About the Author

Big things,

Brave things,

Smart things,

Silly things,

Good things.

Things like stories, artwork, journeys, inventions, 

communities, products, and cures.

Everything you see around you was once an idea. 

So what will become of your idea? Now that's up to you."

-Kobi Yamada, What Do You Do With an Idea?

^ highly suggested reading material :)

First, I should clarify: I am not the brilliant author of the New York Times bestselling picture book, What Do You Do With an Idea?. But I am a human with an idea myself, and I am finally deciding to be brave enough to share it.  ♥︎ 

My name is Dr. Makayla Lancaster. Professionally, I am a biomedical research scientist with a passion for research, health, and education. Personally, I am a wife and a mother to one human child, two fur babies, and two scaley things. I enjoy long walks on the beach, and. . . 

totally, unoriginally, joking. 

But if you would like to know a bit more about the essence of a Makayla, all you really need to know is that I adore being outside, literally all animals, quality time with the people I love, and being a total goofball. Right now, my pastimes include ogling over the tiny human I created and pretending I know how to successfully grow a vegetable garden. I reckon the rest will come out in my blog posts. 😊 

What brings me here, is an idea. One that's been itching at the edges of my heart for many years. On it's surface, the idea is to create a school - or, rather, an antischool - that rejects the model of passive knowledge transfer and standardized testing. Instead, I want to fiercely advocate for meaningful learning experiences that produce lifelong, independent and joyful students of the world. Creating this website and The DocMom Diaries is my attempt to follow the advice of Kobi Yamada and nurture this idea - to feed it, play with it, and share it with the world - even if it doesn't understand it or believe in it yet. And I'm very excited to get started.