Adoption · Change management · Education
Change doesn't happen at go-live. It happens when people adopt it.
I'm Dr. Alison Rossi. I started as a classroom teacher, and every role since has been the same work: helping people take on something new until it sticks. Today I do it as SVP of GTM Strategy at Bluum.
The through-line
An educator at heart. Make no mistake about it.
From the first day I stepped into a classroom, my favorite moments were the ones where something clicked for a student. I never planned on a career in sales and strategy. What I found is that the core traits of a great business leader are the same as those of a great teacher.
Teaching is adoption work. So is leading a sales team through a new process, moving 15,000 people onto a new phone system, or building a youth softball club one family at a time. The subject changes. The work doesn't: meet people where they are, show them why it matters, and stay with them until it's theirs.
People like to call it technology adoption. Technology adoption is just adoption. The tools are the easy part. The people are the whole job.
At Bluum I came in to lead enablement, then took on our offerings, then marketing. Now, as SVP of GTM Strategy, I have the best job in the company: I get a first look at the new technology coming into education, decide how we take it to market, shape how we talk about it, and teach our sales team to carry it. Learn it, translate it, teach it.
The research
Good leadership is necessary. It isn't enough.
The Leadership Factor: Examining Teacher Retention in U.S. Schools
Doctor of Strategic Leadership, Liberty University, 2026
My doctoral research asked a question close to home: how does school leadership affect whether teachers stay? I went inside one Connecticut high school, interviewed 16 teachers and administrators, surveyed 42 faculty members, and reviewed three years of school records.
The school's leaders were well regarded: visible, supportive, quick to recognize good work. Exhaustion was still the highest burnout measure. The risk wasn't in anyone's leadership style. It was in specific places leaders can actually fix:
- How change is communicated. Explain why, give people lead time, and ask before deciding rather than after. Teachers were worn down less by decisions than by how those decisions arrived.
- Room to absorb it. New initiatives kept landing before the last one was finished, and they ate into the only planning time teachers had.
- Support that's built in. New teachers and teacher-leaders needed support written into the structure, not handed out as a favor.
It's the same lesson as every adoption effort I've led. People rarely resist change itself. They run out of room for it.
Selected impact
Outcomes over output.
84%
adoption of a new deal-progression process across 102 sales reps
15,000
people across 200 buildings moved to a new phone platform in 10 months, one week early
11
softball teams grown from one group of girls who were left without a program
132%
average quota attainment as a named account executive, with three Million Dollar Club years
- 2026 – nowSVP, GTM Strategy, Bluum
- 2023 – 2026Vice President, BluumJoined to lead enablement, then added offerings, then marketing
- 2017 – 2023Named Account Executive & Strategic Project Manager, NWN Carousel
- 2016 – 2017President & Founder, ARI Advisors
- 2011 – 2016Account Executive, K-12, Atrion Networking
- Where it startedElementary classroom teacher, Connecticut
Recognition
- 40 Under FortyHartford Business Journal, 2022
- Million Dollar ClubNWN Carousel, 2019, 2020, 2021
- Achievers ClubNWN Carousel, 2022
Education
- Doctor of Strategic LeadershipLiberty University, 2026
- M.S., Educational TechnologyCentral Connecticut State University, 2013
- B.S., MathematicsCentral Connecticut State University, 2007
Speaking
Keynotes, panels and workshops on adoption, change and leading like a teacher.
For education and industry conferences, sales kickoffs and leadership offsites.
Topics & booking →The book
People don't resist change. They run out of room for it. I'm writing the book.
Built on my doctoral research. Early ideas show up here as essays first, and subscribers get chapter drafts along the way.
Follow along →Writing
Notes on adoption and change.
The first essay is on its way. Subscribe below to get it.
Beyond work
Still coaching.
I played Division I softball at Central Connecticut State. Years later, a team of girls was left without a program, so I stepped in to coach them. That team became Diamond Softball Club: 11 teams, a national title, and players who went on to compete in high school and college. I also own Clubhouse 220, the club's indoor training facility in East Hartford.
After a pause to make sure we could do it right, the club is back for 2026–27, and some of our former players have returned as coaches. That's my favorite kind of adoption. It's teaching again, just with a better uniform.
Contact
Let's talk.
For speaking requests, use the speaking form so I have the event details up front. For everything else, write here or find me on LinkedIn.