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Amy Li

Founding Director, Outreach and Communications

Biography

Amy Li is a Founding Director of Pioneer Academics. She leads reputation management and outreach and supports strategic planning. Prior to Pioneer, Amy founded Alpine Education in 2011 and served as CEO. Alpine’s offerings include college entrance consulting, curriculum development and personality-based individual development, the latter two were Alpine’s focus. She was an active contributor in forming the Pioneer concept and an advisor to the first pilot program. In 2014, Amy joined Pioneer as a full-time partner. To establish beyond question Pioneer’s policy of total independence from college entrance consulting, Amy discontinued Alpine’s services for individuals.

After university, Amy was employed as a PR specialist for Burson-Marsteller and Ketchum in China and was an English reporter for Radio Beijing and BTV. She subsequently earned her master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations from the journalism track of The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. She then served as a trainer in crisis management for executives in major multinational companies, among them Shell, The British Council, Mercedes Benz, and GE. Amy also worked as a branding officer at Yale University focusing on the Chinese market. There she advised on online open courses, courses which helped spark the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). (This experience gave her early insight into the tremendous potential of online education, which has proved integral to Pioneer’s success.)

Amy loves reading about science, and shares her enthusiasm with husband Matthew Jaskol, Founder and Director of Pioneer, and their little daughter.

From her high school days, Amy wished to make a difference in the world and dreamed of being a journalist because journalists serve as the voice of the public. Through her experiences as a trainer, she saw the profound potential of education which can shape the future of humanity and have an even greater impact on individuals and society as a whole.