Board Members

Mr. Anthony D. Williams, Board President   

Committee(s): Finance Chair, Governance Chair, Fundraising

Mr. Anthony D. Williams is the current Board President of KIPP Endeavor Academy. For over a decade as a community leader, he has demonstrated an unwavering passion for mentoring, education, entrepreneurship and economic development, particularly in urban communities. Consequently, he has served in the Kansas City community as a mentor, volunteer and board member of organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club, Red Cross, YouthFriends, Junior Achievement, Phoenix Family Housing Corporation, United Way, and Kauffman Foundation. Mr. Williams is also the current President of the 100 Black Men of Greater Kansas City, a non-profit organization whose programs target African American male youth, with a core focus on mentoring and education

Professionally, Mr. Williams is a management consultant with significant experience working with senior-level management of firms ranging from startups to Fortune 1000 companies in the technology, utilities, healthcare and retail industries, on engagements to develop new business models, identify new markets, growth opportunities, resource allocation, project management, workforce optimization, financial analysis, and technology integration.

 ”Why try to fit in, when you were born to stand out”.

Mr. Ford R. Nelson, Jr., Board Vice-President

Mr. Nelson is an attorney and partner with Armstrong Teasdale, LLP. He focuses on real estate and business law. He is a member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, Missouri Bar Association and American Bar Association. He has been elected to serve as Rotary Club 13 President in 2010-2011. He is a Board Member with the Citizens Association, Friends of the Zoo Inc. of Kansas City, MO and is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of The Nature Conservancy for state of Missouri.

“The children of Kansas City are our most important resource.”

Mr. Joseph Ronnebaum, Board Treasurer

Mr. Ronnebaum is a tax director in the Kansas City office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. In this role, he specializes in income tax accounting, tax accounting methods, corporate and partnership compliance and income tax consulting for large multi-national companies. He is a certified public accounting in both Kansas and Missouri and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

“Every child deserves a chance to succeed in life. The best place to start is with a quality education.”

Mrs. Victoria Thompson, Board Secretary                                     

Committee(s): Evaluation Chair, Fundraising, Marketing

Mrs. Thompson is the managing Assistant Broker with Reece and Nichols Realtors’ Country Club Plaza Office. She specializes in residential home resale and condominium sales. She sold real estate for 5 ½ years in the Dallas market before moving to Kansas City where she has actively been involved with real estate since 2004. Her efforts focus on training, recruitment, retention and education of agents. She is an active member with the Downtown Council and Home Builders Association of Kansas City.

“I believe that every child has a right to a decent education. Children are the future for the cities we live in. KIPP is the vehicle that will ensure that our children will have a chance and a choice for a decent education. They will have the unlimited possibilities to dream of a brighter future and the opportunity to attend college.”

Dr. Joan Caulfield, Board Member
Committees: Education Chair, Evaluation

Ms. Caulfield has worked with curriculum and instruction for three decades. She is a former teacher, principal and associate superintendent of the Kansas City, Missouri School District and professor of education and Chairman of the Department of Education at Rockhurst University.  Presently, she is a consultant to schools and districts throughout the country. She is a co-author (with Wayne Jennings) of Inciting Learning: a Guide to Brain-Compatible Instruction published by NASSP and Bridging the Learning/Assessment Gap: Showcase Teaching (Rowman and Littlefield).  Recently, she co-authored the accompanying Facilitator’s Guide for a series of tapes on the adolescent brain for the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

“KIPP is the answer that education has been waiting for—a model where all students have the opportunity to maximize their learning and promise through research-based teaching strategies and attention to character development.”

Mr. Jason Parson, Board Member

Mr. Parson, President/CEO of Parson & Associates, has always called Kansas City home.  Whether serving his country in Operation Iraqi Freedom or studying the success of the Sustainable South Bronx green job training programs in New York, his roots are firmly planted in Missouri.  A graduate of the University of Missouri - Kansas City, Mr. Parson is an award-winning entrepreneur with a passion for good works and stewardship.

“While visiting KIPP I was thoroughly impressed to know that all students are equipped with the necessary tools to be successful in life without making excuses based on their social or economic condition.  It is abundantly clear that KIPP has brought optimism to a generation of young people that would otherwise be stuck in a state of hopelessness.”

 Mr. Peter Ho, Board Member

Mr. Ho is Founder and Managing Principal of VISOR Consulting, LLC. He specializes in providing corporate real estate advisory, strategic planning and project management solutions to companies which value the link between real estate (facilities) and the business plan. He has been in the architectural, corporate and commercial real estate industries since 1985. He has served as past Board Director for the Kansas City Downtown Rotary Club 13.

“I serve on the Board of KIPP because I share in the values of high expectations; ‘we can all learn’, ‘there are no shortcuts’, ‘work hard’ and ‘be nice’ are the keys for every urban child to see the future of attending college regardless of socio-economic status.”

Dr. Patricia Lucido, Board Member

Dr. Lucido currently serves as a professor in the Department of Education at Rockhurst University.  Her areas of expertise include science education and educational technology applications.  Her K-12 teaching experience was primarily in middle school science.  Before coming to Kansas City in 2008, she spent 29 years on the faculty at Northwest Missouri State University.  She is active in Science Teachers of Missouri and the National Science Teachers Association.

Mr. Chris Rosson, Board Member

As a minority youth raised in a single-parent home in Northeast Kansas City, MO, Chris experienced firsthand the negative pressures of growing up in an area defined by violent crime, poverty, and hopelessness. Despite the odds against him, Chris became a first-generation college student, graduating summa cum laude from both Johns Hopkins University and William Jewell College, and was named 1 of the top 20 college students in America by earning a spot on USA Today’s All-USA College Academic First Team. Additionally, he has completed tutorials at Oxford University in England, served as a policy advisor to the Missouri Governor, traveled extensively across the globe, and been honored as a delegate to the Academy of Achievement. Today, Chris works at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

“Education is an amazing vehicle for personal change, and I truly believe that KIPP empowers its students with the encouragement, attitude and determination required for them to use this vehicle to achieve academic and personal successes unimaginable to them today.”