Jade Pearson Ramsdell | 20 Under 40

Jade Pearson Ramsdell
Performance Improvement Director 
Kansas Department of Health and Environment 

Jade Pearson Ramsdell, MBA, LSSGB, SHSS, CDP, is a public health and performance improvement leader with more than 10 years of experience in public health, strategy and organizational change. She serves as performance improvement director with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and holds degrees from Washburn University and Baker University.

A lifelong Kansan and mother of two, Jade serves as a Congressional District 2 Commissioner on the Kansas African American Affairs Commission. Her work is grounded in the spirit of Sankofa, remembering and learning from the past to build something better for those who come next. After losing her father in 2022, she found deeper connection to the generations before her, among them her third-great-grandmother Martha, a formerly enslaved woman whose resilience made her life possible.

What is non-negotiable for you? Why?

My integrity is non-negotiable.

I have learned that there will always be pressure to take the easier path, stay quiet, go along with something or make a decision based on what is most convenient. But I want to be able to live with the decisions I make when no one else is watching.

For me, integrity means being honest about what I know and what I don't know, speaking up when something isn't right, treating people with dignity and being willing to stand behind what I believe.

I don't always get everything right, but I want to always be willing to learn, own my mistakes and try again.

At the end of the day, I want my choices to reflect who I say I am.

What keeps you grounded when life gets busy? Why?

My family, creativity, curiosity and the ordinary moments of life keep me grounded.

When life gets busy, it is really easy for me to get caught up in everything that needs to be done and start living too far ahead of myself. My children have a way of bringing me back to what is happening right now. Sometimes it is laughing with them, having a conversation in the car, making a meal together or just being present for the little things I might otherwise miss.

I also stay grounded by doing things that connect me to my senses and let me be curious again. I might play chess, pick up my guitar or banjo, paint something, work on my hydroponic garden, listen to music, get outside or find some completely random new thing to learn about. I like making things, figuring things out and allowing myself to be a beginner.

Those things remind me that I am more than my work and that I don't always have to be productive to be growing.

For me, staying grounded is also about staying connected to my spirit and to the people, experiences and little things that make me feel most like myself. Sometimes I need to slow down enough to notice what I can see, hear, feel and appreciate instead of constantly thinking about what comes next.

My work matters deeply to me, but it is only one part of my life. I try to remember that not everything deserves the same amount of me.

Sometimes being grounded simply means coming back to myself.

What led you to your career?

I have always wanted my work to mean something.

I started my career in occupational therapy because I wanted to help people. I loved working with people and seeing how even small changes could make a meaningful difference in someone's life. That experience also taught me to look beyond the person in front of me and think about everything around them that could either support them or create barriers.

Eventually, I became interested in the bigger picture. I started asking questions about why some systems work well for people while others make it harder for them to succeed. I became interested in public health, health access, strategy, evaluation, quality improvement and organizational change.

That led me to continue my education, earn my bachelor's degree and MBA, and pursue Lean Six Sigma and performance improvement work.

My career has changed in ways I could not have predicted when I started, but the purpose behind it really hasn't changed. I still want to help people. I have simply found that sometimes the most meaningful way to help an individual is to improve the system around them.

I think that is what has kept me moving forward. I have never been afraid to learn something new, change direction or ask, "What else is possible?"

What does good leadership look like to you? Why?

Good leadership, to me, is about creating the conditions for other people to succeed.

A leader does not have to be the loudest person in the room or the person with all the answers. In fact, I think some of the strongest leaders are the ones who are secure enough to listen, ask questions, admit when they don't know something and make room for other people to contribute.

Good leadership also requires courage. Sometimes you have to say the uncomfortable thing, challenge the way something has always been done or make a decision that is not necessarily the easiest one.

Most importantly, I believe leadership is a responsibility. If you have influence, you have an opportunity to use it to make things better for someone else.

I want to be the kind of leader who leaves people feeling more capable, not more dependent. If people can grow because I was willing to invest in them, then I believe I have done my job.

What’s your hidden talent? How did you discover it?

I think my hidden talent might be songwriting.

I've always loved writing and playing with words, but I didn't really think of myself as a creative person for a long time. More recently, I've been learning guitar and getting more interested in songwriting.

It has been a completely different kind of outlet for me.

Most of my professional life is very analytical. I think about strategy, systems, data, performance and solving problems. Music lets me do something just because it feels good to create.

I'm still learning, but I actually like being a beginner. There is something freeing about doing something without needing it to be perfect.

What’s something you could talk about for hours? What makes it so interesting to you?

People, history and possibility.

I love hearing people's stories and understanding how the things we experience shape who we become. I am fascinated by history because so much of what we experience today is connected to things that happened long before us.

And then I love thinking about what comes next.

I can get completely absorbed in questions about why things are the way they are, what could be different and what might be possible if we were willing to approach something differently.

I think that curiosity is probably at the center of a lot of who I am. I want to understand where we came from, but I don't want to stay there. I want to know what we can build from it.

Click Here to go back to the Jayhawk Area Council’s 20 Under 40