Lean Lab leaders dissect recent politics spurring U.S. education engagement

March 17, 2017  |  Startland News Staff

Lean Lab co-founder Katie Boody

Editor’s note: In partnership with the Wide Ruled podcast hosted by Brainroot Light and Sound, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about innovators in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.


Wide Ruled is a podcast on equality in education. Each episode showcases a struggle or triumph in working toward a better education system. In this episode, host Nathaniel Bozarth talks with Katie Boody and Aditya Voleti of the Lean Lab about the recent appointment of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education, and how it’s caused a spike of interest and activism regarding education. 

Nathaniel Bozarth

Nathaniel Bozarth

The Lean Lab works closely with KC Social Innovation, Village Capital and the City of Kansas City, Mo. The program has supported 16 startups and granted over $100,000 to support ideas that have the potential to disrupt the education system.

Launched in 2013, the Kansas City-based education tech incubator engaged over 900 individuals in conversation on education innovation in 2016. In addition, last year marked the organization’s first step to go international, attracting entrepreneurs that hail from 28 different cities and three countries.

Listen to what Boody and Voleti recommend on what you can do to engage with education in your neighborhood.


Nathaniel Bozarth is a regional Emmy-award winning producer with Brainroot Light and Sound. Over the past three years he’s teamed up with Christopher Cook to create engaging documentary content on how race and immigration impact opportunity in America. Wide Ruled is Brainroot’s newest production on this trajectory. @bo_nathaniel

startland-tip-jar

TIP JAR

Did you enjoy this post? Show your support by becoming a member or buying us a coffee.

Tagged , , , ,
Featured Business
    Featured Founder

      2017 Startups to Watch

        stats here

        Related Posts on Startland News

        A hub for KC’s startup gigs, Startland relaunches jobs board

        By Tommy Felts | April 10, 2017

        The hamster wheel of daily work is a powerful force — especially in news. Amid the tumult of startup life, a chance to pause, reflect and be proactive in creating a more robust organization can be rare. But some opportunities are simply too important to continue passing by. As Startland approaches its two-year anniversary, we’ve…

        Survey: Most regional investors want a better due diligence process

        By Tommy Felts | April 7, 2017

        For investors, investigating deals isn’t always an easy process. From examining an industry’s opportunity to loads of legal analysis, the amount of work in the due diligence process is often enough to deter financiers from investing in a firm. That’s why in a recent survey, a majority of regional investors said they’d love a better…

        Godfather of content marketing joins the DivvyHQ team

        By Tommy Felts | April 7, 2017

        Kansas City-based tech firm DivvyHQ just snagged an industry pioneer in content marketing for its board of directors. The Chief strategist for the Content Marketing Institute, Robert Rose recently joined the DivvyHQ team to lend his years of content marketing expertise. A nationwide speaker and author, Rose has developed content customer experience strategies for such…