sector after having success in marketing. One day, as Katie sat at her desk reading a company mission statement, she started to rethink her own life's purpose. Reflecting on her passion for working with teenagers, she co-founded the non- profit KidsMatter, focusing on K12 students’ social-emotional needs. Eventually, she switched to teaching and committed to earning a Master's Degree in Teaching while working full-time and raising her family. After student teaching at Naperville North High School, Katie continued her teaching career at NNHS, making room 246 a special place for students while participating in multiple district committees. In 2015, she took a yearlong sabbatical from teaching and worked with the Driskill Foundation and as Director of Education. During this break, she worked with Chicago Public Schools, the Museum of Science and Industry, and other education entities. After returning to the classroom for ten years, she was asked to return to the Driskill Foundation as President and CEO of a new non-profit called Curiosity 2 CREATE. Katie is well-versed in creating and teaching courses to help teachers infuse their curriculum with deeper thinking skills, collaboration, and communication, ultimately resulting in engagement and greater gains in learning. She shows educators relevant and meaningful ways to ignite curiosity, incorporate more profound thinking skills, and create caring classrooms pursuing an Ed.D. in Innovative Teaching and Learning Katie's creative personality and passion for teaching are apparent when you watch her energy on stage as a keynote speaker and workshop leader. classroom, Katie found that creative and critical thinning is not only for students but also for teachers. Inspired by IBM (2010), World Economic Forum (2016), and LinkedIn (2019 and 2020), she wants to make sure students are prepared for the future. With a grant from The Driskill Foundation, Katie and her team are working to make schools a place where students strive to think for themselves, embrace their innate creativity, and work together to find innovative solutions to future problems. Tailored Solutions Curiosity 2 CREATE focuses on helping school districts improve teachers' training and learning experience. It provides various products and services like: Co-founding the Creative Thinking Network with Dr. Cyndi Burnett, Katie envisions building a global community of educators supporting creative classrooms. With her wealth of experience, multiple degrees, and communicable interests, she offers personalized professional development to empower educators and enhance classroom creativity. Exploring the Roots Curiosity 2 CREATE is a non-profit organization that helps teachers make learning more meaningful and relevant to today's students. After years of experience, Katie saw that teachers often dreaded professional development. It might be delivered by non-educators less engagingly. Therefore, Katie and her team of teachers needed to create a professional development for teachers by teachers. Using a method called CREATE, the Curiosity 2 CREATE team of educators coaches teachers by revising their existing curriculum to reflect aspects such as curiosity, risk-taking, open-mindedness, and deferring judgment. With these strategies, teachers create lessons where students are thinking in creative and critical ways, is relevant, failures are celebrated, and teachers are seen as educational guides. The goal is to make classrooms a great place to learn. The Spark Behind the Startup Katie joined Curiosity 2 CREATE because she noticed students were not as curious and excited about learning. As a teacher, she saw students not thinking creatively and critically. Katie believes asking “What if?” and “Why?” is crucial for learning. After years of research and trial and error in her own | June 2024 12