The Power of Purpose:
Kids Who Crush School & Life

MacKenzie Price is the co-founder of Alpha School, a Stanford graduate in Psychology, and the host of the Future of Education podcast. She created her first school after her daughters said what too many kids feel: “School is boring.” That moment sparked what has become a national movement to redesign the school day to help kids thrive. With more than 250M views on her Future of Education Instagram, she is showing people around the world how kids can love school, learn faster in a fraction of the time, and develop life skills.

MacKenzie’s AI-powered, personalized, mastery-based model helps students crush core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for learning critical life skills, passion projects, and deep personal growth. Today, Alpha classes score in the top 1–2% nationally, and more than 95% say they love school. Momentum is building for this fresh, forward-thinking approach, and it is now offered in a diverse range of schools coast to coast.

Based in Austin, Texas, MacKenzie is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and an advisor to the University of Austin. 

Visit alpha.school and thefutureofeducation.org to learn more.

William R. Stixrud, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist and founder of The Stixrud Group. He is a member of the teaching faculty at Children’s National Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Stixrud is the co-author of the nationally bestselling books, The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives; What Do You Say: How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and a Happy Home; and The Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child: A Workbook.

He is a frequent lecturer and workshop presenter and the author of several articles and book chapters on topics related to adolescent brain development, stress and sleep deprivation, integration of the arts in education, and meditation. Dr. Stixrud holds a doctorate degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. He did his pre-doctoral internship in Pediatric and Clinical Psychology at the Children’s Hospital of Boston, as a fellow of the Harvard Medical School, and he received his post-doctoral training in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Tufts New England Medical Center. Prior to entering private practice, Dr. Stixrud worked as a staff neuropsychologist at the Children’s National Medical Center and the Georgetown University Medical School.

Ned Johnson is president and “tutor-geek” of PrepMatters, an educational company providing academic tutoring and standardized test preparation. A battle-tested veteran of test prep, stress regulation and optimizing student performance, Ned has spent roughly 50,000 one-on-one hours helping students conquer an alphabet of standardized tests, learn to manage their anxiety, and develop their own motivation to succeed. With Dr. William Stixrud, Ned is the co-author of the nationally bestselling book, The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives; What Do You Say: How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and a Happy Home; and The Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child: A Workbook.

Ned is the host of The Self-Driven Child podcast. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, US News, Seventeen, and many others.