A few months ago, Kathy Stafford drove past an inspirational church sign: “Aspire to inspire before you expire.”
“That seemed very relevant to me,” says the 63-year-old Stafford, “so that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
But trace her career, and you’ll understand that Stafford has always been following that mantra. As a fresh-faced political science major bursting out of Kent State University in June 1970, she was intent on saving the world.
“Unfortunately, young women didn’t go to Washington in 1970 and find jobs that helped save the world,” she says.
Instead, she focused her efforts on Ohio. After working as a budget analyst in the state’s department of finance, she joined the Ohio Board of Regents. There, Chancellor Dolph Norton, one of her mentors, named her director of legislative affairs at age 26. “That made a big difference in my career,” she says. “I think it led to me helping other females break into what was a very male-oriented area.”
After 15 years in Columbus and earning her master’s and doctorate, she joined the University of Akron as executive assistant to the president and director of governmental relations. But she immediately set her sights on vice president for institutional advancement, managing fundraising, marketing and public relations efforts.
Three months later, she was riding in an elevator with the university’s new president, William Muse, who asked about her aspirations. “I want to be that vice president,” she exclaimed, laughing. She got her wish later that year as he made her the university’s first female vice president. “He took an incredible chance on me,” she says.
Believing the University of Akron was worthy of the community’s support, she and Muse launched a two-year communications effort that led to the school raising $50 million in capital in the 1980s.
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LIFE LESSONS
⊲ I grew up in a small town called Tipp City. That was a terrible thing to grow up with, being from Tipp City. I got lots of razzing about that.
⊲ I’ve just always felt the responsibility to help others who, in most cases, weren’t as fortunate as I was to have the kind of childhood and support that I had.
⊲ I’ve tried to get experiences and expertise that would be translatable.
⊲ Trying to reinvent yourself with totally new skills would be much harder. I don’t know if I could ever do that.
⊲ One of the most meaningful things for me professionally was that I was able to get an Ohio historic marker at Kent State. I was a student [there] in May of 1970, so it has special meaning in my life. It’s a place that needs to be remembered.
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Stafford was instrumental in closing a street that divided the campus to make the setting more attractive to students. She also got Prudential to donate a vacant store as an academic building and lobbied for $23 million to renovate it.
Thanks to that groundwork, the university is now working on a more than $500 million campaign.
“I think anyone would acknowledge that the rejuvenation of the city of Akron and of downtown started with that town-gown project,” Stafford says.
In 1994, she joined another new president’s administration at the University of South Florida, where she helped raise $220 million.
“She doesn’t shy away from challenges,” says Charlene Reed, chief of staff to the president at Kent State University. “She usually has strong opinions and really puts her effort behind the things she believes in.”
Take, for example, her efforts to mentor new talent. “One of the things that always irritated me about higher education was that when we went to hire someone, we always wanted exactly the same experience from the candidates we were interviewing,” she says. “And I kept thinking, How is anybody ever going to help us move to the next level if all we want is what we’ve always had?”
With that in mind, she focused on the candidate’s skills and overlooked the lack of experience in higher education. “It turned out wonderfully,” she says.
Today, despite retiring in 2008, she’s coordinating strategic planning as Akron General’s senior vice president for strategy, marketing and communications. Stafford agreed to the job on a half-time basis but finds herself working 40 hours a week. She jokes that the worst part of the job is physicians who want to meet at 7 a.m. before their rounds.
“I try to be a role model that others can emulate,” she says. “I try very hard to do the very best possible job I can do in anything I’m doing.”