Elizabeth Usovicz is principal of WhiteSpace Consulting, which focuses on business coaching, business

development strategy, and market insights. She previously held leadership positions at Deloitte,

Kellogg’s of Mexico, and two venture capital-funded startup companies. Formerly associate director of

international programs at Bentley University and an adjunct professor at the John F. Kennedy School of

Government at Harvard University, she currently is a volunteer mentor and adviser to startup company

founders through MIT’s Growth Mentoring Services program.

Usovicz joined Rotary in 1997. She served as a Rotary public image coordinator for three years, a

facilitator for multiyear district planning for zones 30 and 31, on the training team for governors-elect

training seminars, and as a curriculum chair of the Heart of America Rotary Leadership Institute.

Her 20-year passion in Rotary is supporting orphans and at-risk children in Malawi. She has written 10

Rotary Foundation grants to help Malawi’s children and led a vocational training team that worked with

local primary school teachers to develop and implement a program that encourages children, especially

girls, to stay in school. Other grant projects have focused on a malaria bed net initiative in the southern

region of Lake Malawi. “We helped reduce the mortality rate of children under five by 80% in that

region — that’s the power of ‘we’ in Rotary,” Usovicz says. “I am not a medical professional, but when

we collaborate like that in Rotary, we become lifesavers.”

Usovicz has received The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and has twice received

the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award. In 2014, Usovicz was recognized at the White House as a

Rotary Women of Action honoree.

A native of Salem, Massachusetts, she appreciates history and her Lithuanian heritage. She also enjoys

music, classic films, and science fiction TV. Usovicz and her husband, Dean Mathewson, are both Major

Donors and Bequest Society members. They live in Westwood, Kansas.