Doug Talley
Excellence in the Arts
Mr. Talley has spent over twenty years in his dual career as an outstanding music educator and jazz composer and performer. A highly-respected jazz educator in the Midwest region, he has served as an adjunct instructor for the jazz ensemble at MidAmerica Nazarene University and served on the faculty for jazz camps at Emporia State University, Johnson County Community College and Kansas City Kansas Community College.  His tenure in the Shawnee Mission School District has been marked by excellence and innovation, including an unbroken string of Division I ratings (the highest possible score) for the Shawnee Mission Northwest High School jazz band under his direction.

In addition, Talley has been a clinician for the “Up and Coming Jazz Artists” series with Bobby Watson and Paul McKee at Johnson County Community College.  Talley has conducted numerous jazz clinics for high school and college students and educators throughout the Midwest.

Myra J. Christopher
Excellence in Advocacy & Public Engagement 
Ms. Christopher became president of the Center for Practical Bioethics in December 1994, and continues to serve as its executive director, a position she has held since the Center's inception in 1985. In addition to providing oversight to the Center, Christopher served as the national program officer of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation's National Program Office for State-based Initiatives to Improve End-of Life Care.

These roles allow Christopher to continue her lifelong mission to improve care for seriously ill people and their families. An author and frequent speaker on bioethical issues, Christopher has made presentations to such prestigious national organizations as the American Hospital Association, Group Health Association of America, the National Health Lawyers Association, AARP, and the American Philosophical Association.

Phillip Spencer
Excellence in Business & Entrepreneurship
Mr. Spencer currently serves as CEO of Codero, an internet hosting services company headquartered in Overland Park, Kan. Before Codero, Mr. Spencer was CEO of Aplus.net, a $30 million web hosting firm. Mr. Spencer is widely known for his prior success as President and CEO of Everest Connections, Inc., a Lenexa, Kansas-based cable, telephone and Internet access provider that thrived in a market dominated by larger competition. Under Mr. Spencer's leadership, the company grew to more than $60 million in annual revenues and was named second-fastest-growing company in the Kansas City area by Ingram's Magazine and Ernst and Young.

Responsible for developing, overseeing, and guiding the execution of Everest's business strategy, Mr. Spencer successfully led that company from its origins as a modest start-up into a local industry leader with an enterprise value of more than $170 million. During his time at Everest, the company boasted 20 consecutive quarters of growth in EBITDA, revenue, and customer count. Everest was sold to California-based SureWest Communications earlier this year for $173,000,000.

Gaylon Umbarger
Excellence in Literacy & Education
Mr. Umbarger first became aware of the serious problem of illiteracy in 1984 while serving on a jury.  He was convinced that the young man was not guilty of the crime of which he was accused, but that he was 'guilty' of being illiterate and thus unable to properly defend himself.  The compassion that he felt for this young man motivated him to become a trained literacy volunteer tutor and to get involved in helping others understand the problems that illiteracy brings to our community.

He joined Literacy Kansas City (then called the Laubach Literacy Council of Kansas City) in 1986, and soon realized he had the opportunity to help expand the small volunteer-driven program into an organization that could reach hundreds of students and volunteers each year. Literacy Kansas City (LitKC) is a not-for-profit organization that provides free, confidential, one-to-one and small group reading help to adults and older teenagers in the greater Kansas City area.  Founded in 1985 by a small group of dedicated volunteers, LitKC is now a program with hundreds of volunteers each year and a budget of $375,000.