About

Meet Leigh Ann Kingsbury, MPA, Gerontologist

I'm the owner and principal consultant at InLeadS. For more than 30 years I've focused on how person-centered practice actually gets done.

Leigh Ann Kingsbury, smiling, standing in a sunlit brick colonnade

Leigh Ann Kingsbury. Based in New Bern, North Carolina.

My practice sits where policy meets practice in disability and aging services. I facilitate and plan with the people who use services and supports, with older adults and families, and with organizations and government.

In the late 1980s I worked with Michael Smull and Susan Burke-Harrison to develop Essential Lifestyle Planning, one of the first formal person-centered planning methods, for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who were moving out of state institutions.

In the early 2000s I saw how few structured Advance Care Planning processes existed for people with disabilities. Alongside Quality Trust, I co-developed “People Planning Ahead: A Guide to Communicating Healthcare and End-of-Life Wishes,” published by AAIDD in 2009. These days I partner with Mary Beth Lepkowsky of Helen Sanderson Associates USA to teach Person-Centered Approaches to Healthcare Decision Making.

I started InLeadS as a part-time practice in 1998 and made it my full-time practice in 2021.

Group facilitationHCBS policy and practiceCommunity partner and collaborator engagementPerson-Centered Thinking training, coaching, and trainer certificationAdvance Care Planning policy, practice, and training

View my CV

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How I got here

A few moments that shaped the practice

Every one of these is in the public record.

Late 1980s

I worked with Michael Smull and Susan Burke-Harrison to develop Essential Lifestyle Planning, one of the first formal person-centered planning methods, as people moved out of state institutions.

1998

I started InLeadS as a part-time practice in disability services and person-centered approaches.

2009

I wrote “People Planning Ahead: A Guide to Communicating Healthcare and End-of-Life Wishes,” published by AAIDD.

2015

I began an ongoing engagement with the Indiana Division of Aging, supporting the Division in several capacities.

2021

InLeadS became my full-time practice.

Leigh Ann Kingsbury sitting at a table, smiling in conversation with a man seated in his power wheelchair, seen from behind — Most of this work is a conversation.At the table

What guides me

What I hold to

Autonomy

People who experience disability or age-related change have the right to be in charge of their own lives, with support as they want and need it, through the end of life.

Representation

I do this with people, not to them. That means real collaboration with the people who experience disability, and with people who bring different cultural and diagnostic perspectives.

Transparency

I keep communication honest and clear. That includes telling you when another consultant is a better fit for what you need.

The name is a tribute.

The capital L and S in InLeadS honor the late Dr. Shelley Dumas of the University of Texas. She coined the original name, Innovations in Leadership and Supports, and made the acronym. Dr. Dumas and her daughter Katherine lived out a truth at the heart of all this: behavior is communication.

Sunrise over the water in New Bern, North Carolina

Good morning, Bay

Home base is New Bern, North Carolina. The job travels the country; the mornings start here.

Start here

Want to team up?

It starts the same way every time. A short conversation, no fee, about what you're facing and whether I'm the right fit.

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