Avatar

Renee Patton

Director of Education

US Public Sector Education

Renee Patton is the leader of US Public Sector Education at Cisco.  In this role, she is responsible for Cisco’s go-to-market strategy for education and manages a team of education consultants who help customers realize their educational visions through the logical placement of technology within schools, colleges, and universities.

She has over 19 years of business, management, sales, and marketing experience in both small start-up and large corporate environments, including Siemens. She ran her own marketing consulting firm for over seven years prior to joining Cisco full time.

Prior to moving into US Public Sector, Renee served as Worldwide Industry Marketing Education Lead within Cisco’s Corporate Marketing Organization where she was responsible for developing Cisco’s education messaging platform and driving Cisco’s position in the education market.  Prior to this role, she managed Cisco’s national E-rate Program and served as the lead for US Education Field Marketing.

While studying for her Master’s Degree in Education from Stanford, Renee began teaching high school English and French, coaching cross-country, and moderating the student yearbook and newspaper.  She then spent four years on the Los Gatos-Saratoga JUHS Board of Trustees and was responsible for managing policy and a $20M district budget.

She brings a clear perspective to addressing business issues and an in-depth understanding of the K-12 and Higher Education markets.  She is particularly interested in trends driving the massive shift in education delivery models, new educational approaches, and ways that technology can help to engage learners and prepare teachers.  Renee is a Lions' Club Member and is on the board  of the Los Gatos High School Alumni Association.  She holds a BA degree in English from Santa Clara University and an MA in Education from Stanford University.

 

Articles

July 2, 2013

EDUCATION

A Six-Part Series: Transforming Higher Education in the US – Recommendations – Part 6

This six-part series focuses on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States.  Read parts 1 through 5 on the Cisco Education Blog. Part 1: The Need for Change Part 2: Shared Challenges Part 3: Navigating Culture Part 4: Modernizing Teaching and Learning Part 5: Sc…

June 4, 2013

EDUCATION

Systematic Transformation: The Intersection with Technology in a Journey Toward the Future (Scaling Best Practices) – …

This six-part series focuses on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States.  Read parts 1 through 4 on the Cisco Education blog.  At Cisco we are seeing outstanding examples of change, some of which have been highlighted throughout this blog series. Others, unfort…

April 24, 2013

EDUCATION

Systematic Transformation: The Intersection with Technology in a Journey Toward the Future– Part Four of Six

Part Four of a Six-Part Series: Modernizing Teaching and Learning in the U.S. Part four will focus on the critical role education leaders play in the intersection of technology and the future of learning.  Previous parts of this series included: The Need for Change Challenges in Changing the System…

March 23, 2013

EDUCATION

Systematic Transformation in Higher Education: The Intersection with Technology in a Journey Toward the Future (Navigati …

Part 3 of A Six-Part Series: Transforming Higher Education in the US This six-part series will focus on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States. The Need for Change and  Shared Challenges were the focus of the previous chapters in this series. From Cisco’s expe…

February 25, 2013

EDUCATION

Shared Challenges – Part Two of Six on Transforming Higher Education

This six-part series focuses on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States.  This part focuses on the fact that universities are more similar than they are different.  Universities in the U.S. share common challenges: inadequate access, dated teaching methodologie…

February 1, 2013

EDUCATION

A Six-Part Series: Transforming Higher Education in the US

This six-part series will focus on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States.  While a topic that causes some anxiety for higher education leaders, there is no choice but to change.  The question is how colleges and universities across the country will go about t…

December 19, 2012

EDUCATION

Cisco’s Prediction of 2013 Education Technology Trends: The Big Three to Watch

I believe that the New Year will signal three major shifts in education:  The Internet of Everything, Shared Services, and Cloud Computing. We are rapidly moving into a phase that we call “The Internet of Everything.”  Today, there are more things connected to the internet than there are people in t…

December 18, 2012

EDUCATION

Cisco’s 2012 Education Retrospective

At the beginning of 2012, we saw three major trends emerging in the education space, but we had no idea that they would all be converging: Flipped Learning, BYOD, and Shared Collaborative Platforms. This time last year, I was sitting at an old, high-top biology lab table with my son’s AP Biology tea…