We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leigh Anne Taylor Knight. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leigh Anne below.

Leigh Anne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

As you might know, The DeBruce Foundation’s mission is to expand pathways to economic growth and opportunity. We do this by developing resources and initiatives to help individuals plan, pursue, and build their careers. We are fortunate to get to work with many meaningful partners and projects across the country.

One project, in particular, is especially meaningful to me personally and professionally. This project is the DeBruce Career Corps; it’s a collective of more than 50 young people, ranging in age from high school to early careers, who keep our team informed about the workforce from their vantage point, test our resources, and advise our team. Their real-time feedback plays a crucial role in informing The Foundation’s charitable mission. By integrating youth voices into our daily work, our resources and initiatives have been made more relevant, accessible, and authentic. Their role has impacted all other meaningful projects at The Foundation.

The power of youth voices has been a theme throughout my career. From the time I was 21 years old and a teacher in the classroom, I realized I needed to create space to hear from my students and engage them in solving problems in our classroom.

When I was an assistant superintendent, students from each grade, from each of the 4 high schools in our district, met with our team every month. We would share with them what was going on in the district and what problems we were encountering, and they would give their feedback. In one instance, student feedback led to a new, student-led event that celebrated the many cultures represented throughout the student body. It was really powerful.

As we replicated this youth voice concept in different settings, we ensured that we heard from leaders throughout the school–and not only the appointed leaders like student body president–but those who had influence throughout the school in different ways (sometimes positive, sometimes negative). Either way, their voices needed to be heard. Additionally, once all these students were together in a room, they discovered how much they all shared in common!

When I was named Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of The DeBruce Foundation in 2018, we immediately went to work figuring out how we could integrate youth voices into our work. Since then, not only has the DeBruce Career Corps become an integral part of our foundation, but we’ve had the opportunity to invite their voices into statewide conferences and national webinars to weigh in on the advancement of education, innovation in workforce development, accessibility and equity in internships, and more.

I’ve never had a job that didn’t integrate youth voice into it, and I don’t plan to anytime soon. Youth are our future leaders. I encourage every reader to think about how they can further engage youth voices in their work. We’ll go further together.

Leigh Anne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of The DeBruce Foundation, I care deeply about helping people pursue meaningful careers; I would love for each person to have the opportunity to build a career in which they can use their unique strengths and interests, create financial stability for their family, and be empowered to thrive in any workplace.

My own career journey has shaped me and led me to the work of helping individuals expand their career pathways. I’ve always been a creative person–in fact, my first bachelor’s degree was in Environmental Design. I loved the idea of creating aesthetically-pleasing spaces in which people could connect with one another.

Just out of college, I taught secondary students in an alternative school. I reveled in the opportunity to make daily connections with the students in my classroom. I also deeply understood that some of my most important work would be to help them thrive in their next season of life. Even if my students didn’t yet understand or have confidence in the value of their abilities and passions, I wanted to help them reach the point where they believed they have value and were made for more than they could have even imagined.

My time in the classroom led to becoming Assistant Superintendent in the North Kansas City School District, followed by an opportunity to lead the Kansas City Area Education Research Consortium. This allowed me to move even further upstream in terms of identifying policy solutions and best practices that could be applied throughout P–20 education and beyond.

Each time I pivoted in my career, it was because there was a unique opportunity for me to have an impact on a greater number of people. Each step has informed and inspired my belief in empowering people to succeed in their careers.

Today, I’m privileged to lead a team committed to expanding career pathways. Our work at The DeBruce Foundation aims to help individuals–whether they are starting a career, pivoting to a new one, or re-entering the workforce–build a higher quality of life for themselves and their families. By helping them understand the many ways their interests and skills have value in the workforce, we can equip them to make informed career decisions.

Here is a glimpse at career literacy tools our team developed to help you discover your strengths and interests, learn about different careers, and map out your next steps to your career future:

Agile Work Profiler: a career assessment that provides you with a ranked list of your current strengths and interests – your Agilities – and how they relate to the workforce.

The Career Explorer Tools: a suite of interactive tools with which you can learn about the income, preparation, work activities, and demand for each career.

Draw Your Future with Agilities: a facilitated process that guides you through a reflection of where you are now, where you want to take your career in the future, and how you can leverage your Agilities. Throughout the process, you map out tangible steps to your ideal future.

We partner with k-12 schools, universities, workforce development organizations, libraries, and more to increase career literacy, and together, empower individuals in their career journeys. I invite you to learn more and access resources–at no cost–for your own career, for your organization, or for your classroom at Agilities.org!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I was in college when I first wrote my mission statement: “Improve the quality of life for others in their near and far environments.” Since then, it has guided and inspired the work I get to do! It’s a blessing that my personal mission has led me to a career where I get to work on this every day.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

As a 4-Her, the value of “learn by doing” was instilled in me at an early age. Also, I was taught to pay attention to others who are being and leading in ways you admire. That said, the most valuable resources in my life have been lessons learned from taking action and trying new things and the countless people who God has placed in my life as exceptional role models. My hope is to share those valuable lessons with others to carry on the positive impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://DeBruce.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debrucefound/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeBruceFound
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latknight/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeBruceFound
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeBruceFound
• Other: https://Agilities.org