Meet Lesa Chandler, Director of Collaborative Learning

At Cornerstones of Care, we’re proud to highlight the people who make our work meaningful every day. This month, we’re excited to feature Lesa Chandler, our Director of Collaborative Learning, whose passion for education and dedication to strengthening families guide everything she does.

Empowering Learners Across Our Community

In her role, Lesa oversees the teams that provide training both internally to Cornerstones of Care staff and externally to community partners. That includes child and family service professionals, foster and adoptive parents, caregivers, nonprofits, and even members of the general public.

Much of her time is spent cultivating new opportunities for learning, managing the business side of the department, and ensuring that Collaborative Learning is aligned with our mission to build safe and healthy communities. She most often facilitates the Ignite Leadership Series, one of her favorite ways to help leaders grow.

Three Decades of Experience

Lesa has been teaching and training for more than 30 years. With degrees in education and communications, she has focused nearly her entire career on supporting adolescent and adult learners. Her experience spans classrooms, youth ministry, therapeutic foster care, and professional training roles across multiple states.

A Trainer Shaped by Lived Experience

Lesa’s background as a therapeutic foster parent plays a meaningful role in her work today. She teaches courses grounded in both best practices and first-hand experience, covering topics like managing lying, sexualized behaviors, and trauma symptoms. Her journey as a trainer began in Kentucky when she was invited to lead trainings for other caregivers. After moving to Olathe, she joined Cornerstones of Care in 2004 as the trainer for our first performance-based foster care contract—work she describes as a natural extension of her passion for supporting youth and the adults who care for them.

Creating Space for Curiosity and Connection

For Lesa, the most rewarding part of teaching foster parents is validating them as professional caregivers. She loves creating space where people can share their stories, learn from one another, and recognize both their strengths and their challenges.

If there’s one theme she brings into every course, it’s curiosity. Whether she’s helping identify blind spots, challenging assumptions, or encouraging vulnerability, Lesa is committed to fostering learning environments where growth feels possible.

Life Outside the Classroom

When she’s not teaching or developing learning opportunities, you’ll often find Lesa volunteering with teenagers through her church—something she devotes around four hours to each week. She also enjoys bicycling, hiking, and relaxing with good conversation around a fire pit.