✦ Educator · Technologist · Builder
Kim
Wright
Twenty years building at the intersection of technology, education, and strategy — from the Air Force and enterprise IT to K-12 career development and the university classroom.
About
Background &
work
I'm Kim Wright — educator, USAF veteran, and technologist. My career has spanned military intelligence, enterprise IT at Siemens, co-ownership of a 120-year-old Dallas business, and now leading AI and tech career strategy for a 22,000-student public charter network.
Currently I'm Director of Tech Career Development at Uplift Education and an adjunct professor at UT Dallas's Jindal School of Management. I build programs, tools, and curricula from scratch — focused on how emerging technology can create real value in education and workforce development.
My thinking has been shaped by Jean Gebser, Don Beck, and over 20 years in the Conscious Capitalism movement. Outside of work, I’m a mom — raising a curious kid who keeps me honest.
Apps & Projects
Things I've built
01
Purpose Engine
A full-stack platform built for Uplift Education in Dallas–Fort Worth, connecting students, teachers, advisors, and alumni around career development and purpose. Includes views for student journey mapping, purpose discovery, career scorecards, program matching, workforce signals, and data integration — a unified operating layer for K-12 career readiness.
↗02
Scholar Career Tracker
A desktop application that tracks each student's Technical, College, and Career Readiness progress from 6th grade through post-graduation. Counselors log experiences by grade, category (Enrichment, Clubs, Certifications, etc.), and activity — with a points system and cumulative progress chart that visualizes a student's full K-12 journey. Built for Uplift Education campus advisors.
↗03
District Intelligence Dashboard
A strategic AI intelligence system for K-16 district leadership. An automated pipeline ingests and scores education news, then uses Claude to generate weekly digests written for superintendents — surfacing policy signals, funding opportunities, and recommended actions. Deployed for Uplift Education's AI strategy team in DFW.
↗Photography
Through the lens
Macro · Landscape · Nature
Teaching Philosophy
Learning as
transformation
I help students build the confidence to sit with uncertainty, think critically through discomfort, and develop the entrepreneurial muscle required for success in business and life.
Sit With Uncertainty
Real problems don't come with answer keys. I design learning experiences that build tolerance for ambiguity — the most important professional skill nobody teaches directly.
Industry-Informed, Always
Twenty years in enterprise IT, military intelligence, and entrepreneurship aren't background — they're the curriculum. I translate complex, real-world challenges into clear, engaging learning experiences.
Systems Over Symptoms
I teach students to see the structure underneath the problem. Once you understand the system, you stop treating surface symptoms and start designing actual solutions.
Build the Entrepreneurial Muscle
Confidence comes from doing. Every course ends with something created, launched, or pitched — not just analyzed. Students leave knowing they can start something from zero.
Writing
Thinking out
loud
2009 · UT Dallas
The Twitter Experiment
A documentary I filmed and produced as a UT Dallas graduate student, capturing Dr. Monica Rankin's classroom Twitter experiment. It went global within 48 hours — covered by US News & World Report and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and still cited in academic journals.
Watch on YouTube ↗On the work
What intelligence work at the NSA taught me about building AI strategy in schools
Pattern recognition, briefing under uncertainty, translating signals into decisions — turns out these skills transfer across very different theatres.
Coming soon →On teaching
Why I built a Tech Expo for 1,100 kids — and what they taught me
The Uplift Tech Expo started as a program. It became a mirror. What happens when you put 1,100 young people in a room with real technology and no prescribed answers.
Coming soon →Get in
touch
Open to conversations about education technology, workforce development, AI strategy, or potential collaborations.
kesmit3@gmail.com