A third-generation Kansan, Dr. Kaye Monk-Morgan is the president and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), an internationally recognized center of excellence for leadership development and civic engagement. She previously served as the inaugural chief impact officer. Her work fosters civic leadership for stronger, healthier, and more prosperous communities in Kansas and beyond.

Service and education have been hallmarks of Monk-Morgan’s personal and professional story for decades. Prior to her time at the KLC, Monk-Morgan dedicated her talents to higher education. Over 30 years, she served in roles ranging from residence hall director to Assistant Dean of Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and ultimately the Vice President for Strategic Engagement and Planning. Her areas of responsibility varied over the years and included community and economic development, strategic planning, assessment and accreditation, and coordination of WSU’s First-Generation student services. Her longest appointment was as director of the TRIO Upward Bound Math Science program.

An active community servant, Monk-Morgan has served on non-profit and corporate boards at the local, state, regional, and national levels. She currently serves as a board member for: NXTUS, a non-profit that catalyzes startup ecosystems, The Kansas African American Museum; and Emprise Bank. She is a trustee for the Wichita Land Bank; and advisor to the Ulrich Museum at Wichita State University.

Her professional service record includes service as the board chair of tri-state, regional and national boards, including Council for Opportunity in Education, a Washington-based, college access and success professional association and advocacy group. She is an advocate and faculty member for NASPA’s Center for First Generation Success, faculty for the Higher Learning Commission’s Advancing Strategy Institute, and a member of the International Leadership Association.

A proud first-generation college graduate, Kaye has earned aBachelor of Chemistry/Business, a Master of Arts in Public Administration, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her research interests center on women in leadership and first-generation student success. She presents internationally on both topics.

While all of this is important, what really counts to Kaye is that she is a teacher, student, mentor, mentee, daughter, sister, auntie, wife, and, most importantly a mother. She is a life-long learner, aspiring yogi, wannabe long-distance runner, and tried and true girlfriend. She lives in Wichita with her husband, Derek. They share two Wichita-based young adult sons, Payton and Cameron.

Maxine Rich is a Program Manager at Common Ground USA, where she leads national bridge-building initiatives focused on strengthening resilience in polarized times. She partners with college administrators and student journalists to prepare for and respond to conflict in constructive, pluralistic ways. She brings a decade of experience in domestic and global conflict resolution with Search for Common Ground, the world's largest and oldest peacebuilding organization.

Aileen Favilla is the program manager for campus free speech at PEN America, where she manages educational workshops and programming with campus partners. Prior to PEN, Aileen oversaw LGBTQIA+ Programs and Initiatives at the University of Mississippi and spent six years in the New York non-profit theater industry. She holds a BA with honors from Wesleyan University.

Cathy Copeland is the Director of the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness Campuswide Immersion Program at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, where she partners with colleges and universities to build, assess, and strengthen their approaches to civil dialogue, media literacy, and collaborative problem-solving.

Before joining Citizens & Scholars, Cathy served as Director of the American Democracy Project at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and has taught writing, rhetoric, and literature courses at several universities and developed multidisciplinary collaborative problem-solving courses. 

Dr. Jason Bosch serves as Director of Curriculum Innovation for the Kansas Leadership Center. In this role, he ensures a world-class curriculum in alignment with KLC’s mission, vision, and strategic framework. Jason oversees curriculum design, product innovation, and partner engagement, and additionally serves as a teacher, facilitator and coach in KLC’s leadership development programs. Prior to joining KLC, Jason spent 17 years working professionally in higher education, serving as a staff member, instructor, and administrator. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wichita State University, a master’s degree in higher education leadership from the University of Arkansas, and a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Wichita State University. He also holds the Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation.

Michelle Kanter Cohen (she/her) serves as Policy Director and Senior Counsel with Fair Elections Center. Her work in the Voting Rights Project focuses on moving forward Fair Elections Center’s policy priorities at the state and national levels, leading the team maintaining the organization’s 50-state resources for voters and civic engagement organizations, and addressing emergent voting rights policy issues. She also litigates voting rights cases to remove barriers to citizens’ exercising their freedom to vote, such as fighting to stop aggressive voter purging and other voter registration restrictions. Kanter Cohen has been a voting rights advocate for most of her legal career, and is a national expert on voter registration and election administration issues. She served as a member of the American Bar Association (“ABA”)’s Standing Committee on Election Law and authored the chapter on voting in the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s 2023 book, The Legal and Social Ramifications of Pandemics on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Prior to joining Fair Elections Center, Kanter Cohen spent five years at another voting rights organization as a litigator and advocate for voting rights, focusing on the areas of voter registration and election administration. Kanter Cohen began her legal career as a litigation associate at WilmerHale LLP in Washington, DC. Kanter Cohen earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston College Law School, and a B.A., cum laude, in Political Science from Yale University.

Diana Ali is currently the director of policy research and advocacy at NASPA. Through her service at NASPA, Diana provides timely analysis of emerging policy issues at state and federal levels, creates tools for student affairs professionals to understand and respond to these issues, and organizes and supports NASPA advocacy and civic engagement efforts.

Since moving to the area, Diana has been a non-profit advocate, and is currently a mental health group facilitator in the Chicagoland community. She has served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for two years and graduated with a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Naomi Greenspan serves as the Director of Partnerships at the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI).  Motivated by the power of education to create change, Naomi has dedicated her career to fostering interfaith dialogue and understanding and addressing bias and hate on college campuses and in schools. She has extensive experience designing and facilitating educational programs and developing high-impact partnerships to create more inclusive learning environments. Naomi earned a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis where she studied Psychology and Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies, and an M.A. from Teachers College at Columbia University in International Educational Development and Peace Education.

Sam Moulton serves as the Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), is a Harvard-trained cognitive and educational psychologist who helps organizations turn data and evidence into action at scale. At CDI, he leads a cross-disciplinary team that measures and accelerates the impact of CDI’s programs and translates findings into practical guidance and public reports. Previously, he spent eight years at Panorama Education, where he built and led Panorama’s applied research and data science team, developed survey, assessment, and reporting systems used by over 25,000 K–12 schools nationwide, and led impact studies of Panorama’s product offerings. Earlier, he served as Director of Research & Assessment at the Harvard Initiative for Learning & Teaching, where he co-led an $8M innovation grant portfolio and evaluated educational innovations across residential, hybrid, and online settings. His peer-reviewed work has appeared in journals including Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and Frontiers in Psychology, and his writing has been featured in outlets such as Education Next, Education Week, and EdSurge.

Kathryn Cilano serves as the Director of the Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she leads institution‑wide efforts to develop students as ethical, engaged leaders capable of navigating difference and contributing meaningfully to community life. An adjunct faculty member, she teaches courses in Leadership & Civil Discourse, Asset‑Based Community Development, and Leadership & Community Organizing, integrating dialogue, reflection, and practice as core leadership competencies. Her work focuses on creating the conditions for civil discourse, equipping students with the skills, confidence, and responsibility to lead with integrity, listen across difference, and engage complex civic challenges.