Marci Penner

Marci Penner and her father, Milferd Penner, co-authored three Kansas guidebooks in the early 1990s and then founded the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to help preserve and sustain rural culture. Marci is currently the executive director of the Foundation.

Marci is currently going to every incorporated town in the state to research for the next Kansas Guidebook. She also continues to write the We Kan! and Explorer newsletters and a column for Kansas! magazine and oversees the Kansas Sampler Festival.

After the guidebook is written and produced, she will get back to her regular duties of coordinating Kansas Explorer Club activities, hosting the Go Kansas! game show, presenting Kansas slide shows, giving speeches statewide, facilitating retreats, and organizing conferences or workshops. She continues to work with state agencies and the media on behalf of rural Kansas and consults with rural communities daily.

Marci, a graduate of Kansas University and a double-sport letterwinner, received her Master's degree in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Wisconsin. She spent five years in the Philadelphia area as an elementary guidance counselor before returning to Kansas in 1990 to work with her father. The offices of the Kansas Sampler Foundation are located in the Kansas Sampler Center on the family farm near Inman.

Marci is dedicated to helping Kansans see Kansas with new eyes and to keeping our communities alive and vibrant.