Appointee Profile: Jillian RainingBird

Jillian RainingBird was recently appointed to the Kansas City Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities.  She also sits on the Board for Eitas and the DESE’s Special Education Advisory Panel.

Jillian is a resident of Kansas City, MO. She is a Cash Operations Manager at a local casino, where she has been employed for 13 years. She is a wife and mother of three girls (17, 8, and 3). 

Jillian’s middle child (Jaelah) was wheelchair bound. This thrust Jillian into advocating and lending her voice to help the disabled community. She has championed for children with special needs on the local, state, and national level. Jillian was the 2021 recipient of the Special Needs Advocate of the year by the National Parents Union. 

Jillian believes that advocacy & support is a vital function for the disabled community. She hopes that her unique perspective of raising a child with physical disabilities positively impacts as many people as possible.

“And however difficult life may seem. There is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t give up.” – Stephen Hawking

Appointee Profile: Christine Comer Stannard

Christine Comer Stannard has been appointed to the Emerging Technology Commission and the Downtown Economic Stimulus Authority Commission in Kansas City, Missouri by Mayor Quinton Lucas.  

Christine is Vice President of Marketing at Labconco, a leading laboratory equipment manufacturer located in Kansas City, Missouri, leading a team that comprises product management, application support, marketing communications and vertical marketing.  Christine is relatively new to the Kansas City area – she is a native of the Chicago area where she managed sales and marketing teams for companies such as Panasonic and NEC.  Her prior board experience has been serving as Chairman of the Laboratory Product Association, Dominican University, Brennan School of Business Advisory Council Member, and currently serves on the LPGA Amateurs KC Metro Board of Directors. 

Christine earned her undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University and her MBA from Dominican University.  Outside of work she is an avid golfer and tennis player. 

Appointee Profile: Dr. Sybil B. Wyatt

Dr. Sybil B. Wyatt was recently appointed to the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities, tasked with assisting the city in identifying and responding to the needs of citizens with disabilities through advocacy, technical assistance, and coordination of community and governmental services. Additionally, Dr. Wyatt is a member of the Board of Directors for the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, an organization committed to providing a multitude of specialized support services for LGBTQIA+ victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and hate crimes.

As of June 2021, Dr. Wyatt also holds the position of Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the Kansas City VA Medical Center, a position that is first of its kind within the VA system. In this role, she leads the overall development, management, and implementation of strategies meant to advance and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for veterans and their families, visitors, and employees. Prior to joining the KCVAMC, Dr. Wyatt worked to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Kansas, and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. Dr. Wyatt, a Missouri native, earned her law degree, doctorate in educational leadership, and MBA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has a master’s in criminal justice from the University of Central Missouri, as well as a bachelor’s in broadcasting from Northwest Missouri State University.

Appointee Profile: Robin Ganahl

Robin Ganahl was appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas to the Kansas City Climate Protection Steering Committee.  Robin is a mom of two and co-founder of the KC chapter of Mothers Out Front - Mobilizing for a Livable Climate. She graduated from KU School of Engineering in '96 and earned her Masters in IT Systems from Johns Hopkins University in 2009. She worked as an environmental and historic preservation engineer, a clean energy advocate and organizer with San Diego-based Climate Action Campaign, and a public sector project manager and business analyst. After becoming increasingly concerned about how the climate crisis would impact her children, Robin organized the grassroots movement to establish a community choice energy program in Orange County, California, which launches in 2022. Her current volunteer work with Mothers Out Front is focused on organizing community support for local policy changes needed for a swift, just transition to clean energy. She enjoys camping with her family, exploring Missouri parks, and native plant gardening.

Appointee Profile: Angela Crawford

Angela Crawford was appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas to the Kansas City Climate Protection Steering Committee.  Angela is in the business of content: What works, where it works and why, who is consuming the content, and what makes it shareable. The Kansas City-area native, with more than a decade of experience in strategic communications, currently serves as Marketing Director for The Builders’ Association.

Her broad range of experience has aided political campaigns, nonprofits, marketing agencies and private corporations in developing content to tell their stories in innovative and compelling ways.

Crawford holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication, Public Administration from Truman State University. She previously served as a Communications Consultant for Lockton Companies, developing marketing solutions for internal stakeholders and shaping digital communication initiatives.

Crawford lives in the heart of Kansas City with her beloved dogs Tommy and Mikey. A dedicated volunteer, she has served as President of the Truman State University Kansas City Alumni Chapter since 2014. She provided strategic planning and public relations support for Community LINC, a nonprofit group providing transitional housing for homeless Kansas City families; mentored elementary students for the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy’s Raising Royals After School program; and for nearly a decade she served as a Big Sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas.

Crawford is a member of the Kansas City Lyric Opera Guild, the Society for Marketing Professional Services and Friends of the Kansas City Public Library, and she serves as a United WE Ambassador.

Appointee Profile: Anne Spenner

Anne Hartung Spenner has been appointed to the Community Engagement Taskforce in Shawnee, Kansas. The role of this taskforce is to provide strategic direction, advice, and recommendations to the City of Shawnee’s governing body on all aspects related to community engagement, including marketing and public communications, engagement opportunities, inclusivity and diversity, and employee recruitment/retention.

Anne is Vice Chancellor for Strategic Marketing and Communications at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, leading a team of marketing, media relations, creative, web and digital communicators to tell the story of Kansas City’s public research university. She also oversees KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s National Public Radio station. In her prior life as a journalist, she worked as a reporter, editor and senior newsroom leader at newspapers in Upstate South Carolina, Charlotte, N.C., and the Kansas City metro. The common denominator across her professional life has been the opportunity to tell stories that change lives and make a difference in the communities she has lived in. That work continues in her new board appointment.

Anne earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Mo., and an Executive MBA from the Bloch School of Management at UMKC. She is a past Salzburg Global Seminar Knight Fellow and a Harvard University Nieman Narrative Fellow.

Outside work, Anne dedicates time to a number of passions including church choir, United WE Groundbreakers, Harvesters, United Way and the UMKC Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Fund. She also is a past board member of the Urban Neighborhood Initiative.

Appointee Profile: Susan Tolleson

Susan Tolleson was appointed to the Shawnee (KS) Community Engagement Task Force, Ward 1.  Susan has lived in Shawnee 14 years and in the metro area for 31.  She has more than 30 years of experience in marketing communications and public involvement. She currently is a senior marketing writer at Johnson County Community College and has held communications roles with HNTB, Burns & McDonnell, Greater KC Community Foundation and the Kansas City Zoo. She has run a freelance consulting business for 17 years and has managed volunteers at Shawnee Town 1929 Museum and Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. She has a master’s degree in strategic marketing communications from KU. She is married and has a daughter who will attend KU in the fall.

Appointee Profile: Jessica Best

Jessica Best was appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas to the Kansas City Liquor Control Board of Review.  By day, Jessica works at marketing agency, Barkley, located in the Crossroads, as VP of Data-Driven Marketing. Evenings and weekends, she has lead planning committees and volunteer groups for KCUR, the Kansas City Direct Marketing Association, and nonprofits like United Way of Greater Kansas City, Boulevardia, and Water.org.

She was in the 2013 Class of Centurions with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and prides herself on data-driven strategy, having won the Direct Marketer of the Year award in 2017 in Kansas City and being named one of DMNews’ 40 Under 40 in 2018.

Her role on the Liquor Control Board of Review suits her perfectly, which you can tell by her Instagram channel, which features her food (and beverage) exploits across Kansas City (and the world).

Appointee Profile: Sharla Smith

Dr. Sharla Smith was appointed by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to the REACH Healthcare Foundation Community Advisory Committee.  Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Kansas City. Dr. Smith earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Health Services and Systems Research from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She is a health services researcher that has been working in public health since 2006. Her current research focuses on Black maternal and infant health and community engagement.

Dr. Smith is the co-founder of the Kansas Sisters and Brothers for Healthy Infants, a partnership between the University of Kansas School of Medicine and members of Black Greek Letter Organizations, that aims to increase awareness and education on Black infant mortality. Dr. Smith is the founder and director of the Kansas Birth Equity Network, a community-centered network that creates equitable solutions to improve Black maternal, paternal, and infant health in Kansas.

Dr. Smith has experience teaching public health law, introduction to public health, introduction to health policy and politics, and epidemiology. She advises students and serves as a faculty mentor on Master and PhD-level research projects.

Appointee Profile: Desarae Harrah

Desarae G. Harrah was appointed to the Jackson County Mental Health Fund Board.  Desarae is the founder and managing partner of Harrah Law, LLC, a firm focusing on business, real estate, and construction located in the heart of Kansas City’s Westport District. Desarae earned her J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, and both a B.A. in Political Science and B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.