When Deidre Anderson-Barbee (MPA '00) moved to Kansas City, she was a single mother looking for a graduate program with the tools to make a greater impact. Nearly three decades later, that journey has earned her recognition from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration, also known as NASPAA, as one of two recipients of its global Alumni Spotlight Award.

Anderson-Barbee has spent her career working at every level of the early childhood system, from serving children and families directly to leading nonprofit organizations and shaping statewide policy.

Whether in classrooms, communities or government, she has remained guided by the same belief: meaningful change begins with the people a system is designed to serve.

"I bring my whole self into everything that I do," Anderson-Barbee said. "When you're in community and you are proximate to the work, what you're doing for the system actually works. But when you build a system without the end users in mind, it's just a system."

Originally from Iowa, Anderson-Barbee moved to Kansas City in 1997 and enrolled in the UMKC Master of Public Administration program with an emphasis in urban policy and management at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management.

As a single mother working in child welfare, she sought a graduate program that reflected the work she envisioned for herself: strengthening communities through nonprofit leadership and public service rather than pursuing elected office.

"Getting my master's was having the credential to do the higher-level work," she said. "But I never wanted to be removed from where it all started."

For Anderson-Barbee, the MPA program at UMKC shaped her approach to leadership by emphasizing collaboration.

"The content you get in an MPA degree is relevant to anyone," Anderson-Barbee said. "The MPA program teaches you to collaborate because not everybody's looking for the same career path, not everybody's coming from the same background.”

She also credits faculty members David Renz and former Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser with bringing real-world experience into the classroom.

"The professors who meant the most to me were the ones who could bring their real-life experience to the classroom," she said. "They were able to make it personally relevant for me as a student."

After graduating, Anderson-Barbee built a career centered on improving outcomes for children and families. She spent more than a decade leading EarlystART, a Kansas City nonprofit providing early childhood education services.

During her tenure as chief executive officer, the organization expanded from one early learning center serving approximately 120 children to three centers serving more than 300 while increasing access to high-quality early education through community partnerships and scholarships.

As the organization grew, Anderson-Barbee recognized another challenge facing early childhood education: developing and retaining the workforce needed to meet families' needs.

She founded Starting Early, an organization dedicated to attracting, training and supporting the next generation of early childhood educators while bringing together providers, businesses and policymakers to address systemic challenges.

Her leadership eventually led to statewide service as assistant commissioner of Missouri's Office of Childhood within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she helped oversee efforts to expand access to high-quality early childhood programs across Missouri.

Even in a statewide leadership role, Anderson-Barbee believed the best policy begins in local communities.

"You can't just make decisions from behind a desk," she said. "You need to be out where families are."

Today, Anderson-Barbee continues serving children and families as director of student and family support services at Scuola Vita Nuova Charter School while remaining closely connected to UMKC. She serves on the Bloch School’s Public Affairs Advisory Council, giving input to both the Master of Business Administration and MPA programs.

“One of the greatest joys of leading the Bloch School's MPA program is seeing graduates whose impact reaches far beyond their job titles,” said Susan Opp, Ph.D., Victor E. and Caroline E. Schutte Professor. “Deidre is one of those leaders. She has spent her career bringing people together, tackling difficult public challenges and building stronger systems for children and families across Missouri. Just as important, she has remained deeply connected to UMKC, generously sharing her experience with our students and helping shape the future of the program that helped launch her own career. There is no better example for our students of the difference a UMKC MPA graduate can make.”

For students considering a career in public service, Anderson-Barbee encourages them to think beyond a job title and focus on the impact they hope to make.

"There couldn't be a more important time in our nation to have public servants and leaders," she said. "I think it's the human side of business. What kind of person do you want to be in business? If you're trying to figure that out, the MPA is a program that can help you figure out who you are and how you fit in whatever ecosystem you want to work in."