Julia Fabris McBride | Chief Civic Leadership Development Officer

Julia Fabris McBride is Chief Civic Leadership Development Officer of the Kansas Leadership Center. She is also a certified coach and co-author of two books, the forthcoming When Everyone Leads (Bard Press, January 2023) and Teaching Leadership: Case-in-Point, Case Teaching, and Coaching. At KLC, she oversees teacher and coach development and has created three professional programs for leadership developers, including an International Coach Federation (ICF)-approved Leadership Coach training program, and an Advanced Leadership Development Intensive that has drawn people to Wichita from four continents. Julia served as KLC’s interim president and CEO from August of 2022 until March of 2023.

Before joining KLC (and while wrapping up a fun and varied career as an actor in Chicago), Julia taught leadership and management at the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, University of Massachusetts and the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute. She holds a certificate in leadership from the University of Chicago’s Graham School of General Studies and completed the Art and Practice of Leadership Development (taught by Marty Linsky, Ron Heifetz and Robert Kegan) at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She is certified to facilitate the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) and Immunity to Change processes, and has trained executives and high potentials at organizations such as Microsoft and United Way of America.

Julia has traveled as far afield as Melbourne, Australia, and Yangon, Mynamar, to teach and share the KLC ideas, first among them the principle that leadership is an activity, available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Case Western Reserve University and holds a diploma (signed by Sir John Geilgud) from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Julia lives with her husband, sculptor Bill McBride, and teenager Lake McBride in Matfield Green, Kansas, in the heart of the Flint Hills tallgrass prairie. She is cofounder of the Know Your Worth Women’s Leadership Conference and founding board president of the Pioneer Bluffs Foundation. Julia serves on the advisory committee for the Western Conservation Leadership Development Program and as secretary of the board of directors of the Adaptive Leadership Network. She splits her time between Wichita and Matfield Green.