In celebration of our 40th anniversary, we're honoring 40 of the people and partnerships we've worked alongside to shape our community—beginning with Dr. James Chung, Clay and Kate Bastian, Claudi Yaujar-Amaroro, and Kyle Ellison.
James Chung created a storm in Wichita that no one saw coming, the Wichita Foundation included.
The son of immigrant parents, James was born and raised here, attending Wichita Public Schools and Wichita Collegiate before leaving for Harvard. Though he briefly worked for the Wichita Eagle after graduating, he returned to Harvard for his MBA, eventually becoming an economist and data analyst who pioneered predictive marketing analytics for Fortune 500 companies.
He never lost his connection to Wichita.
In 2015, the Foundation approached James about creating a community scorecard, a citizen-driven approach to assessing and planning public services. Though his firm didn't typically analyze lagging measures, he agreed to tackle the challenge. Through the Foundation's Focus Forward initiative, James identified four fundamental, interconnected challenges affecting Wichita's prosperity: business cycle, human capital, entrepreneurship, and perception. His call to action was direct: Discover which of these four challenges most affects you, and figure out how to tackle it, whether personally, at work, or within the larger community.
What was intended to be three years of research with three annual data presentations snowballed into more than 30 community gatherings, the creation of The Chung Report by the Bastian family, and reverberations still felt throughout Wichita a decade later.
"The impact this work had on our community and the Wichita Foundation is hard to quantify," said Shelly Prichard, President & CEO. "People told us they hadn't been included in community conversations before. But the convenings with James gave them a voice and ownership in the discussion."
The Foundation continues to build on what Focus Forward set in motion—investing in access to news and information, building nonprofit leadership, and working toward a Wichita where everyone belongs.
Chung's data changed the trajectory of the Foundation just as it aimed to change the trajectory of the city. But the man himself stayed true to his roots. At the very first data presentation he delivered, James got a little choked up when a slide of his childhood home appeared on the screen. He quietly said he never underestimates the impact Wichita and its people had on his life.
We feel the same about him.
Thank you, James.
Click on each portrait to read their story and stay tuned over the next year as we keep the celebrations going with three new portraits released each month. Special thanks to photographer Aaron Patton for sharing his talents on this project.
Help us celebrate our 40th anniversary and enable WF to respond to the needs and opportunities shaping Wichita today with a gift to fund 316.
