#19 - From Teaching to EdTech with Mark Pan, People Partner at Newsela

Mark Pan is the Director of HR & Business Strategy at Newsela, an EdTech platform that delivers news-related content to students at different reading levels. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Urban Education, Mark took his knowledge to the classroom, teaching English in San Jose, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. He then brought his teaching skills into the tech industry, where he managed partnerships at Coursera and later joined Newsela in business strategy and now People Operations. In this episode, Mark shares how an acting class helped him become a better teacher, why he’s optimistic about the future of EdTech, stories his classroom in Malaysia, and how employees and managers can be more transparent with one another about career pathing. We also reminisce about Summerbridge Hong Kong and our hair dye stories — and break out into a few musical numbers! CONNECT WITH MARKLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpan/Newsela: https://newsela.com/ RESOURCES MENTIONEDTours of Duty: https://hbr.org/2013/06/tours-of-duty-the-new-employer-employee-compactCONNECT WITH USInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/insideoutwithjane/Website: www.insideoutwithjane.comEmail: [email protected] 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTUREGet 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium Connect with Jane Z. Instagram: @farm.to.futureEmail: [email protected]: farmtofuture.co