With 22 years of experience in education, Jessica Asbury has taught every elementary grade level and later transitioned into roles such as tech integrationist, STEM educator, and gifted facilitator.  She works closely with nonprofits like Code.org and PLTW as an educational facilitator.  She currently serves as Piper Elementary's Real World Learning Coordinator, working to align innovative content, instructional practices, and career exposure to ensure all students build to the district's Portrait of a Graduate.

Shawn Harrel is a secondary CTE educator (Digital Media Technology) with extensive experience in instructional design, media production, and music education. He recently completed an EdD in Instructional Design and Performance Technology (IDPT) at Baker University, with a dissertation focused on durable skills of creativity, collaboration, and risk-taking in an ungraded environment. He teaches at Summit Technology Academy in the Lee's Summit (MO) R-7 School District and has received the Learning for Life, Excellence in Teaching, and Teacher of Distinction awards. Shawn also teaches instrumental arranging at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Lindenwood University. He co-founded the Lee's Summit Jazz Orchestra and is a founding board member of Lee's Summit Creates, an organization dedicated to furthering arts initiatives in the Lee's Summit area. He likes to journal, write music, sharpen pencils, and spin vinyl records in his free time.

Sara Hoffman teaches 2nd grade at Canyon Creek Elementary School in Olathe. Hoffman achieves this goal through Project Based Learning — a method that directs students through projects that are authentic and connects them with their community. “This past year, second graders had to understand how the past impacts their life today,” she wrote. “Students learned about famous people, events and daily life in the past. Then we partnered with an assisted living community to come meet our students.” Hoffman said this project brought context to the past and students continued talking and making connections to their present with the many stories they heard from residents in the assisted living community. Students need to learn by shared experiences and conversations, she said. “During our projects we work in teams, consult with community experts and gather feedback from peers,” she wrote.

Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Central Missouri in 2009 and a master’s degree in education from Baker University in 2021.