Kate was born in Hawaii to a father who was a pilot in the air force and a mother who spent most of her time keeping the kids in line while also making sure that they got the best education. After her father Tim got stationed in multiple locations like Japan, Maine, Minneapolis, they eventually landed at Ellsworth, and immediately fell in love with what they knew had to be the place they would raise their children. Kate has has lived in Rapid City for 40 years now. She is the eldest of 7 siblings and mother to 7 children of her own. Kate and her husband Vince built their own home in Rapid Valley in 2005. Since then, her children have attended Rapid Valley elementary, East MS, and Central HS. Amid the rewarding chaos of raising her children, she also runs a small house and home cleaning service, provides tutoring for Rapid City Dyslexia Care, and manages to run a small homestead. Her homestead includes an extensive garden filled with fruits and vegetables, raising free-range chickens, and space for her husband’s wood working enterprise. She hopes to soon convince her husband to include a dairy cow and a few beehives.

A few of Kate’s children started to show difficulties centered around reading and spelling while progressing through school. Through years of research and visits with professionals, they discovered that it was dyslexia. Unfortunately, as with many school districts, ours did not know much about it much less about how to deal with a child that that was suffering from it. One of the main reasons Kate decided to run for the school board 6 years ago was to help bring awareness and positive change for all these children with this challenge that were going unnoticed and unaided. While we have seen increased awareness, our district still has a way to go in raising awareness and providing resources for education in this matter of dyslexia and others like it.