We're educators thinking about what comes next.
Futurise Edu was founded by Julia Ewart and Rachel Lugo around a question that kept becoming harder to ignore:
What is school for when technology can increasingly do the work we once asked students to do?
Our answer isn't to preserve school exactly as it was.
And it isn't to hand learning over to technology.
It's to become much more intentional about what we're asking humans to develop.
We bring experience across classroom teaching, learning design, educational technology, curriculum, professional learning, and school leadership to questions about learning in an AI-shaped world.
Founded by educators.
Julia Ewart
Co-Founder · Instructional Designer · School Leader
Julia has spent 17 years in schools as a classroom teacher, librarian, instructional technologist, curriculum developer, and school leader. She turns big ideas about AI, UDL, executive function, and metacognition into designs teachers can use right away, always with student thinking at the center. She has presented at the AIMS AI Summit, the International Coalition of Girls' Schools Conference, and the Lausanne Learning STEAM Conference, and in 2026 was named a Toddle School Innovator and a KID Museum Educator Collaborator.
Rachel Lugo
Co-Founder · Doctoral Researcher · Educator
Rachel is a doctoral researcher in Learning Technologies Design Research at George Mason University and a middle school educator. Her research looks at how neurodivergent learners experience school, technology, and AI, and how to design learning that keeps their thinking and agency at the center. A certified Concept-Based Inquiry coach, she has presented at SITE, AIMS, and the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and in 2026 was named a Toddle School Innovator and selected for the Pulitzer Center's AI Teacher Advisory Council.
Where You’ll Find Us
The organizations we present with, advise, and learn alongside.
- Presented at
- Presented at
- Presented at
- AI Teacher Advisory Council
- 2026 School Innovators
Beliefs that guide our work.
We believe learning should develop capabilities, not just produce outputs.
We believe productive thinking should not be optimized away.
We believe AI use should be intentional, not automatic.
We believe assessment should reveal thinking and learning, not simply evaluate a final product.
We believe educators need professional judgment, not another rigid set of rules.
We believe technology should serve learning rather than define it.
Technology will keep changing.
What we want students to become capable of doing for themselves matters more than ever.