Age: 37
Executive Director, Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation
Ever since moving from Wabash to Indianapolis to attend Butler University, Linda Broadfoot has focused on ways to make Indianapolis
better.
In college, that meant being active in organizations such as IndyParks and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and activities that
exposed her to areas of the city where students seldom travel.
After graduation, she took a job at Butler, then spent 12 years working her way up at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, from director
of parks initiatives to vice president for development and public relations.
During those years, she earned her masters of public affairs at IUPUI and thought about moving away from Indianapolis once
her coursework was completed.
“But I decided to stay,” she said, “and do everything I can to make it the city I believe it can be.”
Broadfoot wanted a job that would make an impact. And in November 2011, she found one: executive director of the Indianapolis
Public Schools Education Foundation. Her mission there is to connect community resources to the classroom.
In her first year-plus with the foundation, she’s engaged with donors to identify needs in IPS schools, helped booster
clubs and alumni groups with specific initiatives, laid the groundwork for new projects to raise funds for technology in the
classroom and started to rebrand the organization.
In the coming year, she’ll be out raising funds for projects such as installing wireless technology in school buildings
and providing in-class technology for teachers and soliciting funds through donorschoose.org.
“For me, it comes back to love of our city,” said Broadfoot, who’s also active with the community-service
groups Giving Sum and Indy-east Asset Development. “This is the center for everything else—for my neighborhood
to be the neighborhood I want it to be, to have the amenities I want to have in this city, to draw great, educated urbanites
downtown.”•
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