July 2026
Welcome to the team.
Shawnee Caruthers
Shawnee is guided by the conviction that young people already carry insights and power our systems need, and that the work of adults is to build the conditions for that power to grow.
She’s lived that conviction out in Kansas City her whole life, first as a Director of Career and Technical Education, then through Real World Learning and her time as Partner, Advocacy at Getting Smart. In that journey, she has always been chasing the same thing: learning that gives students real work with real stakes, not a watered-down version of it.
Now, as Catalyst Lead at History Co:Lab, Shawnee is on the ground in Kansas City, building KC Co:Lab alongside schools, museums, libraries, and youth organizations. She carries that work out to the rest of the country through storytelling and journalism that shapes how the field thinks about civic thriving. Wherever she’s working, young people are the co-authors.
Mikki Edgar
MiKaela “Mikki” believes the best community work happens because someone cares enough to hold all the details together, and that’s what she brings to History Co:Lab as Program Coordinator.
Mikki comes to us from the Regnier Family Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Kansas City, where she kept programs, finances, and a whole community of volunteers running smoothly, and she’s since sharpened that craft through Nonprofit Connects’ Volunteer Management Institute.
At History Co:Lab, Mikki is the connective tissue for our Kansas City ecosystem and for our national weaving work. She supports crafting relationships and collaborations with schools, museums and scaling partners, organizing events that bring our community together, and keeping everything organized so the work never loses momentum. Mikki’s love for youth programming and mentorship is what drew her here, and it’s the same belief that drives her now: young people deserve adults who help them grow into their power.