Rob Blevins is the executive director of the Discovery Center of Springfield, a nonprofit, community funded science center located in Downtown Springfield, Missouri that serves 3 countries, over 30 US states, and over 30 Missouri counties. Through his leadership, the Discovery Center was named the $1-million-dollar Grand Prize Winner of the Yass Prize in Education in 2021 and the Association of Science and Technology Centers Community Service Award winner in 2022. Rob is an active member of Downtown Rotary as a Paul Harris Fellow and Springfield Sertoma where he created the fundraising event for children’s charities, Springfield Prom.

Taylor Shead is the Founder and CEO of STEMuli Studios, an AI-powered Game-based learning metaverse company that brings together K-12 education and digital workforce development. STEMuli Studios is the first company in the United States to launch an educational metaverse in a public school. Taylor is a former division one basketball player at Loyola Marymount University and worked for Apple Inc in business-to-business sales. Taylor is the 94th black woman to raise over $1 million in venture capital. She is passionate about helping humans reach their greatest potential and showing little girls they can also build technology the world needs and loves.

Patricia Brantley is an education reformer, charter school advocate, and supporter of the right of all children to receive a high-quality education. As Friendship Schools CEO, she developed multiple charter schools in Washington, D.C., established partner schools with traditional school districts and launched the Friendship Education Foundation to expand Friendship’s model across the country. She is most proud of her work to establish DC’s first early college high school and the partnerships she spearheaded to save singleton and multi-campus charters from closure, ensuring that thousands of schoolchildren could remain in their school homes of choice. As CEO, she continues to deepen Friendship’s impact for 5,000 students from pre-school to 12th grade.