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

        Eyeing the American dream, BLITAB creates tablet for blind people

        By Tommy Felts | November 5, 2016

        Editor’s note: This content is sponsored by LaunchKC but independently produced by Startland News. Kristina Tsvetanova is no stranger to obstacles. She’s spanned the globe and learned three different languages en route to developing first-of-its-kind technology that aims to connect blind people to media in ways that rivals science fiction. Touted as an “iPad” for…

        Caffeine nation: 1 Million Cups hits the century mark

        By Tommy Felts | November 4, 2016

        Dubbed as “the church for entrepreneurs,” 1 Million Cups recently hit a milestone with the reach of its programming. A product of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 1 Million Cups has launched in Waco, Texas, marking the entrepreneurial forum’s 100th participating community. 1 Million Cups launched in Kansas City in 2012 and has been spreading…

        Take a tour of KC’s newest, largest coworking space: iWerx

        By Tommy Felts | November 3, 2016

        Kansas City’s newest and largest coworking studio plans to celebrate its grand opening in style during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Based in North Kansas City, iWerx’s massive 33,000-square-feet facility is now welcoming tenants into its swanky new digs that feature an array of amenities, most notably access to its ridiculously fast 10-gigabit Internet. Built in 1929,…

        The metric that your startup needs to measure: Net promoter score

        By Tommy Felts | November 3, 2016

        Startups are full of uncertainty — and prospective clients know that. Credibility and reputation are both keys to a company’s ability to not only sell a product or service, but also to create brand ambassadors that will promote it to friends and others. As the saying goes, your customers are your best salespeople. “If you…