Christy Lamb is an education improvement specialist elementary at a top rated educational research firm in. Christy started her career as a middle school teacher through the Teach for America program in Houston, TX.
Christy copleted her undergraduate degree in Sociology, knowing public education was the ultimate end goal. Moving back to Kansas City after a few years in Texas, she hopped back and forth between elementary and middle school serving as an ELA teacher, instructional coach, reading specialist, admin intern, assistant principal, and head principal.
Serving as head principal for five years in a prek-5th grade building, Christy shares her various experiences and life lessons with The Modern Principal community. In her current role, Christy is afforded the opportunity to collaborate with k-12th grade administrators, as well as state officials, educational researchers, and district level leadership. This provides incredible insight into the national education landscape.
Christy and Karen just earned doctoral degrees from the University of Saint Louis in District Leadership, with a dissertation focus on principal succession planning.
Karen Hile is a 19th year veteran of public education, currently serving as an Executive Director in Human Resources. She has served in different roles and districts throughout her career as education always seemed in the cards for her. She set off to college to become a teacher but the particular liberal arts program had teacher candidates get undergrad degrees in content other than education first.
Karen completed her BA and BS in Psychology and set off to get certified through completing her Masters while having her own classroom through the Kansas City Residential Internship Program. Having no experience, it could have been an utter disaster for her students and herself for that matter, but instead because of the support built into the program, it ignited her fire for this profession.
Going from teacher to instructional coach, to admin intern to principal in urban, suburban and rural schools for the past 18 years created learning experiences she shares at The Modern Principal. The past 8 years were leading a prek-4 elementary school, with the district’s behavior program and multiple other special programs. This year, she moved into a district leadership role, focusing the next chapter of her career on the human resources field and the power people bring to our schools.