Huck Boyd Institute - KSU

Ron Wilson
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University in Manhattan. The Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is a public/private partnership between Kansas State University and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The mission of the institute is to help rural people help themselves. Functions of the Huck Boyd Institute:
- Leadership Development - through the K-State Leadership Seminar, community development academies, partnering with the Kansas Leadership Center, support for local leadership programs, and more
- Rural Outreach - through presentations and facilitating community processes at the grass-roots community level, plus state and national organizations
- Kansas Profile - a weekly radio program and newspaper feature distributed statewide which features entrepreneurs and community leaders in rural Kansas so as to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation while building pride in our State
He has a B.S. in Agricultural Education and a Masters in Mass Communications from K-State. He became a legislative assistant to Senator Nancy Kassebaum in Washington D.C. and a staff member for the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee before returning to Kansas to become director of the Huck Boyd Institute.
Ron has written and produced more than 1,500 features about small town Kansas entrepreneurs and community leaders through his ongoing weekly radio program and news column called "Kansas Profile – Now, That’s Rural." Ron is active in his church and community, and is a past president of the Manhattan, Kansas Rotary Club. A graduate of Leadership Kansas, he was named by Ingram’s Magazine as one of 50 Kansans You Should Know and received the We Kan award from the Kansas Sampler Foundation for supporting rural culture.