The KC Star described Gary as a "serial entrepreneur," having started at least five businesses and helped many others launch. Obsessed with discovering why some teams do better than others, Gary sits on boards whose missions are higher ed, healthcare, careers for disabled and social justice.

Elizabeth has over 20 years of leadership and consulting experience in operational excellence, and process improvement across multiple industries. Her passion for mission-driven organizations was ignited by her work to enable Bethany Christian Services’ provision of healthcare services and essential aid to Kosovo war refugees in Albania. She currently shares her expertise with the Samuel Rodgers Health Center, which serves as the local health intake facility for refugees, as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors (https://samrodgers.org). She facilitated the start-up of Kansas City Mothers In Charge (https://www.kcmothersincharge.org), and has served for 7 years on their Board of Directors as the Chair/Vice-Chair. Under her leadership the organization has tripled in size and impact. Elizabeth currently provides consulting services to purpose-driven organizations striving to create the culture, employee capabilities and systems needed to continuously improve and achieve their objectives, goals and aspirations. In today's environment understanding the current state of operations, how a process works, how to improve it, and most importantly, how to engage the hearts and minds of those responsible for it, differentiates those organizations that succeed and those who do not. Elizabeth's expertise in this area is unsurpassed.

Mike Grigsby is a seasoned business and technology executive and recognized thought leader in smart cities and digital transformation. He is an influential and strategic collaborator with a deep passion for helping organizations and leaders navigate the challenges of change and digital disruption.

Linda Endecott, Managing Director of the Executive MBA program at Helzberg School of Management, Rockhurst University is an alliance builder who works with leaders and organizations to plan and implement bold value creating change. She has worked in senior executive and development roles for nonprofits, universities, for-profit companies and has served as a board member and volunteer for numerous philanthropic and civic organizations and initiatives.

Eileen is a recognized and respected civic and community leader, serving as mayor of Independence, Missouri from 2014 -2022. During her tenure as mayor and beyond, she has amassed an extensive list of notable accomplishments. One of her significant achievements was the development and implementation of the "Independence for All" Strategic Plan, which was unanimously adopted by the City Council in 2017. This plan, the city's first published strategic plan, included quarterly online performance measures and was developed through extensive engagement with citizens, businesses, school districts, and civic leaders.

For more than a quarter of a century, Dr. Tom Vansaghi has served in variety of senior-level positions in public service, higher education and the nonprofit sector. In 2015, Dr. Vansaghi became a tenured professor of nonprofit leadership at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. At Jewell, he engages undergraduate students in critical thinking to prepare them to pursue meaningful lives leading nonprofit organizations. He also serves as the director of strategic planning for the college. His leadership role further evolved in 2023 when he became the director of the Pryor Leadership Studies Program, a three-year interdisciplinary fellowship designed to develop undergraduate student leadership skills through courses, internships, an 8-day back-country hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a student-led community service project. He has also served as a senior fellow at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership where he has taught graduate seminars and courses on nonprofit fundraising and leadership principles since 2010.

David practices law with Berkowitz Oliver LLP but his passion is working with boards with particular interest in issues of diversity, belonging, inclusion and equity for the betterment of the region. His board commitments are too numerous for this short bio but include: AlignED; MRIGlobal; Wm Jewell College; DeLaSalle Charter H.S.; Tesseract Ventures; UMKC Trustees; Teach for America-KC; Spencer Art Museum; ArtsKC; Nonprofit Connect; Startland; The Francis Family Foundation; The Cross Foundation; Murphy Charitable Fund; Children's Mercy Hospitals; and The Civic Council of GKC.

Alfredo Garcia, PhD, received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, a masters from Harvard University, and a masters and PhD from Princeton University. Dr. Garcia has raised funds for both nonprofit and for-profit corporations and has a particular passion for data-driven strategy. He has helped implement CRM platforms across a variety of organizations and industries, advised on the hiring of revenue-generating employees, and executed board development and governance efforts, among other projects. Dr. Garcia is a member of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas City and Englewood Arts.

For over 45 years, Ron has worked in leadership position in universities including a large state flagship university, two Jesuit universities, and for the past 16 years as President of Avila University, a Sisters of St. Joseph university in Kansas City. He has also served on institutional and state boards for higher education, secondary institutions, and the community as well on accrediting bodies for those organizations. His expertise is in personal development, emotional intelligence, organizational and community development and capacity building. He works to align mission, people, and organizations to being responsive to the fast-changing business, community, and societal issues we face. Helping organizations and individuals discover and leverage their capacities to anticipate, respond, and innovate for change are the key outcomes. This occurs through helping teams plan, prioritize, analyze, and execute through the engagement, talents, and investment of its people.

Keith Province has over 30 years of leadership and operational experience working withFortune 500 companies, small businesses, and start-ups. His career began with Procter and Gamble and Coca-Cola in sales management and marketing positions. Keith became a partner at Crossmark, a leading outsourcing company to consumer product manufacturers and retailers. He accelerated new business development through innovative partnerships, new services, and quality initiatives. Keith served as the President of the Sales and Marketing Group, a joint venture with Mosaic Group, Canada. He continued expanding into more entrepreneurial ventures founding Innovative Strategies Consulting, LLC. Keith taught courses in strategic management, innovation, and quality at the University of Central Missouri as an Assistant Professor of Management. Bringing a passion for helping others, he has served on multiple non-profit boards and worked with numerous community organizations.

Amy Winterscheidt recently retired from a 31 year career with Hallmark, Inc., one of the most respected brands in the world. Amy held leadership roles in corporate philanthropy for almost 20 years, serving as Hallmark Community Involvement Director and Corporate Foundation President.

Julie Klima is a passionate advocate for a thriving nonprofit sector. She draws on more than two decades of cross-sector experience leading teams through growth and change to provide management consulting services to purpose-minded organizations. Prior to founding Purpose Amp, she served as the managing director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at UMKC. She has also held a variety of roles in nonprofit and private sector organizations in Washington, DC and Kansas City, including Arabella Advisors, Environmental Defense Fund, Exponent Philanthropy, Gift of Life, Network for Good, Useagility, WildAid, and Wildlife Alliance. Julie is a 2025 graduate of the Kansas City Chamber Centurions Leadership Program, serves on the board of Support KC, and leads the Lessons in Leadership interview series for Central Exchange. She earned a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from The George Washington University and a BBA in Marketing from the University of Oklahoma.

Maureen has spent her career improving the lives of our neighbors in metropolitan Kansas City. As a former lawyer and prosecutor, the majority of her practice was spent working in child welfare. She was Chief of Staff the past eight and a half years to Mayors Mark Holland and David Alvey for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. She has served on multiple community boards and is a current member of The University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation Board, Lead Bank Board, Tesseract Advisory Board, as well as Donnelly College and several others.

Fr. Justin Mathews is a Kansas City native with 25 years experience in developing and executing successful strategies for mission-driven for-profit and nonprofit organizations. With a contagious enthusiasm for social innovation, he is a serial social entrepreneur, retreat leader, keynote speaker, e-course author, mastermind facilitator for social entrepreneurs, and leadership coach. For 9 years he has been the Executive Director of Reconciliation Services [RS] (www.RS3101.org) a quickly growing social venture located at 31st and Troost, the historic racial and economic dividing line of Kansas City, MO. As Executive Director, RS has grown from $650,000 organization with 4 employees to over $5-Million annually with 30 employees. Published author and the creator of The Social Leader Essentials E-Course (www.thesocialleader.org), a transformative leadership development course designed to teach CEOs and senior leaders how to lead with greater social impact to transform their company and community. Named a NextGen Leader by the Kansas City Business Journal in 2022, and co-founded the Social Venture Studio (www.socialventurestudio.com) in 2021 with the KC EDC's Launch KC initiative, Keystone Innovation District and the Downtown Council. Received the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s “ACE Award” for his work in Diversity and Inclusion in 2020, and “2020 Excellence in Impact” Award from Nonprofit Connect. Mayor Quinton Lucas appointed him to the Heart of the City (Troost) TIF Commission and currently serves as the Vice Chair. In 2018, he graduated from the Centurions Leadership Program of the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce where he was the Co-Chair of the “Diversity & Inclusion Committee", served on the Steering Committee, and led the RS team in the launch of Thelma's Kitchen (www.ThelmasKitchen.org), a 5-Star Yelp rated, social venture “donate-what-you-can” box lunch catering company in Kansas City. He graduated Cum Laude from Belmont University with a BA in Business with an emphasis in audio engineering, earned his Master in Divinity from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in 2007, and was ordained to the Priesthood in 2006.

Alana is an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire and empower community, is Founder and CEO of Coffee Lunch Coffee. She is a networking speaker, strategist, workshop facilitator, coach and an internationally bestselling author of Coffee Lunch Coffee: A Practical Field Guide for Master Networking, the anthology Growth – Deconstructing GRIT Collection, and a blog, CoffeeLunchCoffee.com. Her accessible, relevant, immediately actionable approach to professional networking for those interested in connecting with others, getting involved in their communities, seeking to advance their careers or looking to build social relationships, has helped thousands of people formulate a strategic mindset around Networking. Coffee Lunch Coffee is a WBENC-Certified WBE.

Brad is a former CEO and a licensed attorney with a unique blend of both non-profit and corporate executive leadership experience, including public affairs, government relations, business development, community relations and communications. He began his career in Washington, D.C., and held roles as a lobbyist with deep expertise in federal appropriations, a U.S. Senate staffer on Capitol Hill, and Director of the State of Missouri Office for the Governor of Missouri. He also worked for the White House at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as Deputy Administrator of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, eventually overseeing two-thirds of the agency’s operations. As Midwest Regional Administrator for the White House Office of Small Business Advocacy, he was asked to oversee the SBA’s regional offices in four states. He lead Public Affairs in the corporate sector at Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, and eventually moved to the non-profit sector as head of Business Development for the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Brad was selected as the President and CEO of the trade association supporting over 180 credit unions across Kansas and Missouri, for more than six years. He has served and Chaired numerous boards, including Director and Chairman of Community/America Credit Union in Kansas City and Chairman of ArtsKC, Kansas City’s Regional Arts Council.

Dan has over 30 years of senior executive experience as a business leader and general manager with Coca-Cola and Hallmark. He currently spends his time helping organizations develop and operationalize their strategic plans, as well as executive coaching. Dan teaches leadership, innovation, and strategy courses in the Executive MBA program and Executive Development programs for The Bloch School at UMKC and is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Outreach International, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating poverty globally.

Lee A. Norman, MD, brings his four careers in leadership: medicine, military, state government, and business consulting. He is a family physician who additionally has served for 26 years as senior physician executive at two large health systems, including the University of Kansas. He is a colonel in the United States Army with significant experience in domestic and deployed environments. Prior, he was an aerospace medicine-trained USAF flight surgeon and combat medicine instructor. As the State of Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment on the Governor’s cabinet, he led the state pandemic response for the first two years. Finally, as Lee Norman Consulting, he did operational improvement and financial turnaround work with struggling hospitals and health systems nationwide. His approach to leadership and plan execution is pragmatic and shaped by the lessons learned through these diverse careers.

Mary Birch is the former President of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce. During her tenure she helped thousands of companies locate to the fast growing suburb. She then worked as the Government Relations Director of Lathrop GPM, LLP. She has 45 years of experience in helping startups, non profits and companies succeed. She is proficient in government relations strategy at all levels of government, leadership development, political intelligence, organizational and community visioning and strategic planning.

Vincent “Ace” WAGNER is a consummate entrepreneur, has been engaged as an investor and mentor coach to several late-stage start-up businesses. Ace is also engaged with companies emerging on the Kansas City business scene with tremendous prospects for employment and revenue growth through the deployment of their emerging technologies. Ace plays a role guiding capital formation and supporting these client companies through direct coaching and investing. As President & CEO of Wagner Distribution, Ace oversaw the rapid sales growth of both a family business enterprise in the early days to a sizable corporate business. Ace served for 7 years on the Board of Directors of an affiliated, diversified investment group with revenues of well over $200 MM annually. Ace also acts as an advisor to several early-stage companies in the US and was instrumental in the formation of a not-for-profit enterprise that provided US AID scholarships to economically underprivileged students from rural Central America attending US community colleges.

Allan J. Katz served as Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Portugal from March 2010 until August 2013. Upon his return to private life, Ambassador Katz joined University of Missouri in Kansas City (UMKC) as a Distinguished Professor where he served from 2013 until 2019. In 2019, he joined the faculty of William Jewell College as Distinguished Professor in Residence. Additionally, in 2014, he founded and remains CEO and Chairman of an NGO, American Public Square, which brings together non-like-minded people to engage in civil, fact-based dialogue about polarizing issues. American Public Square has grown over the last six years to become a primary convener in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area on pressing public issues. He serves as Executive Committee Chair of the Academic and Corporate Board to ISCTE Business School in Lisbon, Portugal. Additionally, he serves as a non-executive Board Member of EDP Renewables (global energy company, leader in the utilities sector and part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index), a board member of the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Foundation and a former board member of the International Relations Council of Kansas City. Ambassador Katz is a frequent speaker and moderator on civic engagement, civility, American Politics, and developments in Europe.

Beth Silverstein has served the not-for-profit sector for more than 35 years, specializing in transformational giving, vision casting, inspiring boards, and building passionate, effective teams. Her career began at The Carter Center of Emory University where she discovered the powerful impact of philanthropy when combined with the promise of inspired thinking. Beth has been instrumental in cultivating major gifts for capital campaigns in healthcare, two presidential libraries, higher education, K-12 independent schools and social service organizations. Beth joined the consulting team at Byrne Pelofsky + Associates, where she worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations in capital campaign planning and major gift development. With an ardent passion for protecting and propelling the nonprofit sector, she launched a boutique consultancy specializing in working with nonprofit organizations to deepen donor engagement, build capacity and long-term sustainability. As a subject expert in Individual and Principal giving, Beth understands the foundational role that a solid governance and business model, bold strategic plan and a compelling vision plays in maximizing donor investment. Beth is a graduate of Emory University and received her MBA from the University of South Florida. She is a Board Source certified Nonprofit Governance Consultant. She currently resides in Kansas City and serves on the Boards of the Truman Heartland Community Foundation and Community Services League in Independence, Missouri.