Planning Committee
Anna Otto
Follow Anna on Twitter: @AnnaOtto5280
Anna Otto is passionate about providing students with computer science opportunities and supporting 21st century teaching and learning. As the Computer Science and Online Learning Coordinator for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, she is responsible for overseeing and facilitating the development of a K-12 computer science pathway and supporting digital literacy and computational thinking integration into core content areas. Before joining Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Anna was a 4th and 5th grade teacher, research methods instructor, middle school tech and applied tech teacher, and a tech trainer. Anna lives in Longmont, CO where she spends her non-working hours with her husband, chasing their 8 year old twin boys and 10 year old daughter. She loves to travel all over the world, but is happiest on the beach or snorkeling in a warm ocean.
Bobbie Bastian
Bobbie Bastian is a Computer Science teacher at FutureForward at Bollman in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, where she teaches AP Computer Science A, Cybersecurity, Networking and Senior Projects. Bobbie is the Past President of the Colorado Chapter of CSTA and is on the Steering Committee for the Rocky Mountain Consortium for Cybersecurity Education. She has over 17 years of teaching experience in both elementary and secondary levels. Bobbie was a member of the Colorado Computer Science Standards Committee and the National K-12 Cybersecurity Standards Committee. She is passionate about Computer Science and is a Code.org facilitator for AP Computer Science Principles, and AP Computer Science A workshops.
Beth Cerrone
After college, Ms. Cerrone worked in the financial industry for 7 years at Bay Bank in Boston. Although she enjoyed the challenge of the product management group she worked with, there was something missing. Ms. Cerrone’s mother was a middle school ESL teacher. She saw the dedication and passion she had for her students and they had for her. She helped her mother set up her classroom, grade papers, and help students when she could. Ms. Cerrone saw first hand the challenges that teachers and students go through. Instead of being part of the problem in complaining about a broken system, she decided to become part of a solution.
Ms. Cerrone started this wonderful journey in education almost 25 years ago and never looked back. She started teaching in Boston at Oliver Ames High School, developing one of the first school websites with all teachers having their own websites as well (teaching teachers HTML 20 years ago was not easy). Moving to Colorado, she was one of the initial teachers in the IB Math program and created one of the first Computer Science and Web Design courses in this district 15 years ago. Ms. Cerrone was part of the inaugural group at Mead High School, building all of the technology curricula for Mead High. She also helped create the Engineering Program at Erie High School. Prior to joining the Innovation Center, she spent several years as a Computer Science Instructor at Silver Creek. She is excited to be building a new Cybersecurity Pathway at the Innovation Center.
Alexandra Downing
Alexandra Downing is the Competitive Robotics Program Manager at the Innovation Center in St. Vrain Valley School District. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing and coordinating robotics and computer science programming in the district, with a focus on supporting the competitive VEX program. Alexandra played a key role in starting the STEM programs in the district and was one of the first ten STEM coordinators to implement design thinking and robotics.
As part of her role, Alexandra works closely with teachers to provide professional development opportunities and to collaborate on curriculum development. She also mentors teachers and students in the district to help them succeed in robotics and computer science.
Prior to her current role, Alexandra was a teacher in the SVVSD district, where she taught elementary grades 3rd and 5th, as well as working as a math specialist in different title schools. She is passionate about working with second language learners and helping them access new opportunities.
Alexandra strongly believes that robotics, computer science, and STEM education should be available to all students, and she is dedicated to ensuring that students in the St. Vrain Valley School District have access to these important programs.
Jacob Roberts has a passion for providing fair opportunities for technology for all students. Jacob graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2020 with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and is expected to graduate from the University of New Haven with a Master’s of Science in Esports Business. He works at the Innovation Center of the St Vrain Valley School District as one of the Competitive Robotics Program Managers. He also coaches a competitive high school Esports team at Windsor Charter Academy. As a student at Skyline High School, Jacob worked on a team that created programs for NAO Robots to work with students with Autism. Because of this, today he also helps provide opportunities through student teams, like the SAR Team, that work with social robots like Furhat and Misty. In his free time Jacob enjoys cheering on the Denver Nuggets, playing a variety of video games, and hanging out with his fiancé.