Swope Health

Swope Health Alumni Series: Meet Kim Riley

Kim Riley is a visionary innovator who has a passion for helping people – especially those
with disabilities. She’s the founder and CEO of The Transition Academy and North Star Solutions, which are designed to help disabled students and their
families. Riley has an impressive resume with stops all around Kansas City, and it all started at Swope Health in the late 90s.

Her time at Swope Health

Initially, Riley was a
reporter after earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of
Missouri. However, she decided her passion was working for change, not reporting on community issues. She accepted her first full-time job in the planning and development department at Swope Health, which led grant writing and fundraising work. Her role at Swope Health encompassed public relations and media relations.

 

“At the end of my internship at United Way, I saw an ad for the public relations job at Swope Health,” Riley said. “I hadn’t heard of public relations, but it sounded fun and was up my alley. I got the job, and it changed my life.”

E. Frank Ellis, Swope Health founder and CEO at the time, wanted to spread the word about the health center, and Riley ran with it. She used her gift for storytelling to connect with media outlets and got plenty of local television coverage – including landing media coverage for the first-ever Treat Town, an annual trick-or-treating experience that still takes place at Swope Health Central every October.  

“We wanted to bring in people who weren’t patients to connect them to our mission. The plan was to make them feel like they were a part of the health center,” she said. “It was all this fun stuff that I didn’t realize was a job. Swope Health let me spread my wings, fly, and have a blast.”

Her next chapter

After two eventful years at Swope Health, she took her talents elsewhere. From 1998-2004, Riley had similar roles at five different organizations: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Microsoft, Full Employment Council, Mazuma Credit Union, and Community Movement for Urban Progress. Eventually, she took time away to care for her family. 

“When my son was diagnosed with autism, I stopped working full time for a while so I could focus on him and his therapeutic needs,” Riley said.

Riley worked part-time for Girl Scouts while taking care of her son. Once he reached kindergarten, she began an 11-year tenure at Metropolitan Community College.

“I spent the first three years at the Longview campus,” she said. “Then I went to Penn Valley, where I focused on community engagement, marketing, and connecting to the community that it served.”

Path to entrepreneurship

Riley eventually moved on and worked at WellCare Health Plans before becoming an admissions recruiter for Kansas City Public Schools. Once her son reached high school, she noticed there was an educational gap for students who need more help with their transition into the workforce.

“There were always bridge programs for special populations – such as Blacks in Engineering, women in STEM, and Latinos in Medicine – but we never did any overt outreach to students with disabilities. As my son got older, I wanted to make a difference, and my path led me to create the solution: The Transition Academy,” Riley said.

While at KCPS, Riley made strong connections with the school district as well as with district partners like SchoolSmartKC. The non-profit organization supports Kansas City schools with strategies and resources, and she joined their staff in 2019.

“I became a consultant to help them with their work in special education. While I worked with them in that capacity, I was also able to launch The Transition Academy.”

Two years later, Riley founded North Star, a web-based college and career navigation tool for high school students with disabilities. The tech platform is in development.

“I always envisioned some type of interactive tech product that would guide families through the different navigations of disabilities,” she said. “The goal of North Star is to support The Transition Academy youth, families, and teachers so they can navigate the landscape and be connected to the resources that they need.”

The Transition Academy is thriving, growing, and positively impacting so many disabled individuals and their families. Riley credits the success of her companies with what she learned and experienced at Swope Health.

“My entrepreneurship path aligned with what I learned when working at Swope Health. It laid the foundation for what can be done. It showed me what happens when you believe in the people you serve,” Riley said. “When you believe in them, you do whatever you can to make sure they’re successful.”

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