Kathy Swan: A lifetime of dedication, service earns Spirit of America Award

Kathy Swan is the 2024 Southeast Missourian Spirit of America Award winner.

Nathan Gladden ~ ngladden@semissourian.com

She served on the school board. She served on the planning and zoning board. Then the City Council.

She was elected multiple times to the state Legislature.

She was the president of a small business.

She served on education and business committees, task forces and federations.

She chaired the state’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

She serves as a state Labor and Industrial Relations commissioner.

She was a nurse. She helped teach nurses.

She even plays the flute in the Municipal Band, and is known to have played the organ for the church choir at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

For these reasons and more, Kathy Swan was selected as the Southeast Missourian Spirit of America Award winner by the Southeast Missourian editorial board.

"Kathy Swan’s dedication to our community and her tireless efforts to make a positive impact are inspiring," said Lucas Presson, assistant publisher and general manager of the Southeast Missourian. "Her extensive record of civic engagement, volunteerism and business leadership is impressive. She doesn’t seek applause, instead preferring to do important work that makes a difference. But we are honored to recognize her with the Southeast Missourian Spirit of America Award for her years of service and continued efforts, both locally and across the state."

Swan grew up under the umbrella of the family business, Johnson Communications, which her father opened in 1959. The business began by selling and servicing radios used in police and emergency vehicles. The business adapted to the times and eventually sold pagers, cellphones and other electronic equipment.

While a student, Swan expressed multiple interests and dreams involving health care and government — and even music. At one point she wanted to become a doctor, but she earned a nursing degree instead, as she wanted to stay close to home for college and Southeast Missouri State University didn’t offer degrees for medical doctors. Swan married Reggie Swan, and he began working with Kathy’s father at the family business, while Kathy pursued her degree in nursing and nursing education. Kathy’s mother died in 1975, and that’s when Kathy took on more responsibilities in the business.

“I was needed in the company, and I was committed to being part-time clinical instructor in the nursing program at the university,” she said. “And then at some point, I realized I needed to start going back to school, and the accounting course was very, very helpful in terms of learning more about business, even though I grew up in it since I was 9 years old. So I was doing both. ... I found going to the hospital was a bit of a relief from doing what I was doing in our business, and when I came back to the business, it was a bit of a break and a relief to come back to that kind of work. … I mean, it worked. It worked out fine, even though it’s two totally different types of activities and responsibilities. But I like to stay busy.”

That appears to be an understatement.

Those early life lessons of business and nursing education prepared Swan for a very busy life in public service.

From those early days juggling two jobs and family responsibilities, she found more opportunities for service.

Among her roles:

* Commissioner, Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission;

* State representative, Missouri House of Representatives;

* Chairwoman, secretary and member of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education;

* Member of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority;

* Several roles on the Math Engineering, Technology and Science (METS) Alliance;

* The Missouri Congressional Awards Council;

* Member of the Missouri School Boards Association;

* Committee for Affordable Technical Education;

* Vice chairwoman of the Cape College Center;

* Member of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education and several school committees;

* Secretary and president of the Cape Girardeau Public School Foundation;

* Member, chairwoman, vice chairwoman of several committees on the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce;

* Cape Girardeau City Council;

* Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission;

* Vision 2020 Community Relations Council member;

* President of the American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation;

* Executive committee and state committeewoman for the Missouri Republican Party;

* Board secretary and member of the Cape Girardeau County Republican Women’s Club;

* Board member of the Pachyderm Club;

* Board of Directors for Southeast Missouri Food Bank;

* Member, district governor and several other roles with Zonta International and Zonta Club Cape Girardeau;

* Several roles on committees of the Area Wide United Way of Southeast Missouri;

* Several roles on councils, boards and committees at Southeast Missouri State University;

* Vice chairwoman of the Saint Francis Medical Center Foundation Board;

* Several positions on the Cape Girardeau County unit of the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.

Two things stood out about Swan, according to longtime former Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce leader John Mehner, who worked with her on several projects and initiatives. “One, she had a very unique background and skill set for the things that she did, from being a nurse and bringing a passion for education. And two, she had the desire to make a positive difference in whatever she was involved with.”

Her public service began as president of the band boosters, which pushed her into running for the school board. She remembers being scared to step out.

“Just the whole idea of the work involved with campaigning, the responsibility that you have, and are you qualified to do it? Can you do the job?” she said.

Among Swan’s longest-running service was on the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, a board that, as the name implies, coordinates offerings by the state’s colleges and universities. It studies and approves majors and programs to prevent overlap and too much duplication, with the hope of saving tax dollars. It’s through this experience that Swan took an interest in Cape Girardeau’s need for a community college program where students could use their A+ scholarships. Swan played a big role in the movement to bring community college opportunities to Cape Girardeau, where Southeast Missouri State University operates. Swan served on the coordinating board from 2002 through 2013.

From there, Swan stepped into her most public role as a representative in the Missouri House of Representatives, where she served for eight years.

“When I was a junior in high school, you know, here’s another crazy interest,” Swan said. “I had the service class or government class, and we talked a lot about federal government and Congress, and I thought that was pretty neat, cool and interesting. I thought, ‘Oh, it’d be fascinating to be able to do that someday.' Then I began to really seriously think about (running for state government office), probably in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but redistricting really had to happen before I could do it, because we live out on the west part of town, and have for a very, very long time. It didn’t make sense for someone from the city of Cape who was in that legislative district to run and represent the people in the county.”

During her eight years in the legislature, she is proud of her accomplishments in the the area of education, getting legislation passed to require dyslexia screening in elementary schools and requiring criminal background checks of school volunteers.

While she was on the United Way Board, Swan is proud to have played a role in launching the GRACES initiative, which kicked off a reading program putting volunteers into schools reading to children.

A complete list of Swan’s accomplishments is too long to list, but the thing Swan said she enjoyed most about her public service was the variety.

“It’s interesting work, of course. Loving different subjects — to be able to work in the nursing field, to work in the business field, to work in the education field, and then do everything else that needed to be done as well. I just found it very, very interesting, stimulating and rewarding to have that opportunity to learn more about each of these areas and what needs to be fixed. So that was perfect for me to have the opportunity to work in these different areas and come up with solutions. There’s always a new way to get something done, there’s not only one way. So it was trying to find the best way to get it accomplished for the least money to help the most people.”

The Spirit of America Award will be presented to Swan as part of the July Fourth activities at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau, which begins with a food truck rally and Municipal Band music at 6 p.m.