Jim Echols founded the Renaissance group of services in 2017 following his retirement from the State of Kansas Department for Children and Families, where he had served for two years as the State Director of the HOPE Mentoring Program.  This initiative provided pathways to quality-of-life opportunities for individuals from both impoverished backgrounds and those reentering society from periods of incarceration.  He also served as a member of the Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which included a period as its chairman, and later as a member of the Kansas Sentencing Commission for incarcerated adults.  

 

Echols early professional career includes service in the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserve and the Oklahoma Army National Guard.  His 25-year military background included service in the Republic of South Vietnam.  Arriving there as a teenager, he was promoted to sergeant at age twenty years and awarded the U.S. Army Bronze Star during his service there.  He later served as a human relations facilitator with the U.S. Army, Europe, overseeing his unit's Equal Opportunity Advisory Council and promoting human development.

 

Later in his career, he held a senior position within the Oklahoma Governor's staff as State Equal Opportunity Officer, advising the Governor and cabinet secretaries in matters pertaining to equality of opportunity.  He developed the Governor's Executive Order on Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity.  He later served as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, which was the enforcement agency for Oklahoma Title 25 Statutes governing nondiscrimination in employment and public accommodations. The agency's mandate included conducting mediations and negotiations to resolve such conflict.

 

Echols current work includes overseeing the development and presentation of course curricula pertaining to human relations, organizational leadership and management, along with workforce development to include education, mentorship & training for the impoverished and justice-impacted individuals. He is the Co-Leader of the Employment & Employer Partnership Workgroup of the Kansas Returning Citizens Consortium (RCC), which was awarded a Planning & Development Grant early in 2025 to develop a comprehensive, scalable program for the successful reentry of "returning citizens" to society from incarceration. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Workforce Development & Mentoring Subcommittee of the Kansas City, Kansas Community College's Downtown Advisory Council.

 

Echols earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and has pursued graduate studies in Human Relations/Organizational Behavior & Development at the University of Oklahoma.  He and his wife, Muriel, reside in Kansas City, Kansas.