Letter to Parents and Guardians regarding the Kansas City Missouri School District Accreditation Issue
Carrie Besnette Hauser Named New President and CEO of Kauffman Scholars
Kauffman Scholars, Inc., a comprehensive college preparatory and access program that serves urban students in Kansas City, has named Carrie Besnette Hauser, Ph.D., as its new president and CEO. Besnette Hauser comes to the position with extensive experience in the college preparatory and access field, including a variety of leadership roles in private foundations, higher education, and the public policy arena.
"We are thrilled to have Carrie Besnette Hauser lead Kauffman Scholars into the future, said Carl Schramm, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO. "Carrie has a wealth of relevant experience working with urban students that is matched only by her passion for positively changing the trajectory of their lives. Her ability to understand and address students’ needs, coupled with her track record in building strategic community partnerships, will serve our scholars very well in high school, college and beyond."
Launched by the Kauffman Foundation in 2003, the Kauffman Scholars program is the Foundation's longest-term and largest commitment at more than $70 million. Built upon the model and lessons learned from Project Choice, the high school dropout prevention program Ewing Kauffman started in 1988, Kauffman Scholars currently serves 1,800 students from seventh grade through college and is designed to provide intensive academic support and life skills to help students graduate from college.
"It is our hope, as it was Mr. Kauffman's, to support programs in Kansas City that can serve as models for the nation to follow," added Schramm. "Kauffman Scholars is poised to become such a model, and I am confident that Carrie will continue to build on the program’s excellence. Based on our experience and results, we have an opportunity and responsibility to influence the national dialog about providing quality education and access to college for low-income students."
Besnette Hauser comes to Kauffman Scholars after serving as vice president of advancement and external relations at Metropolitan State College of Denver, which serves a diverse urban population of 24,000 students. She also was executive director of the College’s foundation.
Before joining Metro State, Besnette Hauser was vice president and an original senior officer of the Daniels Fund, the $1 billion charitable legacy of cable magnate Bill Daniels. There, she led the design and implementation of the Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Program, which was designed to serve low-income, at-risk students across a four-state region. In the early 2000s, following the death of Bill Daniels and as the Daniels Fund was developing its college access program, Besnette Hauser and her colleagues consulted with Kauffman Foundation staff, drawing from experiences of Kauffman’s Project Choice program.
Besnette Hauser also created the Daniels Opportunity Awards, which distributed $6 million in grants to colleges across a four-state region to assist them in serving non-traditional populations such as students with GEDs, students from the foster care system, and returning military personnel. Also while at Daniels, she served a one-year term as a "loaned executive" advising the mayor of Denver on a city-wide college scholarship program. Her previous positions included assistant director of state relations for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and regional director of admissions and alumni affairs in Los Angeles for the University of Arizona, her undergraduate alma mater.
"The Kauffman Scholars board is so pleased to welcome Carrie as our new leader," said Lonnie Scott, Kauffman Scholars board member. "Carrie is very sharp and capable, and she brings the kind of experience, background, and dedication to take the program to the next level. That will only spell great things for our scholars and their parents, and the community as a whole." "I am delighted to join the Kauffman Scholars team and the Kauffman Foundation in their innovative work and contributions to the dialog around college access and success for underserved students," said Besnette Hauser. "Our economic future as a nation will depend largely on the young people in the K-12 pipeline and positioning them to succeed in a knowledge-based world. The return on investment is unlike many others for students, their families, communities, and society."
A dedicated community leader, Besnette Hauser has served on numerous civic and economic development boards in the Denver area including the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Denver Sports Commission, and Visit Denver. Dedicated to college access, she is past president of the National Scholarship Providers Association, served on the National Pathways to College Network executive committee, and is on the national board of the Educational Policy Institute. She was a member of the Mayor’s Justice Center Task Force and received gubernatorial appointments to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. In 2008, she was named the 9News leader of the year by Denver’s NBC affiliate and the Colorado Leadership Alliance. She earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from UCLA.
Besnette Hauser was appointed following a national search that began in July when former Kauffman Scholars president and CEO Steve Green announced that he would be leaving the program to start his own company. On Aug. 31, 2011, Green was named interim superintendent of the Kansas City, Missouri School District.
