Kristy Howard is a Family Engagement Coordinator at Georgia Cyber Academy (GCA) and has worked in this role since 2016. GCA is a public online charter school that serves over 10,000 students across the state of Georgia in grades K-12. Kristy leads district-wide staff trainings educating teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, other school leaders, and other school staff on strategies for building effective partnerships with families. She also leads district-wide parent trainings on how parents can successfully support the education of their child(ren) and build strong partnerships with the school. Her expertise is in leading meaningful trainings backed by research addressing impactful topics such as how school staff can build partnerships with their families while identifying and addressing potential school engagement barriers they may face. The strategies used at GCA can translate to any brick-and mortar school wanting to increase their tools for engaging busy families and building a sense of community in a virtual environment. This can be done through the use of online meetings, live stream meetings, meeting recordings, feedback surveys, Facebook groups, online resource rooms, newsletters, and more.