Driven 2 Educate

When Murray L. Woodard II looks at the performance and data points of Kansas City education, he doesn't just see numbers, he sees his community. He sees himself. Being born and raised in Kansas City, Murray was one of the students that he is now passionately serving. This gives him a unique perspective and an inner drive to bring people together in order to improve educational outcomes for students of his home city. Murray is the Program Officer for Education at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he provides support to the Foundation's education-focused initiatives through program development, program management, building relationships, and research. Previously, Murray was the External Partnerships Coordinator for Kauffman Scholars, Inc. (KSI) and an integral part of the operations team. Earlier, he was a post-secondary coach for KSI and worked to support Scholars facing the challenges of life in college. Murray now leads the Foundation's community engagement and ownership work, which includes the Gr