Carol Levers was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up under the Apartheid Regime. Her family filed for political asylum and immigrated to the U.S. in 1989. It was then that she began volunteering part-time at the West Wyandotte Library in Kansas City, KS. Carol attended the Kansas City, KS, Community College and completed her Associate’s degree in 1993. She transferred to Park University, where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management, obtaining her Master’s in Library Science from Emporia State University in 2001.
In the meantime, on March 2, 1992, political asylum was granted. A year later, the INS issued her family permanent residence, and on November 2, 1998, Carol applied for U.S. citizenship. In August of 1999, she passed the Naturalization Exam. One month later, was sworn in as United States Citizen.
Carol served two terms as president of the KCK Women’s Chamber and served on the KCK Area Chamber Board for that duration. She served over 17 years on the KCKCC Endowment Board and the organization’s Foundation Board. Carol also served as Chair of United Way of Wyandotte Board of Directors and was part of the merger committee for both the Wyandotte and Greater Kansas City United Way. She is currently a Trustee on the United of Greater Kansas City and has represented Wyandotte County on the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS) Executive Board. Carol currently enjoys working as a Member of the board of directors on the Wyandotte County Health Foundation and serves on many other local and statewide boards. She helped write a grant for “Emporia Diversity Initiative: Matching Recruitment with Retention Strategies,” for which the foundation has received $857,754 designed to recruit, train, and retain local minority library staff and students for library service in Kansas, Colorado, and Oregon. So far, 42 students have graduated. http://www.imls.gov/news/2006/062806_list.shtm#KS
Carol received the “I Love My Librarian Award” in 2008 in New York City, hosted by Carnegie Corporation of New York. In 2010, she became the first woman and person of color to become the Director of Libraries for the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library system. She was recognized in 2011 with an Outstanding Recent Graduate Award from Emporia State University. Other accolades include being inducted into the KCKCC’s Mid-America Education Hall of Fame, receiving The Legend of Diversity award from KCKCC Intercultural office, and being awarded the 2020 Volunteer of the Year from United Way of Wyandotte County.
Carol manages five public libraries, a fleet of three mobile libraries, and 40 school libraries. She reports to the USD# 500 School Board and the Wyandotte County Library Board.