Kenneth L. Gladish was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1952. He earned his B.S. in Philosophy and Political Science from Hanover College, Hanover, IN, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. He started his career from North Suburban YMCA, Illinois as an assistant Director for Youth and Community Program from 1975 to 1977. While he worked at the Hanover College as Director of Alumni Relations and Assistant Vice President for Development and Assistant Director of Admissions in 1977 to 1979, He had special responsibility for alumni, church constituencies, fund raising and external representation. After four years of teaching about political theory and international organization at the University of Virginia and six years of teaching upper-level courses in international politics, international organizations and public administration at the Butler University, he spent 8 years as an executive secretary for the Indiana Donors Alliance (IDA). While he was responsible for organizing the funding, initial development and growth of the regional association of grant makers at IDA, Gladish worked as an executive director of the Indiana Humanities Council (IHC) from 1984 to 1991. IHC served as sponsor, fiscal agent and administrator for the IDA. In 1991, he promoted to president/CEO of the IHC and served two years more. He moved to the Indianapolis Foundation and the William E. English Foundation as an executive director in 1993. As the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), an overarching organization that incorporated the Indianapolis Foundation and Legacy Fund Community, was established in 1997, he held an additional president position of the CICF until he became a chief executive officer of the YMCA of the USA in 2000. He served at the YMCA of the USA until May 2006 and worked as president of Austin Community Foundation in Texas from 2008 to 2010. Ken Gladish and his wife Kendal H. Gladish have two children, Ellen Paige Gladish and Donald Elliot Gladish.