Michael Liimatta

A visionary leader and social entrepreneur, I recently returned to a field where I started my nonprofit career over thirty years ago; supporting the homeless and addicted. I am executive director of Footprints, Inc. which operates an inner city recovery support center in Kansas City's urban core and Heroes Home Gate, a short-term residence for homeless veterans funded by the U.S. Veterans Administration.

I spent 2016 in Washington, D.C. working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As manager of ConnectHome, an Obama White House and HUD initiative, I worked to expand Internet access to public housing families with school children in 27 U.S. cities and the Choctaw Nation.

I am co-founder of Connecting for Good. Started in 2011, the organization is bridging the Digital Divide in Kansas City through wireless Internet connectivity, community technology centers, low cost refurbished computers and free digital life skills classes.

In 1998, I founded City Vision University, an accredited degree granting online distance education institution. I recruited and supervised adjunct faculty members, oversaw curriculum development and led the process of obtaining accreditation and federal student aid. I retired from the college as Chief Academic Officer in 2015.

For 17 years, I was Director of Education of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. Founded in 1913, AGRM is a network of 300 city missions throughout North America that help the homeless and addicted. While there, I founded Rescue College (now City Vision University), led AGRM's certification program, managed training events, and consulted with rescue missions in the area of addiction recovery.

In 1980, I started New Creation Center and served as it's director for ten years. A licensed residential treatment facility for indigent men, the organization also had a street outreach and an outpatient counseling program for the chemically dependent and their family members.