Our Team
Tony Bloome – Executive Director and Founder
Anthony Bloome is the Founder and Executive Director of the Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance. He has specialized in the field of international development and technology for over 28 years.
From 2009 to 2020, he was USAID’s Senior Education Technology Specialist where he provided technical advice to HQ, Missions and counterpart agencies regarding the appropriate uses of technology to support quality educational outcomes in developing countries. While working at USAID, Tony founded the mEducation Alliance to strengthen global collaboration and catalyze knowledge exchange and evidence-informed investments for edtech use in developing countries. He also founded the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development as an open innovation competition and partnership with World Vision and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to catalyze tech-based innovations to advance early grade reading. He subsequently managed both programs for 11 years before leaving USAID in 2020 and establishing the mEducation Alliance as an independent non-profit.
From 2006-2009, Tony was Peace Corps’ technology for development specialist where he supported staff and volunteer activities across all development sectors. From 1995-2006, he served as a distance education specialist for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and Zimbabwe where he focused on various applications of technology for education, health, and youth and workforce development. While at the World Bank, he also served as the Zimbabwe Country Director and Anglophone Africa Regional Coordinator for the World Links for Development (WorLD) initiative which supported national EdTech policies, teacher training, and national schoolnet development.
Tony serves on multiple advisory boards including for Benetech and Rotary International’s Basic Education and Literacy Action Group (BELRAG). He previously served for many years as a board member on the Library of Congress Literacy Awards. He is also the 22-23 President of Rotary Club Washington Global. Tony has a M.A. in Telecommunications from George Mason University and a B.A. in English Literature from UCLA.
Mary Effie Akinyi – Director, Africa Region & Global Communications and Engagement
Mary Effie Akinyi holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, with a concentration in Global Business and Economics and a Minor in Politics and Public Policy. As the Director of Communications and Engagement for the mEducation Alliance, Effie manages a variety of communications products and oversees the creation of content for these, including the eNewsletter, Landscape Reviews, and other key materials.
Effie also leads stakeholder engagement, building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders through organizing and attending meetings, events, and networking opportunities. She is particularly interested in improving educational outcomes in the developing world, with a focus on leveraging technology to achieve this goal. Her long-term aspiration is to merge her multidisciplinary expertise and passion for education to influence educational policies and unlock the full potential of future generations.
Kenneth Muimi Muthengi – Events Manager
Kenneth Muimi is a seasoned events coordinator with a diverse background in education, and research. He holds a degree in Graphics, Communication, and Advertising from Moi University.
Before joining mEducation Alliance, Kenneth worked with various organizations, including the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), where he played a key role in advancing educational initiatives and fostering collaborations with policymakers and development partners.
He has also contributed to research at 60 Decibels, focusing on projects in education, agriculture, and renewable energy. With expertise in relationship management, branding, and event planning, he has been instrumental in building impactful cross-sector partnerships.
Passionate about leveraging collaborations for innovation and development, Kenneth is dedicated to creating engaging experiences that drive meaningful change in education.
John Comings – Senior Literacy Specialist
Dr. Comings has more than 40 years of experience focused on the teaching of basic skills (reading, writing, and math) for children and adults in the U.S., Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and later directed a World Bank funded team of consultants advising the government of Indonesia on the implementation of their national adult literacy program. After returning to the US, he served as a vice president at World Education, the director of the National Center for the study of Adult Learning and Literacy at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, an appointee in the Obama administration advising on the startup of USAID’s early-grade reading initiative and the All Children Reading: a Grand Challenge for Development, a Senior Literacy Consultant at the Education Development Center and World Education, and a faculty member at the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he teaches a course on systems change in support of literacy learning in low income countries.
As an integral part of our team, John provides his vision, leadership, and guidance to help shape the mEducation’s Alliance portfolio of foundational literacy and numeracy activities including capitalizing on our Literacy League and Math Power! initiatives.
Peter Joyce – Senior Digital Scaling Specialist
Dr. Peter Joyce is a known expert in the power of technology and education, shaped by over 30 years in both the private and public sectors. He is a Senior EdTech Advisor to the Alliance on matters related to accelerating and scaling evidence-based EdTech good practices. Dr. Joyce was Global Manager with Cisco Systems, including work on the Networking Academy program that included partnerships with 10,000 schools in 125 countries. He most recently completed a 3 year special assignment with USAID Kenya and East Africa as the Senior Advisor to the Education and Youth Unit where he supported an ICT Private Sector Working Group. Dr Joyce concurrently serves as a Senior Visiting Scholar at the University of North Carolina’s Global Social Development Innovations. He holds a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University.
Mark Saul – Senior Mathematics Advisor
Mark Saul has touched the lives of thousands of students around the world through his work as a teacher and author. He has served as Executive Director of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, as Director of Competitions for the Mathematical Association of America, and as Director of the Center for Mathematical Talent at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. He has been President of the American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), Director of the Research Science Institute, and editor of Quantum, The Mathematics Teacher, and the AMS Notices.
Mark grew up in the Bronx, got his BA from Columbia University and Ph.D. from New York University. He then spent 35 years in and around New York, teaching mathematics in classrooms from grades 3-12.
Mark has also served as Senior Scholar for the John Templeton Foundation, and as a program director for the National Science Foundation. His portfolio there included directing the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He is a 1984 recipient of that award, the nation’s highest honor for work in the classroom.
Mark has consulted for mathematical organizations in more than 25 countries, including Russia, Bulgaria, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and India. In 2001, he served as Chief Guide for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Washington, D.C., and in 2013 as coordinator. He has been a program officer for the National Science Foundation and a consultant in gifted education to the John Templeton Foundation. His publications include 15 books and numerous articles, including an elementary text on trigonometry, co-authored with I.M. Gelfand, and a translation and reader’s companion for Jacques Hadamard’s Elementary Geometry.
Mike McCabe – Senior Youth and Tech Advisor
Mike McCabe is the Senior Youth and Tech Advisor at the Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance. He has 30+ years specialized in the field of international development, youth and emerging leaders, and education technology.
From 2016 to 2022, Mike was USAID’s Global Youth Coordinator overseeing and supporting USAID’s Youth as Partners in Development Policy, and integrating youth across the Agency’s programming, nearly doubling annual investments in youth from $160M to $290M. He is a certified executive and career coach, and facilitator. At USAID, Mike led the YouthPower, YouthLead.org and YouthExcel funding mechanisms which engaged tens of thousands of young emerging leaders in meeting local and global challenges often with support of STEM and new technologies. Mike also served as a leader at the U.S. Peace Corps as the Regional Director for the Inter-America and Pacific Region and earlier as the Chief of Programming and Training. He also worked with the Inter-American Foundation as the country director in Mexico, Venezuela, and Panama, as well as with Creative Associates International where he was the Senior Director of Capacity Development and oversaw the CreativeU e-learning platform for development professionals, among other initiatives. Most recently, Mike is the CEO of Ignite Collective Leadership LLC, an international consulting and coaching firm focused on building leadership skills for collective impact.
Mike has served on multiple boards including Atlas Corps and Fondo Quisqueya as well as on advisory boards including IREX. He is also the 2025-26 President of Rotary Club Washington Global. Mike has a M.P.A. in International Development from Princeton University and a B.S. from Georgetown University.
Ed Metz – Senior EdTech Innovation Advisor
Edward Metz is a developmental psychologist, research scientist, and leader in field of education technology innovation. Through the program he managed in the US Department of Education (ED/IES SBIR), he stewarded more than $150M in seed funding to support R&D and commercialization of products used by well more than 130M in practice. In this role, he created novel program models to ready evidence-based research for practice at scale and he founded and produced the ED Games Expo nine times as a public showcase of innovations funded by more than 50 government programs.
Ed also has partnered with the mEducation Alliance over many years on programs to introduce developers and researchers to models for their products to be used across across settings.
A former AAAS/SRCD Fellow (2004), Metz’s original research on school-based service learning has been cited over 1,150 times. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and an EquityTech Advisor at Halcyon House DC.
Matthew Incardona – Web Designer
Addi Mavengere – Fellow
Addi Mavengere is Managing Director of Learning Factory, an instructional technology and training company supporting secondary and higher education in Zimbabwe. With 18 years’ experience, Addi specialises in digital skills training including AI, Microsoft Office, new media (digital photography, graphic design, VR/AR), and physical computing/robotics.
A part-time VR/AR lecturer at a private Zimbabwean university, Addi also co-founded TeXpo, a hands-on technology exposition. He is an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program.
Currently pursuing a PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology at the University of Georgia, Addi focuses on making education more accessible in low-resource settings. His research explores using oculesics (eye-movement analysis) to enhance digitally-enabled learning, enabling instructors to better support diverse learners and improve performance through data-driven insights.
Addis, Abel Hailegiorgis – EdTech Intern
Abel Addis is a Data Science Major, Computer Science Minor at the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia. With extensive coding background in web-development and in competitive hackathons, Abel is eager to contribute his knowledge for the betterment of society. At the mEducation Alliance, Abel uses his skills to support EdTech initiatives that improve accessibility in learning globally.
Ayan Rasulova – EdTech Intern
Ayan is a third-year at the University of Virginia, majoring in Computer Science (BACS) and minoring in both Data Science and English. She works with the Girls Who Code PR committee, as well as participating in hackathons and independent projects that combine accessibility with technology.
At the mEducation Alliance, she works as an EdTech intern, contributing to digital content creation, event preparation, and research on emerging education technology trends in low-resource contexts. She is especially passionate about how technology can be leveraged to expand educational access and equity on a global scale. She hopes to learn more about the research behind EdTech and gain insights into how international organizations collaborate to strengthen education systems.
Thomasbeer Kian Josh – EdTech Intern
Kian is a junior at the University of Virginia majoring in Statistics, with a focus on data science and machine learning. He is passionate about using technology to improve educational outcomes, particularly in under-resourced communities. At the mEducation Alliance, he supports communications and data-driven initiatives aligned with the Alliance’s goals. Kian is eager to contribute his technical skills, learn from global partners, and explore how evidence-based EdTech solutions can be scaled for impact.
