January 21, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kansas Leadership Center Announces New Board Members
Wichita, Kan. – The Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), an educational organization founded to foster civic leadership for healthier communities, welcomes four new members to its board of directors in 2025:
- Gwynne E. Birzer, United States magistrate judge for the District of Kansas (Wichita, Kan.)
- Sally Buzbee, regional editor for the United States and Canada for Reuters News (Washington, D.C.)
- Alan Cobb, president and CEO of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce (Topeka, Kan.)
- Liz Sosa, business owner and operations director for the Western Kansas Community Foundation (Garden City, Kan.)
These new additions to the board are replacing three board members whose terms expired on December 31, 2024:
- Karen Humphreys, one of KLC’s first board members in 2007, served as KLC’s first board chair
- David Lindstrom, one of KLC’s first board members, served as KLC’s second board chair
- Mary Lou Jaramillo, board member since 2017, played a key role in elevating relationships with Latino communities in Kansas
Kaye Monk-Morgan
“KLC is expanding many of our services to deepen our impact in communities across Kansas and beyond. A strong board is critical to our sustainable growth and this cohort of Kansans are well positioned to support our efforts. Their collective experience in law, journalism, civic advocacy, and entrepreneurship will fuel KLC initiatives for years to come. Alan, Gwynne, Liz, and Sally represent the diversity of Kansas thought, experience and industry. We are excited about the energy this group will bring to our mission!” said Kaye Monk-Morgan, president and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center.
Gwynne Birzer
The Honorable Gwynne E. Birzer’s legal career has spanned over 33 years in such roles as an assistant district attorney, assistant public defender, assistant attorney general, founding and leading her own law firm, and rising to partner in the law firm Hite, Fanning, and Honeyman LLP. She was appointed as the sixth United States magistrate judge sitting in Wichita in 2015. Read more.
Sally Buzbee
Before joining Reuters as regional editor for the United States and Canada in late 2024, Sally Buzbee served as executive editor of The Washington Post, the newspaper’s first woman top editor, and previously also was executive editor of The Associated Press. She has overseen coverage of numerous wars and conflicts, presidential elections and campaigns and policy issues, and has wide investigative reporting experience. She started her career as a reporter in Topeka. Read more.
Alan Cobb
President and CEO of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce since March 2017, Alan Cobb has been involved in politics and public policy at the local, state and federal level for more than 30 years. He served on the staff of U.S. Senators Bob Dole and Sheila Frahm, was senior advisor and national director of coalitions for the 2016 Trump for President campaign, and served on the Trump Presidential Transition team from November 2017 through January 2018. Cobb was a member of the 2021 Class of Leadership Kansas. Read more.
Liz Sosa
Liz Sosa was born and raised in southwest Kansas and has made her home in Garden City for the past 25 years. An entrepreneur at heart, Liz owns a consulting business that facilitates community development, organizational strategic planning, and legislative affairs, and serves as the co-owner of a gift shop in downtown Garden City. As the operations director for the Western Kansas Community Foundation, Liz is responsible for the fiscal oversight of the Foundation’s assets. Read more.
The new cohort reaffirms the organization’s dedication to its mission to foster civic leadership for stronger, healthier and more prosperous communities in Kansas and beyond.
Learn more at KansasLeadershipCenter.org.
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About the Kansas Leadership Center
The Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) is a first-of-its-kind nonprofit educational organization with a civic mission, national reputation and global reach. Founded in 2007 to foster leadership for stronger, healthier and more prosperous Kansas communities, KLC receives core funding from the Kansas Health Foundation (a private, philanthropic organization). It partners with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, businesses and communities to build cultures that are healthy, productive and well-positioned to make measurable progress on daunting challenges and emergent opportunities. KLC Press publishes leadership books and The Journal, a nationally recognized, award-winning civic issues magazine.
Over the past 17 years, KLC has built a strong and respected institution in Kansas designed to deliver leadership development and culture change at unparalleled scale. Now, organizations across the country and around the world look to us to provide resources and consultation to support their own aspirations for mission-driven leadership education. Learn more at www.kansasleadershipcenter.org.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Carrie Lindeman
316-393-1076
carrie@lindemancollective.com
