Cornerstones of Care hit the proverbial jackpot when they decided to hire Merideth Rose as its president and CEO, she brought with her an entire entourage of village keepers, mentors, relatives, and friends to help her run the organization that blended five different locally renowned institutions. This story is not without complication, but complications bring a richness that is woven throughout Merideth’s life and the life of the agency.
Starting with a brief recap of Cornerstones of Care, there is a monumental 150 years of history and service in the combined five organizations that make up the current non profit: The Gillis Home, Ozanam Home for Boys, Spofford Receiving Home for Children, The Marillac Center, and the Missouri-based agency, Healthy Families. Each storied and respected organization carried a legacy of compassionate care for children and families in our greater metropolitan area. So, it’s no wonder that in 2017, the finally joined groups came together as “true building blocks or ‘cornerstones’ of compassionate care for even more children and families.” The current mission of the organization is “partnering for safe and healthy communities.” The statement continues with, “We believe that children thrive within families, and families flourish within caring communities. Every day, our dedicated team collaborates with countless children and families, empowering them with comprehensive prevention, treatment, and support services.”
How and why does Merideth Rose fit in this equation? She was raised in Kansas City by her mother’s sister, thus placing her in a foster care situation of her own. She fought with her own demons as an adolescent, received an education at Calvary Lutheran High School, and was lucky enough to have mentors and guides who saw not a troubled kid, but a smart, sharp, capable person in the making. She got pregnant with twins, who were put in the foster care system during a particularly trying time in her life. While they were returned to her, it left a generational imprint of the traumas and perils of the foster care system in general. Merideth knew that things could and should be made much easier for the children in the care of the system.
After she put her education on hold, she went back to school and earned a bachelor’s degree in theory and human relations development. After that, she earned a master’s degree in public affairs, public and emergency management.
Her professional journey is equally as interesting, and completely varied in scope and complexity. As one of her mentors, Rex Archer, the City of Kansas City Health Department and the guiding hand through Kansas City’s COVID-19 response, urged Merideth to pursue a career in public health. She obtained the highest security level (GS-15) at Homeland Security, and ended up working for FEMA, managing the claims process during Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast. Becoming burned out, she returned home to work in the Independence School District for six years, where she was the first African-American female administrator at a cabinet level. When equity programs were dismantled, Merideth left to serve as chief human resources officer at Community Services League.
Another mentor in Merideth’s life, Dr. Dred Scott, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City; convinced her to open herself up to the opportunity of talking to Cornerstones of Care, and after multiple interviews and many other candidates in the mix, she was hired there in 2022, fitting like a glove on her own hand. The match was a divine union of an organization in need of a shepherd for the future, and a woman who was ready to bring her arsenal of skills and lived experiences and know-how for being a leader to help an institution become a place of best practices for children and families.
Once in her role, she set forth the expectations where a future is envisioned in which “she and her peers can safely end the overutilization of the foster care system by providing resources and support to children and families in crisis.” Where the rubber meets the road is in the details of how the agency plans to move forward. Her “Future Forward 2030” plan is a strategic direction whereby the plan is to focus on sharpening rather than shrinking, aiming to clearly define the organization’s core competencies and exclusively perform what they do exceptionally well. Her goal is to do their work more deeply rather than trying to do everything.
While Merideth is quick to thank and recognize all of the people in her life who saw something redeemable in her, including her own mother, her aunt, her teachers, her mentors, her family… she is also learning to recognize the incredible impact she has had on thousands of families and children in our area. The agency is currently serving more than 16,000 people in the metro. Over the next few months, she and her staff will evaluate 28 programs on a rubric of 13 criteria to analyze what they do best. Ultimately, she wants to continue the work of disrupting systemic harm to children by investing in prevention and education. Part of that work will include opening a new education campus at the former Archbishop O’Hara High School, long vacant. The campus will join the Gillis and Ozanam campus in educational day treatment for students, grades K-12.
Merideth is a professional, a wife, a mother, and she herself is now a village keeper. It seems she learned from some of the best, and she now finds herself as her family’s village keeper, in addition to making the world a safer, better place for the children and families who desperately need village keepers now. She has a trauma-informed background, and she leads a trauma-informed group of people who are determined to change the future of how children navigate a difficult world. Cornerstones of Care couldn’t be in better hands.
Featured in the February 7, 2026 issue of The Independent
By: Anne Potter Russ
