The VHS Collaborative on Tuesday named Jeffrey A. Elliot as its new chief executive officer Tuesday, giving the organization its first new leader since Liz Pape began the operation in 1997 as a response to a grant from the federal department of education.
Elliot previously served as the CEO of Oklahoma City-based Advanced Academics, a subsidiary company of DeVry Inc. that has provided online solutions through districts and states since 2000, including through the Oklahoma Virtual High School.
Elliot will come in at a time of reinvention of the VHS Collaborative, which until this May was known as the Virtual High School Global Consortium. That change came in part to emphasize the nonprofit organization’s experience and expertise in the field of virtual education, according to a press release.
The VHS Collaborative still offers its core service—courses taught in collaborative fashion utilizing faculty from participating schools—but also had added some professional development courses for instructors looking to teach online, along with other wraparound services, in recent years.
Pape began at the VHS Collaborative while also serving as the director of technology at the Hudson, Mass., public school system. The organization, one of the nation’s first virtual schools, then became independent in 2002, eventually growing into a network of 700-plus schools from across the nation and the world.
Pape resigned at the end of June and is now working as an independent online education consultant.