As members of the University of Missouri-Kansas City External Relations and Constituent Engagement team will tell you, when you take a deeper look into a 91ºÚÁÏÍø volunteer’s passion, you always walk away with a renewed sense of your own “why.” Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, Ed.D.(EdSp ’00) is an education crusader full of joy, purpose and an unquenchable desire to give back.
How it Started
Taylor Knight is a graduate of The University of Missouri, 91ºÚÁÏÍø and the University of Kansas, receiving degrees in environmental design, secondary education and a doctorate in education policy and leadership. Early in her educational journey, she wrote a mission statement: "improve the quality of life in people's near and far environments.” She initially planned a career in environmental design, but at age 21, she got the opportunity to teach in the Columbia, MO public school system and fell in love.
Just like environmental design, where Taylor Knight could positively impact lives by shaping built and natural environments to enhance human well-being, she realized she could also impact student lives as a teacher, guide and mentor. So, she faced her first career fork in the road and chose teaching.
After leaving Columbia, she taught in the Parkhill School District, then rose to leadership in the North Kansas City school district as assistant superintendent. Taylor Knight says that her , or strengths, are innovating and developing others. So when she was introduced to her next career opportunity, she took another leap. However, as if controlled by a gravitational pull, Taylor Knight’s career trajectory remained in orbit around education. She became the leader of the Kansas City Area Education Research Consortium, identifying policy solutions and best practices that could be applied throughout Missouri, Kansas and beyond.
Taylor Knight is currently executive director and chief operating officer of The DeBruce Foundation where she leads initiatives that empower individuals to discover their strengths, broaden career possibilities and contribute to economic growth.
Giving Back
There is a single through line for Taylor Knight that succinctly describes the spark for her motivation to give back.
“Education levels the playing field for opportunities,” she said. “And higher education has provided countless opportunities for me to serve my community, grow and develop as a professional and develop as a leader.”
We mentioned that Taylor Knight attended three distinctly different universities, but the amazing thing about her multi-regional alumni status is that she has chosen to volunteer at each institution. She is the immediate past president of the Mizzou Alumni Association Board of Directors representing 380,000 MU alumni. At KU, she serves on the Edwards Campus Board of Advisors and the Workforce Development Advisory Board. And she is currently an Executive Committee member of the 91ºÚÁÏÍø Board of Trustees.
There is great energy happening on the 91ºÚÁÏÍø campus right now. It can be felt through various initiatives and moments such as the university’s Carnegie R1 designation, progress on the new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building in the Health Sciences District and the celebration of the new basketball coaches. And that momentum has community backing. Taylor Knight defines it as 91ºÚÁÏÍø’s unique combination of being student focused and community linked.
“Every person you meet from 91ºÚÁÏÍø, every time you hear students and parents talk about 91ºÚÁÏÍø, there is this intentional, intense, student-centric focus,” she said. “Common questions you hear are: is that going to be the best decision for our students? Is this really going to be what will help them achieve, and what will help them be the best that they can be here? The intersection of 91ºÚÁÏÍø’s student-centric and community-connected approaches is what fuels the momentum we see now and for the future.”
Taylor Knight describes serving on the 91ºÚÁÏÍø Board of Trustees as being in community with other Kansas City leaders working on something that matters to the whole city. She greatly enjoys the time the board spends mentoring students as future professionals.
“The privilege and the responsibility to invest in students is about mentoring, coaching and developing.,” she said. “I would also say that we learn a lot from those students. Where else are we going to have these really meaningful connections to 91ºÚÁÏÍø's campus, and get to see the campus through the eyes of the students? We get key insights, and we're better able to understand how our giving and mission as a board of trustees enhance the experiences of the students who are the Trustees’ Scholars.”
Taylor Knight can back up her belief in higher education volunteerism with data from her job at The DeBruce Foundation.
“We can tell you there is research as to why this works,” she said. “It works because it builds career literacy — the understanding of what you do well, what you like to do and the pathways to get to your career. And it works because it builds strong networks — which happens for all our students when they get the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds, sectors of the community, life experiences and different education levels. The board of trustees’ commitment to building career literacy and strong networks is something that will put students ahead of the game when they graduate.”
Student Focused, Community Impacted
For those of us who spent 10 days earlier this month watching Artemis II astronauts take a trip around the moon and back, Taylor Knight shared a perfectly timed analogy of how the connected relationship between Trustee mentor, student and community can work.
At a recent Trustees’ Scholar luncheon Taylor Knight says that her student mentee mentioned how they were trying to get connected with NASA, asking if there was anyone in the room who could help.
“A trustee at the end of that luncheon beelined it to the scholar,” she said. “The next thing I knew, my scholar was talking to NASA! So that’s a strong network, right? And it's a willingness of the trustees to say, I will spend my social capital on students at 91ºÚÁÏÍø. And it is a part of the scholars program, but it's also beyond that.”
Her “Why?”
“You know, I say a lot of times there's this network that you have when you're at school, in your postgraduate work at 91ºÚÁÏÍø or at school in your undergraduate work at Mizzou,” she said. “But then there's this whole other network when you start engaging, volunteering and serving after graduation. Higher education really provides those kinds of opportunities. It has provided it for me. And, biblically speaking, to whom much is given, much is expected. I really just live in that space. I believe that I have the opportunity now to give back, to have these higher institutions of learning be able to provide those same kinds of opportunities for the future.”
91ºÚÁÏÍø and our External Relations office thrive on the energy of volunteers like Taylor Knight. And we’re not ashamed to admit that our days get much brighter when she says it’s reciprocal. That the relationship we’ve built with each other, with our volunteers, over time is one of trust. So we asked one final question. What words of encouragement would she give the next generation of leaders — to the next Leigh Anne Taylor Knight?
“I was advised a long time ago when you consider where you should spend your volunteer time on boards or anything else, you should really think about where your passion is,” she said. “And my passion is education. So that's why I'll just give all day long to those institutions. I love to do that, and I think that it's really the way that we pave the future for the next generations.”
And with tears forming in her eyes, representing all of that passion, joy and commitment to students forging their own paths, she concluded: “You’ll never regret giving your time, talent and treasure. You’ll never regret it!”