Richard Culatta is a leader in innovation and education and has worked in government, non-profit, and the private sector.  Prior to becoming the Chief Innovation Officer for the State of Rhode Island, Culatta was the Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education where he focused on using technology to close equity gaps in schools across the country.  Prior to joining the Department of Education, he served as policy advisor to US Senator Patty Murray and as Chief Technology Officer at CIA University.  Before his work with the federal government, Culatta was the learning technologies advisor for the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University and the Director of Operations for the Rose Education Foundation.  He began working with instructional technology at the University of Rhode Island where he co-taught the university's first technology integration workshops for faculty.  Culatta is a certified Spanish teacher and active in promoting bilingual and arts education in public schools.