PEAK2026 St. Louis Keynotes – Biographies

Having been dubbed ‘The Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century’ by Sports Illustrated, Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s athletic accomplishments are literally second to none. By the conclusion of her career in the heptathlon and long jump events she had amassed six Olympic medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) and four World Champion titles over four consecutive Olympic Games. Jackie was the first woman in history to earn more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon and today, over 20 years later, she still holds the world heptathlon record of 7,291 points. She continues to hold the Olympic and national records in the long jump and her 1994 performance in the long jump remains the second longest in history.

In addition to heptathlon and long jump, Jackie was a world class 100m and 200m runner and, after a decorated All-American career in basketball at UCLA, she eventually played professional basketball for a short time.

Jackie’s athletic accomplishments have been well documented and remain some of the best ever across all of sports. Less well known are her tireless efforts and remarkable accomplishments off the field as a philanthropist and an advocate for children’s education, health issues (in particular asthma from which she has suffered throughout her life), racial equality, social reform, and women’s rights.

Born in 1962 in East St. Louis, IL, Jackie came from very humble beginnings but despite very strained conditions she describes her early home life as being full of love, principle, and discipline. These ingrained values have served Jackie well both on and off the field through her life. She has been described by the sports media as one of the warmest, most even-tempered, grace-filled persons in all of athletics.

One of four children to Mary and Alfred Joyner, Jackie’s older brother Al went on to become an Olympic Champion triple jumper and married Florence Griffith (Joyner), a five time Olympic medalist. In 1986 she married her long time coach, Bob Kersee.

Jackie is the author of both A Kind of Grace (1997), her autobiography, and A Woman’s Place is Everywhere. She is an active professional speaker and is widely considered one of the most inspiring motivational speakers in all of sports. Jackie speaks on topics of athletics, business success, living with the limitations of medical issues, nutrition, women’s issue, and youth advocacy.

Deena Lauver Scotti joined Missouri Foundation for Health in 2002 and currently serves as the vice president of program administration. She is responsible for guiding the operational and financial aspects of the Foundation’s work and ensuring alignment and consistency of workflows and schedules across all programmatic work and oversees the Foundation’s data and information systems. The program administration team works collaboratively across the Foundation to design practices and systems that align with the Foundation’s values and strategy.

Deena is a FOCUS St. Louis Leadership St. Louis alumni and has been a long-time PEAK volunteer having served as co-chair of the Equitable Grantmaking Community of Practice and was a member of the Principles for PEAK Grantmaking workgroup and Board of Directors Nominating Committee. Currently, Deena is the Treasurer of Philanthropy Missouri’s Board of Directors.

Pastor Bethany Johnson-Javois, MSW (she/her) is a health and racial justice advocate dedicated to the improved health and well-being of the people of the Greater St. Louis region and Southern Illinois. She is President & CEO of Deaconess Foundation, Pastor of Monument of Faith Church, Inc., former CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network (IHN), and former Managing Director for the Ferguson Commission.

Bethany returns to Deaconess Foundation as President & CEO after having formerly served on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Devoted to the Deaconess mission and guided by faith, Bethany leads the Foundation in its continued pursuit of the improved health of the Metropolitan St. Louis and Southern Illinois communities and its people through philanthropy, advocacy, and organizing for racial equity and policy change.

Bethany formerly served as the CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network (IHN), a position she held for 12 years. She led the health intermediary nonprofit in serving the region’s safety net health care providers and the local community to promote the mission of providing quality, affordable, accessible care to all residents of Metropolitan St. Louis, with an emphasis on the medically underserved. Her leadership in the healthcare sector has garnered notable recognition including being selected by Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri as a Silver Bell Award recipient for her outstanding community service, leadership, vision, and values, and being selected as St. Louis Children’s Hospital Community Advocate of the Year. She was selected by the St. Louis Business Journal to be in the class of Diverse Business Leaders and received the Access to Equal Justice Award from the Washington University School of Law’s Clinical Education Program. Under her leadership, the IHN was chosen as The St. Louis American Advocacy Organization of the Year.

She possesses over 20 years of experience rolling-up-her-sleeves working and volunteering in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors focused on equalizing the quality of life for under-resourced, yet vibrant people. Bethany’s expertise lies in creating systems change infrastructure and developing tactical strategies that increase responsiveness and equity for the people for whom our public systems are accountable to serve. As pastor at Monument of Faith, Inc. with the gift of evangelism, she is a noted motivational speaker, trainer, and facilitator around purpose leadership and spiritual development.

Notably, Bethany was named the Managing Director for the Ferguson Commission in 2015. The Ferguson Commission, an independent, volunteer group appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, was charged with addressing the underlying root causes that led to community unrest in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. After a comprehensive study that included extensive community engagement, the Commission published an unflinching report of its findings and 189 calls to action that charted a new path toward healing and positive change for the residents of the St. Louis region.

DeAngela Burns-Wallace, Ed.D.
President and CEO
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace is president and chief executive officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that provides access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography.

Working across the public service, academic, and philanthropic sectors, Dr. Burns-Wallace carries a career commitment to enriching and strengthening equitable economic mobility. With Ewing Kauffman’s vision serving as the centerpiece for the Kauffman Foundation, Dr. Burns-Wallace guided a comprehensive community engagement process to solidify the Foundation’s enduring bond with Kansas City and renew its focus on college access and completion, workforce and career development, and entrepreneurship.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Dr. Burns-Wallace was the secretary of administration and the chief information technology officer for the State of Kansas under Governor Laura Kelly. She was the first African American to hold either cabinet seat in the state’s history.

Dr. Burns-Wallace’s career in higher education includes serving as vice provost at the University of Kansas, assistant vice provost at the University of Missouri, and assistant dean at Stanford University. She began her career as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, serving tours in China, South Africa, and in Washington D.C.

Service is a cornerstone of Dr. Burns-Wallace’s journey. She was elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees in 2020, and she has held board roles in numerous local, regional, and national organizations including the College Board and Heart of Missouri United Way. She was recently elected as a life member to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations.

While her career has taken Dr. Burns-Wallace around the world, she has never been far from the neighborhoods of Kansas City where she was raised and drew inspiration for leading a life of service. Her most important title is mom to her son, Xavier.

Kayla Reed (she/her) is a Black, queer feminist organizer and strategist from St. Louis, Missouri. Kayla is the co-founder and Executive Director of Action St. Louis, a grassroots racial justice organization founded after the 2014 Ferguson Uprising that works to build Black political power. In her role, she has led campaigns that have resulted in the election of progressive Black candidates throughout the St. Louis region and led issue-based campaigns around housing, voting rights and the criminal legal system. Kayla is also a lead strategist in the Movement for Black Lives, where she co-founded the Electoral Justice Project (EJP), a national campaign of the Movement for Black Lives, that seeks to challenge electoral injustice, expand and mobilize the Black electorate and strengthen the capacity of Black-led organizations building power across the U.S.

Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Under her leadership, which started in 2020, MCF launched the prestigious Freedom Scholar award and has granted more than $323 million in funding to dozens of organizations doing the hard work of shifting power to those people who have long been excluded from having it. Prior to MCF, Dr. Rojas was the cofounder and CEO of the Workers Lab, an innovation lab that partners with workers to develop new ideas that help them succeed and flourish.

Richard E. Besser, MD
President & CEO

Richard Besser, MD, is the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), since April 2017. Previously, he had a distinguished career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ABC News.

RWJF is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. Partnering with communities, practitioners, and institutions to advance health equity through funding, advocacy, and evidence-building we envision a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

Dr. Besser, an advocate for healthy communities and economic inclusion, emphasizes the importance of accountable public health systems and racial justice. He played a significant role in prioritizing health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Besser, a National Academy of Medicine member, serves on multiple boards, including Howard University’s Board of Trustees and the Independent Sector’s Board of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Recognized with the Surgeon General’s Medallion for his public health contributions, He volunteered as a pediatrician for over 30 years in community clinics across the country. He and his wife, Jeanne, have two adult sons.

Kevin Bolduc leads the creation and delivery of CEP’s performance assessments and advisory services, including the development of new tools that help funders improve their effectiveness. Since joining CEP in 2001, Kevin helped design CEP’s groundbreaking Grantee Perception Report and other funder assessments, and he helped conduct CEP research on issues of strategy and grantmaking. His writing on philanthropy appears on CEP’s blog and a variety of outlets, including Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and to funder boards and staff on topics of strategy, assessment, and high quality grantmaking. Kevin was formerly a member of the board of directors of PEAK Grantmaking. He was an inaugural Independent Sector American Express NGen Fellow and was selected to the Aspen Institute Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders. Kevin has served on advisory boards for Independent Sector and the Communications Network, among others. Before joining CEP, Kevin was a consultant with The Parthenon Group, a Boston-based strategy consulting firm. He lives with his husband in Cambridge, MA where they enjoy cooking for friends and family, exploring the Boston region on foot, skiing in Vermont, and binging guilty-pleasure TV.

Rachel Rossi serves as President of Alliance for Justice (AFJ), where she leads the organization in its bold and unwavering commitment to justice, equity, and defending democracy. Appointed following a nationwide search, Rossi brings a career defined by fearless advocacy, principled leadership, and a deep dedication to civil rights.

A trailblazer in the legal and advocacy communities, Rossi most recently served in the Biden administration’s Justice Department as Director of the Office for Access to Justice, where she led national efforts to expand access to legal representation for underserved communities. Prior to that, she was Deputy Associate Attorney General, where she also served as the Department’s first Anti-Hate Coordinator under Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.

Rossi’s legal career began in the courtroom, where she spent nearly a decade as a public defender in Los Angeles County and in federal court, defending thousands of low-income clients and standing on the front lines of the fight for justice. Her passion for systemic reform led her to Capitol Hill, where she served as Counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Richard J. Durbin and played a key role in advancing the historic First Step Act.

In 2020, Rossi made history as the first former public defender to run for Los Angeles County District Attorney, earning nearly half a million votes and widespread grassroots support for her progressive vision of justice.

Raised in Los Angeles by immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic and Greece, Rossi’s personal story fuels her deep commitment to the communities she serves. She holds a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Bethany University, also having attended Azusa Pacific University and Vanguard University.

As President of AFJ, Rossi brings a unique blend of legal expertise, legislative strategy, and compassionate leadership — poised to guide the organization into a powerful new chapter at a defining moment for our democracy.