Our Executive Director

Myra Best

Myra Best is the executive director of digiLEARN. Her work at digiLEARN builds on the work she initiated and led while working in the North Carolina Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s offices. She served as special advisor to Governor Bev Perdue on e-learning and education innovation from 2009-2012. As special advisor, Best led policy and budget initiatives for education and coordinated the work of NC's eLearning Commission. Best led the implementation of the Governor’s comprehensive plan for education. The plan, Career and College: Ready, Set, Go!, focuses on a single goal—that all students will graduate ready for a career, college, or technical training. Key to achieving that goal is the Career & College Promise initiative, launched by Best, which provides high school students with focused preparation in career pathways at no cost to them. Best also advised Gov. Perdue on the implementation of digital learning throughout education, as well as overarching education needs.  

Prior to becoming a special advisor, Best served as director of the Business Education Technology Alliance and the eLearning Commission. She led these groups under the leadership of then Lt. Gov. Perdue to develop and establish NC’s first virtual public school. She also worked to establish a single, statewide, state-funded technology network that provides unlimited bandwidth to every public school and a single portal for e-learning, all with a goal of providing 21st century learning options in every corner of NC. These state initiatives involved large-scale coordination and collaboration of key leaders, agencies, the NC General Assembly, the Office of the Governor and public-sector businesses. This work involved early development with private funding and evolved into significant public-private partnerships of investments of more than $120 million and continues to grow with the state's current leadership.