The Kansas Black Leadership Council (KBLC) board of directors has selected Mark McCormick as its first executive director. The nearly 10-year-old statewide organization needed a full-time person to manage its rapid growth.
McCormick, a Wichita native, spent six years at the ACLU of Kansas as deputy director of strategic affairs and as communications director. Prior to that, he served as CEO of The Kansas African American Museum for six years.
KBLC Board Chair Stacey Knoell said the organization had been looking for someone to step in to manage its growing list of grants and projects, annual Black Legislative Day event in Topeka, and to begin planning new areas of growth.
“Our plates here at KBLC had gotten so full they needed sides,” said Knoell, who’s also the executive director of the state’s Kansas African American Affairs Commission (KAAAC), where McCormick serves as chair. “Mark just kind of fell in our lap and we’re happy to have such a capable person managing day-to-day operations as well as helping us plan our future.”
Said McCormick: “I’ve been handed a jewel. KBLC continues to draw well in all its initiatives and has become a place where economic development, expert research, Black political thought, and civic engagement have come to sharpen each other. I’m thankful for this opportunity.”
Community Voice Publisher Bonita Gooch and the late Kansas state Rep. Gail Finney, working with other Wichita-based Black elected officials and leaders, launched KBLC in 2015.
Their initial desire was to gather African Americans from across the state to develop and work collectively to bring about positive change on a state-level platform of issues impacting the state’s Black residents.
Nine years later, The organization’s mission remains true to the founder’s vision. KBLC works to “advance meaningful change for African Americans living in Kansas today, while also changing historical systems that have traditionally harmed Black Health, Wealth and Prosperity, allowing Kansans to achieve an equitable future.”
This month, the organization concluded a five-month, five-city series of Black Leadership Brunches designed to help people recognize their innate power to lead and to encourage participants to step up and lead where they are or to step boldly forward to lead outside their circle.
In early 2024, the organization began a drive to increase the number of African Americans running for elected office across the state. This year, more than a dozen new African Americans filed and ran for office across Kansas. KBLC board members are excitedly waiting to see the final results of that effort on Tue., Nov. 5, and look forward to seeing the impact these individuals can have in the state of Kansas.
For More Info, Contact KLBC at:
info@kansasblc.org
PO BOX 965, Lawrence, KS 66044
