Kauffman Foundation Leader Gloria Jackson-Leathers to Retire This Summer

Gloria Jackson-Leathers to retire this summer after a nearly 28 year long career at the Kauffman Foundation. Photo credit: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Posted April 17, 2025

Following over 28 years of service at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Gloria Jackson-Leathers announced she will retire this summer.

Jackson-Leathers currently serves as the senior advisor to the president, Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, having been in that role since 2024. She first joined the Foundation as a program officer in Youth Development on Nov. 3, 1998, where she worked closely with neighborhood leaders in Ivanhoe.

In her years with the organization, she has also served in several other leadership roles, including director, senior director and vice president of the Kansas City Civic team. The KC Civic team works with other nonprofit organizations to bolster the effectiveness of their mission, including quality after-school enrichment programs, initiatives to mend the digital divide and annual fundraisers.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with the standard-bearers for the things that are important to Kansas City, unique to Kansas City, and the new things that Kansas City is going to be known for,” Jackson-Leathers said in a Wednesday release.

Before Jackson-Leathers joined the Foundation, she worked in the banking sector as a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and as a Community Reinvestment Act officer with Commerce Bank of Kansas City.

The release did not give an exact date for Jackson-Leathers’ final day with the Kauffman Foundation; however, it will host a community open house in her honor on July 27 at the organization’s headquarters at 4801 Rockhill Road.