New Initiative Strives to Identify and Develop Regional Leaders

Lora Wondolowski

In 2004, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Plan for Progress, initially created a decade earlier, was overhauled, with 13 new strategic goals identified as “critical for growing the people, companies, and communities that grow the region.”
Lora Wondolowski is now working out of a small office just down the hall from PVPC Executive Director Timothy Brennan because of what’s known colloquially as Action Item 7: “Recruit and train a new generation of regional leaders.”
Indeed, Wondoloski, hired in April, is program director of an initiative known as Leadership Pioneer Valley, which operates with a simple core mission: “To identify, develop, and connect diverse leaders to strengthen the Pioneer Valley.” As she talked with BusinessWest about her new assignment, she conveyed the message that each word in that mission statement was chosen carefully, and it’s her job to sharply define each one.
That starts with ‘identify.’ Wondoloski is now in the process of recruiting the first class of 40 to 50 emerging and existing leaders (ages 25-45) from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to participate. “These are mid-career professionals, people who have been identified as having potential for leadership within their own company or organization,” she explained, “or people who have gotten involved locally somehow; we’re not looking for recent college graduates, and we’re not looking for CEOs ready to retire next year. For employers, these are people they want to keep around, people they want to root in the community.”
‘Develop’ is the next key word in the mission statement, and it will be addressed through a 10-month curriculum (one day per month) that will include a balanced combination of retreats, day-long seminars, and small-group activity, and is still a work in progress, with several weeks remaining before the start of the first planned program in October.
Which brings us to ‘connect’ — once the leaders have been identified and developed, they will be connected to the communities in ways designed to utilize the skills and knowledge they have acquired to benefit the region and specific communities and agencies as program alumni — and ‘diverse.’ Wondoloski said those chosen will, as a group, accurately reflect this region’s changing demographics and, in the process, develop leaders from several different ethnic groups. But it will be diverse in other respects as well, including industry representation.
As for Pioneer Valley, this is a truly regional concept, involving all of Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, she explained, which separates LPV, as it’s called, from some other leadership programs created in Springfield and Northampton. Meanwhile, one of the goals of the curriculum is to familiarize participants with the whole of the Valley and the specific challenges and assets of specific areas and communities.
“We want participants to get a deep understanding of the Valley and the communities that make up this region,” she explained. “A lot of people don’t leave their communities — people from Springfield don’t often get up to Franklin County, and vice versa; we want to get people out of their silos.”
For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Wondolowski to gain some perspective on Leadership Pioneer Valley, it’s goals and emerging strategies for meeting them, and the reasons why it has become the embodiment of Action Item 7.

A Leadership Position
Since starting her new assignment, Wondolowski, formerly the founding executive director of the Mass. League of Environmental Voters, has been working with a 27-member steering committee on several components of that aforementioned mission statement, from curriculum development to the multi-faceted task of recruitment.
For example, she was in attendance at BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty gala on June 23 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, meeting with several potential members of the first class of leaders. She’s also been finalizing the application form for those desiring to be members of the first class — it now appears on the recently launched Web site www.leadershippv.org — and meeting with area business and civic leaders to gauge what they want and need to see result from this initiative.
The broad yet simple goal is developing leadership, she continued, adding that this has been identified as one of the more critical economic-development priorities in the region for some time. And to achieve that goal, the PVPC, the Community Foundation of Western Mass., and several area businesses are collaborating to create a program modeled after several local, regional, and national initiatives, said Wondolowski.
As examples, she cited a one-year pilot program created six years ago by the Northampton Chamber of Commerce and the United Way called Leadership County, an effort launched nearly 30 years ago called Leadership Greater Hartford — administrators there have served as consultants for LPV — and an initiative in the nation’s capital called Leadership Greater Washington.
LGW, as the Washington-area program is called, was created in 1986, put together by six area chambers of commerce and three economic-development-related organizations — the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, and the Junior League. The linchpin of the program is its so-called Effective Leadership Institute, which provides one-day-per-month coursework focusing on communication, team building, emotional intelligence, and diversity.
“We’re taking the lessons learned from Hampshire County and applying them to a region-wide leadership program, and the Hartford team has helped put together a business plan for us,” said Wondoloski. “We’re taking best practices from a number of different models.”
Hiring a director and assembling a steering committee were the first real steps in the process of getting LPV off the ground, said Wondolowski, adding that recruitment and curriculum development are the next matters in the to-do list, and there has been significant progress with both.
The recruiting process will be highly competitive, she told BusinessWest, adding that she expects the volume of applications to far exceed the number of seats in the classroom. But more important than the quantity of applicants is the quality, she went on, noting that is why she’s working hard to get the word out to individuals and constituencies like the 40 Under Forty Class of 2011 and those that preceded it, as well as the area’s young-professionals organizations.
Meanwhile, she’s reaching out to LPV sponsors, which include MassMutual, Baystate Health, PeoplesBank, United Bank, Westfield Bank, and others — who are each contributing $5,000 to $10,000 toward the program’s $257,000 annual budget — to help recruit candidates.
Diversity is also a key factor in finalization of the first class, she said, adding that there will be targets established for specific ethnic groups, and to reach them, organizers will reach out to groups like the Latino Chamber of Commerce and others like it that serve a specific constituency.

Course of Action
While recruitment work continues, Wondoloski and the steering committee are also finalizing the curriculum for the 10-month program, the cost of which will vary according to a sliding scale. For participants from large companies, the price tag will be roughly $2,500, while those from the smallest nonprofits will pay $850. Participants will be asked to contribute $300 themselves, and scholarships will be available.
Most of the components are in place, she told BusinessWest, adding that they include:
• A retreat, to be staged in September, which will focus on self-assessment of leadership skills, an introduction to the region, and selection of group projects;
• Challenge days, or day-long seminars, held monthly, that will focus on leadership skills and significant challenges facing the region such as education, sustainability, transportation, and the regional economy;
• Field experience in the shape of day-long workshops, also held monthly, at locations around the region to introduce participants to local leaders, the diversity of the region, and an area’s challenges, assets, and potential; and
• Leadership learning labs. Each class will work in small teams to devise strategies to address one of the themes or challenges identified in the PVPC’s Plan for Progress. The teams will have time to meet on training days, but will also meet independently between the monthly sessions.
The seminars will be held at venues across the region, said Wondoloski, listing the Springfield Museums, Greenfield Community College, and Yankee Candle as examples of potential sites chosen to connect participants with the businesses and institutions that shape the Valley.
Meanwhile, to provide what she called a 360-degree view of the region, the field experiences will be staged at locations chosen to broaden participants’ knowledge of the entire Valley. Details have not been finalized, she said, but there will likely be a Springfield Day; a Five College Day to familiarize the class with the Amherst-Northampton area; a day in Holyoke, Chicopee, and perhaps South Hadley to gain perspective on that area; and a Hilltowns and Franklin County Day.
The sum of these curriculum elements will provide participants with opportunities to refine their personal and public leadership skills, said Wondolowski, while also developing diverse contacts and an effective communication network, receiving recognition for themselves and their organization, and gaining opportunities for taking an active and effective role in addressing community needs.
In short, participants will be gaining and honing leadership skills, while also getting a comprehensive education in the region as a whole, but also its specific areas and communities — and then opportunities to apply what they’ve learned.
Looking down the road, Wondoloski said that some of the programs that LPV is modeled after have developed some measures for quantifying the success of their initiatives. These include everything from the percentage of participants gaining promotions in their firms to the number of nonprofit board seats filled by individuals who have taken part in the training regimens.
Ultimately, though, success will more likely be qualified, and the indicators will be quality of life, overall vibrancy, and greater diversity in the business sector, government, and other realms.

Class Act
Graduates of the LPV program will receive a certificate of some sort identifying them as a participant and perhaps some course credits, said Wondoloski, adding that these are some of the details still being worked out.
But they’ll get much more than a piece of paper, she told BusinessWest, adding that they’ll gain not only additional leadership skills, a new network, and a broad education on the Valley, but also, and more importantly, motivation and opportunities to put what they’ve learned to work.
In that respect, they will be helping to address Action Item 7, but also address the critical need for leadership across the region.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Pediatric Dentists Stress Education, Prevention, and Fun

Drs. Laurie Brown and Vincent Trimboli Jr. say that, if decay is caught early enough in baby teeth, it can sometimes be healed with a combination of fluoride, proper hygiene, and new toothpaste and dental products.

Knowledge Is Power
If teeth aren’t cared for, they can affect a child’s overall health. Baby teeth are present in the mouth during the years of growth and development. So if a child has a toothache, he or she may not get the proper nutrition to grow properly. Baby teeth also affect a child’s speech and hold a space for the adult teeth.
Pediatric dentists advise parents who fear dentists to let them do the talking and use their knowledge to make children comfortable. They are well-equipped to do this, they say, because they are required to complete two to three additional years of training in seven areas of specialty.
In addition to classes in child growth, development, and behavior management, Trimboli noted, they are trained in sedation techniques and must care for medically compromised children and adults before graduation.
The population ranges from individuals with seizure disorder to those with autism-spectrum disorders and cerebral palsy, so dentists must learn how to handle children with special needs. They’re also trained to deal with childhood fears, explain things in a way a child understands, and accomplish necessary dental procedures quickly.
“We are trained to know how our patients will behave and how to approach them as soon as see we them walking down the hall and talk to them and their parents,” Trimboli said, explaining that they pay attention to a child’s body language and how well they interact with people in the waiting room or their staff. “We engage them before we ever use any dental instruments because we want them to have a positive experience.”
Brown gives each child a toy to play with as soon as they are seated in pint-sized examination chairs.
In fact, pediatric dental offices are carefully designed to be inviting to the small set. Matthews’ office has child-sized chairs, and the equipment he uses is smaller than the adult version, which makes it easier for children to tolerate procedures. Computer screens are installed on the ceilings of his treatment rooms and continuously play Disney movies, while Disney posters add a cheerful ambience, and stuffed animals sit on counters for children to hold during treatment. Plus, they can choose a small toy to take home when they leave.
Tremblay and Kantor’s office is also filled with fun. “It’s almost like trick-or-treating when children come here,” Tremblay said. “We give them sunglasses to wear so the light doesn’t shine in their eyes, along with stickers, gifts from our treasure drawer, and a toothbrush and toothpaste. And they get a coupon for a free slice of pizza.”
Brown and Trimboli’s office is like a small village, with rooms for every age, from tots to teens. Each room has a theme, such as Disney or a jungle, and lightscapes on the ceilings feature glowing pictures of fish swimming in turquoise water. Trimboli loves the Beatles, so one of the teen spaces is filled with Beatles posters and a glass case holding a collection of guitars. The dental equipment is hidden beneath counters and pulled out right before use, so children don’t get frightened when they enter the exam rooms.
“What we do affects how the children act, so we try to make the office and our treatment as non-intimidating as possible,” Brown said, adding that she gives small children a stuffed animal to hold to take the focus off the dental procedure.
These extras — along with child-friendly terms pediatric dentists use, such as calling the suction device “Mr. Thirsty” — go a long way toward making a visit to the dentist enjoyable.

More Than Smiles
However, there is a lot more to pediatric dentistry than atmosphere and small treats. Dentists provide parents with valuable education and tell them what is normal, what to expect, and also to check to make sure a child’s bite is developing properly.
Kantor said babies who want a bottle at bedtime should be given water, as once they are asleep, saliva production is reduced, and the sugar in milk or juice remains on their teeth. This also happens when mothers breastfeed throughout the night. “The milk has natural sugars which bathe the teeth,” he said, adding that it can lead to decay.
Sippy cups can also lead to tooth decay if children carry them around all day. “Some children use sippy cups as a pacifier. The child’s teeth should be wiped off after they drink from one,” Matthews advised.
Parents should also brush and rebrush their children’s teeth, as the young ones’ limited dexterity makes it unlikely that they will do a good job. Kantor tells parents to stand or sit behind a child and have the child look up so they can see their entire mouth.
Dentists agree that it’s much easier for everyone if tooth decay is discovered early. “A cavity is a progressive disease and will continue to get worse if it is not taken care of. Cavities should be fixed while they are small,” Tremblay said.
Brown said that, if cavities are caught early enough, they can sometimes be healed or remineralized with a combination of fluoride, proper hygiene, and newer toothpaste and dental products.
He and Trimboli say it’s not uncommon to see 2-year-olds with 10 cavities. But the way a baby tooth is restored is different than procedures used on adults.
In cases where a cavity is deep or a child is very young, it may be necessary to use sedation or put him or her in the hospital to fill it so they can be put to sleep. And if the decay has progressed to the point where the tooth has to be pulled, space maintainers are necessary. If they are not installed, the baby teeth will shift, and the adult teeth may not come in properly.
If decay has reached the nerve and the child will have the tooth for a number of years, pediatric dentists may opt to do a pulpotomy, which is the equivalent of a partial root canal on a baby tooth. “We take out part of the nerve tissue and put in a little stainless-steel crown to protect the rest of the tooth,” Tremblay said. “We don’t want it to abscess, as there is a permanent tooth building beneath it.”
Early orthodontic intervention can also prevent problems. Matthews recently hired an orthodontist to address issues that can be seen as early as age 6. “We want to catch problems early, while the jaw is still developing,” he said.
Trimboli said X-rays and oral exams reveal problems such as extra teeth, missing teeth, double teeth, and cysts. The earlier they are identified, the easier it is to plan a course of action.
In short, there’s a lot more to pediatric dentistry than a small smile. “It’s the whole experience,” Trimboli said. “Most children don’t go to an internist, they go to a pediatrician, which is why they can benefit from a pediatric dentist.”

Montessori Method Gives Students Choices in Learning

Molly Reynolds says many people still harbor misconceptions about a Montessori education.

Early Beginnings
The Springfield school was started as a nonprofit organization in 1963 by a group of physicians’ wives, and was incorporated in June 1964.
“One of them had heard about Montessori, and they hired a teacher from France,” Reynolds said.
During the school’s first few years, classes were held in rented space at American International College. However, Richard and Emma Wilder Anderson, former owners and operators of Camp Wilder, soon donated a plot of land to the group adjacent to their private day camp, and in 1966, a one-classroom building was constructed at the Parker Street site.
In 1971, a second classroom was added, and in 1981, a two-story addition was built so the children could advance from preschool and kindergarten classes to Montessori elementary school. “They added one grade at a time,” Reynolds said, explaining that the parents felt strongly about having their children continue with the Montessori educational model.
Today, the Parker Street facility houses three preschool classrooms. One is for children between 18 months and 3 years of age, and the other two cater to 3- to 6-year-olds. Kindergarten students mix with preschoolers in the morning, but are taught separately in the afternoon. An adjoining wing contains one classroom for children in first through third grade, and another is home to fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders.
Although some people might question the idea of having children in different grades learn together, teaching is geared to the individual rather than the group, so each child moves through the curriculum at his or her own pace, said Reynolds.
The children do math and English-language arts in the morning and, after completing their lessons, are free to choose more math or science, geography, art, or computer coursework. In the afternoon, they can take part in Spanish, art, and yoga sessions.
Students at Montessori have very little homework, and what there is usually takes the form of a long-term project.
“They work hard and progress quickly here, so they don’t need it,” Reynolds explained. “Homework is generally pretty tedious, and we want them to stay excited about learning. Plus, studies do not support that homework has any value.”
The third- and fifth-grade students take the Stanford Achievement Test each year to make sure they are doing well. “They usually average two years ahead of grade level,” Reynolds said. “We have kids here doing high-school grammar.”
It is rare to have a teacher stand in front of the entire class and teach. Instead, teachers give mini-lessons to individuals throughout the day. “The teachers are trained to be excellent observers and take the time to notice how each child is doing and interacting with others,” Reynolds said, adding that, in addition to being licensed by the state, Montessori teachers must undergo specialized training.
Upper-elementary teacher Pamela Kinn says the method of teaching is very different than what occurs in a traditional setting. “In a Montessori classroom, learning is an active experience. It doesn’t happen by teachers telling children something. Everything goes from the concrete to the abstract,” she said.
Special materials are used to accomplish this goal. For example, every part of speech is symbolized by a shape or color and has a little story associated with it to help children remember and understand its purpose.
Since the school is small — the current enrollment is 112 students — the teachers know their students well, and as they progress through the system, the educators share ideas and observation as to how to get them to excel. “We can meet the needs of gifted children as well as children who struggle. We are not a special-education program, but can also meet these students’ needs,” Reynolds said.

Grade Expectations
Susan Hershey has been teaching at the school since 1972, and thus has a great deal of experience — and perspective — when it comes to the Montessori methodology.
“I really like the freedom that children have within this structure,” she told BusinessWest. “The preschool foundation is based on practical life skills to help children develop coordination, concentration, a sense of independence, and order. The Montessori curriculum is very clearly delineated and taught.”
It’s an atmosphere where students are happy as they help to direct their own education.

Art Therapy Adds a Color to the Palette of Treatment for Alzheimer’s

Amy Creasia says the impact of art therapy at Wingate at Hampden is reflected in the behavior, mood, and interactions of her students with Alzheimer’s.

Picture of Health
Alter-Muri said that, before the work of one woman in the late 1980s, art therapy for AD was still a blank canvas.
Focusing more generally on the needs of the elderly, Elizabeth Layton and her art therapist, Robert Ault, made significant improvements in her treatment, and took the results to Washington. In 1990, after Layton spoke before Congress, art therapy became recognized as a beneficial treatment for the elderly and was appended to the Older Americans Act of 1965, meaning that facilities receiving federal funding could now budget art therapists in their staff.
“That’s when it became more widely known as a treatment for AD and dementia,” Alter-Muri said, “but people have been using art therapy in various ways for ages. It’s a non-verbal communication, and when dealing with AD, there are so many different stages. When you are holding a lot of yourself in and not able to express yourself, you need some kind of expression, and art can be that language.”
Improved communication is one example of art therapy’s contribution to a person with Alzheimer’s, she explained, and Creasia said that better dialogue can help not only the residents with whom she works, but also their family members.
“One resident’s son used to be an artist, but had stopped painting,” she said. “His mother is a resident here, and was in my class. She didn’t really paint all that much, but she started to. Her son has now come in, and he’s back into painting because his mother does. They have that link now that they didn’t before.”
Some of the projects that Creasia works on in her classes help in dealing with the residents’ memories, a fragile aspect of the mind suffering from AD.
One project she described involved a black-and-white photograph of her students’ hands, holding an object that held some value to them. In painting and coloring over the black-and-white image, the residents concentrated on an image that was close to their own history. An important aspect of art therapy, this allows the person to emphasize the abilities that they do have, and to help improve their concentration.
But working with elements of memory loss can be fraught with complications for those with Alzheimer’s, because there are so many levels of an individual’s own degenerative affliction. In art therapy, one way to further emphasize those abilities that do remain, rather than focusing on those that have been lost, is the simple act of allowing freedom of expression.
“In assisted living there is diminished personal decision-making,” said Alter-Muri. “But if you’re doing an art project, those little choices like an option between using red or blue … this empowers people. That one small choice becomes something very important. In times of immense turmoil, there is the possibility for such a small role to have much-greater repercussions.”
At Wingate, Creasia described a project that she had recently finished called “A Room With a View.”
“The residents painted on watercolor paper a scene that they would like to see out a window — could be a seascape, a landscape, that kind of thing,” she described. “Then we attached that to a backing material that looked like wallpaper, and from there they collaged furniture, flooring, things that they want to put in the room.
“It gave them choices,” she continued, “but it promoted socialization among the residents. On that and many other projects, they work with each other, interact, and provide positive feedback. It’s a really nice situation.”

Memories Are Made of This
While the work created by her students has helped to brighten the walls at Wingate, Creasia said that the Hampden Arts Guild also recognized the efforts she and her students have been making.
“They contacted us and wanted to display some of the work that we do here,” she said. “We had an opening reception for the residents, and that made it really special. Then we brought that exhibit back here and put it up in the foyer. It gave my students recognition and really made them feel good, especially when they saw their work matted, framed, and hung on the wall.”
Memories in the Making is the name of a creative-arts program started by the California chapter of the National Alzheimer’s Assoc. Both Creasia and Alter-Muri said that an exhibition at Springfield College last summer was this area’s first foray under the auspices of that organization. There was work on display from students and faculty of the college, as well as nine assisted-living facilities from the Greater Springfield area.
Memories in the Making supports the work of patients with AD, and then organizes similar exhibits in fine-art settings. Currently, the West Coast chapter prints an annual calendar showcasing the work of its artists.
In the studios at Springfield College, Alter-Muri said the field is rapidly becoming more successful among students, making this treatment an increasingly indelible mark for both patients and caregivers.
“The Alzheimer’s Assoc. is reaching out to our students,” she said. “And at this year’s American Art Therapy Assoc. meeting, one of the major speakers talked about the Memories in the Making program.
“I think you will see art therapy becoming more widely known,” she continued. “It’s an important field in that it can help so many different people in so many different ways.”
And those are words to live by.

Kirk Smith Takes the Helm at the YMCA of Greater Springfield

YMCA's Kirk Smith

Kirk Smith was talking about how he started down the career path that would eventually take him to the president’s office of the YMCA of Greater Springfield.
And to tell the story effectively, he had to go back to his days working in operations and training at the River City Correctional Facility outside Cincinnati, where he grew up. There, at what he described as something between the county jail and prison, a facility designed to help reduce recidivism, he got an up-close and very personal look at what can, and often does, happen when people make the wrong choices.
“The sad part about it is that many of those you see in jail are not bad people,” he explained. “Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of very, very bad people in prison, and they definitely deserve to be there, but contrary to what you see on television, there are some good people who shouldn’t be there and wouldn’t be if some things had gone differently for them.
“It saddens you, because there’s so much wasted potential,” he continued. “You see artists, people who are very poetic, individuals who are really intelligent and very analytical — people who are amazingly talented but just made some bad decisions and got around the wrong people. And your environment will eventually win out; if you hang around the wrong people, no matter how good you are, it will impact you, it will change you. So a lot of days, I left feeling very sad.”
And the sum of that sadness and disappointment became one of the key motivators for becoming involved in youth activities in the Cincinnati area after his day job ended, and eventually joining the YMCA family and beginning what became a career migration across Florida — from Tampa to Lakeland to Orlando — before coming 1,500 miles north to the City of Homes.
“I said to myself, ‘Kirk, you’re going to have to get involved,” he told BusinessWest while referring to his career-course alteration. “Instead of intervention, I said, ‘how can I involved in prevention?’”
He would eventually find a number of ways, ranging from a program, called the First Tee, which introduced children across all social strata to the game of golf and accompanying life lessons, to outreach work aimed at keeping children on the edge in school and on the path to a diploma.
He’ll continue that work in prevention, among other things, in a position he called a perfect match between an individual and an organization in seemingly the same place in their progression.
That would be what Smith, now the former district/group vice president of Operations for the YMCA of Central Florida, in Orlando, called the “momentum stage.”
Elaborating, he explained that, from his perspective, professionals — and agencies — go through periods in their development. He said the first is what he called the ‘formation stage,’ when things essentially start coming together. This is followed by the ‘concentration’ period, when things begin to come into focus and the emphasis is on moving forward. The last of the four is called ‘stability,’ he told BusinessWest, when things begin to level off and, in simple terms, the cycle essentially starts all over again.
Before stability comes ‘momentum,’ he continued. “That’s when you’re really starting to get things going, and you’re seeing the benefits of your education and your past experience. As a person, or organization, you’re gaining momentum.
“We’re both in the momentum stage,” he said of himself and the second-oldest Y in the country. “We need each other right now; we’re both at the same point.”
Only a few weeks into his new assignment, Smith is drafting a blueprint for familiarizing himself with the Greater Springfield Y, as well as this region and the challenges facing it, while also forging a plan for moving forward.
To carry out these other tasks that are part of a broad assimilation process, Smith is creating what he calls “an engagement task force” (more on that later), to provide a broad snapshot of just where this Y is and a battle plan for getting it where it needs to go.
There are many items on the to-do list, he said, but perhaps the most important — because it will make the task of achieving many goals that much easier — is improving the lines of communication and effectively getting the word out about what the Y is, who it serves, and how individuals can help with the mission.
For this issue and its focus on health and wellness, BusinessWest talked at length with Smith, who believes his intriguing array of career stops, including that stint in corrections as well as a seven-year hitch in the U.S. Army, will serve him well in this big step forward in the momentum phase.

Former and
the Ladder
Smith told BusinessWest that he made his Army recruiter’s job quick and easy.
“Let’s just say I made him look good; he didn’t have to work very hard. In fact, he didn’t have to work at all.”
That’s because, starting around the time he reached middle school, Smith was consumed with thoughts about how to escape from the tough and troubled Cincinnati neighborhood known as Avondale, and the Army provided an effective out.
“All I knew was that I had to leave where I came from,” he said, “because it was one of the most difficult neighborhoods in the city — and it’s 20 times worse now. The majority of the murders that happen in Cincinnati happen in that community, unfortunately. It’s a very, very tough area, and by the time I got to the 10th grade, I knew that the first chance I had to leave that neighborhood, I was going to take it.”
Smith’s seven-year stint in the Army, spent in Korea, New York, and Virginia, was just one of several stops he credits with helping to mold him professionally and provide insight and perspective into societal challenges and the many types of constituencies that form a community — and their needs and challenges.
His time working in corrections, with both juveniles and adults, was especially eye-opening, as he said, and, ultimately, career-altering.
“That experience in corrections got me to the YMCA,” he explained, adding that he was working several hours a week in youth programs, and eventually decided he wanted — and needed — to do it full-time.
“I was very gung-ho coming out of the military, as you can imagine,” he said. “I was young, and thought I was tough and ready to take on the world; I was thinking, ‘bring it on.’ But corrections broke me down. It started to soften me and helped me understand that there are people in need, and if we don’t help them we’re going to be in trouble.
“I want someone to help me cross the street when I get old,” he continued. “I get fearful looking at these young people sometimes; it scares you. I want to help some of these young people so they can be responsible adults when I’m an old guy.”
His first rung on the Y ladder was a stint as associate executive director of the facility in Tampa. There, he gained invaluable experience on the operations side of Y management, with everything from fund-raising activities to program administration, while also widening his portfolio of work with young people as a case manager providing different types of assistance.
“If they were struggling in school, I’d help them stabilize their situation, and if they had dropped out, I’d help them get back into the school system so they could finish, get their diploma, and go off the college,” he said, adding that the next stop in what he called his “pilgrimage” was in Lakeland and the YMCA of West Central Florida, where he was executive director and his primary focal points were outreach — and golf.

Course of Action
Calling the sport the “great equalizer,” Smith said he learned of the game’s many character-building qualities — while failing to master most of its nuances himself — at a tiny, nine-hole, par-3 course run by the Y. He was also heavily involved in the First Tee of Lakeland, the local chapter of a national program designed to introduce young people to the sport.
“I was able to bring together kids from both affluent communities and economically challenged areas on the same golf course, where they’d face the same challenges,” he said. “There would be foursomes with two foster kids and two kids living in $500,000 homes. We used the game of golf to do that; it teaches life skills, and it teaches people how to get along and really understand people from different cultures.
“When I was a kid, I was around nothing but African-Americans,” he continued, “so I had no idea about Hispanics, Latinos, or white people. I didn’t know these people existed, and if I did, I knew nothing about them.”
From Lakeland, Smith ventured further east to Orlando and the massive YMCA of Central Florida (actually a group of many smaller Ys), which he served first as district executive director and then district/group vice president of operations. In those capacities, he honed his Y-management skills, while also doing more work with young people and bringing together people from different economic situations.
He considers perhaps his greatest accomplishment there to be efforts to raise more than $1.75 million to expand the Y in Kissimmee during the height of the Great Recession, which hit Central Florida as hard as, if not harder than, than any area in the country.
“That showed me what a community can do when everyone pulls together,” he said. “It also showed me that we have to stop using a lack of resources as an excuse to fail. We need to use how we’re positioned as a reason to succeed.”
As he talked about his career progression, Smith noted that the YMCA is an organization in which people like him are presented with ample opportunities for advancement, however one chooses to define that term. The key, he continued, is to perform the requisite due diligence and find the opportunity that makes the most sense.
He believes he did so with the Springfield position, and that his interviews, research, and talks with people like his predecessor, James O’S Morton, convinced him that this was the right move at the right time.
“He was very clear about this YMCA’s commitment to the community, and equally clear about the board’s passion and how driven they are to grow our Y and impact the community every day,” he said. “As president or executive director, it’s good to know you have a great board and hardworking volunteers behind you, because they make your job a lot easier.”
“It has to be less about the position and more about the opportunity and where you are in your career,” he continued, referring to career choices within the broad family — and business in general. There has to be a good match.”

The Shape of Things to Come
Smith said that, in contrast to Morton, an accomplished runner who would race in a number of track meets, he would describe himself as a “frustrated athlete.”
By that, he meant he often needs a push, or maybe a few, to get on the treadmill, in the pool, or to the place he’s most comfortable — the basketball court.
“When I look at all these NBA players, I feel like I should be one of them, so I live vicariously through them in a way,” he said. “I’ve been playing a long time; when I was in the military, I played a lot in South Korea in various leagues. I’m a shooter — to borrow a military term, I’ve always been a sniper.
“Overall, though, fitness-wise, I’m what I call a start-and-stopper,” he continued. “I’m that guy who will go in and work out really well for three months — committed, three or four times a week. And then, all of a sudden, it’s ‘where’s Kirk?’ The slightest thing would throw me off.”
And it’s not likely that he’ll have much time to work on his perimeter shooting, or any other types of athletic activity, in the foreseeable future, because he now has a lot on his plate, and none of it can be described with the phrase ‘slightest thing.’
For starters, he plans on spending most hours on that assimilation process he described. This will be a multi-pronged effort that will include everything from working the front desk and the floor of the workout area — “I’m going to put on my khakis and do some shifts” — to meeting face-to-face with members of his board, the Y, the business community, and other constituencies.
Which brings him back to that engagement task force he’s putting together.
“This group will have a few volunteers and some key staff people, and what we’ll focus on is giving me a better understanding of how the YMCA is positioned in this community,” he said, referring to three areas — business, the nonprofit realm, and government. “We need to consider how we’re looked at, how we look at ourselves, and whether that’s consistent with how others see is.”
Meanwhile, he’ll be conducting that broad balancing act facing all Y directors, the one involving service to the community as a whole and service to members.
Both require a firm commitment, and neither can be overshadowed by the other, he told BusinessWest, adding that both are part of the mission.
“When you talk about opportunities for our Y, we can become a lot stronger in terms of building our membership base, because the number-one way to impact the community is through members,” he said. “If we can get our communities involved with our YMCAs and to become part of our YMCAs, we can develop that confidence, self-respect, and self-reliance throughout every community we’re in through membership.”
And a big factor in attaining that commitment and involvement is communication — getting the message out about how the Y leverages contributions from donors and even membership fees to operate programs ranging from day-care and after-school initiatives to summer camps and youth basketball leagues.
“We want to communicate that message as often and effectively as we can to all our members, our community stakeholders, and all our constituencies,” he said. “We want everyone to know what the Y does with those dollars because we’re very committed to being good stewards and leveraging the support we’re getting from our donors and anyone in the community.
“There’s a huge world out there, a huge community that still has yet to learn and appreciate who we are and what we do,” he continued. “For us, it’s going to be about communication, and what we need to do is be prepared to talk about it less and do it more.”

Talking Points
As he talked with BusinessWest, Smith was interrupted briefly by a phone call that somehow found its way to his office. He politely informed the person on the other end that he would transfer him to someone who could help, and then struggled to find the right buttons to do so.
“That’s another thing I have to learn,” he said with a trace of frustration, noting quickly that, only a few days into his job, there were too many items on that list to count.
But even at this early juncture, Smith is quite confident that he and the Y he considers a perfect match, development-wise, are ready to take some big steps forward. To do that, he’ll summon lessons from South Korea, Tampa, Orlando, and, yes, the River City Correctional Facility, and create some of that momentum for himself and the Y.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]