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Try It. Use It. Study It.

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Educators and students are the source of truth on the classroom experience, and they hold invaluable knowledge as the end users of many edtech products. Leanlab Education’s research taps into their expertise by bringing together innovative educators and school districts to collaborate with edtech companies seeking to solve real problems in education. 

Bending the Market

In an environment where top-down federal regulation demanding rigorous evidence of edtech is unlikely, we must work to leverage market forces for good. To do so, we need to work to find the middle ground between solution providers' natural go-to-market inclinations and revenue obligations and R&D; where do those two intersect? School Systems and Educators. 

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Protect Teacher Time At All Costs

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Despite the headlines, a few new studies suggest that staff shortages may not be our biggest barrier as students return to school this fall. Instead, the rate of learning recovery post pandemic is threatening to perpetuate persistent (and potentially widened) inequities among students along lines of race and class.

Mission-Driven, Community Focused

NAME

Laura Gowans

ROLE

Chief Operating Officer

BIO

Hi! I’m a KC native that graduated from Lee’s Summit North High school before moving to California and Paris for a few years for school. Now I'm back in Kansas City, living in West Plaza with my husband and two cats. I am the President of SocialHeart, a nonprofit that hosts events to raise money for emerging local charities, such as our monthly Kansas City Young Professionals meetups. In my free time I love hiking, reading, and traveling!

WHY I GRAVITATE TOWARDS THIS WORK…

I’m only interested in working at organizations that are actively trying to make the world a better place. During Covid, it became apparent that teachers and schools, already under-resourced, were going through unprecedented challenges. I love Leanlab’s mission of elevating community voices while directly giving back to teachers and schools, asking them what THEY need and the best way that we can help.

FUN FACT

For my husband’s 30th birthday, I threw him a surprise party and built a custom zombie-themed Escape Room from scratch.


The First Draft of Educational Transformation

John Walter

NAME

John Walter

ROLE

Chief Development Officer

BIO

John comes to LEANLAB Education with experience as a classroom teacher and nonprofit leader. His professional interests include educational technology, media literacy, and project based learning. 

John has most recently served as the Associate Director of Collegian Media Group at Kansas State University, a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization that publishes the K-State Collegian newspaper, Royal Purple yearbook, and Manhappenin’ magazine. Prior to that, John spent five years as a high school journalism teacher and student media adviser at a national model career academy campus.

John and his students have been recognized for their award winning work at the state and national levels. John holds a B.S. in Secondary Education from Kansas State University and a M.S. in Instructional Technology from Fort Hays State University.

WHY I GRAVITATE TOWARDS THIS WORK…

I gravitate towards this work because of how important it is to elevate the voices of students and teachers in decision making processes in education.

For me, it all started during my years as a high school student and my participation on the student newspaper and debate team. Almost all of my classes were taught in a traditional model where the teachers provided direct instruction and students were expected to take in the content. My journalism and debate classes on the other hand were the only places where I felt encouraged to pursue my own interests and use my voice to create and explore. Those classes were built on project based learning experiences that had real audiences and allowed me to flex my critical thinking skills in ways that none of my other classes provided. 

When I chose to begin a career in education, I did so to provide a space for students to tell their own stories, create projects for real audiences, and lead their own classroom. Most of my high school journalism students had never been in class like mine, where I was an adviser, rather than a teacher, and students got to share the responsibility of decision making in the class. As my career progressed, I moved on to work at the university level helping college students gain real world experience using their voices to produce student media that informed the greater campus community on important issues and preserve the first draft of campus history during unprecedented times. 

I’ve always been interested in how new technologies can help transform education so I jumped at the opportunity to  join Leanlab Education. I understand how critical it is to incorporate the voice and insights of students and teachers into the development of new educational technology products. Working with Leanlab allows me to expand the impact that I have on education in ways that I believe can truly transform education for the better. It’s an opportunity to explore bold new ideas and reimagine a better future for students and teachers..


FUN FACT

I’m a huge fan of live music and spicy food!