“I read somewhere that it is easy to criticize, but difficult to create. It’s especially difficult to create something on your own. As an entrepreneur, my success was 100% attributed to the team and mentors that surrounded me. I can only hope that my experience as an entrepreneur will help others in the creation of their businesses just as my teammates and mentors helped me.”
Emily joined Osage Venture Partners in 2020 as a Principal, and was named a Partner in 2023.
Driven by the ideal of providing equal education opportunities for all learners, Emily co-founded Practice, a technology company, which was sold in December 2017 to Utah-based Instructure, a leading technology company in the education and corporate learning markets, respectively known as Canvas and Bridge. As co-founder of Practice, Emily guided the company from a video-based platform in the higher education market to a corporate learning solution and managed organizational growth across offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco. At Instructure, Emily wore many hats including VP of Strategy and, most recently, VP of Customer Success.
As a former Teach for America and KIPP teacher, special education lawyer and luddite, Emily now fully embraces technology’s potential to have massive impact on individuals, the communities they live in and the organizations they work for.
Emily is a graduate of Drexel Law, from which she graduated cum laude, of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education where she graduated with honors, and of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was captain of the lacrosse team, a journalist for the Daily Pennsylvanian and graduated cum laude. Emily served on the board of Philly Startup Leaders, an organization focused on supporting the growing number of Philadelphia-based entrepreneurs.
Emily resides in Philadelphia with her husband, David, and their two daughters and son.
MORE ABOUT EMILY
Favorite Book or Author:
Fiction:To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Non-fiction: Radical Candor by Kim Scott and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Favorite or Biggest Life Event: It’s difficult to separate out the single biggest life event, but the year following my dad’s death and the year following my first child’s birth both changed me in ways I will never be able to fully explain, but ways I know have guided my life for the better.
Go to Karaoke Song: Janis Joplin’s version of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.
Favorite Place to Visit: The Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard at sunset.
A Bucket List Item: Going to Israel with my husband.
If you weren’t in venture, what would you be doing?: Solving problems that impact individuals who were not given as many opportunities as I was given simply because of the zip code I happened to be born in.