MAT program; that's on scale to be one of the largest best trainings of the next generation of teachers, and on track to have an impact on the public education system in the country.
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman describes the challenges of staying competitive and how the whole world is different now. A less technical but touching book is Tuesdays with Morrie, which has to do with the impact one teacher can have on a person.
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: I really like hiking with my Golden Retriever. California has so many beautiful places. My dog is high energy, and keeps me in shape. Also, my wife and I definitely like movies. My first job at 15 was an usher in a movie theater, and I've been a movie buff ever since.
Q: What makes you happiest?
A: Going to a San Francisco Giants baseball game with my wife and daughter, and the park overlooking the San Francisco Bay, is fantastic.
Q: Any pet peeves?
A: I'm definitely an impatient person, and like to carefully analyze the facts on a day-to-day basis, but my pet peeve is people who overanalyze things and get stuck in analysis paralysis. That's definitely not my style.
Q: Anything you would like to share with future educators from Rossier?
A: I was a volunteer teacher for a year, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done, and also the most rewarding. Teaching is the most underappreciated profession in the country. I have the utmost respect for teachers, who are put in a difficult situation in our deteriorating public education system. I look forward to helping Rossier lead the charge and turn that around.
