About Kayleigh

Kayleigh attended her first Jaycee meeting in September 1996, at the age of 2 and in a stroller. She grew up in a household that firmly believed in the mission of the organization, with parents who were active not only in their home chapter, but both were dual members with other chapters and active on the state board for Michigan Jaycees. Much of her childhood was spent at Jaycee projects, locally and across the state. She would often play "Jaycee Meeting" with her beanie babies as a kid.

Upon graduating from college and returning to her hometown, she officially joined the Allegan Jaycees- after years of volunteering or tagging along. Her home chapter was in need of leadership to turn things in a more positive direction, which she stepped into, improving relationships with local government and businesses. In 2018, she became a dual member with JCI South Kent. In 2019, two projects she spear-headed garnered national recognition, a first for the Allegan Jaycees in at least 15 years. In 2021, when Allegan was struggling with membership, she made it her mission to get the chapter to 20. She came in just under her goal, at 19, but had more than doubled the size of the chapter.

In 2022, while she was simultaneously serving as District Director, she began what is now one of the Allegan's largest projects- ALEgan Craft Beer Festival. As District Director, she made it her goal to have district events in communities that once had a chapter but no longer do, and ended up hosting 3 events throughout the year. One of which was a "Meet the District Senators" project, to connect active members to Senators who no longer have ties to an active chapter. That project won in Inter-Organization Collaboration at JCI USA. In 2022, Kayleigh also did some traveling- to St. Louis for North American Academy, and to Switzerland on vacation with her friend (where she spent a day with JCI Martigny).

In 2023, Kayleigh served as JCI Michigan Membership Vice President. Not only did she learn the ins and outs of GlueUp, but she pushed recruitment efforts. It ended up being the first time in years that JCI Michigan saw growth as a state. She also attended a project in every active chapter in the state that year, and attended World Congress in Switzerland. In the lead up to JCI Michigan's 100th Anniversary, she assisted with the museum portion of the celebration.

In 2024, Kayleigh served as JCI Michigan Programming Vice President. Her biggest goal was to bring Michigan's SPE and Competitions back to being in-person, as they were designed to, to give members more of a chance to hone their public speaking skills. She was successful in this, even engaging chapters who had not attended state events in recent years. She again attended projects from every chapter in the state.

Currently, Kayleigh is serving as the 101st President of JCI Michigan. She has brought back "The Book"- a guide to anything Jaycee related, to serve as a resource for chapters and members. The Book includes, but is not limited to, press release templates, Robert's Rules of Order guides, recruitment guides, project ideas, and how to nominate someone for a Senatorship. She also reintroduced Outstanding Young Michigander, a program that has not been run in the state since 2018, and had been organized by the Michigan Jaycee Foundation since 2014. She continues to work on preserving and sharing JCI Michigan history.

Professionally, Kayleigh works in anatomical pathology at a biopharmaceutical research laboratory. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Michigan State University in Animal Science, and previously worked on pig and dairy farms. She is one of 4 registered chinchilla breeders in Michigan, and has a herd of about 70. She volunteers with FFA, serving as a practice judge for leadership contests. She also volunteers with the Allegan Area Chamber of Commerce and Allegan Lions Club. Additionally, she is on the Kalamazoo Roller Derby team (her skater name is Mötley Crüesome), a member of the MSU Alumni Band, and enjoys attending 80's metal concerts. She lives with her dad and 2 St. Bernards, Moose and Leia.