RICHARD A. METHIA
Dick Methia is a freelance writer. Founder and retired president of The Infinity Group, Dick specializes in educational communications and leadership.
Dick is an author, educator, trainer, test expert, and professional speaker with over 40 years’ experience in education. He is a newspaper columnist and a contributing writer for Suite 101 and Demand Studios, among other online content providers. Dick is author of several books/ebooks and articles on testing written for non-experts. His most recent book/ebook is Ace Any Test: The Parent’s Guide to High Stakes Testing.
Dick was consulting advisor to the Educational Testing Service (ETS) on a project to design an ICT global assessment framework for 43 countries. In that role he represented the U.S. K-12 community and helped author the panel’s groundbreaking report, Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy.
Dick was consulting writer to the Verizon Foundation working with its president and advisory council to evaluate and re-engineer the foundation’s national education program (formerly Marco Polo), the largest privately funded initiative of its kind in the U.S.
Dick has taught writing to elementary, secondary and college students as well as to professionals at the world’s largest training university, the Graduate School, headquartered in Washington, DC.
Dick has been a judge for the Association of Education Publishers’ annual Golden Lamp Award, the Shell Foundation’s Century III Leaders, and Link Americas Foundation international L.I.N.K. Awards whose most recent recipients include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the new president of Costa Rica, Laura Chincilla.
Dick is also an expert in education technology policy. Dick was the only educator elected to two terms as president of the National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training (NCTET).
From 2001-2004, Dick directed a major leadership project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that trained school leaders — school boards, superintendents, and principals — how to transform their schools through technology. In addition to his role as project director, Dick taught key educator leaders how to communicate effectively to their constituencies.
In June 1985 Dick was chosen from 11,000 applicants worldwide to be one of the ten National Finalists in NASA's Teacher-In-Space Program vying for the seat aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger eventually filled by his colleague and friend Christa McAuliffe.
After the Challenger explosion Dick was invited to be a member of the original creative team that established Challenger Center, the international educational organization founded by the families of the astronauts who perished in the Space Shuttle. For 10 years Dick had overall responsibility for Challenger Center's North American educational programs.
Before joining Challenger Center, Dick was a loaned educator at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., where he served as liaison to national education organizations and conducted an international speaking tour. For his achievements NASA honored him with its Public Service Award.
In further recognition of his contributions to education, the Air Force Association named him a General Jimmy Doolittle Fellow, an award he received from General Doolittle himself.
Dick is also an accomplished speaker. In 1988 he was the first U.S. educator invited to Beijing, China, to deliver the keynote address in the Great Hall of the People at the American-Chinese Youth Science Exchange.
Dick’s primary philanthropic activity is the chairmanship of Link Americas, a California non-profit that cultivates technology-based strategic alliances between academic and private sector partners in the United States and Central America. Link Americas’ mission is to improve the quality of life for under-developed communities through technology.
Dick’s wife Linda is an executive management consultant. They live in Fairfax County, VA, with their rescue dog, Ginger, and their rambunctious cockatiel, Sunny.