2025 Main Stage Speaker

Keslie Spottsville is a Kansas City native who graduated from the University of Missouri-

Columbia with a Textile and Apparel Management Degree, emphasizing Fashion Design.

Her lifelong interests in Fashion, entrepreneurship and makeup artistry led her to New York

City and then to Chicago where she worked for fashion retail companies R.H. Macy &

Co., Hartmarx Corporation and several national and global beauty companies. She

eventually opened her own men’s custom clothing business in the early 90s, and was one

of only a few women who were successfully creating clothing exclusively for men. Her

success in this niche business included outfitting many prominent players in the NBA, and

making clothing for the Whoopi Goldberg movie, “Eddie”.

While in New York, two other passions emerged. After attending lectures by Afrikan

scholar greats, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Yosef Ben Jochanan and Dr. Ivan Van Sertima,

her gestalt shifted about learning about herself, the world and others. New York was also

the place where her awakening about vegetarianism and holistic health and healing

began.

When she moved back to Kansas City, she continued work in fashion and beauty, and

taught as an Adjunct Professor in the Fashion Merchandising and Design Department at

Johnson County Community College for nine years, as well as roles at Nordstrom and

Prada Beauty at Halls Kansas City. Her grade school hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

coupled with her passion for history, Reparations and Afrikan people led to her grass-

roots involvement in The Fight For $15 Movement and The CERB at Uzazi Village. She is a

former N’COBRA member, former board member of The Black Archives of Mid-America,

and a former member of the Mayor’s 18th & Vine Development Policy Committee, that

reviewed policies and bids for development in the 18th & Vine District. Keslie is a founding

member of the Community Remembrance Project of Missouri, a community organization

that is in partnership with The Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery Alabama. The

Mission of the organization is to memorialize the 70+ documented lynching victims in

Missouri, and the memorialized soil is in exhibit at The Black Archives of Mid-America.

Her travels to Kemet (Egypt) intensified and solidified her purpose and understanding of

spirituality, both individually and collectively, so she continues to learn and teach about

the connection between ancient Afrikan systems, the psycho-spiritual history, its influence

on the major world religions and its effect on Black people. Keslie is a mother of one son,

currently teaches at University Academy, and she continues to work in the beauty and

fashion fields.