Lesley Elwell describes herself as a devoted mother of two amazing daughters, Ari and Isa, a caring daughter to her aging parents, a loving wife to her wonderful husband, Brian, of 27 years, and a dear friend who enjoys entertaining whenever she can. She also describes herselfas a Human Resources professional, business leader, first generation immigrant, and proud American.

Lesley worked at Sprint, DIRECTV, Walmart, and JE Dunn for the past 25 years, and she is currently the Chief Human Resources and Diversity Officer at Evergy. While Lesley freely extols the virtues of her adopted homeland, she has not forsaken her roots, and to that end, she serves on the Boards of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Operation Breakthrough. She also serves on the advisory boards for the Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy and KU International Advisory Board.

In her spare time, Lesley likes to take long walks, read, and go to the lake and beach with her family as much as time allows. She has also embraced her husband and daughters’ love for football and the Chiefs and will even tailgate in freezing temperatures despite disliking winter weather.

A fun fact about Lesley is that she loved dancing while growing up in Venezuela and frequently visited the Caribbean islands and became a salsa dance teacher in her early 20s. A big believer in the value of development and mentorship Lesley enjoys mentoring teenage girls as well as guiding female leaders in mid-management to new heights at the executive level. She has developed a deep-rooted love for the education process which fuels her passion to support Cristo Rey and their culturally diverse students.

Her journey serves as an inspiration and great example of achieving the American dream, which is the belief that accomplishment and success are determined by an individual’s unwavering efforts and hard work, and not restricted by class structure.  Dancing taught Lesley the importance of creativity, teamwork and self-expression and she’s thrilled for the opportunity to participate in the Cristo Rey Dancing with the Stars event promoting the Cristo Rey Kansas City high school.