Executive Assistant, Missouri Lottery
Published January 21, 2025
Like any organization, a lottery needs people to do the organizing. At the top, the Executive Director or Chief Executive Officer handles high-level activities, but instrumental to that leader’s success is the person serving as Executive Assistant. They take care of all the key details, making sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. They make sure there’s continuity when the leadership changes, supporting a seamless transition to keep the business strong. For the Missouri Lottery, that person is Angie Klebba, who has served as Executive Assistant since 2017 after gaining her early lottery education in other departments.
“We are extremely lucky to have Angie Klebba working for Missouri Lottery,” said Executive Director Lester Elder. “She is very organized, efficient, polite and professional. There is so much work she does behind the scenes with our executive staff, commissioners and employees that she rarely takes credit for, and she took on the challenge of working with NASPL staff to organize and plan the 2024 NASPL Annual Conference in Kansas City – she made Missouri Lottery proud. Angie is equally active in her community and church, always helping others.”
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Angie’s entire working life has been spent at the Missouri Lottery. She began in 1993 as a licensing specialist, and quickly advanced to the sales department as a lottery sales technician. There, she handled a variety of tasks, supporting the sales and marketing staffs on such things as promotions, analyzing retail accounts and sales trends, setting goals for retailers, and facilitating communications between field sales staff and the management team. After eight years in that role, she settled into the marketing department for more than 10 years, providing office support and assisting with events, promotional drawings, winner awareness and budget planning.
Her organization skills and talent for details took her to human resources, where she served as an administrative assistant for two years. And in June 2017, she rose to the executive office, where she has thrived ever since. She assists the Lottery’s Executive Director in all manner of activities, from office, calendar and ethics management, to budget and event planning, to coordinating out-of-state travel and employee training, and more. Most recently, she took on the added responsibly of working closely with NASPL staff when Missouri Lottery hosted the 2024 NASPL Annual Conference in Kansas City last September.
“Angie and her staff worked very closely with NASPL in the planning and implementation of NASPL 2024, and they all contributed to the success of the conference,” said NASPL Executive Director David Gale. “Angie’s professionalism and determination helped make it such an enjoyable and notable event, and I want to personally thank her for her hard work. Plus, Angie is just a wonderful human being with an outstanding attitude!”
When not making lottery employees’ lives easier, Angie raised two children with her husband Roy. “We are pretty much empty-nesters now, with our daughter Abby (22) graduating college in May.” Their son Ben is 27.
When Abby went to college four years ago, the parents found themselves with a lot of time on their hands. “Both of my kids were very into sports and school, so if we weren’t taking them to practice, we were going to games. And all of a sudden that stopped when they went to college.”
Roy decided to take up golf again, while Angie expanded friendships with her girlfriends, including several from high school. She’s also a member of two gyms, so she has good gym families as well. Then one day, she decided to ride with Roy on the golf cart just to enjoy a beautiful outing with her husband. “I loved the atmosphere on the golf course – it’s so pretty and peaceful with just the two of us.” She kept riding with him, but it took a year or so before she finally got her own golf clubs. Now, she’s an avid golfer, which conveniently takes up a lot of time.
Today, Angie doesn’t live far from her hometown of Frankenstein, Mo., an old Catholic German town founded in the late 1800s that is still the center of a large farming community. “I love it – not many people can say they were born in Frankenstein!”
While her children were growing up, she was active in various school functions. Aside from that, she is active in Alpha Epsilon Psi, a sisterhood of women who come together to help others in their community. She has served as the local chapter’s President since 2023. She also uses her organizing and planning skills to coordinate various activities for local fundraisers. Overall, her desire to serve and help others comes from her devout faith. Angie has an associate’s degree from Columbia College.
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What has kept you at the Missouri Lottery for more than 31 years?
The main thing is our “why” – raising funds for education. Being of service to make a difference – and knowing you are helping make that difference – is very fulfilling. At the same time, I have enjoyed working in many different rolls and developing relationships with work friends. I really have had a lot of different opportunities, so working here has given me growth experiences and new things to learn, so I didn’t have to leave to advance in my career. Finally, I guess I was just raised to have loyalty. Loyalty to your company, and if they’re doing right by you, then you do right by them.
From your perspective, what have been some of the most impactful changes for the Missouri Lottery, and the greater lottery industry, during your tenure?
I would say two major things. First is the amazing increase in Scratchers price points. Thirty years ago, who would have ever imagined a $50 game? Then there’s the shift to digital platforms, which is also playing a key role in our evolution. For us, it’s our website, app and the My Lottery player loyalty program. The player’s club isn’t really my area, but I’ve been in enough staff meetings to know how important the loyalty aspect is. There are reward points in clubs for everything nowadays, so you either have to get on the train or get left behind.
What are some of the most enjoyable things you do in your job? The most challenging?
Maybe the best part of my job is the ability to work with people. For example, I truly love to plan travel, and any trips by our staff that require out-of-state travel come my way. This allows me to work with a variety of employees who are always so appreciative. Most people like to travel, but it can be stressful. I try to take the stress out of the equation by taking care of all the arrangements and handling any complications along the way. It’s a very positive part of my job.
I also enjoy project coordination of meetings and events – to see it all come to fruition is very fulfilling. For events organized by NASPL and other groups, I love seeing all the different conference agendas and making sure that people here are attending the events that would provide the most benefit to them in their jobs. Before I took on this role, I never realized how much education the industry provides and how important it can be for lottery employees.
As for most challenging? Truthfully, answering this question! Seriously, I love to learn, so I really don’t consider anything as too much of a challenge. I have even become more confident in this role, because it’s more and more obvious that you can learn to do anything! If pressed, though, I guess a challenge is helping our quarterly board meetings go smoothly. We normally have five commissioners on our board, appointed by the governor, and they typically have their own ideas about what’s best for the Lottery. I also work for them, so I try to make sure they have all the information they need and maintain a “bible,” as I call it, for new commissioners.
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In your lottery career, you’ve had your hand in sales, marketing, human resources and administration. What has interested you the most?
My current position as Executive Assistant is the best! Working with and being mentored by the executive staff has help me grow in ways I could never have imagined. Working in HR is a close second – I enjoyed working with and meeting new employees and helping them navigate all the various processes. It was great getting to know everyone while working with them one-on-one. The details necessary to onboard employees is similar to all the organizational tasks I enjoy the most in my current role.
All that said, my experiences in sales, licensing and general support (where I also assisted with marketing, promotions and even budget planning) provided a good foundation of what each department does. I think it helps me understand why the executive team makes the decisions it does and the impacts those decisions have on all the various departments.
You led the Lottery’s team last year when the NASPL Annual Conference was in Kansas City. What was it like being the conference host?
Wow, it was challenging and exhilarating all at the same time! There were so many emotions that went into that conference, and the support from our employees, NASPL staff and the entire lottery industry was amazing. I felt like it was a great partnership. NASPL’s Tamika Ligon made it so easy for us, and we would brainstorm together on every last detail. Somehow, her vision aligned almost perfectly with mine! My only suggestion would be to continue improving on the communication between the host lottery and NASPL staff to make sure everyone is clear about their roles. I understand that is being addressed with a detailed new NASPL document to help guide future host lotteries. Internally here at the Missouri Lottery, I created several committees from our staff members, and really enjoyed working with them on a daily basis to put that conference together. When it was over, obviously I still see them in the office, but it’s not quite the same thing and I often miss that daily interaction.
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From your perspective, is there anything you wish the Missouri Lottery could do differently? How about the lottery industry as a whole?
Well, most lotteries look at iLottery as an important component for their future, and we’re certainly no different. It just hasn’t happened in Missouri yet. We do have a very active strategic plan that is driven by integrity, customer focus, diversity, entertainment and innovation. All those nuggets guide us and we keep a scorecard to make sure we are staying on track and going in the right direction.
What’s it like working at the Missouri Lottery?
We work hard and have fun! The Lottery is such a positive place to work because everyone’s working together as a team. And we do have the occasional pranksters who help keep it light, to help us keep our sanity – every office needs that! We used to have a lot of fun at our events – fairs and other events. Any of us could sign up for events that interested us, and it was great to be out there with our players and our winners. Those got curtailed when we lost most of our advertising budget, but as we get more of that back, we look forward to getting out among the people again. Working in the office is great, but there’s nothing like being in the field at an event.
