THE TEAM
Learning Relies on Relationships
As the founders of ARES, we understand that learning relies on relationships, and that the industry of education is no different - it’s a people business. We are both parents of school age children ourselves, and we’re both career educators, with experience in public classrooms, in academia, and in the private sector as successful entrepreneurs. The core ideas that have become ARES Learning have developed over decades, and especially in recent years with the Moonshot Laboratory in Honolulu.
We have increasingly felt we could offer a better choice to learners around the world, and now we’ve launched a new kind of school, right here in Irvine. Through the pandemic, we also discovered our methods are resilient, and lend themselves to a better more engaging blended learning experience for students.
In leading this new school, we each bring to bear over 20 years in education, with experience in teaching, formal research, curriculum development, and school administration. To supplement our subject area knowledge - and to bring in expert explorers and engineers, we tap into global networks of qualified educators and scientists to bring the most inspiring and empowering teachers from around the world to work directly with ARES students.
Mark Wagner, Ph.D.
Dr. Mark Wagner is CEO and co-founder of ARES Learning, a public benefit corporation dedicated to preparing students for humanity’s future in space. He serves as the Director of Education Partnerships at the nonprofit Aldrin Family Foundation, which is focused on inspiring the next generation of space explorers, and in a similar role with Slooh, which provides a platform for students to schedule time on telescopes around the world. Dr. Wagner also serves as President of the Space Prize Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering young women to pursue STEAM education and to explore careers in the space industry. In addition, he teaches space education courses for teachers, co-leads an astrogeology for educators experience, and co-hosts a free online space education summit.
Dr. Wagner is a former high school English teacher, later serving as an Educational Technology Coordinator at the site, district, and county levels. In 2006 he launched EdTechTeam, a professional development company dedicated to inspiring and empowering educators around the world. At it’s peak, EdTechTeam served 50,000 educators per year through over 100 conference-style events and hundreds of workshops in dozens of countries. EdTechTeam was recognized as the Google for Education Partner of the Year in 2018. As a former astronautical engineering student and a lifelong space enthusiast (having attended Space Camp twice while growing up), Mark is thrilled to now apply his educational technology experience in the increasingly important field of space education.
Mark Wagner has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology and a master’s degree in cross-cultural education. His doctoral research focused on the use of video games in education, and specifically on the potential applications of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as constructivist learning environments. He is the author of More Now: A Message from The Future for The Educators of Today (2018), and Space Education: Preparing Students for Humanity’s Multi-Planet Future (2022), which explores both the current reality on Earth and the possibilities for teaching students on the Moon, on Mars, and in deep space habitats.
Outside of his work, Mark loves playing hockey, practicing martial arts, studying philosophy, and obsessing over his ’62 beetle, which now runs on an electric motor and Tesla batteries. He enjoys songwriting, spending time in nature, and exploring the world with his family and friends. He lives in Irvine, California with his wife, Eva, and their boys, Clark and Finn. Naturally, he’s a Trekkie… and a U2 fan.
.jpg)
Brendan Brennan
Brendan Brennan is an educator, researcher, curriculum developer and entrepreneur with roots in Boston, Honolulu, Osaka and Irvine. As an entrepreneur, Brendan has been a founder in a number of educational start-ups around the world and is always looking to imagine, design, build and scale innovative products and services to help improve the quality of life for people in those communities. ARES Learning brings all his passions, experiences and hopes into one place.
During his travels, Brendan has been fortunate to learn a number of western, eastern and indigenous innovation practices that inform his work in education. While in Japan, he learned about the principles of kaizen and Total Quality Management. During his time in Hawaii, he explored ethnographic research, Polynesian wayfinding and indigenous sustainability practices. In California, he dove into design thinking and human-centered, 10X problem solving. With a renewed focus on education, Brendan weaves these global innovation concepts into his pursuit of redesigning schools and changing the way people learn.
While working at the University of Hawaii, Brendan served as a teacher, researcher and curriculum developer at the University Laboratory School. There, Brendan combined the use of horizon technologies and human-centered design to create collaborative, formative and learner-centered curricula and teacher training programs. The Laboratory School also served as a testing ground for cutting edge techno-pedgogical education initiatives that would serve as the foundation for all of his work moving ahead including the Moonshot Lab and ARES Learning.
In the future, Brendan will continue to look for opportunities to innovate at the intersection of education, technology and design with the audacious goal of fundamentally disrupting and transforming the American education system.