Kendall Qualls spent 30-years in the healthcare industry with innovative startup companies as well as major corporations leading sales and marketing teams. Mr. Qualls is also the Founder and President of the nonprofit organization TakeCharge. TakeCharge strives to unite Americans regardless of background toward a shared history and common set of beliefs. At TakeCharge, they promote that the promise of America is available to everyone regardless of race or social standing. Further speaker information is below. TakeCharge's webpage can be found HERE.Mr. Qualls has a unique vantage point to convey that message and to plant the seeds of change desperately needed. During his childhood, Mr. Qualls lived with his divorced mother and siblings in public housing projects of Harlem, NY in the late 1960s. Before middle school, Mr. Qualls left NYC to live with his father who lived in a trailer park in Oklahoma. Neither of his parents finished high school.
Despite the challenges and turmoil of his early life, Mr. Qualls worked full-time to pay for college, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, earned three graduate degrees including an MBA from the University of Michigan. He worked his way up the ranks at several Fortune 100 healthcare companies before he became Global Vice President of an $850M business unit. Mr. Qualls champions the principles of meritocracy and supports the notion that free enterprise, and the private sector are the fastest and most equitable way to lift people from poverty to prosperity.
Mr. Qualls has been married to his wife, Sheila for 40-years and they have five children together. He was a mentor at Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge. He served on the Board for Lundstrum’s Performing Arts Center in North Minneapolis as well as Hope Farm School, a school for at-risk boys from Minneapolis.
Mr. Qualls has appeared as a guest on Fox & Friends, The Tucker Carlson Show, America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, the Dennis Prager Show and Fearless with Jason Whitlock.
Mr. Qualls’ articles have been published in the New York Post, Washington Times, The Federalist, Real Clear Politics, The Christian Post and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.