Bernard R. Gifford

Bernard R. Gifford is the Founding President, CEO & Chief Instructional Officer of The Distributed Learning Workshop. He is unusually qualified for this assignment. In the spring of 1992, Gifford founded Academic Systems, an award winning, Silicon Valley educational software developer and served as Chair & Chief Instructional Officer until 1998. From 1989-1992, Gifford served as first-ever Vice President for Education at Apple Computer, where he promoted collaborative partnerships with Higher Education to encourage the development of multimedia-rich CMI materials. While at Apple, he wrote a widely read column on technology and education for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Gifford served for six years (1983-89) as Chancellors Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE), University of California at Berkeley, where he championed the establishment of Ph.D. programs in cognitive science and in education in science, mathematics and technology, now widely considered to be among the best in the nation. Gifford continues to serve as a tenured member of the Berkeley faculty and as co-chair of the Graduate Group in Studies in Education in Engineering, Science, Mathematics and Technology (SESAME) at the University of California, Berkeley. Gifford has served on the board of directors (trustees) of the National Academy of Science Commission on Technology in Higher Education (1996-1999); National Commission on Testing and Public Policy (1987-1993); The Children's Television Workshop (1983-1995); US Naval Academy Academic Advisory Board (1984-1990); The National Foundation for Family Literacy (1985-1992); and many other not-for-profit and educational organizations. Gifford earned his Ph.D. in radiation biology and biophysics from the University of Rochester Medical School, where he was an Atomic Energy Commission Fellow in Nuclear Science and was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.