Meet Kathy Bell | Leader in Community Health Educational Designs

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kathy Bell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kathy, how do you think about risk?
I am not a physical risk taker, I will ride a bike or take hikes but I am not the person to learn how to surf or ride in the tube behind the boat or ski.

I would rather speak publicly, walk out onto a stage and offer a message of information, a bit of data, storytelling to make the point and have quality closure – it may or may not have an assignment attached to the closing.

At one time in my life I had to decide if I was more afraid of failing or was I really – afraid of success!
When I looked at my life I had to realize – WHERE – in life would I have learned the skills I was shaming myself that I should have KNOWN. Once I gave myself permission to revisit a kindergarten technique – at any age – to raise my hand and say, I need help, I don’t understand, I may have missed the instructions / information however, I have a disconnect …

That ONE aspect of social-emotional learning I planted deeply into my psyche gave me the backbone to take RISKS and from that point on I looked for opportunities to put ME out there doing what I do best: public speaking, building workshops, published a book, design conventions, radio shows, TV, MORE.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Oh that is an interesting question … okay.

Career. I am an educator. I create experiential sessions or workshops or micro learning modules to convey a process / point USUALLY about a health care system or strategy or transition. So, let’s say you are a teacher at the school for the deaf and blind and you have girls moving through puberty. HOW would you teach that population about growing up? OR – let’s say you work w/ pre-health students and they need to increase their soft skills – quality eye contact, team engagement, control self management behaviors … HOW would you teach that class? My brain sees PROCESS – I break things down into various components and create interesting ways to teach … AND it has to be in a way that leaves an imprint and creates a personal (visceral) decision to BE MORE of what is needed. . . I mean, why teach ‘eye contact’ if the student can never OWN the behaviors to engage in quality eye contact as a health professional.

My work in puberty education was exponential! I worked w/ the famous Dr. Kevin Leman and together we published my modules into a book “A Chicken’s Guide to Talking Turkey with your kids about Sex’. I could write another book about this one phase of my life!

My life changed drastically when my daughter was born w/ a very rare marrow failure disease – I was thrown into the world of medically complex – truly FRAGILE – children. I’ve designed a lot of processes for families to help them better embrace their ‘new’ normal with their own child’s medical situation … my husband and I founded a non-profit were we continue to work with these families, professionals and students who will serve these children here in So. AZ.

Next question: Was it easy?

Oh gosh no – for the most part the opportunity to give a NEW way of teaching – was very difficult. The puberty education programs – I had parents TERRIFIED I would teach 4th graders things they did not want them to KNOW so young. I created ‘parent programs’ to teach the parents FIRST what it was I was doing in the classroom … “5 changes from the neck up” and “5 changes from the neck to the waist” and “5 changes from the waist down’ …. Boys with boys and girls with girls. I had to teach HYGIENE education to the parents first … what a journey! But, I got known for HOW I taught these things and eventually it got known as a “Kathy Bell” program … and parents would say NO WORRIES if it is a Kathy Bell program.

Lesson’s learned along the way.
Okay, well first – I need a lot of time to soak in the material and know the audience. This type of soaking in a combination of ‘prayer’ and ‘education’ …. there is a feeling or sense that I can detect that I k-n-o-w the material … and then, I have to work on the presentation of the material – totally different than the first part of preparing.

Lesson’s learned – LOVE ME – HONOR ME – TRUST ME – to DO the things I need to DO to ready myself for the class or speaking engagement or whatever … because the RISK of getting OUT THERE to teach the material … I have to know what I know then let (or allow) the teaching moment to happen and see what transpires on the other end.

Lessons Learned: Some of my ideas are 2-3 years ahead … some, are 10 years ahead. HONOR THAT … I’ve learned that for some ideas I’ve arrived b-u-t I am waiting on something or someone else … I’ve had to LEARN how to wait. . .

Side note: Because I’ve learned how to ‘wait’ I did a class on what to do/ what to be thinking when considering a ‘gap year’… I was part of a team that presented material to the ‘EARN to LEARN’ students (college kids here in AZ).

Lessons Learned: If I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like more than a bathroom break – GET UP – and go into another room and find out why I am awake. It is like a knock on the door – IF YOU showed up at my house in the middle of the night would I get out of bed and find out why you are at my house … yes! So, I know – when I ‘wake up’ in the middle of the night there is a reason and I’ve learned to honor that and go to a place with pen/paper and LISTEN.

What do I want the world to KNOW about me or my brand or my story?
Hummmm. Okay, my adult children and my grandkids call me KBELLA. I am the KBELLA brand,

My kids say they grew up believing they could accomplish anything in life because they were smart or thinkers or part of the problem solving team or there was a reason WHY they were in the mix or they were/are intrinsically good. . . .I thought it was funny when my daughter Amy said as she got into college or even as an adult professional when she realized that she was often – normal – but all her life she had the thinking that she was safe to be present just how she was and that she was ‘smart’ or ‘creative thinker’ or ‘self assured – YES, I can help! kind of person. Like – why would I think less of myself??!! IF I DON’T KNOW SOMETHING OR I CANNOT HELP I CAN SAY THAT TOO.

I would say, I am an influencer. I am a game changer, I am intuitive – people want to know my perspective on complicated life situations … I had a journey in life that has given me a front seat to ‘DIRE” and “upon diagnosis” and ‘life changing challenges” and ‘the awkward stages of growing up” … I own a trademark – the words not a mark – called: the face of a champion. It’s purpose is for storytelling- because, the THE FACE OF A CHAMPION ..is you!

The Face of a Champion is about the journey, the micro processes learned, the courage to BE … to OWN everything from ugly crying to falling down to stuck in the mud to losing a limb to … whatever is the journey. The Face of a Champion is you!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
IF the person is an early bird – that is one agenda.
IF the person is a slow start in the morning that is a totally different agenda.

EITHER way, the itinerary begins with – food.
Will we hike first – then food, or will we linger around coffee and food … ?
Blue Willow or one of the local resorts for a view and food… the first moment in the day will be about conversation and good food.

Next: I like to drive the city and give a lay out of the land. What have they heard about, where is it, what would we have to do to make that location a bigger time of the day? If I am in Chicago, I like those hop-on-hop-off buses so I can see the whole enchilada and then I will go back to those specific places that I want to spend more time at …

I love open house – the structure of housing here in Tucson is so varied and amazing. We’d tour open houses, see the Desert Museum, various gardens… we’d travel to Bisbee and spend the day there. ODD places to grab a snack like Monsoon Chocolate where you can buy some mesquite cookies or Cheri’s Desert Harvest, her store and factory are in one location – if she is in the shop that day she is amazing to talk to and she will give you a tour. We’d make some time for Sybil Parsa, the Cordon bleu chef, go to her house and partake of a happy hour session complete w/ an interesting beverage OR George Wine shop – very interesting!

Dinner would depend on indoors or outdoors.
Zio Peppe is a new place here in Tucson, their Birria Pizza is amazing!
Vivace – absolutely a MUST, Wild Garlic also a strong MUST dine there for dinner.

Time with me would include a library – perhaps a lecture – a movie that both of us have talked about that we can find on Netflix … then LONG night discussions about values and life and lessons learned because the movie was watched as a catalyst for bonding, friendship building and some kind of humankind embrace.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Probably the first shoulders I stood on were my parents. They were two individuals, w/ high school educations – eventually got credentials in their areas of interest – but at age 17 – 18 – 19 and six children (two of which died as infants) – their passion for us kids to MAKE it n life- was strong. I tell the story about coming home from college and announcing I was quitting – my mother went into a loud sermon about how ‘that piece of paper’ is YOUR TICKET OUT of poverty, ignorance, low end jobs … you can buy a car and once you drive it off the lot it will DEPRECIATE but that piece of paper NEVER does! My father took me on a long ride and a bawled my eyes out – talking the whole time about quitting college. He pulled back into the garage, turned off the car and looked at me and said ‘I don’t care what you decide to do, just DON’T LIMIT your potential… you have a lot of potential.

Because of BOTH parents I went back to college and graduated on the dean’s list.

There was a nurse in our town, I was baby sitting her kids over the summer and she asked me what I wanted to do (in life) I told her I wanted to become a nurse – she arranged for me to follow her around. I ended up doing so so so much under her leadership: learned how to give injections, draw blood, coached a teen mom during birth – so so so much, because of this one nurse.

My uncle Bill, he was instrumental in creating 11 colleges in Arizona. When the family gets together Uncle Bill always has a speech…. love hearing him and his messages! As a Hispanic male – in the 50’s – he got his master’s degree. His work and words inspired me to KEEP GOING – I received a master’s degree and have recently been accepted into another program to move MORE toward a PhD … I played a doctor in life by helping teen moms, all kinds of health students and my daughter’s bone marrow transplant (25 years of being a caregiver to a fragile child) … so NOW it is time to actually EARN a Doctor / PhD degree and become Dr. Kathleen Bell.

Website: https://TeamLizzieBell.org

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