The Worldwide Women’s Association Recognizes Shauna Stephanchick

Shauna Stephanchick is the founder and president of STEP UP Consulting Services and Learning First, specializing in educational consulting, curriculum development, district-wide professional learning community implementation, educator coaching, and state-specific educational resources. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience at every level of K–12 education, she leads an eight-person team that supports one-third of Missouri’s school districts.

Shauna began her career as a first- and second-grade teacher before advancing into instructional coaching and school leadership. She served as a principal in the Grandview School District and later worked through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Regional Professional Development Center as a professional learning community consultant and English language arts content specialist.

Those roles gave Shauna experience with the instructional and organizational challenges facing teachers, school leaders, and district teams. Her work has focused on helping educators establish greater clarity around learning standards, curriculum expectations, pacing, assessment, and collaborative instructional practices. She was named District Teacher of the Year by the Grandview School District and has led five schools to earn the PLC Exemplar Schools of Missouri designation.

In 2017, Shauna established STEP UP as a solo consulting practice. She subsequently grew the organization into a team of eight serving districts across Missouri. Through its consulting services and tools, the team works with educators on curriculum coherence, professional learning communities, instructional leadership, and practical systems intended to support classroom teaching and student learning.

A central part of Shauna’s work is the Learning First Framework, a curriculum clarity process designed to replace a typical three-to-five-year curriculum alignment cycle with a focused two-to-three-day process. She also created the Missouri Assessment and Teaching Tools, known as MATT, which are now used in more than 100 schools. These resources reflect her emphasis on giving educators usable structures for connecting standards, pacing, instruction, and assessment.

Shauna also conducted original survey research involving more than 500 Missouri educators in 2023. Among respondents, 74% reported lacking a standards-aligned pacing guide, while 83% found the Learning First approach easier than any curriculum method they had previously used. The findings informed her continuing focus on curriculum processes that are accessible to educators and feasible for school systems to implement.

As a regular contributing author to MAESP Magazine, Shauna writes about curriculum coherence, instructional leadership, and teacher clarity. Her published work also includes pieces addressing reading success, standards clarity, and curriculum misconceptions. She has presented her work at annual conferences held by the Missouri Association of School Administrators, Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals, Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals, and Missouri Association of Rural Education.

Shauna holds an Education Specialist in Education Administration from the University of Central Missouri, a Master of Arts in Teacher Leadership from MidAmerica Nazarene University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Drury University. Her career progression—from classroom teaching and coaching to administration, state-level consulting, and organizational leadership—continues to shape her approach to supporting educators and school systems.

WWA members are invited to connect with Shauna to exchange perspectives on curriculum clarity, instructional leadership, educator coaching, and effective professional learning communities.

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