Anita Newton

Anita Newton is an advocate for education, seasoned marketer, and serial entrepreneur.

Newton currently serves as chief innovation officer at CommunityAmerica, a $4 billion credit union headquartered in Kansas City. Newton’s mission is to create services that deliver financial well-being. Newton and her team built a suite of college planning tools that are now used by credit unions across the United States, and during the pandemic, Newton’s team delivered financial education to over 2,500 students throughout the Kansas City area.

Newton co-founded Mighty Good Solutions, a company whose products can be found in over 7,000 locations including Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger. Newton also developed the entrepreneurial marketing curriculum for the Kauffman Foundation’s Founder’s School series, was a keynote speaker at the Worldwide Lean Startup Conference, and has written articles for Entrepreneur.com and Inc.com. Earlier, Newton served as chief marketing officer of Zave Networks, which was acquired by Google.

Her career began at Procter & Gamble in sales and brand management. Later, Newton led Sprint’s consumer marketing efforts managing a $600 million advertising budget. She forged strategic partnerships with the National Football League (NFL), the Oprah Winfrey Show, and developed the web series, “In the Motherhood,” a first of its kind with Ellen DeGeneres. Her expertise in digital was further developed at AdParlor, an adtech company whose clients include Facebook, YouTube, and Starbucks.

In 2018, Newton was awarded the Athena Award, given by the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce for professional achievement and service. Newton was named one of the top 150 “Marketing Executives to follow” by Mashable and featured in “29 Marketers You Should Know” by Inc. Magazine and “40 Under 40” by Ingrams Magazine. Further, Newton was selected to become a member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) and KC Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” (WWMB). Newton currently serves on the KU College of Liberal Arts Advisory Board, Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, City Year Board, and is a trustee at Christo Rey.

Newton received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, as well as her bachelor’s and master’s degrees with honors from the University of Kansas.