Ingram's April 2023

CLASS of 2023

ALICIA KOTARBA For those who say education could use a stern application of entrepreneurial prin ciples, we give you . . . Alicia Kotarba.

learned the value of hard work and dedication. Despite the financial chal lenges we faced, I was determined to pursue my passions.” That meant odd jobs as a farmhand during school breaks, cooking pizzas at a local pub, and supplementing the household income by starting a power-washing business at 17. “These experiences,” he says, “taught me the importance of taking the initiative and being resource ful and have helped shape my entre preneurial spirit.” At 36, he applies that initiative today as chief revenue officer for InStore Design Display, help ing improve operations, increase gross margins, expand into new markets, and diversify revenue streams for a com pany that designs and builds retail dis The 39-year-old president of Notre Dame de Sion, which operates the Midtown co-ed grade school and the all-girls high school in south Kansas City. An entrepre neur at heart, she founded myEDmatch, a job-matching website for teachers that was eventually acquired by Frontline Education. She did a stint as a Kauffman Foundation fellow, working on initiatives to support innovation in education. And since 2018, she’s been at Sion, where in just five years, she says, “we have grown enrollment by 10 percent, fundraising by 100 percent, and completed a capital campaign for a new STEM wing.” Hers has been an intentional career path. “I feel the foundations I have built from a class room teacher in Los Angeles to starting and growing Teach for America's region

plays for global brands and retailers. Among them: T-Mobile, the Chiefs, and Walmart. In just over five years there, he’s helped boost gross margin by more than 7 percent, and in 2022 alone, over saw $2 million in net new revenue. “I have always loved Kansas City, its peo ple, food, sports, and culture,” he says. “Networking and charity involvement in the city is really important to me. I am active in Top Gun Kansas City, Lift KC, and the Avila University Alumni Association,” and he’s an avid outdoors man who loves to hike, camp, and fish, often with his 11-year-daughter sharing the experience. “Being a dad is one of my greatest joys, and I am grateful for every moment I get to spend with my family,” he says. al office and eventually a startup have combined to solidify my love of both education and innovation,” Kotarba says. Before launching her own company, she was the founding Executive Director of Teach For America-Kansas City, which grew to support 225 teachers a year and raised $4.5 million in just four years. That experience, plus an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, spark-ed the conception of myEDmatch. With husband Wade, she’s raising a pair of pre-kindergartners in an ideal work ing-mom dynamic at her alma mater: “My two children attend school with me at Sion and St. Mark’s Catholic Church,” she says. She’s also on the board of WIN for KC and the Missouri State Public Charter School Commission.

TREVOR LEWIS Little was gifted in this life to Trevor Lewis: Raised by a single mother on a teacher’s salary, he says, “I quickly

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Grand Opening July 4 Weekend

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April 2023

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