Laura is a teacher turned consultant who is on a mission as ParentCamp Vice-President to teach every family-school-community how to come together in joyful connection and collaboration as ONE TEAM, ONE ECOSYSTEM for kids. The big goal is Family-School-Community-Integration and nationwide research about the impact of Family-School-Community Collective Efficacy. Laura is passionate about teachers and teacher agency. She loves working with them and they love working with her. As CEO of Kid Champions Consulting Laura helps teachers and schools humanize and transform teaching and learning, whether it’s face to face and/or virtual. Laura taught amazing middle schoolers for 20 years in Lee’s Summit, Park Hill and for most of her career in North Kansas City. Laura was a MO State Teacher of the Year TOY Finalist in 2015 and received the Christa McAuliffe Pioneer in Education Award from the KC Northland Chamber of Commerce the same year. In a quest to explore education ecosystems and follow her heart, Laura hopped over the state line to coach incredible teachers for 3 years in Wyandotte County in USD 202. Additionally, she has been honored to witness and be part of the Kansans Can Redesign Project. This ParentCamp foundational quote is the basis of Laura’s work. “Everything needed to help kids thrive is already within your family-school-community ecosystem.” Laura is passionate about nurturing, building and tending to “The Ecosystem.” She knows building trust and connections are necessary for human happiness and for future collaboration. In fact, since 2011 Laura has been doing just that. For three and a half years, Laura organized and held monthly KCEdu meetups with the help of many wonderful teams and partners, bringing KC’s educators, ed organizations and community and industry together for kids. Laura attended and supported educators at over 30 Edcamps and she co-organized multiple Edcamps including EdCampKC at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, one of her most cherished organizing memories. Laura values curiosity, presence, trust, non-judgment and Walking the Talk. Laura wants every child/learner to have the privilege of feeling seen, heard and valued for the divine soul they are and to wake up surrounded by a deeply connected ecosystem of caring adults through which love, opportunities, resources, information and belonging flow freely to kids. Laura believes we can transform our family-school-communities for kids from our SCHOOLS, using the Virtual ParentCamp Model and the Family-School-Community Integration System. Laura lives in Kansas City with her husband and their 3 churlish chihuahuas, who miss “the kids.” Rumor is she’s a big KC Chiefs fan.

Julia (Julie) first became engaged in her children’s school when her daughter was in kindergarten. The PTA was looking for help with their website. She had just completed an overhaul of her employer’s website and felt she could contribute her talents. In that she was a full-time working mom and the website could be done outside of school hours, it was a way she could help without being physically present at the school. Through those first years of attending PTA meetings, she felt she was not part of the “in crowd” and was sure other parents felt the same. She was determined to make a difference and make it so that all parents/families felt welcomed at PTA functions. Eventually she became President of the PTA and at the same time was invited to participate in a program sponsored by the The Prichard Committee for Educational Excellence called The Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership. This program gave her the knowledge and tools to start working even more closely with her children’s schools. Julie can be often be found on Twitter chats leading discussions on getting more families, guardians, mentors and the community involved in education. Opening doors and changing cement walls to glass walls. She was elected to the Boone County School Board in 2018 and has served as a Parent Ambassador in the Boone County School System. Also in 2018, she was named to the inaugural class of the EdTrust Fund Parent Fellowship class. In 2017, Julie was named the inaugural recipient of the Beverly Nickels Raimondo Kentucky Parent Leadership Award named after the founding of the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership. In 2015 she was recognized as the Bammy Award People’s Choice Parent Leadership recipient. She has served in multiple PTA positions, including Vice President of Communications for the Kentucky State PTA and past President of the recently formed Boone County High School PTSA. Julie was the 2023-24 President of the Rotary Club of Florence and was appointed by unanimous vote to the 2024 Kentucky Board of Education.