From kindergarten through sixth grade, Misty Gray attended Lincoln Elementary School in Great Bend. Today, she is Dr. Misty Straub, principal at the school she attended as a child.

“I’m a Great Bend girl,” Straub said, noting she grew up nearby and used to walk or ride her bike to school. “So I was really proud that I was offered a position here at Lincoln. That meant a lot to me. I’d always wanted to come back to Great Bend after I taught.”

When she was hired to come to Great Bend, Straub’s former principal, Laverne Lessor, called to congratulate her and say he remembered her. That was about 12 years ago.

Growing up in Great Bend

As a youth, Straub worked as a babysitter and eventually got her first “real” job as a waitress at the Black Angus Restaurant, which she enjoyed.

Mark Straub, her husband of 22 years, works at KanEquip. He also grew up in Great Bend.

“We met at Harrison Junior High and we graduated together,” she said. They have two daughters. Makenna, 21, and Makeila 16, a junior at GBHS.

Mark didn’t attend Lincoln Elementary but their daughters did – “Makenna, just for a couple of years but Makeila since first grade, so she got to experience school like I did,” even attending Great Bend Middle School in the old Harrison building.

Misty’s parents, Lewis and Loretta Gray, are retired and still living in Great Bend. Loretta worked for Great Bend USD 428 for many years and Lewis was vice president of operations at Fuller Brush.

“My father has been my role model as far as management or leadership, because he was so successful and did it with a passion and generosity,” she said.

He also bought some old wooden school desks that Straub and her friends used to play with on weekends and summers.

“It’s kind of funny, because I remember playing school as a kid,” she said. “That was always fun to me, but I didn’t ever choose teaching as a profession.

“When I first went to college, it was just never a thought of mine. I went to Barton for two years and still didn’t quite know what I wanted to do. I had a friend who was going into education and was headed to Emporia State, so she convinced me to look into education.”

That interested her, so with many of her general education courses out of the way she headed to ESU and finished her bachelor’s degree. The school where she did her student teaching, Village Elementary in Emporia, hired her to teach third grade after she graduated.

“We had a good a good system, which helped me to build leadership skills,” she said. “That was a really good experience. We had students from all over the world because of the proximity of our school to the college campus. We would get students from exchange students that would bring their families over, or professors that came from other countries.”

Straub was a classroom teacher for nine years and then became an instructional coach for three years at William Allen White Elementary, a school located across the street from former Emporia Gazette editor William Allen White.

“I always thought I would teach at Great Bend but my life path didn’t take me that way until I applied for an administrator’s position,” Straub said. She earned a master’s degree in curriculum instruction and after she finished that, her principal asked her if she’s was interested in administration.

“I wouldn’t have thought about administration until my principal suggested to me,” she said. Her principal thought she would find the work rewarding and interesting, and once nudged to that path, she did. Straub realized she only needed 18 more credit-hours for her administrative degree, so she pressed on.

After that, it took three years to land an administrative position, but it was back home at Lincoln Elementary.

Next, she earned a Doctor of Education in School Leadership from Baker University, graduating a year ago. A year later, Dr. Misty Straub received the Dr. Bill Neuenswander Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2022 from Baker University.

“It was an honor to receive that in front of that year’s graduation group. My joke was I got to wear my regalia two years in a row.”

A fan of suspense novels and beaches

Outside of the school building, Straub loves to read, whether it’s educational literature or just for fun.

“My favorite genre is suspense,” she said.

“A kind of quirky thing about me is I am in a little book club group with some other educators. I won’t name them – but we read books and we listen to books and talk about the same book titles together,” she said.

“(My favorite books) tend to be crime thrillers with a huge plot twist at the end. I like to not know the ending.”

Some of her favorite authors are Lisa Jewell, Mary Kubica, and Shari Lapena.

“I really like books written by British authors; suspense books that have a lot of geographical and historical information within the book. And I like it to be something that makes me ponder it for several days afterward. It gives me something to talk about, at least in our little book club.”

She also enjoys traveling, but said Mark prefers to stay close to home. 

“I would just like to get my husband to the beach – any beach that is connected to an ocean. His idea of a vacation is not the same idea I have in mind. I took my daughters to Florida the summer before last; I couldn’t quite convince him to go.”

What’s next?

Now that she has earned her doctorate degree, Straub said she would like some day to move to the next level of administration.

“I would like to work in curriculum at a district level,” she said. But, “Before I make that transition, I would also like to see my daughter graduate here first.”

Community Connections is a regular feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”