Banking on KC – Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace of the Kauffman Foundation
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, the president and CEO at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. And before she accepted that role, Dr. Burns-Wallace was the secretary of administration and the chief information technology officer for the state of Kansas. Her prior 15-year career in higher education included University of Kansas vice provost for Undergraduate Education, University of Missouri assistant vice provost of Undergraduate Education, and assistant dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Stanford University. She began her career as a diplomat with the US Department of State serving tours in China, South Africa, and Washington, D.C.
Welcome, Dr. Burns-Wallace. We're really happy to have you here with us during Black History Month.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Thank you. I appreciate the invitation to join you.
Kelly Scanlon:
So as we celebrate Black History Month, can you offer your insights on the evolving role of black and brown leaders in shaping the future of our communities, not just in entrepreneurship, but also in education and civic leadership?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
It's an interesting question. Black and brown leaders have been a part of our country since its founding, and we have been interwoven into so many aspects of how our communities evolve, how our society evolves, and so it is important, as we continue to look to the future, to make sure that leaders who are leading key organizations, entities that are shaping policy, that are controlling and allocating resources are reflective of those for which we serve. And that means we have to have leaders from all different types of backgrounds that have different types of lived experiences because that is the richness of how we understand, how we create the policies, who needs the resource allocations the most, how we set our future dreams for our children and the next generation, it must be a collective vision. It must be reflective of many different voices and pathways.
So having black and brown leaders at the table, around the table, leading at the table and in the conversations is critical because our society is made up of so many different experiences and we miss out when we don't have that richness of voices, of perspectives, of understandings as we lead and as we shape our future.
Kelly Scanlon:
Perhaps you can offer up some of the challenges as where the most promising opportunities are.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
When we think about challenges, there's a reality that we all do not have access to the same opportunities, and that means starting with education, in our workplaces, access to our political leaders always to share perspective. So it's important as we continue to think about having that richness of voices around the table and leading that we create opportunities. And so when we think about the challenges, a challenge really is nothing but an opportunity that we can act upon. So looking for opportunities when we are creating a new board or when board and council positions open up, advisory groups, looking around and saying the composition of a particular group, do we have different perspectives and voices around this table? And many of us control a number of opportunities when we are bringing individuals to the table to give us advice, when we are putting together a group that helps to inform our next direction.
But it's also about our structures within our organizations, in our hiring practices, where we advertise, how we think about pipelining and ensuring that that pipeline of the employees that we are selecting. It doesn't start with when you put out the job position and you're trying to hire, it starts at being in our colleges, in our high schools, in our middle schools, in our diverse communities and saying, this is a pathway for your future, this is an opportunity and this is how it impacts you, your community and our greater future. And encouraging and actually sometimes being intentional, creating and being involved in internships, giving some of our youth the opportunity to see their path in community, in our organizations early and often.
Kelly Scanlon:
So given everything that you just said, how does the Kauffman Foundation integrate Mr. Kauffman's principles of innovation and community commitment into its work to support underrepresented communities and especially to amplify the voices and the contributions of black and brown leaders?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
So our work really is in partnership with our communities. And so it's about creating opportunities where we are learning and listening and that we are then investing in entrepreneurs, nonprofits, organizations that understand the needs of their communities, are serving those needs and looking to have impact in the work that they do. Sometimes that's in education, sometimes, youth development. It can be...
And of course in entrepreneurship, when we are working with both those individuals with that first idea and they need a group or an opportunity to vet their idea. So you have things like 1 million Cups where anybody can show up on a Wednesday morning and you sign up and you say, here's my idea and here's where I am. And maybe you're just starting, or maybe it's a full-fledged idea, but it's a community that is there to say, hey, have you thought about this? Can we help with this? But it's important for us if you take even a program like 1 million Cups and think about who are the partners in the community and ensuring that something that may be perceived as, well, that's open to everyone. Sometimes we have to be intentional in our partnerships.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's a great point because not only are you encouraging the entrepreneurs to show up, but it's a responsibility of all of us to get the investors there, to get the other people who are part of the ecosystem there as well to see these young startups as well.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Exactly. But in that, as we think about the work that we do, we do a lot of system conversations, bringing together people across ecosystems to say, here are different individuals who are doing this work. How can we bring you together? How can we learn from each other? How can we invest not only in just the day-to-day work or the operations, but also in that collective learning?
When we think about being engaged in our diverse communities, it is key and critical that we are amplifying their voices and that we're ensuring that we're aligning with the needs that they have identified. That's why it's important to make sure that we're working with organizations that are in the community, that serve in those communities, and that have direct ties. We work with the United Way this past year to fund their Catalyst grant, and it is to particularly smaller nonprofits that are working to impact and that are led by black and brown and other diverse leaders.
I truly believe in the way that we are and continue to approach the work, some intentionality around ensuring that we're not just working across the board, but that sometimes we have to be intentional to make sure that we're filling the gaps, because in those gaps of really being able to say there's been opportunities and access that has been blocked because of systemic barriers, so how do we understand those barriers? How do we remove those barriers and ensure that we really do have access to those opportunities in a more complete way across all of our communities?
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, it's really important that micro level that you speak of, even down to neighborhoods. Some of the most important work goes on at that level, and so often you hear about the big major initiatives, but it's that tedious work down even at the neighborhood level that sometimes is having such a huge impact.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
If you haven't been to a neighborhood association meeting, I mean, they are devil in the details of who's in our community, what are the needs of our community? And sometimes it can be as small as being able to bring a collective voice to those needs of a community. Those neighborhood associations are powerful groups that bring issues to the forefront that others in the community then can help to serve, to address, to answer, or sometimes just amplify so that the right entities are hearing and knowing that these are these concerns. And so a neighborhood association is a powerful thing in our community.
Kelly Scanlon:
As some of this starts to take hold and is taking hold, how do you see it playing out?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
So for us, we are, as many people have heard me say over the last few months, we're in a strategic planning kind of refresh moment.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
And so it's an opportunity for us to really understand and build on the legacy of the foundation and the work that we've done. And so the deep investment that we've done in entrepreneurship, in education, but also not to be constrained by it, to really be in a position where we are asking and being in conversation with the community to say, what do we need to be thinking about going forward? What's in front of our communities and can we be a part of making sure, again, that those barriers are reduced, that there's an opportunity that our communities are able to control and have the power to control their economic futures? And so that does mean making sure that there are businesses that are in the communities that are serving our communities that have the access to things like access to capital so that they are able not only to start up but to thrive, to be profitable, to grow.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes. And that access is so key. You mentioned access to capital, but access to networks and access to other types of resources are also very important, and you mentioned 1 million Cups is giving that access to networks as one example when it comes to entrepreneurs. Let's talk about you. You have such-
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Oh, we're returning the tables now, right?
Kelly Scanlon:
We cannot get out of here without talking about your own really rich background. You're born and raised here in Kansas City, which is also known for rich cultural heritage. We have a very dynamic community. But how has your background plus your leadership roles in global settings, I mean, you've been a diplomat and you've worked for universities, you've worked for the state of Kansas under Dr. Laura Kelly's administration, how has all of that informed your approach to leadership and innovation?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
So what I would say is that no matter where I was in the country or in the world, I was always known as, oh, yeah, she's from Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
Really? Were you that much of a diplomat for Kansas City itself?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
I think I was. I didn't realize it, but over the years, I carried it with me. And I say that because what I carried with me was this spirit of kindness, a spirit of generosity, and I mean that in a way that I was raised by parents and grandparents that were grounded in supporting those around us. And so that may have started with family, but that meant neighbors and friends. And my grandmother never met a person that she couldn't feed.
Kelly Scanlon:
Right. Oh, yes.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
She was like, whatever someone needed in the community, you knew that you could go to her. You knew within the church that both of my grandmothers were pillars in their churches and that that was a place that you started if you were in need. When you grow up in a community that pays attention and takes care of each other, it is something that I carried with me.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's just become a part of you.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
It does. And so over the years, as I began to move into various leadership roles, as I began to move into roles where I was able to shape policies to inform conversations and decisions and the allocation of resources, I tried to ensure that I was bringing that spirit of generosity, of care to the work that I did. Because when you care about someone, you can't create policies that harm. When you care and understand and appreciate and value individuals collectively, it should shape the way that you lead, how you engage, how you partner, how you see those both that you work directly with and indirectly with, and think differently about the unintended consequences of policy and resource decisions that you make. So I feel that Kansas City for me was about home, was about caring for others, was about understanding and appreciating people. And I tried to carry that with me into every role and every decision. And that value of no matter where someone sat in terms of... My dad, he retired from being a telephone repairman, worked for Southwestern Bell for years and was the man that climbed up the telephone poles.
Kelly Scanlon:
Those brave souls. Oh, my gosh.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Those brave souls. For those that may remember the phone jacks that were in your homes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, yes.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
That's the work that he did. And many times, he was that unseen person. But during those times when we didn't have the networks that we have now, when phone service went down, that meant that in emergencies people could not reach out, that some in our communities were truly blocked off. And so that idea that even though he wasn't, quote-unquote, "in service," he really was in a service industry. He understood this work ensures that people in our communities have the access to the individuals to keep them safe, to provide what they need from a healthcare or their family and all of those types of things. That is something, when you lead, and some call it servant leadership, but when you lead in that space, it really does shape how you think about the decisions that you make and how you center people and caring for people in the work that you do.
Kelly Scanlon:
When did you know that you were going to take the career path that you did? As I said when we got started here, you've been in a number of leadership positions, but they're just so fascinating. I mean, you were a diplomat and who wakes up in the morning says, I want to be a diplomat? I mean, how did your career path unfold?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Well, I laugh because I was like, I think it's still unfolding. But what I will say is that early on what I knew is that, one, I wanted to be in service, as I just mentioned. And so my career has been a career in public service for the majority of that career. I knew that I also wanted to explore and be in different places and spaces and understand different people and perspectives. And so my early part of my career was as a diplomat, because my degrees were in international relations and African-American studies. I wanted to understand communities. I wanted to understand people. I wanted to understand society. And so being a diplomat and traveling around the world and learning languages and living in countries brings a real depth of understanding, a global perspective, but also a perspective around our country, the work that we do and the impact that we have around the world. It is a really important perspective that you bring with you.
What I will say is that the kind of twists and turns beyond my diplomatic career really happened because of, again, access and opportunity, work that I had done with the State Department, looking at diversifying the State Department and ensuring that the foreign service was reflective of US society actually led me back to higher education and my roots at Stanford University, which was my undergraduate alma mater. And I began to do admissions work there because I realized we needed more students who looked like me that were black, that were women, that were from the Midwest from Kansas and Missouri to walk the halls and those beautiful green fields out at Stanford because they were creating leaders. And I went through that path and I'm like, and there's more of me in the world. And so it came about really by opportunities of sharing my experiences, working at different places and spaces.
And I would've never thought that federal government and international policy to higher education, which I would spend 15 years in higher ed, but the work in higher ed, again, continued to be about access. When I first started in admissions, I would move on to work more broadly in student access and how do we pipeline, when I went to University of Missouri, and really look about the pipeline coming into higher ed. And then I would start to look at, but what does it mean to just recruit students from all in diverse backgrounds versus ensuring that they're being successful and graduating and getting those jobs? So then I started to do work more so in not just the recruitment, but the success and the graduation. And so with every step, it's been this evolution.
Now, the state work is a little different. What I will say is that working under Governor Kelly's leadership, she built a cabinet that she truly believed would impact the lives of Kansas and to really make sure that we were making Kansas better than we found it. And that is the work that I did under her first administration.
What I say about my path is that it's eclectic. I believe that there is a thread though of that public service, of always standing, even in the role that I sit in now, in roles and places and spaces and organizations that I truly believe can impact lives, that can transform communities, that has the ability to shape policies, resources, and opportunities differently. And those are, I think, the places and spaces that I've been drawn to, but at the foundation of it, it still goes back to service.
Kelly Scanlon:
Looking towards the future then, what do you envision as the impact of diverse leadership on Kansas City as Kansas City's future continues to unfold and also on the broader landscape of our region and our nation?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
So I always say sky's the limit. As we continue to think about our future, the future of our communities, our city, our region, our country, we are a diverse nation, and it will be imperative that the voices that are represented in leadership and throughout the thinking and planning of our future reflects that rich diversity of identities, of thought, of perspectives, of journeys. So when I think about the future and kind of the envision, the impact, it really has no bounds. But that is if we value, appreciate, and invest, invest in that next generation.
I have a 15-year-old who is a freshman, and every day I look at him and I see him as he's having conversations with friends, and our young people, sometimes we kind of discount, well, they're 15, they're in high school, but they are the next generation of leaders, and they are seeing how our society is shaping. They are seeing, and so I take him with me everywhere and people who have seen me in community, they've seen him with me or pictures we have him with me. When I travel around the world, if I'm speaking or I'm in meetings, I will take with me because I need him to be able and begin to see the world through a rich tapestry.
Kelly Scanlon:
Absolutely. He's a citizen of the world already at the age of 15.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
He is. He is. But that investment in our youth is something that will pay tenfold if we are responsible about it, if we are intentional about it, and if we ensure it truly reflects the richness of the experience that our communities bring as we think about our future, but it has no bounds. It really, really doesn't. That's what excites me.
Kelly Scanlon:
So what advice would you give to young leaders, people like your son who are striving to make a difference through their work and through their communities?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
First and foremost, I would say figure out what you love, what gives you joy and use that. When you're in that space and place of joy, it allows you to show up differently. And I can say that across my career and being in the roles, particularly serving communities, it brought me joy. And with that, you bring that joy into the work that you do. So that's first and foremost, figure out what brings you joy.
Then secondly, I talk a lot, particularly when I work with students and those that are starting out their careers, about being ready, and ready for me means when preparation meets opportunity. And so being ready means that you have to do particular things to make sure you're prepared. So take advantage of that opportunity when someone says, do you want to go to this youth conference or go to this professional development conference? Or if someone asks you, do you want to sit on this committee and let us know what you think about X, Y, and Z? Create the space to take advantage of opportunities that are preparing you along the way.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Invest in yourself and know that as things come up, what is it I want to learn? Where do I want to be? What do I want to do? What impact do I want to have? Not necessarily what job do I want or what's my next job title? But if you are driven by joy and the impact that you want to have, and when that new opportunity comes along, when someone is thinking about you and you don't even know it for that next role, then you're ready when it comes along.
And then the third thing that I would say particularly to that young leader is just to give yourself a little grace. I meet with individuals all the time who say, well, I want to do what you did, or I want to sit in the seat that you did. Can you help me or tell me how I get there? And I tell them, I can't tell you how I got here because this was an interesting winding, random, eclectic road. And if you had have told me five years, 10 years, 20 years ago that this would've been my path, I probably would've said, well, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it makes perfect sense now looking back. So give yourself grace, the time to learn, to explore, to develop. Don't be in too much of a hurry to get to the next thing, be present and in the moment, and then learn and explore and enjoy the now because if you do that deeply, you will be ready for the next.
Kelly Scanlon:
Dr. Burns-Wallace, as we wrap up here today, I'd like to go back and talk a little bit more about the investing that we discussed earlier. How can we as individuals, as business owners, entrepreneurs, corporations, civic leaders, how can we each invest in our communities to make them places where there is more access, more opportunity, all of which leads to our communities being better places to live?
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
As someone who has now stepped into a role of philanthropy and now has to think really deeply about what that means and what that looks like and how do you invest responsibly, but with trust and with partnership and understanding, I think it's also important for us just as individuals to think about how we are investing in building our communities, each and every one of us. And so whether I am talking to the partners that I work with or that young leader, thinking about how we invest back into the communities that have served us, that have helped build us and created opportunities, and investment can be dollars and we need those. But investment could be your time and your talent.
So you show up with your time, being in places and spaces where you're sharing your expertise, sharing your network, sharing the learning, but you show up with your talents by also saying, are there opportunities that I can bring into the community that I am uniquely situated to open up or to create or to connect or resources my organization can leverage back into the community, whether we are a philanthropic organization or not, we are part of the community and we need to invest in it.
And then the treasures are the actual dollars, and the dollar investments in our communities matter. Sometimes it may be about giving dollars in one way from a philanthropic standpoint of a grant or a gift, but dollars are also, particularly when we're talking about our entrepreneurs investing in their companies, but also ensuring that they are suppliers to your organization. And so giving a gift is one thing, but an entrepreneur is a business person and they have an idea or a product that they believe in. And when you say to them, I'm investing in you, it means you are buying their product. You're putting them on the list of suppliers. If we want to talk about diverse leadership, representation, let's make sure that we also have diversity in who we are working with, who are on our contracts, who are the businesses that we have as suppliers.
And so a gift or a grant or access to opportunity is one thing, but particularly for our entrepreneurs being able to say that idea or that product, I believe in it because I am actually purchasing it on a regular basis and believing and investing in your dream. So us thinking about each and every one of us, how do we use our time, our talents, and our treasures to give back and pour into the communities which have poured into us?
Kelly Scanlon:
Dr. Burns-Wallace, it has been wonderful. It's just been fascinating to hear your story and then to talk about how you use all the lessons you learned growing up here in Kansas City to guide your work throughout your career. It's just been a fascinating interview. Thank you for all that you are doing, for all of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is doing to create opportunity, to create access. And also, again, for being with us on this episode of Banking on KC. We appreciate it.
Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace:
Thank you so much for having me. This has been a pleasure.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Dr. Burns-Wallace of being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Dr. Burns-Wallace's journey of service, from positions of global diplomacy to leading one of the most impactful foundations in the country underscores the importance of diverse leadership and inclusive policies in shaping the future of Kansas City, our region, and our nation. Dr. Burns-Wallace's dedication to public service and community investment, particularly in education and entrepreneurship, mirrors our commitment at Country Club Bank to foster growth and prosperity within our community. It's important to remember that a collective vision and diverse voices will continue to drive our city forward. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on New Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.