Eight degrees, a city council seat and a development company, starting from public housing.
People always want to know how I got here. They see the degrees, the developments, the board seats, and they assume there was some master plan. There was not.
When the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development comes to your city, it matters who is in the room.
Working with Councilwoman Weaver, I secured funding for police trailers and ATVs for the Third District. These were not luxury purchases.
Kansas City has a race problem. Every American city does, but Kansas City's is written into its geography. Troost Avenue divides the city by race and income.
I introduced legislation targeting Troost revitalization because I refused to accept that a street could permanently define which neighborhoods received investment and which did not.
During my time on the Kansas City Council, I forged a working relationship with local labor unions that went beyond endorsements and campaign contributions.
I recognized that potential early, and I worked to connect Kansas City's economy to international markets in ways that created jobs and opportunity for the communities I served.
I received that recognition through my involvement with People to People International, the citizen diplomacy organization founded by President Eisenhower in 1956.