Kathy A. Agard

284C DeVos Center
(616) 331-7585
AgardK@gvsu.edu

Kathy A. Agard is executive director for the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership and Associate Professor with the School of Public and Nonprofit Administration.

Agard has over 35 years of philanthropic and nonprofit leadership experience. Prior to joining GVSU, she was the founding director of "Learning to Give", a national program of the Council of Michigan Foundations. Started in 1997, LTG was created to integrate the teaching of philanthropy into the K-12 school curriculum. Prior to Learning to Give she was the founding director of the Michigan Community Foundations' Youth Project, a $64 million statewide initiative to extend community foundations service, develop community foundation organizations, and establish youth grantmaking programs throughout the State of Michigan. Other prior experience includes senior leadership positions with the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, and Hackley Hospital. She has served as an adjunct faculty member for several public universities..

Agard earned a master's degree in Public Administration and a doctorate in Educational Leadership with a major in human resource development from Western Michigan University. She currently serves as a Vice Chairman of the board and Chair of the Investigational Review Committee for Hackley Hospital, and as lay leader for Temple United Methodist Church in Muskegon Heights.

• To relax, I like to... read science fiction and fantasy, go to light-hearted movies, plant bulbs and perennial plants.
• My personal hero is... John Gardner, founder of Common Cause and Independent Sector, former head of HEW
• The book I am currently recommending to my friends is ... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
• In a past life, I think I may have been ... a poet
• My favorite place in the world is ... the north side of the Muskegon channel on the Lake Michigan beach at night in the summer
• My favorite quote is ... "this too shall pass"
• My favorite pig out food is ... anything chocolate
• My biggest pet peeve is ... the quick "can't be done" rather than the "hmmm, how can we do it?"
• The best advice I ever got was ... "bring solutions, not problems".