For professional fundraiser Elizabeth Wheeler, speaking to 1,000 adults comes more naturally than teaching a lesson to a group of 10-year-old girls. Yet each year, the Senior Director of Philanthropy at Kansas City University steps outside her comfort zone to coach third, fourth, and fifth-grade girls through Girls on the Run, a program that combines running with confidence-building and life skills. It’s one of the many ways Elizabeth contributes her time and professional expertise across Kansas City.
Her work with Girls on the Run, Newhouse, and the UMKC Women’s Council, along with a lengthy record of service to other organizations, earned her recognition as one of The Independent’s 2026 Rising Stars. Jennifer Ingraham, who nominated Elizabeth, sees her ability to bring others into the work as an important part of her impact. “She doesn’t volunteer for recognition,” Jennifer said. “She does it because she genuinely cares about people and believes in the power of community.”
Elizabeth describes volunteering as something of a hobby. “Some people knit or read,” she said. “I go out and help. I just have a lot of energy.”
Elizabeth puts that energy to work at Newhouse, where she has volunteered since 2019, including helping organize Imagine a Day, the organization’s major fundraising gala. Courtney Thomas, Newhouse; said Elizabeth helped grow gala revenue from $310,000 in 2019 to more than $1.18 million in 2025. Courtney also credited Elizabeth with helping Newhouse tell its story, engage individuals and businesses, and handle work ranging from event setup to teardown.
Aside from the fundraising, storytelling, and events, Elizabeth is just as willing to work directly with the people these non profits serve. She has supported families at Back-to-School Night and Trunk-or-Treat and served meals to families at the shelter. “What I admire most about Elizabeth is how she shows up with authenticity, compassion, and professionalism to every situation,” Courtney said. “She has a natural ability to connect with others, makes them feel seen and heard, and she inspires others around her to take action.”
Many of the causes Elizabeth gives her time to support women and girls. Along with her work with Newhouse and Girls on the Run, she served on the UMKC Women’s Council board, where she led fundraising efforts supporting women pursuing graduate and professional degrees. She has also volunteered with Madam President Camp, a leadership program for middle-school-aged girls. Elizabeth said part of what draws her to this work is the inequities women still face, particularly women of color and women with disabilities. “I’m trying to use my privilege and my power for good, and to just do my little part to give back to people who might not have as much as me,” she said.
It’s the personal side of the work, and seeing the impact she can have on individuals, that Elizabeth finds especially rewarding. “It feeds my soul,” she said. Elizabeth doesn’t have children of her own, but she wants to use her time and talents to support other people’s children. During the roughly 12-week Girls on the Run season, she watches relationships develop as the girls learn, train, and ultimately complete a celebratory 5K. One former participant’s father later recognized Elizabeth while she was walking her dog; he stopped to thank her and told her his daughter felt much more confident after Girls on the Run, and now wanted to start running track. “You can really make a big impact, and it doesn’t take much,” Elizabeth said.
Elizabeth also applies her professional skills to helping people and organizations develop capabilities. From 2022 to 2024, she volunteered with the Kansas City Free Eye Clinic, where she helped plan and execute fundraising events, trained its board of directors in fundraising, and worked with its executive director on fundraising strategy. Elizabeth also mentors UMKC Honors Program students one-on-one.
She approaches those roles as an exchange rather than assuming the role of expert. “I’m always learning from the people who I mentor and the people that I lead or the people that I volunteer with,” Elizabeth said. “I hope that they’re learning from me. I’m certainly learning from them.”
Elizabeth also makes a point of bringing others into the causes she supports. She recruits friends to participate in Newhouse activities and reaches out to family and friends for Girls on the Run sponsorships. She wants people to understand that they can make an impact, and she hopes her own involvement encourages them to find causes they care about. “I want people to feel like they are empowered to make the world better and that they can go off and start their own thing, start their own committee, volunteer for their own cause,” she said.
There isn’t one clear-cut reason Elizabeth gives so much of her time to service; when she sees a need in the community, she feels compelled to do what she can. “You can either just ignore it and be in your own little bubble, or you can decide, ‘I’m going to be, like that cliché quote, the change you wish to see in the world.’”
Elizabeth knows she can’t address every need. Instead, she focuses on what she can do with the time, skills, and resources she has, and for her, that’s enough to give her life meaning. “I’m just trying to make my little corner of the world a little bit better for anybody that I can,” Elizabeth said. “I want to live a life that feels like it was worth something.”
Featured in the October 17, 2026 issue of The Independent.
By Monica V. Reynolds
Photo Credit: Tom Styrkowicz
