For more than 25 years, Dr. Tom Vansaghi has held senior leadership roles across public service, higher education, and the nonprofit sector. His career began in 1992 as a volunteer on Governor Mel Carnahan’s campaign, which led to a series of leadership appointments in Missouri’s state government, including with the Office of the Governor and the Missouri General Assembly.
Dr. Vansaghi was later recruited to lead strategic functions—including government relations, fundraising, marketing, community engagement, and planning—at Northwest Missouri State University and subsequently at the Metropolitan Community College District in Kansas City. In 2013, he became executive director of the North American Primary Care Research Group, an international association dedicated to advancing primary care research. He served as a tenured professor of Nonprofit Leadership at William Jewell College from 2015 to 2025.
Since 2010, Dr. Vansaghi has served as a senior fellow at the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, teaching graduate seminars and professional development programs in nonprofit leadership and fundraising. He was appointed Managing Director of the Midwest Center on June 16, 2025. He will continue teaching graduate courses focused on nonprofit management and fundraising as well as other seminars and courses.
Guided by a deep belief in the love of humanity—the very root of philanthropy—Dr. Vansaghi approaches his work not merely as a career, but as a calling. He often draws inspiration from the words of George Bernard Shaw, who wrote:
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.”
For Dr. Vansaghi, leadership is not about status or self-advancement, but about holding the torch of service with purpose, passion, and the intention to leave the world—and its systems of care—more just, humane, and vibrant than he found them.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Government from Northwest Missouri State University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Missouri–Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Political Science and Public Affairs from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He is a proud 2009 graduate of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Centurions Leadership Program.
Dr. Vansaghi lives in Brookside (Kansas City, Missouri) with his wife Lisa and their twin sons, Jack and Ben.