Kara P. Richardson

After graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration, I entered the world of marketing, advertising and media at Fine Printing Impressions. As an account manager, I assisted senior staff with advertising campaigns, business printing and event materials. Clients ranged from the Boca Raton Resort, Boca Bons, Cavallino Magazine, International Cartoon Museum & Mort Walker to Zyvax. While at Fine Printing, I gained invaluable experience in the field of marketing and a client recruited me to become their Director of Marketing. Joining HDAI in early 2000, I quickly welcomed the challenges of working for a small business. Working with various national Olympus sales reps, I assisted the owner in securing several turn-key development contracts with physicians interested in owning their own surgery centers. As the company expanded, the owner trained me to be come an assistant project manager. The world of construction and land development was very interesting and proved to be a great testing ground for my future in project management. In early 2008, I accepted a job at a research center at the University of Kentucky College of Public health. After nearly fifteen years in South Florida, I moved back home to Kentucky to be closer to my family. During the early years of the center, I worked with the leadership and staff of the center to develop its brand identity, design and maintain an online presence using various forms of social media and hold a national conference. The center is going strong and in 2011 became the National Coordinating Center for PHSSR thanks to a continued funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Today, I am thankful for all of the options available to me in higher education and skill building at the University of Kentucky.