Bruce Friend
Director, SAS® Curriculum Pathways®
Bruce Friend is the director of SAS Curriculum Pathways, an award-winning online resource for students and teachers in high schools, community colleges, virtual schools and home settings. Available at no cost to U.S. educators, SAS Curriculum Pathways provides content in the core disciplines of English, mathematics, social studies, science and Spanish for grades 8-14. Aligned with state standards, its more than 200 InterActivities and 600 ready-to-use lessons apply technology-rich instruction to engage higher-order thinking skills. Friend ensures that SAS Curriculum Pathways program aligns with SAS Institute’s vision for providing high-quality and engaging online content resources to teachers and students.
Friend’s career in education and public service began in Florida, where he served as a middle school social studies teacher in Orange County Schools from 1993 to 1997. He earned a M.Ed. in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida in 1997 and went on to serve as an online teacher and course developer for Florida Virtual School.
As an original staff member of Florida Virtual School, Friend played an integral role in the development and oversight of organizational goals and policies, outreach programs and implementation of online learning on a statewide level. Promoted to the roles of chief operations officer and vice president, Friend was responsible for the instructional services, curriculum development, in-state operations, human resources, professional development, district outreach, and global services of one of the largest and most acclaimed virtual schools in the United States.
Prior to his role with SAS, Friend served as the first vice president of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), the only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to K-12 online learning issues. He also served as the first director of the North Carolina Virtual Public School, the Tar Heel State’s first statewide virtual school program.
Friend serves as a special advisor on educational technology issues for local and state leaders as well as serving on advisory boards for several online learning programs. In 2009 he was elected to the Board of the NC Distance Learning Association as the Business representative from within the state.
Among Friend’s honors and distinctions: He was the recipient of 2004 and 2005 Principal Achievement Award by Florida Department of Education. In 2003 he was recognized for the “Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual: K-12 Education” by the United States Distance Learning Association. Friend is a two-time recipient of the Florida Principal Achievement Award and was the Florida Virtual School Teacher of the Year for the 1998-1999 school year.