Leanne Banna

Director

Leanne has been a resident of Henderson for more than 50 years and has been honored to serve on the board of the Community Foundation of Henderson since its inception. She believes CFH is the most important non-profit in Henderson as it is a catalyst for aiding all non-profits and developing other community growth for generations.
Leanne has been a self-employed business consultant for more than 25 years in the areas of strategic business development, marketing and public relations, and has served a wide variety of clients from local to national. Early in her career, she was employed at St. Mary’s Medical Center (now Ascension St. Vincent Evansville) as spokesperson and a key member of the management/marketing team for the then-largest Tri-state employer. There she completed the Uncommon Leader leadership initiative and earned the National Catholic Health Association Spirit Award for a team effort on a regional campaign for homelessness. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in journalism studying advertising and business from Western Kentucky University. She has been a member of Public Relations Professionals of America (PRSA) and awarded Public Relations Practitioner of the Year in 2000 by her alma mater, WKU.
Leanne was a founder of RiverBend Academy where she spent six years and started and produced the Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters Festival (which uses the same successful template today), Dancing with Our Stars and Holiday Pops collaboration with the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a founder of the SoFA (School of Fine Arts) Foundation board where she has resided as President. She previously served on the board for HAAA (Henderson Area Arts Alliance).
She is a founding member and was the executive team leader in forming POW! (the Partnership of Women), which she devoted six years to develop and launch and with which she remains a member. She was on the board of River City Renaissance (formerly The Henderson Project) in partnership with the UK School of Design (10 years). She served on the board for Habitat for Humanity of Evansville (18 years) where she was a supporting leader of three internationally recognized Blitz Builds, advocated for a subdivision for 2005 tornado victims, started a planned giving program and endowment support, and helped grow the organization to an international Top Ten Affiliate. She was honored by Habitat for Humanity of Evansville with induction ceremony into the first lifetime achievement Emeritus Board of Directors in 2014.
Leanne has one adult son, the light of her life, Chase Joseph Pritchett.