Indiana Women in Tech Week 5, The Future Needs Lifelong Learners Featuring Jenna Copper

Welcome back. This is edition four of AGI podcast special Indiana Women in Tech Week 2026 celebration of some of the women Hoosiers that do some amazing tech work. I feel like I have had just about every employee from the Central Indiana Education Center except you, Jenna. You are the director of technology and innovation. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yeah, thanks. And we have a lot of rock stars at CIESC. So thanks for looping us into the conversations. I'm Jenna Cooper. I went to school to be an elementary teacher and got my technology endorsement. 16 years ago, I think, and graduate. I did student teaching and had some experience in the classroom and experience helping teachers implement technology and like 2010 and really fell in love with technology. So whenever I graduated, I graduated in December. So I was like trying to find a job for the last semester. And Center Grove Schools hired me as an instructional tech specialist right out of college. And so my first job was for about four years helping teachers implement technology in their classrooms and roll out one to one for the first time. We were one of the first school districts in the state to do one to one. back in 2010, 2011. So that was really, really fun. Really started falling in love with ed tech and leadership. So I moved into a kind of coordinator of connected learning role at Center Grove. So helping manage all of the ed tech, STEM, online learning initiatives at the district level for Center Grove. and then got a job at Greenwood as tech director, and now I'm here at CIESC. Been here a little over a year helping lead internal tech operations at CIESC at the Pyramids and also doing a lot of fun work externally with supporting school districts, tech directors, doing some professional learning around AI and data privacy.

That is awesome. Why don't you go a little – I'm resisting, like, the smart aleck in me making a joke about Greenwood needing technology because I'm a Hamilton County boy, but

I'll lay none of that.

Tell us a little bit about what CISC actually – what you guys do, what your mission is, because I have had – First off, I will just say, like, as a podcaster who does some educational consulting, like, you guys have been so welcoming, and I really appreciate that. Sometimes I feel, I mean, I have done teaching in a volunteer role before, but I'm not a teacher, right, and I don't work for a school system. So I, A, find you guys extremely inviting, but I think your mission is very, very important. So let me give you a little space to talk about that.

I would love to hear first from you. Based on your experiences from us and our team, what do you believe our mission and vision are?

Well, having worked in the nonprofit space, being involved with CISC, I almost look at you guys as... What TechPoint is to trying to help businesses move into technology and leverage technology in a safe and an efficient way, you guys seem to be in the central Indiana space for K through 12 educators. Like you're kind of the go-to resource if they have questions, whether it's about iLearn and online learning or deployment of technology in their classrooms. That's kind of the feel that