About Us
Empowering Change for Inclusive Education
Welcome to MoDE Foundation, where our commitment to empowering children with disabilities and fostering inclusivity drives transformative change.
Dive into our mission—to empower children with disabilities and their caregivers through educational advocacy and inclusivity promotion. Explore our values, guiding us as a nonpartisan, issue-led organization dedicated to diversity, empowerment, and change for all abilities.
Board of Directors
Christina Ingoglia
President
Christina Ingoglia, one of the MoDE Founders, is passionate about advocacy at the individual- and systems-levels. She and her husband created MoDE Foundation’s prototype for RestroomApp, which locates and supports advocacy for more gender-neutral restrooms with universal changing tables. Christina lives in the St. Louis area with her husband Dave and daughter Lilly. She is the Advocacy Director at Emmaus Homes.
Robyn Schelp
Vice President
Robyn taught middle school in rural Missouri before staying home to care for her three boys. She and her husband Allen moved with their family to Columbia so they could access services and support for their middle son who has disabilities. In 2016, Robyn began working with other moms to expand the autism insurance mandate, so her son and children with disabilities other than autism could have insurance coverage for therapies. This led to her joining forces with other mom-advocates to create MoDE Foundation in 2018. After four years of serving as MoDE's legislative director, Robyn became the Director of Policy and Advocacy for Kids Win Missouri. She continues to volunteer with MoDE Foundation and serves as the chair of MoDE Foundation's Legislative and Advocacy Committee.
Adam Curtis
Secretary
Adam Curtis joined MoDE Foundation board in 2022, and has made a big impact. He became familiar with MoDE Foundation through the families he assists with their real estate needs.
Amanda Chaney
Treasurer
Amanda G Chaney has 17 years of banking experience with 9 of those years in a leadership role passionately working to build and develop employees to reach their career goals. As mother of two girls, it's import to Amanda to ensure all children have the support and resources available for a successful educational experience.
Sandra Hamar
Dr. Sandra Hamar, Ed.D. is a tenured, Associate Professor at Columbia College. She has a Doctorate in Higher Education; Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Effective Schools from Grand Canyon University and a Masters of Arts in Teaching with an emphasis in Science Instruction from the University of Missouri, St. Louis
Dr. Hamar is a life-long educator with a broad career in P-12 public school districts, primarily as a literacy specialist. She moved to higher education in 2005 and joined Columbia College in 2017. Dr. Hamar started enjoying administrative responsibilities at Columbia College in 2020 by becoming the Chair of the Education Department.
A large part of her coursework is taught within Professional Development School (PDS) partnerships. She began her PDS work as director of a well-established program in the Kansas City area and has grown the PDS program between Columbia College and the Columbia Public School District. Hamar has conducted research in Effective Teacher Preparation. Collaborative in nature, Dr. Hamar hold membership on boards and committees focused on serving locally, nationally and internationally.
Dr. Hamar is also passionate about Education Abroad. Each year she leads a team of future teachers to Falmouth, Jamaica to teach in a local school. Hamar studies the shift in preservice teachers’ identity and self-efficacy after their experience, noting the life changing impacts even a short-term study abroad experience can have on future educators.
Lindsey Rendlen Latzke
Lindsey Rendlen Latzke joined the MoDE foundation Board of Directors in 2022. Lindsey is currently in-house counsel for US Foods, one of the country’s largest foodservice distributors. In her role she frequently advises on labor and employment, workplace safety, and commercial matters. Prior to joining US Foods, Lindsey was in private practice with Littler Mendelson, P.C., the largest international labor and employment firm where she advised on and litigated a broad range of class action and individual employment-related disputes across a variety of industries. Upon graduating from Saint Louis University School of Law, Lindsey dedicated nearly the entirety of her practice to providing daily advice and counsel to employers with the aim of not only ensuring legal compliance but also creating and fostering healthy work environments for employees. Prior to law school, Lindsey spent several years as an investigative journalist and news anchor. Lindsey’s passion for advocacy, seeking answers, and meaningful inclusion is not only professional, but it is also personal. She and her Husband, Tom, reside in St. Louis County with the lights of their lives, their daughters Vivienne and Elaina, and their beagles Pearl and Sophie.
Molly Myers
Molly Myers is another original MoDE mama. She regularly took her four children to Jefferson City to advocate for children with disabilities even before the formation of MoDE.
Program Staff
Tracey Bloch
Executive Director
Tracey Bloch is the new Director of Legislative Advocacy for MoDE. She will be spending time in the state capitol pushing for specific bills that focus on disability rights in education settings and empowering Missouri families to do the same. She has been married for 16 years and has three children, two of which benefit from special education services. Advocating for her children’s needs has been a big part of her life and she looks forward to expanding the scope to include fighting for others with disabilities.
Favorite color? Depends on the day, but lots of color is always good
Sleep in or stay up? I need to be an early bird, but I’m a night owl by nature
Best way to spend recess as a kid? The Four Square court was where it was at
Desired superpower? The ability to absorb all the other super powers
Second favorite planet? Mars, because it’s where girls go to get more candy bars (or so I was told as a child). Earth obviously takes first place!
Jordan Carter
Director of Outreach and Operations
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Elise Moore
Associate Director
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