Leadership Kentucky, Inc.

Are you ready to ELEVATE your community? ELEVATE Kentucky offers young leaders in-depth personal and professional development while fostering a better understanding of the challenges facing our Commonwealth. ELEVATE participants return to their organizations with increased skills, knowledge, perspective, and a new statewide professional network. Program graduates are better prepared to be catalysts in their organizations and communities in an effort to ELEVATE Kentucky. 2025 Sessions Dates and Locations (subject to change.) April 9 - 11 Owensboro May 7 - 9 Pikeville June 9 - 11 Frankfort/NKY If you, or someone you know, work with, or supervise, would be a good candidate for ELEVATE, please share or apply TODAY! https://lnkd.in/e2yXf4y

We want to say thank you again to ALL of our sponsors for an incredible Paducah session. A special thanks to BAPTIST HEALTH PADUCAH for your support and hospitality! The Class of 2024 received a warm welcome from both Kenny Boyd, president of Baptist Health Paducah, and Roy Lowdenback, System Vice President of Philanthropy for Baptist Health KY & IN and LKY Board member and Class of 2020 alum. Thank you ALL for an unforgettable experience!

Friday in Paducah for the Class of 2024 was powerful, heartbreaking, gut wrenching. Trent Lovett, retired superintendent for Marshall County Schools, shared his experience on January 23, 2018 when a 15-year old gunman fired a handgun in the high school's common area killing 2, Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, and wounding 14 others. Mr. Lovett visits with groups across the nation to discuss the events of that tragic day and honors the two young lives lost by always saying their names. Sarah Stewart Holland, host of podcast Pantsuit Politics and a 1998 graduate of Heath High School. In 1997, when Sarah was a junior, a 14-year-old student opened fire on a group of students, killing three and injuring five. Although the shooting has stayed with her throughout her adult life, Sarah's message of forgiveness was genuine and heartfelt. The Class then heard from Dr. John Cecil and Dr. Caitlyn Cecil, father and daughter pediatricians practicing at BAPTIST HEALTH PADUCAH. Treating mental illness in children and adolescents has increased over the past decade and is all the more challenging given the lack of practitioners in the region. Some children, who are living with a mental illness, can wait up to a year before a first visit with a psychiatrist. Dr. Kristen Williams, a general surgeon with Baptist, also spoke about the challenges of treating patients with mental health diagnoses. The treatment plan for a patient with a cancer diagnosis will be markedly different than a patient with a cancer diagnosis who is also living with a mental illness. One thing has become clear about the Class of 2024 with each session. They are compassionate. They are helpers. They are doers. They are change makers. As the Paducah session closed, their call to action was clear - go home, welcome discomfort, and use that to make a difference for one child. That one small step could make all the difference in the world

Kentucky State Penitentiary, or The Castle on the Cumberland, hosted the Class of 2024 on a brisk and foggy morning last week. The high level of security, locks, bars, and razor wire were an ever present reminder of the purpose of the prison - to keep the incarcerated inside the walls. However, everything we heard and learned on our visit had one focus - preparing inmates for their reintegration into society. There are 19,220 individuals serving felony convictions in state prisons or jails, including the 696 housed at KSP. At least 95% of the state inmate population will be released from incarceration at some point. Inmates may participate in a variety of programs aimed at providing them the tools and skills necessary to be in successful in life after their release. One of those programs is Prison Industries, a garment plant that currently employs 50 inmates who make all clothing for incarcerated individuals in Kentucky. Another KSP offering is Moral Recognition Therapy (MRT), a cognitive-behavioral treatment approach to be utilized within a prison-based drug treatment therapeutic community. While in the facility, we heard from both an inmate panel and a KSP staff panel. The inmates shared with the class about their backgrounds, their crimes, their families, and their pursuit of growth during incarceration. The staff stressed the importance of treating the inmates with dignity and respect while maintaining a sense of connection to each other. By the time the class finished for the day, the morning's fog had lifted. However, the weight of the experience at the Castle on the Cumberland was still heavy in the air and on our minds.

The Class of 2024's October session took place in Paducah. On our first day in town, we learned that its designation as an UNESCO Creative City is well-deserved! The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Paducah, Kentucky a Creative City in November 2013 for the City’s important role in the connectivity of cultures through creativity. We spent time at The National Quilt Museum where the fiber art was as beautiful as it was precise. The craftsmanship of each piece was painstaking and breathtaking! One unexpected quality of the works was that they were all created after 1980. While some of the artists on display may be grandmothers, these aren't your grandmother's quilts! Our next stop was the Hotel Metropolitan, built in 1908 by Maggie Steed, an African-American woman, to accommodate people of color. It became a designated stop in the Green Book, a safe haven for African-American travelers, including world-famous entertainers traveling the #chitlincircuit like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Ike and Tina Turner. We also spent time at the Paducah School of Art & Design, a part of the West Kentucky Community and Technical College system, to learn about the variety of programs and mediums aspiring artists can create through. Students can earn an Associate in Fine Arts or an Associate in Applied Science in Visual Communication: Multimedia degree. Run, don't walk, to #paducahcreativecity. It's well worth the trip!

The ELEVATE Kentucky application for the Class of 2025 is OPEN! ELEVATE Kentucky offers young leaders in-depth personal and professional development while fostering a better understanding of the challenges facing our Commonwealth. ELEVATE participants return to their organizations with increased skills, knowledge, perspective, and a new statewide professional network. Program graduates are better prepared to be catalysts in their organizations and communities in an effort to ELEVATE Kentucky. 2025 Sessions Dates and Locations (subject to change.) April 9 - 11 Owensboro May 7 - 9 Pikeville June 9 - 11 Frankfort/NKY If you, or someone you know, work with, or supervise, would be a good candidate for ELEVATE, please share or apply TODAY! https://lnkd.in/e2yXf4y

BRIGHT concluded our Pikeville session at the beautiful Pike County Library. County Judge Executive Ray Jones and Pikeville City Manager Reggie Hickman welcomed the class and shared how they collaborate. We then enjoyed delicious treats from Alley Cakes and coffee from Faith Market. We concluded the day with Dr. Amanda Slone sharing Appalachian history, culture, identity and perception. Thank you again to our sponsors for a fantastic session!

Yesterday BRIGHT visited the Floyd Co. School of Innovation where over 240 students are enrolled in classes in 17 pathways, including agriculture, construction, computer science, aerospace, law enforcement, medical, and more. They graduate with real life skills to begin careers or head to college. Then we drove to the Floyd Co. Board of Education where we toured the STEAM bus that travels around the area engaging students with mobile labs. A panel of educators shared how they are implementing vibrant learning experiences across all ages in the district. Black Sheep Bakery provided delicious wood fired pizzas and pastries for our lunch as well as an inspiring story from the owner. After lunch, we traveled to the Mountain Arts Center (MAC) where Colby Hall and Elmer Whitaker shared how SOAR is partnering with various businesses, governments and private individuals to address several challenges facing the region. Rachelle Burchette then showed us how to be more effective leaders by learning more about our leadership style and personality color as well as those in our company. We then switched he’s gears and focused on the musical talent in the region. Kris Preston and Bek Smallwood, co-organizers of the Mountain Grrl Experience shared how their dream began. They entertained us with several songs, along with singer Mia Lequire, daughter of our own BRIGHT classmate, Sabrina Lequire. As we enjoyed Made to Crave for dinner, the Kentucky Opry Junior Pros, a local group of musicians ranking from 11-18 years old amazed us with their incredible talent. To end the night, several of the BRIGHT participants headed to Stonecrest Toptracer Golf. Thank you to our sponsors for making today possible.

As you'll in this month's newsletter, it's been a busy, but AMAZING, couple of months. Aside from the informative and impactful sessions, we also celebrated more than $40,000 at our Golf Outing. We are so grateful to our generous sponsors and players for their support! And are ESPECIALLY thankful to event co-chairs Jeremy Jarvi and Abbie Gilbert, John Bevington with LG&E/KU, and the LKY Class of 2023. This day would not have been possible without them! https://lnkd.in/gtqmmvWR

Thank you to Pikeville Medical Center @pikevillemedicalcenter for rolling out the red carpet and welcoming our BRIGHT participants! Our day began with a panel of experts who educated us on several alarming cancer, diabetes, and heart disease statistics and how Eastern Kentucky compares to the rest of the nation. The panel shared the PMC vision that ‘where you live should not determine if you live’ and the impressive treatments and procedures they are utilizing to treat Eastern Kentucky residents so that they do not have to travel across the state for exceptional medical care. The class was then able to participate in the Pathways to Wellness health fair where they took part in blood pressure, glucose and BMI screenings and saw the effects of heart disease and tobacco. Our time at PMC concluded with a panel including an Oncologist, Endocrinologist and Cardiologist who shared with us some of their challenges in advocating for a healthy population and how they tailor their care plans to the residents of the area. Later, we drove to the Overlook and witnessed its beautiful view over Pikeville for a mix and mingle with alumni and sponsors. The night concluded with a historic recollection from Rusty Justice of the Cut Through Project and the Pikeville visionaries that have created a lasting legacy for the region. Thank you to our sponsors for making this session possible!