Paul Whitsitt

Co-owner, Kitchen House Coffee

Paul Whitsitt and his husband, David Rodgers, moved to the Tower Grove East neighborhood of St. Louis in 2012 and immediately became actively involved in their neighborhood association. Within two years, Whitsitt had developed an urban farm on a troubled double parcel behind their home and opened Kitchen House Coffee, a coffee house with an urban farm/sustainable living theme that also serves as a neighborhood center.

Previously, Whitsitt served as director of the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries and Information Services, the Office of Reading and Language Arts and the Humanities department within the Office of Teaching and Learning. He has a master’s degree in library science from Dominican University, a law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law, and a bachelor's degree from Baylor University.