Kelly Smith

Kelly Smith is the founder and CEO of Prenda, a Mesa, Arizona education company that helps ordinary adults run microschools - small groups of 5 to 10 kids who take ownership of their own learning. An MIT-trained nuclear fusion engineer who once sold a clean-energy software business, Smith stumbled into education by volunteering at a library code club, watching kids light up when they wanted to learn. In January 2018 he started a microschool around his kitchen table with his son and six neighborhood kids. Since then Prenda has helped more than 1,000 adults launch microschools and nearly 10,000 K-8 students learn to lead their own education.