Meet OUR Team
Executive Director, Founder of #BeMoreLikeClaire
Shannon VanLandingham
[email protected]
Shannon brings a lifetime of experience in leadership and non-profit volunteering. Throughout her life she has served as a trainer, facilitator, and educator, while organizing leadership programs, planning events, and honing her skills in fundraising for good causes. She loves her family and friends, music, big laughs, and finding the right person for the job. Working to continue her daughter's legacy of love and service is helping her find healing for her shattered heart.
Shannon VanLandingham
[email protected]
Shannon brings a lifetime of experience in leadership and non-profit volunteering. Throughout her life she has served as a trainer, facilitator, and educator, while organizing leadership programs, planning events, and honing her skills in fundraising for good causes. She loves her family and friends, music, big laughs, and finding the right person for the job. Working to continue her daughter's legacy of love and service is helping her find healing for her shattered heart.
Office Administrator
Phyllis Stadley, [email protected]
Phyllis came to #BeMoreLikeClaire because she did not just want a “job” but to make a difference and be a blessing to others. She comes to us with a degree in Organizational Management and Leadership from Friends University and significant experience balancing budgets of over a million dollars, creating databases, organizing events, administering grants, doing payroll, and helping with publicity. She finds joy in supporting the staff and feels her job is to make others’ jobs easier. She also shares #BMLC’s belief that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. She believes this organization is one where she can thrive and help other people succeed and thrive as well. In her spare time, Phyllis and her husband like to go to car shows and do home improvements. She also loves doting on her little Yorkie dog, gardening, painting, being an amateur photographer, and playing the ukulele.
Outreach and Operations Coordinator
Nicole Malcom, BSB-HRM, CMP [email protected]
Nicole is returning to Kansas with her husband from South Dakota to be closer to family. She comes to us with a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management and an Associate in Accounting, as well as a Certification in Meeting Planning. Her extensive career within non-profits includes over 10 years with operations, project management, contract negotiations, marketing, brand awareness, event planning, website re-design, and mobile app development. Nicole additionally has experience with education credentialing, association policies, accounting and human resources. As a current member of the Sioux Empire Pride Sports Association. (SEPSA), she has a very strong sense of inclusivity for everyone and is ecstatic about helping #BeMoreLikeClaire continue to flourish and grow.
Nicole Malcom, BSB-HRM, CMP [email protected]
Nicole is returning to Kansas with her husband from South Dakota to be closer to family. She comes to us with a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management and an Associate in Accounting, as well as a Certification in Meeting Planning. Her extensive career within non-profits includes over 10 years with operations, project management, contract negotiations, marketing, brand awareness, event planning, website re-design, and mobile app development. Nicole additionally has experience with education credentialing, association policies, accounting and human resources. As a current member of the Sioux Empire Pride Sports Association. (SEPSA), she has a very strong sense of inclusivity for everyone and is ecstatic about helping #BeMoreLikeClaire continue to flourish and grow.
Engaging Men Advocate
Samuel Beecher, [email protected]
Samuel grew up with an awareness of social issues, including sexual and domestic violence, influenced by his mother's work at the United Way of Lawrence. He also loved sports and went on to play college football at Baker University, where he also served as an educator for Baker Rallies Against Violence, a program to reduce sexual violence on campus through bystander intervention training.
After college, Samuel served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia, focusing on environmental education and youth empowerment. He later worked in international development with Catholic Relief Services before returning to the United States in 2017.
For the past five years, Samuel has owned and operated his own business, Healing in Motion, integrating movement and mindfulness education with bodywork. His work has focused on individuals, but he has also taught community classes at various locations in Lawrence and Kansas City. Samuel works with a diverse population but is particularly invested in supporting men and teenagers.
Samuel has been a volunteer at VanGo for the last three years, teaching movement and mindfulness classes to the youth involved in their programs. Additionally, he serves as a Board Member for the Dads of Douglas County (DoDC).
He completed his master's degree in Community Development in May 2024, and is excited to bring his diverse skills to initiatives supporting men and boys in the community the #BeMoreLikeClaire.
Samuel Beecher, [email protected]
Samuel grew up with an awareness of social issues, including sexual and domestic violence, influenced by his mother's work at the United Way of Lawrence. He also loved sports and went on to play college football at Baker University, where he also served as an educator for Baker Rallies Against Violence, a program to reduce sexual violence on campus through bystander intervention training.
After college, Samuel served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia, focusing on environmental education and youth empowerment. He later worked in international development with Catholic Relief Services before returning to the United States in 2017.
For the past five years, Samuel has owned and operated his own business, Healing in Motion, integrating movement and mindfulness education with bodywork. His work has focused on individuals, but he has also taught community classes at various locations in Lawrence and Kansas City. Samuel works with a diverse population but is particularly invested in supporting men and teenagers.
Samuel has been a volunteer at VanGo for the last three years, teaching movement and mindfulness classes to the youth involved in their programs. Additionally, he serves as a Board Member for the Dads of Douglas County (DoDC).
He completed his master's degree in Community Development in May 2024, and is excited to bring his diverse skills to initiatives supporting men and boys in the community the #BeMoreLikeClaire.
Facilitator
Nathan Schaller,
Nathan is thrilled to be able to work with such an amazing team at #BeMoreLikeClaire. Nathan is huge on community engagement and values creating relationships that are transformational over transactional. Equitable resources and opportunities for all is essential to creating an all-inclusive society. Nathan has a bachelor's in science in Community Health Education with a Human Biology minor and is working towards getting a Master of Public Health at Kansas State University. Nathan is looking forward to building connections with fellow co-workers and contributing to the positive successes attributed to the #BeMoreLikeClaire organization. Nathan's goal is to provide a safe space for all in need and to establish lifelong relationships.
Nathan Schaller,
Nathan is thrilled to be able to work with such an amazing team at #BeMoreLikeClaire. Nathan is huge on community engagement and values creating relationships that are transformational over transactional. Equitable resources and opportunities for all is essential to creating an all-inclusive society. Nathan has a bachelor's in science in Community Health Education with a Human Biology minor and is working towards getting a Master of Public Health at Kansas State University. Nathan is looking forward to building connections with fellow co-workers and contributing to the positive successes attributed to the #BeMoreLikeClaire organization. Nathan's goal is to provide a safe space for all in need and to establish lifelong relationships.
Facilitator
Diana Gish,
Diana was born and raised in Kansas by a pair of Kansas educators who were also artists. She grew up in Baldwin City and shocked her family by joining the military to "see the world" after graduating from Baker University. In the Army, Diana served as a radio and TV broadcaster for the Armed Forces Network. Back in the civilian world, she spent most of her career in public radio, primarily in Alaska. After returning to Kansas in 2012, she turned her focus to education. Diana comes to #BeMoreLikeClaire and Claire's Community from Eisenhower Middle School in Topeka where she taught English as a Second Language to 6-8th graders. She says that working with the students and staff is something she is very much looking forward to.
Diana is passionate about #BeMoreLikeClaire's mission and feels deeply honored to be a part of the community as a facilitator with middle and high school students. She believes that empowering youth to recognize and seek out healthy relationships is an urgent undertaking in a world that can be so confusing. Diana lives in Lawrence, where her three sons, daughter-in-law, and three little granddaughters also live. From time to time, she's known to don a sparkly green fin and performs as "Pearl, the Singing Mermaid Queen", spreading laughter (and some groaning) with songs and bad fish jokes.
Diana Gish,
Diana was born and raised in Kansas by a pair of Kansas educators who were also artists. She grew up in Baldwin City and shocked her family by joining the military to "see the world" after graduating from Baker University. In the Army, Diana served as a radio and TV broadcaster for the Armed Forces Network. Back in the civilian world, she spent most of her career in public radio, primarily in Alaska. After returning to Kansas in 2012, she turned her focus to education. Diana comes to #BeMoreLikeClaire and Claire's Community from Eisenhower Middle School in Topeka where she taught English as a Second Language to 6-8th graders. She says that working with the students and staff is something she is very much looking forward to.
Diana is passionate about #BeMoreLikeClaire's mission and feels deeply honored to be a part of the community as a facilitator with middle and high school students. She believes that empowering youth to recognize and seek out healthy relationships is an urgent undertaking in a world that can be so confusing. Diana lives in Lawrence, where her three sons, daughter-in-law, and three little granddaughters also live. From time to time, she's known to don a sparkly green fin and performs as "Pearl, the Singing Mermaid Queen", spreading laughter (and some groaning) with songs and bad fish jokes.
