Amanda Kopischke ’96 and Angela Anderson ’11 GS’16 unite Christian and Catholic educational leaders through The Collaborative

Christian school leaders are used to wearing many hats: head of school, director of teaching and learning, fundraiser, and sometimes even janitor.

Too often, Amanda Kopischke ’96 and Angela Anderson ’11 GS’16 saw those leaders carrying that complex work alone. Kopischke ’96 explains that leaders at the top often can’t “grumble out” to colleagues or “grumble down” to stakeholders. For many, the work is lonely.

So the two Bethel alumni began building something different. 

Today, Kopischke and Anderson are the founders and co-executive directors of The Collaborative, a thriving nonprofit uniting Christian and Catholic educational leaders (EdLeaders) to share wisdom, strengthen school communities, and imagine a more connected future for Christian education.

Building meaningful relationships first

Kopischke and Anderson met as teachers at Heritage Christian Academy—Kopischke as a seasoned teacher and Anderson as a recent Bethel elementary education graduate. Anderson taught Kopischke’s oldest son during her first year teaching third grade and later taught her two other children.

What began as a practical mentoring relationship quickly became something deeper. For Anderson, the shared Bethel connection created an immediate sense of trust.

“Anytime you get to meet someone who graduated from Bethel, it's like there's an instant connecting point that makes it special,” she says. As time went on, the two became close friends. Their families started doing life together, and the age difference faded. 

The evolution of their relationship was no surprise to Kopischke. 

“One thing that made my time at Bethel extremely special was the relationships that I had with my professors. I took advantage of their willingness to pour into people,” she says.

At Bethel, Kopischke studied psychology and elementary education. While working at what is now the Academic Enrichment and Support Center, she met her future husband, Troy Kopischke ’97, and formed a lasting connection with her psychology professor, Deb Harless, former executive vice president and provost emerita.

Over time, Harless and her husband, Mark, became some of the Kopischkes’ closest friends. Like Kopischke’s relationship with Anderson, there is an age difference between the Harlesses and Kopischkes. “They’re as much older than us as I am to Angela, but that gets blurred away as you do life together. I really appreciate that they modeled something for me as a couple,” she says. 

Years later, that model of intergenerational friendship continues to ripple outward. A Bethel professor opened her life to Kopischke, Kopischke opened her life to Anderson, and together Kopischke and Anderson now create relational spaces where Christian EdLeaders can find trust, encouragement, and shared purpose.

Finding the courage to innovate together

Long before The Collaborative became a nonprofit, Kopischke and Anderson were already practicing the kind of shared leadership they now invite others into. They didn’t start with an event series or a member network. Instead, their work began with a question they carried together as teachers: Were their classrooms forming students with the creativity, empathy, and skills they would need beyond school?

Both women recall a moment when Anderson popped into Kopischke’s classroom, and it seemed there was a lot on her mind. She worried that classroom teaching and learning experiences were not adequately preparing students for a complex world.

They made a commitment to each other to foster more exploratory and hands-on learning in their classrooms.

“We wanted to provide a solution for student engagement and bring joy back into the classroom,” Anderson says.

The two women started creating tools for themselves, rooted in design thinking strategies, and experienced transformation personally and in their classrooms. While Anderson continued refining those tools and earning her master’s in education from Bethel, Kopischke began consulting with schools and saw the same need from a wider perspective: preparing students for a changing world could not fall to one teacher or program. It needed to be shared across the school.

A small dream began to form. “I look back, and I don’t really know how we had the courage to think that two teachers could start a business and then sustain a professional services firm,” Kopischke says. But they felt the Lord was asking them to take that step, so they officially started Incubate to Innovate.

As their work grew, so did their conviction that innovation was meant to be shared. For Kopischke and Anderson, sharing ideas was not just a strategy. It was a posture rooted in abundance.

“There’s a lot of fear out there,” Kopischke says. “And when there’s fear, people go to what we call a scarcity mindset.”

In schools, she says, that mindset can make leaders feel like there is never enough—enough time, money, opportunity, or support—which can lead to reactive decisions for students and families. So Kopischke and Anderson began modeling a different approach—one centered on creating win-win solutions and asking what could become “bigger and better and stronger” when people worked together.

Anderson sees that abundance mindset as deeply connected to faith.

“I think it’s only possible to live out that kind of mindset when you are rooted in the Lord, and He is on the throne of your life,” she says. “Fear creeps in, but when you have that heart posture toward Him, I think it gives you the freedom to live in abundance.”

They also see The Collaborative as a beautiful picture of that conviction. “We wanted to live out our abundance mindset beyond Incubate to Innovate.”

Developing a creative solution

Through Incubate to Innovate, Kopischke and Anderson worked with many schools as full-time professional development consultants. They noticed school leaders were facing the same challenges alone, while the culture around them often felt more competitive than collaborative. 

They wondered why it had to be that way, because Christian and Catholic schools were all seeking the greatest kingdom impact. The Lord prompted them again, so they organized a branded event series for EdLeaders.

“We wanted to name it The Collaborative because that was the opposite of competition, and when we collaborate, that’s when we can really live out that abundance mindset,” Kopischke says. “The goal was to love on leaders, support and serve them, change the narrative, and help them realize they are stronger together—iron sharpens iron.”

The event was hosted under Incubate to Innovate in August 2021. “We were like, now, Lord, really? In the midst of a pandemic, you want us to bring people together?” Anderson says. The answer was yes, so 22 masked attendees gathered for the first event.

Kopischke and Anderson still wanted to serve schools through Incubate to Innovate when funding was available, but they also felt called to support Christian schools in a broader, more accessible way—long-term. Eventually, The Collaborative became its own nonprofit, distinct from Incubate to Innovate, but shaped by the same leaders, gifts, and vision.

For example, as they worked with schools through Incubate to Innovate, they repeatedly heard that leaders needed stronger new teacher onboarding resources. Instead of turning that need into something to sell, they brought it to The Collaborative.

“If it’s that big of a need, it comes over to The Collaborative,” Kopischke says. “We can take our design capabilities, our strategy, and our ability to lead with empathy, and create something amazing and robust that schools can use or customize. Then we put it out into the world for free.”

That, Kopischke says, is part of their abundance mindset.

“We get to choose to spend our time and use our gifts so that it can have widespread kingdom impact,” she says.

Experiencing the power of working together

Today, 232 Christian schools and universities are part of The Collaborative, reaching more than 350 EdLeaders and approximately 45,600 students and families. Since beginning in 2021, The Collaborative has hosted 19 events, and the interest only continues to spread. Schools across the country and even internationally engage through online member school resources and virtual lunch-and-learns.

The Collaborative centers on five priorities for EdLeaders: fundraising, professional development, marketing and communications, operations, and special education. The goal is to strengthen school communities and elevate the Christian education experience to rival any alternative.

“The events are our favorite days of the entire year,” Kopischke says. “They’re sacred to us because we get to hug people, ask how they’re really doing, pray for them, and worship together.”

For many EdLeaders, the gatherings offer more than practical tools. They offer perspective.

“When you’re in that room, you’re reminded of how big our God is and the work He’s doing,” Anderson says. “You realize, ‘I get to be part of this in my school, but I’m not doing it alone. I can make connections with others who are doing this work too.’”

As The Collaborative grows, its resources continue to expand, including a podcast and online courses covering all eight Minnesota CEU requirements for teacher relicensure, which are taught from a biblical perspective when possible. “That was huge,” Anderson says.

However, this growth isn’t driven by Kopischke and Anderson alone. “We're the face of The Collaborative, but The Collaborative is really you,” Kopischke says, speaking to its participants. “You can participate in what you want. You can show love to people as you want. You can create resources and get paid. They're all part of it. The creation of what we're doing isn't just us; they're helping us to bolster this thing.” 

Kopischke and Anderson are witnessing EdLeader isolation disappear in real time. “Now that we have been gathering folks on a regular cadence for so long, there are friendships that have been built, and there's safety there for them to know who they can pick up the phone and call when they need support,” Kopischke says.

Both women know that for many EdLeaders, this is priceless. 

Formed to lead together

For Anderson, The Collaborative still traces back to the way Bethel formed her as an educator. Beginning in her sophomore year, she says, education majors were already stepping into practicums, observing teachers, and applying what they were learning in real classrooms.

“There is no way I would have learned as much as I did, or been pushed as much as I was, if Bethel hadn’t been so intentional about getting you out of its walls and living out what you’re doing in real-life classrooms. That helped what I was learning really take root,” Anderson says. 

More importantly, “My anchoring in Scripture, my love for Jesus, my desire to love people—that was all fostered when I was at Bethel,” she says.

For both, Bethel taught them to connect faith with every part of life and work. “When you experience a Christian university, you start to see the interconnectedness of what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ and how that manifests itself through your discipline, your relationships, your leadership, and what God is calling you to,” Anderson says. “That integration of faith, life, and work is an anchor.”

Today, that anchor continues to shape how Kopischke and Anderson lead. They are still learning, surrendering their plans to the Lord, and believing Christian schools are stronger when they face the future together.

“We have a hashtag, #PowerofTogether,” Kopischke says. “Our ideas are magnified in collaboration, and God wants us to be in community with one another.”

That belief has grown from a friendship into a business, a nonprofit, and a movement serving hundreds of Christian educators across the nation and around the world. And while Kopischke and Anderson never could have predicted this path, they see God’s faithfulness in every step.

“I would have never known that this was going to be part of my journey,” Anderson says. “But the world is changing so fast. Your path may evolve, and it might change. With the Lord on your side, anything is possible. No small dreams.”

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