Dr. Kristy Custer: Kristy Custer is the Vice President of Educational Innovation for the High School Esports League. Her goal is to write curriculum that assists schools in fully integrating esports scholastically, socially, and competitively. Prior to joining HSEL, Dr. Custer served as a high school educator for 24 years. For 12 of those years, she was the principal for at-risk students at Complete High School Maize. There, she helped lead the CHSM team to two National School of Character awards, as well as the National Dropout Prevention Crystal Star Award. Dr. Custer earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University, and she was awarded the Graduate Student of the Year from both Kansas State University and Baker University. In 2018, Dr. Custer was named the Kansas Principal of the Year by the Kansas Association of Secondary School Principals. She co-wrote a year-long character education curriculum, 186 Days of Character, that has been shared and implemented by educators across the United States. Dr. Michael Russell: Michael Russell has been an avid gamer for nearly 35 years. After a successful career in sales, Dr. Russell entered the field of education as a social studies teacher at Complete High School Maize in 2014. After his first year of teaching, Dr. Russell was awarded the Horizon Award for Kansas in 2015. This award is given to first-year teachers to recognize excellence in the classroom. In 2018, Dr. Russell also received the Making IT Happen Award at the Mid-America Association for Computers in Education Conference for his work developing and implementing a video game curriculum in the classroom. While esports did exist at the high school level in 2014, there was no curriculum available to teachers that would provide structured learning to students. As there was no curriculum available, Dr. Russell and Dr. Kristy Custer created standards and a curriculum to fill this void. The following curriculum is the result of those efforts. In 2018, Dr. Russell completed his master's degree in building administration from Fort Hays State University and earned his doctoral degree in District Leadership from Baker University in 2021. Dr. Russell is the Vice-President of Curriculum and Esports Integration at High School Esports League, working to develop curriculum for educators around the world.
