Our Staff

Tanesha Nooner-Ford is a nonprofit executive, consultant and systems-level leader with deep experience guiding organizations through transition, growth and change. Her career centers on expanding educational opportunity and strengthening communities.

She spent 15 years with Kauffman Scholars, ultimately serving as Executive Director, where she led the recalibration and successful sunsetting of the organization’s 20-year, $144 million scholarship program. There, she supported thousands of students on their postsecondary journeys while stewarding staff, systems and outcomes through a period of significant transition.

Through her firm, High Definition Consulting, Tanesha partners with nonprofits to build capacity, provide interim and transitional leadership, and coach executives navigating organizational change.

Tanesha is currently serving her second term as a Board Member At-Large for Kansas City Public Schools, where she is Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Policy Committee. Her governance work reflects a strong commitment to effective leadership, equity and public accountability.

An engaged community leader, she has served with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Alumni Board and Girls on the Run Kansas City, and is an active member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated; The Links, Incorporated; and City of Truth Church.

A marathon finisher and champion for youth and families, Tanesha’s greatest joy is being a wife to her husband, David, and mother to their two children, Dawson and Harper.