Ann Brandau

Healthcare Executive | Healthcare Consultant | Strategy & Performance Improvement Leader

When Ann Brandau took over as Executive Director of the Argentine Neighborhood Development Association, she inherited a challenge most people considered hopeless: a 17-acre Superfund site in Wyandotte County, Kansas, that had sat contaminated and abandoned for more than three decades. Working with Walmart and a coalition of public and private partners, she led its transformation into a working neighborhood market, bringing grocery access, employment, and new investment to one of Kansas' most economically challenged neighborhoods. The project became a case study in what sustainable redevelopment actually requires: not just funding, but trust, persistence, and a willingness to solve problems others had abandoned.

Her work in the neighborhood went well beyond that single site. Brandau secured millions of dollars for sidewalks, curbs, parks, senior housing, libraries, and public safety, and advocated for residents living with chronic flooding and long-neglected infrastructure. She built coalitions among business leaders, elected officials, neighborhood organizations, and government agencies to accomplish projects many believed impossible.

Brandau served three terms as a Wyandotte County Commissioner, chairing the Economic Development Standing Committee, and was appointed and reappointed by the Governor of Kansas to two terms on the Kansas Board of Regents, the maximum allowed by law. There she helped oversee Kansas' public higher education system, including the University of Kansas Health System and the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Much of Brandau's career has been in healthcare, in executive and consulting roles across hospitals, physician organizations, and consulting firms. Today she is Principal Consultant at Prosperity Consulting, advising hospitals, physician practices, and nonprofits on strategic planning, operational improvement, payer contracting, regulatory compliance, and turnaround work.

She also writes about leadership, resilience, public service, and the ways institutions shape individual lives, examining identity, public perception, institutional failure, and the resilience required to rebuild. Across every setting, her work reflects the same conviction: lasting change begins with courage, grows through collaboration, and succeeds when people are willing to challenge assumptions.