District Leadership: BOE Bios

Kathryn Richard...

...Board Member (Position 5)

by Randy Rivers

December 11, 2004

Kathryn Richard has served on the NE Board of Education since March 2003. Prior to that time she was active in district activities including being a Booster Club officer for many years; co-chairing the Bond Issue Campaign Steering Committee for the recently completed school improvements; actively participating in the establishment of the NE Educational Foundation, for which she currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer; and serving on the NEHS Family and Consumer Science (FACS) Advisory Board, for which she currently is Secretary.

Kathryn’s “day job” is as Regional Director of the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Pittsburg State University, a position she has held since 1986. In this position, she oversees the regional program and provides business counseling and training to small businesses in a 12-county region of Southeast Kansas. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from Pittsburg State.

Kathryn is actively involved in several community organizations including:
Community leader for the Jolly Sunflower 4-H club (Arma, Arcadia, Franklin and Mulberry youth),
Secretary of the Arma V-J Homecoming Association,
Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce,
Southeast Kansas Inc.,
Local Workforce Investment Board (LWIB) for SDA V, and
Treasurer for her church as well as officer for several auxiliary organizations.

Kathryn grew up in rural Pittsburg but has lived in the Arma area since the early 1970s. She’s married to Larry Richard, a Northeast graduate, and they are the parents of three children, all of whom are Northeast graduates—Amy, who is married and lives in Shawnee, KS; Julie, who lives in Ada, OK; and Dan, a freshman at PSU. In her “spare time”, Kathryn enjoys collecting cookbooks, quilting, reading, and spending time with family, especially 4-year-old grandson, Jacob.