Shelia Schneider is the Executive Director of The Kaufman Fund Helping Veterans in St. Louis, Missouri. Shelia’s prior work experience included helping veterans find employment with the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program at St. Patrick Center in St. Louis. For 23 years, Shelia worked at the University of Central Missouri with U.S. Department of Education TRIO grants to serve first-generation, low-income, and disability-challenged college students to succeed and graduate from college. While at UCM, Shelia wrote a grant to help veterans who wanted to go back to school, Veterans Upward Bound. Shelia also taught Career Readiness classes to prepare college students for their job searches and to be young professionals.

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Shelia’s work experience is vast due to her husband being in the Air Force for 20 years. Their travels included living in: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Atwater, California; Great Fall, Montana; and Warrensburg, Missouri. Robert Schneider served as an NCO with Security Forces until his retirement in 2005. They have two daughters who are married and live in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Lincoln, Nebraska. 

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Assisting veterans is a mission of the heart for Shelia. Her family has a long tradition of serving in the military. Shelia talks about a photo collage that is cherished by her extended family which has a picture of her grandfather in Navy uniform during World War II, 8 of her uncles all in uniform, her stepfather, her brothers, and a dozen of her cousins who have served in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. 

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​Shelia has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and a Master’s of Science in College Student Personnel Administration from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri.