Her Story
About Amy
Amy Colucci is the Director of Business Development at First Step Advisors, where she has served for four years in consulting after 17 years in EdTech. She leads business development for USA EdTech, organizing the USA delegation for the VET conference in London and filling booths and sponsorships for companies to provide a turnkey experience. She also works with Navigate, an online publication for C-suite executives in EdTech and district superintendents. Previously, she worked at McGraw-Hill, collaborating with engineering and product teams to incorporate customer feedback into product releases that impacted major school districts including LAUSD, Clark County in Nevada, and New York Department of Education. She began her career as a 5th grade teacher after earning her undergraduate degree from Ball State University, followed by a Master's and Rank I from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a doctorate in education from the University of Louisville while working in district instructional technology for Jefferson County Public Schools. She previously held membership in Women in School Administration (WSA).
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Amy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would honestly say relationships. That is, in my opinion, how you get jobs, how you get your next job, how you accomplish things while you're in any given job is relationships, so it's very important, and I've given this advice to teams before, like, make your decisions, feel your feelings, don't burn bridges.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You have to know if your baby's ugly. You can create or build the best product, process, idea, and just love it so much, but you still have to have you have to stay back far enough to see if parts of it are ugly. And I've built a lot of processes, so I always need that feedback to make sure. What's not working for you? Where are you getting stuck? What's taking a long time?
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them not to Start wherever they feel comfortable in the field. Support, products, customer success, sales, wherever or however they can begin their journey. Because that's just gonna get you in the door, and then you can see every other department, what they do, what they're responsible for, and build your, you know, long-term career plan from there. Because you may have an idea in your head of what you want to do, but once you see all of the options and opportunities, that may change. So follow what interests you, because that's going to make your career enjoyable.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is in EdTech is funding. School districts are losing considerable amounts of funding... Opportunities I see in EdTech right now is being able to provide more than one problem solved to the customer... And with that is reporting. How do they get the data out?
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and work ethic. And Empathy, really. And I think the empathy part has to do with My chosen field of work. Because no matter what stresses we have on the corporate side... there are teachers and children that are dealing with things we can't imagine every single day.
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