Page 39 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

“From her early days organizing community events to her impactful work in healthcare and advocacy, she has consistently demonstrated what it means to be a leader who not only dreams of a better world, but takes tangible ste”ps to create it.
mail.
Never one to give up easily on anything, she wrote back
and included with the missive a man’s shoe.
“I told him I was just looking to get my foot in the door,”
said Lee, referring to then-United Way Director Ty Joubert, who was so impressed with her creativity and determination that he put her on the payroll.
So began an impressive career in the broad realm of marketing, public relations, and development, one where creativity has been just one character trait she has brought to her work, in ways that have benefited not merely her employers, but the community at large.
After several years with the United Way, she was recruited (as she was with all subsequent positions) to the Basketball Hall of Fame, where she served as vice president of Marketing for three years before starting a lengthy stint with what was known then as Springfield Day Nursery.
As noted earlier, she was part of the team that rebranded the agency, but also one of the key players to lead the organization back from a series of unforeseen setbacks, including the 2011 tornado that destroyed its headquarters on Main Street in Springfield, and the 2012 gas explosion that rendered one of its facilities unusable.
In 2015, Lee was recruited to the Center for Human Development, where she served as vice president of Development and Marketing. There, among other things, she negotiated a strategic partnership with the Springfield Thunderbirds and also created and managed the Through Her Eyes Girls Conference. Designed for educators, social workers, and mentors with the goal of improving the lives of at-risk girls and young women, the conference drew 500 attendees annually and featured 21 workshops run by notable professionals.
In 2018, she moved to Springfield-based MHA, where, as vice president of Development and Branding, her list of accomplishments included the launch of the You Matter Award program to highlight employees and members of the community committed to making a difference in the lives of others.
Then, in 2022, she was recruited to MiraVista, where, as chief of Creative Strategy and Development, she has helped forge
Kim Lee, center, with groundskeepers at the Country Club of Wilbraham, whom she successfully recruited to collect winter coats for children.
partnerships and strategic collaborations to drive new business, while also propelling enrollment in substance-use recovery programming among providers throughout the region.
All of which makes clear that, at each career stop, Lee has leveraged the opportunity given her and, as O’Brien put it, committed to “harnessing collective energy for the greater good.”
As she did with the Freedom to Play exhibit at the Hall of Fame.
“It was the first exhibit of its kind, and I did it with some phenomenal people in the African-American community,” she recalled. “It gave me a real sense of accomplishment to take that vision that we all collectively had, bring it to reality, and really celebrate those significant contributions.
“That was a great example of harnessing an organization and being able to use that as a platform in order to make
Lee
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Congratulations to the
2024 Women of Impact Honorees!
We are proud to recognize our board
member Kim Lee. Thank you for your ongoing support and your efforts to remove mental health stigma and increase access to care.
We’d also like to recognize our long- standing partners, LaTonia Naylor and Dianne Fuller Doherty.
Together, we are making a difference.
Womeno @PublicHealthMA @phi_westernmass
PublicHealthWM.org • [email protected]
(413) 794-7739
IMPAC
A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWES
Kim Lee’s Passion,
MiraVista’s Mission:
Impacting Lives,
Creating Positive Change.
Congratulations
from your MiraVista family!
omen of
MPACT
A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
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