Lawanna Sears:  

After getting married at 19, helping to put a husband through college, and having my daughter Heather at age 22, I decided I wanted to finish college myself. I enrolled at Southwest Missouri State University in the fall of '76, got my B.S. in Education in the spring of '80, started teaching that fall, and finished my Master's Degree in Reading in the summer of '84. I taught in the Springfield area for 8 years. I moved to the Kansas City area in the fall of 1988. I completed my Educational Specialist Degree in Reading in 1998 from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I accepted a Reading Specialist/Literacy Coach position with a Kansas City suburban school district. I was with them for 18 years before retiring from the Missouri Public School System in May 2007. In the fall of 2008, I began a "second career" as a Reading Specialist for an elementary school on the Kansas side. In addition to my regular teaching position, I was an adjunct professor at Webster University and Avila University. I retired in May 2019 after 39 years in education. I have had lots of wonderful experiences and opportunities durin...Expand for more