Vision, Integrity, Compassion…and a Love for CAMP Rehoboth
“Kim Leisey is an executive leader with vision, integrity, and compassion,” begins the bio for Dr. Kim Leisey on the UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) website. It’s tempting to end her profile here, as that really does nail it, but perhaps you’d like to know a little more about the new executive director of CAMP Rehoboth.
Her Origin Story
Kim (she dispenses with the “Dr.” pretty quickly) was born in Dover but almost immediately moved to Massachusetts. She started getting the report cards known to every successful woman: “talks too much” and “won’t sit still.” She developed a love of music—she plays cello and piano, currently performs with the Southern Delaware Orchestra, and is a board member of Coastal Concerts.
When she got to the University of Maryland, College Park, everyone vacationed in Ocean City, Maryland, but Kim didn’t care for the scene. After graduate school, she went to Butler University in Indianapolis. “During this time period I was coming out as a lesbian,” she says.
By the time she came back to Maryland to work at UMBC, she had come out. “I learned of the gay community in Rehoboth and said, let me check this out.” She and a group of female friends would go to Rehoboth on weekends or rent a house in the off season. “It was that time when CAMP was getting started,” says Kim. “It created a feeling of, gosh, there’s a community here and it’s safe.” She and her friends would go to the beach in the state park, to the Frogg Pond for wings, or to a tea dance.
Kim met her spouse (Kathy Solano) in the mid-90s. They started coming to Rehoboth together. “She was ready to retire in 2020,” recalls Kim, “and this was in the middle of the pandemic. I knew I was going to be working remotely for at least a semester or two. I said let’s take a leap of faith and make the move.”
Her Vision
How do you apply the quality of vision?
It’s how I lead myself every day. Every day I like to go in and do my work with some kind of vision about what my outcomes are going to be for the day and sometimes I meet them and sometimes I don’t, depending on what happens.
Do you already have some ideas about what your goals will be at CAMP Rehoboth?
I am really thankful for Lisa Evans, that she’s been in the interim role and has really done a great job with leading and managing the day-to-day. My initial goal is to learn the culture, the operations, the fantastic staff, the volunteers, and I also want to meet the people that support and give to CAMP Rehoboth…. I look forward to developing relationships and welcoming people in.
A lot of people are scared by the current political climate. Does CAMP have a role in ensuring that the LGBTQ+ community is protected?
We certainly are continually working with the police in Rehoboth [to protect] our facilities, staff, and people. I think this means we have to encourage people to vote...and that we educate people or partner with organizations that help educate our membership about elections…. I think ensuring that we are spending time connecting with schools, connecting with support services…and listening. Listening to what’s out there, what the experiences have been, so that we can proactively work to secure safety for everyone and/or respond if necessary.
Although we are a nonprofit that focuses on creating community, and our mission is not so much political, we have the ability to help our community become more educated and understand where they can have influence.
Her Integrity
How do you include integrity in your work?
I believe in saying what you mean, meaning what you say, and living what you say. My hope is that that means that CAMP will continue to be an organization with integrity, that people can expect that we live our values, and that there’s always an eye to the future and progress and growing and developing. And I don’t mean just growing from a number-of-people standpoint but growing as humans in the sense of learning and expanding what we know.
Is being the first woman to be the permanent executive director pressure or opportunity?
I don’t like to think of things as either/or, so I think it’s probably going to be both. Mostly I think about it as an opportunity to have multiple perspectives in our work and how it provides services and programs. I think through my education and my work in the past I’m someone who really deeply appreciates interdisciplinary thought and so welcomes multiple perspectives and experiences because they’re all important.
You have said that “education is the foundation of a healthy democracy.” How do you see CAMP Rehoboth reflected in that statement?
Creating a More Positive Rehoboth is about learning together and learning to be in a community together, learning from each other, our experiences, our lives. When we shut that down, when we don’t allow that to happen, dialog and conversation can’t happen. And the learning stops. And free societies are educated societies. And so, I see CAMP as an extension of the ability to keep learning and growing and educating ourselves and others, which feeds democracy.
Her Compassion
How is your position with CAMP a logical extension of what you have done in the past?
My work at every university that I’ve worked in is really about helping people to belong and find their niche so that they can thrive academically…so they can bring their whole selves to their studies and their work, and I think that’s clearly what CAMP Rehoboth is about too. It’s about helping people to be their authentic selves wherever they travel and creating a community that accepts that and supports it.
You have a BA in Hearing and Speech Science, and an MA in Audiology, so you were concerned about people being able to hear and be heard. Do you see a metaphor there for your work with CAMP?
Absolutely. When I talk about caring for the most vulnerable, it’s about empowerment. It’s not doing for, it’s doing with…. I’m about ensuring that people get the skills, the confidence, the ability to speak for themselves because that’s more empowering.
Do you think that the LGBTQ+ community still isn’t being heard?
Yeah. Absolutely. There are still aspects of our lives and our large community that are not being heard and even within the community I’m not sure we totally all understand each other, and that’s work that we have to do too…learn together, understand each other, before we can expect that others will understand us.
Have you ever experienced bullying?
One day, on the playground in middle school, a female friend of mine was being bullied by a bunch of boys, and I knocked the boy down and sat on top of him and told him to never do that again. And it never happened again…. I call myself a sheepdog. I’m someone who likes to protect.
Her Fun Side
What kind of music do you listen to?
Actually, all kinds, but mostly my playlist is 70s, 80s, and 90s pop music. And lots of classical music.
What were you like as a kid?
Probably a bit precocious. I have four older siblings and a younger sibling, so our house was always full of activity. The funny thing is, I’m an introvert. Most of my processing and my energy comes from within. Certainly, I have the skills and abilities to be an extrovert, but it’s not my preferred way of being.
Rehoboth is a dog-lovers town, so I have to ask about Carly.
Carly is a four-year-old English Labrador retriever, and she is the most enthusiastically friendly Labrador you will ever meet, so I apologize to everyone in advance that she’s a jumper…she’s wonderful, and she loves the beach.
You have a boat?
Yes. It’s a 23-foot daysailer. Sailing for me—it’s all about the journey. We never have a destination. We just sail.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
People that don’t know me well would be surprised that I had a motorcycle up until last year…and I always wanted to be a cowgirl.
Do you have a favorite book, poem, or quotation?
I have lots of favorite books, but one that I read recently was Jodi Picoult’s Mad Honey, which everyone should read, I think, especially to try to understand our trans brothers and sisters.
The poem my mom read to us a lot as kids, and I keep in every office I’ve had, is “Desiderata.”
My favorite quote is probably the end of Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day” [“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”].
Do you play any sports?
Yes. Pickleball, absolutely. We kayak.... But my sport of choice is skiing. I ski better than I walk, better than I run. Growing up in New England, they put me on skis early and I never looked back.
Ideal campfire on the beach—who do you invite (living or dead)?
Hmmm. I always loved hanging out with my parents and they are both deceased, so I’d love to have them back. I lost my younger sister about six or seven years ago suddenly. I’d love to see her again. But I think to make it interesting—I love Cher. I love Bette Midler. I’d love for Wanda Sykes to be there…. That’s a fun group.
Her Serious Side
What would you like your legacy at CAMP to be?
I would like that our infrastructure is really sound because I think with a sound infrastructure, things can continue. The foundation CAMP is built on is really strong, and so I want to build on that. I would like to diversify CAMP racially and ethnically. I think what I’d like my legacy to be is that people would look back and say those were good years, it was a time when the entire community—LGBTQ+ community and allies and visitors and businesses—all said they were fun times and there was a lot of love and compassion and people felt like they belonged. ▼
Pictured: Kim & Kathy with Chuck, ring bearer at nephew’s wedding; Not in the office? Check for Kim outdoors; Post-swim conversation with Carly; At the helm on the Chesapeake.