Kansas City, Mo.-based Ingram’s Magazine, a business publication covering Missouri and Kansas, has announced its 2020 class of the list of the 50 Kansans You Should Know. Among those honored was former Great Bend Chamber of Commerce President Jan Peters who now serves as the director of client relationships for the consultancy for Kansas Manufacturing Solutions.

For 14 years as director of its economic-development efforts, Peters focused on ways to make Great Bend an ideal place for companies to locate and prosper. Now, one in particular has her undivided attention: Kansas Manufacturing Solutions.

Born in Colby, raised in Great Bend, with career stops in Hutchinson and in Lenexa, she knows rural, urban and everything in between.

“Perhaps the greatest factor in promoting any community is the ability to build long-lasting relationships and establish solid public-private partnerships,” she said in an interview with the magazine. “And throughout my career, I have had the pleasure to work with some of the very best.” 

Her achievements there made Great Bend one of the state’s first Network Kansas E-Communities, and the Barton County Young Professionals group launched on her watch. She also helped establish the Great Bend Farm and Ranch Expo to fill a void when the popular 3i Show moved to Dodge City. 

At various stops in her career, she has worked in the tourism, chamber, and economic development fields, experience that will pay off in her new role, where she works directly with diverse manufacturers. “I have a love of this state and the people who make it such a special place,” Peters said.

This marks the 10th year Ingram’s has compiled this list. In all, 500 Kansans have been recognized. The selections are “residents from all walks of life who have been singled out for their over-sized contributions to business success, civic engagement, philanthropic zeal and shared interest in moving their communities forward, and by extension, advancing the interests of an entire state,” the magazine notes.

They have included athletes, artists, educators and scholars, hailing from the ranks of health care, real estate, agriculture, banking, manufacturing, hospitality and more.