Meet the Curator Meet the Curator
KANESHA ADAMS
Curator | Covered Classrooms
M.S.
Educational Psychology
Oklahoma State University
M.Ed.
Educational Leadership
University of Arkansas
FOUNDER
The Learning Lounge
CREATOR
Bearapy Bookshelf
Educator. School Founder. Author. Nonprofit Leader. Builder of Bigger Possibilities.
Kanesha Barnes Adams is an educator and education builder whose work centers on creating learning environments where students and educators have permission to think beyond traditional models. With more than a decade of experience spanning classroom instruction, literacy, family engagement, school leadership, nonprofit development, microschool innovation, and educational entrepreneurship, she has built a career around one question: What becomes possible when educators have the resources, relationships, and freedom to build what children truly need?
Kanesha doesn’t curate Covered Classrooms from the sidelines. Every part of the experience is shaped by what she has learned through teaching, building organizations, opening a school, securing partnerships, supporting families, and turning unconventional ideas into tangible opportunities for children. Covered Classrooms is where that lived experience becomes a resource for other educators ready to build what comes next.
THE FOUNDATION
The Educator
The Lifelong Learner
The Author
The Nonprofit Founder
The School Founder
The Builder
The Impact
The Curator
Where the Vision Began
Kanesha’s journey began in education, where she experienced firsthand both the possibilities and limitations of traditional learning environments. Through roles in classroom teaching, literacy, family engagement, program development, and school leadership, she gained a deeper understanding of what students need, and what educators need in order to serve them well.
Studying How Children Learn & Leaders Lead
Kanesha continued building her expertise through graduate study in educational psychology and educational leadership, advanced study in developmental and behavioral approaches to supporting children, and doctoral-level work in educational leadership. Her academic journey has strengthened the research and leadership foundation behind the work she implements every day.
Using Stories to Expand Possibility
As the author of more than a dozen children’s books, Kanesha has used storytelling as another way to help children see themselves, develop confidence, and imagine what is possible. Her work as an author reflects her broader belief that education should create space for children to become creators, not simply consumers of information.
Building Bearapy
As Founder and CEO of Bearapy, Kanesha created a nonprofit rooted in the belief that books, relationships, creativity, and community can help children thrive. Through Bearapy, she has developed programming supporting families, young authors, educators, entrepreneurs, and innovative learning experiences while building partnerships and securing resources to bring ideas to life.
Reimagining What School Can Be
Kanesha is the Founding Director of The Learning Lounge Academy, an independent microschool created to provide students with a more personalized and community-centered educational experience. Students engage in academics alongside entrepreneurship, agriculture, the arts, leadership, social-emotional development, enrichment, and hands-on learning, demonstrating what becomes possible when education is designed around the whole child.
Turning Vision Into Infrastructure
Kanesha’s work has required her to become more than an educator. She has learned to build organizations, develop programs, secure funding, cultivate partnerships, manage teams, create sustainable systems, and turn ideas on paper into real experiences for children and families. Those lessons from building in real time have become some of the most valuable parts of her leadership journey.
Creating Opportunities Beyond the Classroom
Throughout her career, Kanesha has built partnerships across schools, nonprofits, businesses, families, community organizations, and funders while creating opportunities in literacy, entrepreneurship, agriculture, the arts, leadership, wellness, and experiential learning. Her work has been especially intentional about creating access for rural communities and historically under-resourced students.
Why Covered Classrooms
Covered Classrooms grew from Kanesha’s belief that educators deserve the same access to resources, relationships, encouragement, and opportunity that they work so hard to create for their students. She created the conference to give educators a different kind of room, one where they can be inspired, equipped, connected, and supported as they move their own ideas from vision to action.
BEYOND COVERED CLASSROOMS
Kanesha's work extends beyond the conference. Through consulting, authorship support, and speaking, she uses her experience in education, entrepreneurship, and leadership to help others bring their own ideas and impact to life.