Professional Team

Dr. James Cross is the Honorary Principal of Meridian Future Academy and the Principal of Vermont International Academy. Vermont International Academy is a private school authorized by the state of Vermont to issue international high school diplomas outside the U.S., and is currently the only campus certified by the U.S. 100,000 Strong Initiative Office to support the initiative in China.

Dr. Zhaojun Chen is the Founder of Meridian Future Academy and a Cognia Lead Evaluator, with over 15 years of experience in international education and school accreditation.

He has supported numerous leading international and bilingual schools in China in achieving global standards through accreditation and continuous improvement. As the Founder of Vermont International Academy (VIA), a Cognia-accredited U.S. high school system, he has led the development of multiple American and integrated curriculum programs.

Dr. Chen is currently leading the development of the Learning Intelligence OS (LIOS), an AI-native system designed to enable scalable, personalized learning.

Dr. Harry Chaucer is widely recognized as a prominent education expert in the United States. He has been named a Distinguished White House Teacher, National Association of Biology Teachers Teacher of the Year, American Association of University Women Teacher of the Year, Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University, Apple Fellow, and winner of the NEA Dorros Peace Cup.

His designed Da Vinci curriculum has been featured in Teacher Magazine, Business Week, and CBS News. Dr. Chaucer focuses not only on theoretical writings but has also successfully designed and founded an American middle school, greatly challenging many assumptions of traditional American high schools in practice.

Dr. John Collins currently serves as an advisor to the MFA Academic Committee. He previously served as the Department Chair of the Special Master's Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and as a freshman advisor at Harvard University.

He is the author and editor of numerous highly acclaimed publications, including the internationally renowned "Greenwood Dictionary of Education." Dr. Collins has a strong interest in international education, focusing on international curricula in China, study abroad programs, teacher training, and library and information science.

Ann McCormick is a senior advisor and partner of MFA. She holds a Doctorate in Education from UC Berkeley and has an outstanding reputation in both the U.S. and international education communities.

As a legendary figure in American basic education and EdTech, she has served as an executive in several prominent EdTech companies, including being the founder of The Learning Company, the first publicly traded educational software company in Silicon Valley. She is not only an educator and entrepreneur but has also made immense achievements in educational research.

Dr. Cao Weixun is a researcher at the Institute of Global Innovation and Development, East China Normal University, founder of the International AI Education BitLab, a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Chinese Institute of Engineers/USA, and a former visiting professor at the Microelectronics Institute of Fudan University.

Dr. Cao has over 20 years of experience in wireless communication system chip design and international technological innovation. He received his Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from Germany in 1998, under the supervision of Professor Dieter Seitzer, the "father of MP3 invention." In 2007, Dr. Cao founded BitLab in Silicon Valley, dedicated to advancing innovative education in the AI era.