SUSAN LEONARD

If you have a child on a waiting list for Pembroke Hill’s Middle School, give Susan Leonard the credit, not the blame. Oh, she’s principal there, all right, and she’s had a key role in creating the learning environment that has boosted demand for the fixed number of slots available for students each year. But she was motivated to do so by a desire to create a better learning environment for all students—even prospective ones. “I hope my faculty would say that I have made them better in their classrooms and with their students, that I push them to be the best they can be while also being a supportive coach they can go to for help and good advice when needed,” the 39-year-old Leonard says. But her biggest achievements she says, can be found in the small stuff, like the early-morning conversations she used to have with a student who felt cursed, not blessed, with her high academic potential. That student is now a freshman at Stanford University and a pinnacle moment for Leonard was “the day I knew she had decided that it really was her life she was living, and no one else’s. … If I am making a difference for one, two, a dozen, maybe even more students, then I know I can retire fulfilled and happy one day.” Two other children she’s making a difference for every day are right there with her and Matt Leonard at home—C.J., 8, and Maggie, 6. “The very best part of every one of my days is at the dinner table,” she says. “Despite hectic days, we almost always find time for each other as a family.”

MATT McFADDEN

The Web site for Zimmer Real Estate Services notes that Matt McFadden and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Kansas City with three active sons. How active? He’s losing count of the flat-screen TVs that, alas, carry no warranty against flying toys. All the more incentive for the 39-year-old McFadden to help his employer end the real-estate doldrums that set in—however inconveniently—about the time he left Honeywell Inc. to come here. “In hindsight,” he says, “the timing wasn’t the best, but the opportunity to shape and grow a corporate services division from the ground up was simply too exciting to pass up.”

Life, he says, is about taking calculated risks, and with Zimmer’s history, “I felt it was less a risk and more a recipe for success.” He’s taken the beginnings of a corporate services unit and delivered growth of 1,200 percent over those five years, all while fully engaging with the community—completing Kansas City Tomorrow, the city’s leadership development program; volunteering with Prep-KC and Metropolitan Community College’s Five-Star Gala committee; and holding a board seat for 3&2 baseball, while also coaching his sons’ teams. McFadden holds a degree in political science from James Madison University in Virginia, a law degree from Washburn in Topeka, and an MBA from Arizona State. With all that going for him, everything is clicking, but “most important,” he says, is that “in the five years since we’ve been back in Kansas City, I’ve seen my family absolutely thrive.”

Doubtless, the folks at Magnavox would agree.

JOANNE McMILLEN

Two unpleasant encounters—one with a cow, one with an electric fence—suggested to Joanne McMillen that her future lay somewhere other than in veterinary work. The animal kingdom’s loss was the gain of veterans who aspire to home ownership, and McMillen is making their dreams come true every day. She’s the Kansas City market manager for Veterans United Home Loans, recognized by Inc. magazine last year as one of the nation’s fastest-growing companies.

Her contribution to that growth has come in the Lenexa office, which she launched with 17 employees in 2007. Today, more than 200 people work there, where the 34-year-old native of Los Angeles oversees compliance, culture and production. “I have been given opportunities and responsibilities that not only affect my personal life, but also the lives of those I have the privilege of working with, the veterans and the individuals I get to share an office space with,” says McMillen. That’s why she lives by the biblical admonition that says to whom much is given, much is expected. “I’m blessed,” she says, “that I’m able to work for a company that gives back to a group of Americans who deserve so much more than we can ever give them.”

The support she finds at work with a company that values collaboration and a mindset that challenges ideas is matched by the backing she gets from home, she says, in her husband of seven years, Kevin. They are raising two sons, Jake and Ian.

CHAD MOORE

Chad Moore knew that health care would be where the action is. After graduating from Truman State with a degree in political science, he earned his law degree in 2002 with a health-law certificate, from St. Louis University, then added a master’s in health administration the next year. Even when he was in school, he was plying the trade, first as law clerk and then as associate attorney with the law firm of Lashly and Baer, where he litigated Medicaid appeals on behalf of Missouri and out-of-state hospitals, earning millions of dollars in settlements. He followed that with a two-year stint at Centene Corp., the publicly traded Medicaid managed-care company, before the western half of the state came calling and he became director of risk management for Research Medical Center. His next move was right across the street, when he became director of government relations and public affairs for Children’s Mercy Hospital’s Family Health Partners in 2007.

Now with the hospital’s Pediatric Care Network, an accountable-care organization, he’s responsible for contracting with managed-care organizations, and represents 200 pediatricians and more than 400 pediatric specialists and subspecialists. And creating the network, he says, ranks atop his professional accomplishments. He and his wife, have two boys, William, 4, and Matthew, 2, and he also serves on the REACH Healthcare Foundation board, giving him greater insights into safety-net providers and the challenges facing them.