Kay Gasen serves as director of the Community Partnership Project at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a joint initiative with University of Missouri Extension. In this role, she provides leadership to a variety of efforts that link the university and the St. Louis metropolitan community. Her strengths include planning, program development and implementation, grant writing and administration, and the development of collaborations and partnerships.

Kay joined the University of Missouri faculty in 1986 and has more than 20 years of experience as an educator, program manager, and administrator, including serving as Extension community development specialist, regional director, Public Policy Research Center director of Community and Neighborhood Development, and Urban Program leader. She has also been project director for two U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Outreach Partnership Center grants, serving Old North St. Louis and Affton.

Kay is a UMSL graduate with a master's degree in Public Policy Administration. She was the 2003 recipient of the C. Brice Ratchford Memorial Fellowship Award, in recognition of outstanding commitment, dedication, and effectiveness in advancing the land-grant mission of the University of Missouri.

Holly Ingraham joined the staff at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2001. Over the past 20 years, Holly has worked with a variety of communities and community-improvement initiatives as a project director, program manager, consultant, community organizer, trainer, and board member. Her strengths in community building include program development, community leadership development, collaboration, civic engagement, and community assessment.

Holly gained her bachelor's degree at Pomona College in California, served as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., and then earned her master's in Public Policy Administration from UMSL. Prior to joining the staff at UMSL, she served as the program manager for a Healthy Communities initiative for the St. Louis County Health Department, ran a Community Education Center for the St. Louis Public Schools, and served as a trainer and program manager for the Coro Midwestern Center.

At the Community Partnership Project, Holly works to develop and support community partnership initiatives that link University resources with the needs and priorities of residents and communities in the St. Louis region. She also provides technical assistance to neighborhoods throughout St. Louis, and works with faculty and students to connect their courses and classwork to St. Louis communities. She is the manager and an instructor for the Neighborhood Leadership Academy and on the faculty of the Missouri Community Development Academy.

Kara Lubischer joined the University of Missouri Extension staff in July 2007. Prior to joining Extension, Kara worked for St. Louis County Government as a comprehensive planner in the Department of Planning. Before moving to St. Louis, Kara worked for Slavic Village Development, a neighborhood-based community development corporation in inner-city Cleveland, Ohio, where she served as a community organizer and program director for an active living program, and as a trainer for several leadership development programs for citizens, both youth and adults.

Kara's strengths in community building include youth civic engagement, program development, leadership development, and organizing residents around neighborhood issues.

Kara gained her bachelor's degree in social work from Saint Louis University in 2000 and earned her master’s in Urban Planning, Design, and Development from Cleveland State University in 2005.