From the Executive Director of the Kba/kbf

• Publication year: 2020
• Pages: 06
• Citation: Vol. 89 No. 6 Pg. 06

From the Executive Director of the KBA/KBF No. 89 J. Kan. Bar Assn 6, 06 (2020) Kansas Bar Journal August, 2020

July, 2020

Getting to know each other

by Stacey Harden,

Executive Director, KBA/KBF

Greetings and salutations! I joined the KBA team last fall as the association's Accounting Manager and was recently selected to serve as the KBA's next Executive Director. I start that new adventure on August 3rd.

A hometown girl, I was born and raised in Topeka. I graduated from Topeka High School just up the street, and then twice from Baker University, a little farther down the road. With my roots already planted in the Topeka area, I embarked on many amazing yet challenging opportunities in this community that have allowed me to grow professionally. I have served as a regulatory analyst for a State advocacy agency, a grants accountant, a Chief Financial Officer and an adjunct business and accounting instructor.

A self-professed sports fanatic, I identify the season by the sport I am watching—its either basketball season, baseball season or football season. To say that I have a healthy competitive spirit might be an understatement. But in all seriousness, consuming sporting activities for the better part of my life has taught me priceless lessons about success and failure and the value of having a great team.

I was lucky enough to attend game seven of the 2014 World Series, where I watched my favorite team try to reverse nearly three decades of failure by upending a formidable opponent on the field. In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the tying run standing on third base, I, along with 40,000 of my closest friends, watched our championship moment slip away, as the Royals were unable to defeat the literal and figurative Giants. What happened in the moments that followed will stay with me forever—instead of feeling the sting of failure, with the soundtrack provided by chants of "Let's Go Royals," 40,000 people filed out of the stadium cheering, smiling and hopeful for what was to come next. There was no failure that night in November, only lessons learned. And with those lessons learned—and a little...