Published May 8, 2026 at 4:00 AM CDT

Gloria Jackson-Leathers is retiring in July after 28 years of philanthropic work with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Throughout her nearly three-decade career, she worked behind the scenes to support many programs that Kansas Citians rely on.

After completing an extensive hiring process that included 11 interviews, Jackson-Leathers began working for the Kauffman Foundation as a program officer for youth development, focusing on the Ivanhoe neighborhoods.

“We spent most of our day in the neighborhood, rather than in our offices, getting to know the individuals, the people, the places,” Jackson-Leathers told KCUR’s Up to Date. “The art of community engagement is really being proximate to the people, the places, the problems that you're trying to solve.”

Following her work in Ivanhoe, Jackson-Leathers launched the Kansas City Civic Engagement Initiative, which provided after-school programs and funded many local museums, including the Nelson-Atkins, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and the Linda Hall Library.

She also focused on science and technology, helping to create the Maker Faire at Union Station and leading the development of the KC STEM Alliance.

Jackson-Leathers’s impact continues today through programs such as the pre-development loan fund, which provides loans to developers working on projects in east Kansas City.

Despite her citywide influence, she has remained committed to what she calls quiet leadership.

“It's quiet in the fact that you're not doing this for you, so my recognition is less important than the people that I'm trying to help,” Jackson-Leathers said. “I think that just has become an essential part of my DNA and how I operate.”

• Gloria Jackson-Leathers, senior advisor to the president for civic engagement at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation