Nova Biro
Interim Director of Finance and Operations, Open Circle Program
B.S., University of Pennsylvania; M.B.A., Stanford University
nbiro@wellesley[dot]edu \ LinkedIn
Link to CV
Former co-director of Open Circle
Nova Biro, M.B.A., served as Open Circle co-director from 2009 to 2017, after initially joining as director of finance and operations in 2007. Her experience includes more than fifteen years in leadership, program management, partnerships, finance and marketing in both the education and technology fields. Prior roles include Senior Product Manager at Yahoo!, Co-Founder and Director of Product Management at TradeInteriors.com and Strategy Consultant at Gemini Consulting. She is the proud mother of twin girls, who loved attending an Open Circle elementary school.
Biro holds an M.B.A. and a Certificate in Public Management from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and also holds bachelor's degrees in Economics from the Wharton School and Systems Engineering from School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Co-led enactment of Open Circle’s growth plans focused on improving programming affordability and scalability through train-the-trainer and online professional development models.
- Collaborated with professor Noah Rubin, Ed.D., at Wellesley College and researcher Jenny Grossman, Ph.D., at the Wellesley Centers for Women, on 2-year “Training Partnership for SEL Actualization in Pre-service Teacher Education” project.
- Completed analysis for “Gratitude in Education” project focused on integrating grateful thinking into Open Circle programming for students and educators.
Supporting Social-Emotional Learning in Massachusetts. Moderated full-day workshop. Open Circle and Apperson, Inc. Wellesley, MA. January 2016.
Collaboration to Achieve Whole School SEL Across a Large, Urban District. Paper presentation, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Fall 2014 Conference, Washington, DC. September 2014.
The Importance of Social and Emotional Learning to Boston Schools. Testimony for Boston City Council Docket #0451. Boston, MA. December 2012.
Open Circle’s Best Practices for Social and Emotional Learning. Presentation to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Malden, MA. March 2011.
- Partners shares the value of social and emotional learning with Open Circle. Bay State Banner. October 11, 2013.
- Boston schools open doors to Open Circle. Boston.com. December 2, 2013.
Recent funding secured for Open Circle includes grants from NoVo Foundation, Templeton Foundation (in partnership with Greater Good Science Center), Partners HealthCare (in partnership with Boston Public Health Commission) and program fees from over 200 schools.
Porche, M., Grossman, J., Costello, D., Biro, N., MacKay, N., Rivers, S. April 2015. Collaboration to Enhance Whole School Social and Emotional Learning for Elementary Students. American Educational Research Association 2015 Annual Meeting.
Porche, M., Grossman, J., Biro, N., MacKay, N., & Rivers, S. September 4, 2014. Collaboration to Achieve Whole School SEL Across a Large, Urban District. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Fall 2014 Conference.
Co-authored several Open Circle publications, including the Open Circle Curriculum Grades K-5, Open Circle training manuals and assessment tools, Open Circle quarterly e-newsletters, and several white papers: Helping Children Deal with Traumatic Events, Open Circle and DESSA Alignment, Open and PBIS, Reinforcing SEL Schoolwide, SEL Best Practices.
Founding steering committee member, SEL Alliance for Massachusetts, 2013 to present.
Board member, World of Wellesley, 2015 to present.
Alumni, LeadBoston, Class of 2013.
Participant, SEED Seminars hosted at the Wellesley Centers for Women, 2015 to present.
