Executive Director & Founder

Explore was born from a teacher’s frustration with watching opportunities depend on income. Our founder, Samantha Baker, spent over a decade teaching secondary science in Dallas-metro, and more recently in Kansas City-area, schools and saw firsthand how enrichment experiences like field trips had all but vanished for students in Title I schools. Families couldn’t afford tickets or transportation; teachers had no budget and no support.

Samantha also recognized that some schools had the support of very active Parent-Teacher Organizations, capable of raising tens of thousands of dollars for their schools each year, while a nearby school in the same district without an active PTO struggled to provide experiential learning opportunities and additional support to teachers. The recognition of the naturally siloed funding created a sense of urgency for Samantha to provide direct support to teachers to shift their mindset about field trips so that they did not feel limited by the circumstances of the neighborhood in which they taught. 

Samantha founded Explore in 2022 to remove barriers, like limited funding and transportation, and ensure that every child, regardless of ZIP code, can explore the world around them. 

Contact Samantha at samantha@explorefoundation.org