Debbie Galbraith


BOARD MEMBER

A native of Kansas City, Debbie grew up in southeast Kansas where her parents were deeply involved in the medical community and a variety of charitable activities.  One of four children, Debbie and her brothers grew up with the benefit of loving and attentive adults that valued faith, family, and the importance of educational opportunities from an early age, in particular reading and language skills.   Her early career experience included a variety of corporate management positions within a Fortune 500 company and then an online start-up.  After marrying and starting a family, Debbie elected to pursue a career that provided more flexibility in schedule and less travel.  Simultaneously, she had a desire to shift her professional focus from corporate to nonprofit work. 

 

Today, Debbie is Managing Director & Founding Principal of Waverly Partners and lives in Kansas.  Waverly Partners is a national retained executive search firm with an active nonprofit practice group.  Debbie’s projects include consulting with Boards of Directors across a wide range of  nonprofit organizations including professional associations, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, social service organizations, hospitals and healthcare systems and academic institutions.   Debbie and It All Matters founder Lisa Williams have been friends since college and when invited to join the IAM Board, Debbie was excited and honored to share her broad business background across finance, project management and nonprofit Board engagement. 

 

Debbie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Graceland  University in Iowa, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Kansas.  She has two young adult children.   Debbie and her family enjoy travel within the United States and internationally (pre-Covid!).  In the summer of 2016, Debbie traveled with Kansas2Kenya to rural Africa.  While there, she both led and participated in various community service activities in support of furthering educational opportunities for children and helping women of all ages value their worth.  In her local community, she is active as a pianist in her church and taught children’s Sunday school for many years.  She is also active with many community and charitable organizations which support the most vulnerable human and furry members of the community with a focus on justice, homelessness, and food security issues.   In her spare time, Debbie is an avid runner and enjoys reading books of all kinds, cheering on her favorite sports teams and spending time with her family and friends.