Gwendolyn Grant
President & CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City
Gwendolyn Grant is President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. She is the first female CEO in the affiliate’s 101-year history. Grant is devoted to the causes of social justice, civil rights, and parity. A true champion for change, her limitless advocacy brings the plights of African Americans and women to the forefront. Grant convenes the Urban League’s Police Accountability Task Force - a coalition of civil rights, community-based, faith-based and civic organizations that sheds light on the racist and discriminatory practices of the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) and advocates for sweeping reforms. The task force has uncovered numerous incidents of excessive and deadly force, discriminatory hiring and promotion practices, racial profiling, and over-policing in the Black community leading to a request for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a patterns and practices investigation of the KCPD.Grant has stepped forward as a private citizen to file a lawsuit against the Board of Police Commissioners to prevent the State of Missouri from forcing the City of KCMO to fund the state-controlled police department. Kansas City is the only major city in the United States that does not have local control of its police department.
She serves on the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education and Workforce Development and as president of the Kansas City Public Schools Buildings Corporation Board, and more. Additionally, she is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Urban League’s State of Black Kansas City – a bi-annual report on African American progress in five key areas.
For her efforts, Grant is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2022 National Urban League’s Women of Power Award and the Whitney M. Young Leadership Award for Advancing Racial Equity, among several other awards.