AI data center breaks ground in Independence. Who’s on the community advisory board?
As construction begins on a $150 billion artificial intelligence data center on Bly Road in northeastern Independence, the city is continuing to deepen its affiliation with Nebius, the Dutch AI company behind the site.
The city passed a $6 billion financial package in March guaranteeing 90-98% tax breaks for the company, in exchange for about $650,000 in fees to schools, libraries and other Independence taxing jurisdictions. City officials delegated Independence police officers to monitor the data center’s groundbreaking and cleared the way for a local power plant to reopen at nine times its former capacity, fueled by natural gas and intended to directly serve the data center.
Now, the city has selected seven residents to manage the public side of its relationship with Nebius.
The Nebius Community Advisory Board was created as a condition of Nebius’ lease in Independence, as an outlet for the company to “maintain contact with and take suggestions from the community.” The Independence City Council passed a resolution this week establishing the board and appointing its inaugural class of watchdogs.
Each city councilmember, along with newly elected Mayor Kevin King, were responsible for appointing one person to the first advisory board. The first set of seven members will stay on the board until December 2031, the initial term of Nebius’ lease with the city.
Members will meet quarterly and will not be paid for their time. Future cohorts of the board will serve five-year terms and could include as few as five and as many as 10 members.
Here’s who will represent Independence residents as the city’s relationship with Nebius continues to evolve, and construction continues on the 400-acre data center site.
Lynne Baker
Baker, a licensed clinical social worker, has spent nearly 50 years in the public education sector teaching, counseling and doing social work. She now operates a part-time counseling and life coaching business and previously sat on the board of Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri.
Baker recently retired from the Independence Chamber of Commerce, where she won the City of Independence’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award in 2025.
Baker was nominated to the advisory board by Councilmember Brice Stewart, whose district includes the data center site. Stewart and former Mayor Rory Rowland cast the only two dissenting votes against the $6 billion tax break package which the city council passed for Nebius in March.
GK Callahan
Callahan is an artist and arts administrator who currently works as a Community Arts Specialist for the University of Missouri. He also has a background in public health, economic and community development and cultural engagement via the arts. He earned his BFA and MFA in California and previously worked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in visitor services.
Callahan informally endorsed losing candidate Bridget McCandless in the recent Independence mayoral election, sharing campaign support for McCandless on social media. Callahan was appointed to the board by Councilmember John Perkins, who is currently the subject of a petition-based recall effort in his northwest Independence district.
Shannon Driscoll
Driscoll, who grew up in Grandview and now lives in Independence, works as a tax preparer at Jackson Hewitt. The Van Horn High School alum was nominated to the board by Councilmember Jennie Vaught, who cast one of five votes in favor of the tax breaks for Nebius.
In 2010, Driscoll’s ex-wife was granted a temporary order of protection against him from an Independence circuit court after making a formal legal accusation of adult abuse, according to court records. Driscoll pleaded guilty later in 2010 to violating the order of protection, which was later terminated. He was initially sentenced to a year in jail but instead served two years’ probation after a four-day “shock incarceration” period.
An Independence judge also barred Driscoll from contacting his ex-wife, and ordered Driscoll to attend a domestic violence intervention program and refrain from making any online posts referencing her in any way.
Monica Engle
Engle is a real estate agent with RE/MAX and lives near the Nebius site in northeastern Independence. The Rockhurst University grad previously worked in sales and has been one of the loudest voices within the citizen effort opposing the Nebius data center, previously centered on a Facebook group called Stop The AI Data Center in Independence.
She was appointed to the board by recently elected City Councilmember Jackie Dorman, who was endorsed (along with Mayor Kevin King) by Stop The AI Data Center.
Engle, along with Daniel Moorehead, is a founding organizer with The Independence Guardians Unite Against Reckless Development Alliance, or GUARD Alliance. An evolution of the Facebook group — which has now expanded to over 115,000 — the GUARD Alliance plans to advocate for transparency in local government while monitoring the Nebius site for adherence to local law.
The GUARD Alliance filed for an LLC last month and is currently running its first fundraising campaign. Organizers recently drafted an ordinance that would place a moratorium on future data centers in Independence, which they submitted to the city council for consideration.
Daniel Moorehead
Moorehead works in IT at Burns & McDonnell, an international engineering and construction firm based in Kansas City. He graduated from Bob Jones University and worked in the KC area for several years before moving to Independence with his family in 2022.
Like Engle, Moorehead lives within spitting distance of the data center site. He’s also an organizer with the GUARD Alliance and was previously affiliated with the initial Stop The AI Data Center in Independence opposition group.
Moorehead was nominated to the board by King, the newly elected Independence mayor, who was endorsed by Stop The AI Data Center along with Dorman, the recently elected city councilmember.
Mark Scherer
Scherer, an Independence lifer, earned his Ph.D. in history and education from the University of Missouri Kansas City. He is affiliated with the Community of Christ church in Independence, where he worked as a historian until 2016. Scherer also recently chaired the Independence Heritage Commission, his term having expired in April.
He was appointed to the Nebius community advisory board by Councilmember Heather Wiley, who voted in favor of the tax break package.
Misty Vaughn
Vaughn works in career services at UMKC, where she recently graduated from the Bloch School of Management. She was nominated to the board by recently elected Councilmember Cody Atkinson, who spoke as the council’s representative at a groundbreaking ceremony recently held by Nebius.
“I believe Misty will be a strong independent advocate for the city,” Atkinson wrote on Facebook, “ensuring that agreements are upheld and the Independence of tomorrow will be better than the Independence of today.”
Vaughn, an organizer with Stop The AI Data Center in Independence, was one of three plaintiffs named in a lawsuit against the city filed shortly after the city council passed the tax break package for Nebius.
Vaughn, along with organizers Rachel Gonzalez and Kharma Magers, sought to make the tax breaks eligible for a referendum process, which would have allowed residents to collect petition signatures in order to potentially trigger a public vote on the $6 billion in tax breaks. A Jackson County judge ruled that the financial package was not eligible for a referendum under the terms of the city charter, though organizers collected more than 5,000 signatures in favor of a vote anyway, submitting them symbolically to the Independence City Clerk.
This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 5:03 PM.
