ROCKFORD—Dr. Kim White began her new role as the superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Rockford just as schools were beginning the new school year across the diocese, Sept. 6.

 

Her most recent work experience (2022-2023) was as assistant superintendent at the Diocese of Nashville in Tennessee. It was there, back in May, she heard about the superintendent position in this diocese from a fellow Catholic there. Shortly after she began to research the position, she heard from a recruiter who asked her to “throw my hat into the ring,” she says.

 

Then “things moved quickly,” she says, with everything, one at a time, falling into place.

 

A New Jersey native, Dr. White moved to California with her parents as a child. Her parents encouraged her to get a business degree, so she began with that, working as a director of operations for Kelleher Equipment Supply from 1990-2004. 

 

During that time, she and her new husband, Jeff, realized they both wanted to teach. She worked to support his education studies, then he worked to support hers.

 

Dr. White taught first grade in a private, non-religious school in the Los Angeles area (2004-2009). Then her sister won a dinner with the principal of her son’s school — St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach. That principal, Sister Carmel Lynch, mentioned during the dinner that she needed a first-grade teacher, so her sister recommended White.

 

“That was pure joy,” Dr. White said of her time at St. Bonaventure in a 2022 article introducing her as the new assistant superintendent in Nashville. “I knew I was following the path meant for me. God knocked on my door.”

 

She taught at St. Bonaventure from 2009-2013, then was vice-principal (2013-2018) and then principal (2018-2022) there. She discovered that “there’s a lot more creativity in administration than most people think,” she says, explaining her eventual move to Nashville by adding, “I really loved St. Bonaventure, but felt my work was complete there.” She also felt, she says, that she “spread my wings” in the Diocese of Nashville position.

 

This year, Dr. White completed a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership: Curriculum and Instruction from Capella University, Minneapolis. 

 

Her educational background includes an induction program/administrative credential from the University of California, Irvine (2017); a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction/administrative credential from Concordia College University in Irvine (2012); a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential in Education from the University of California in  Riverside (2010); a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential in Education from the University of La Verne, California (2007); and a Bachelor of Business Administration from National University, San Diego (1990).

 

The most satisfying part of her work as an assistant superintendent, she says, was supporting school leaders and helping them find solutions to various challenges. Every school, she says, has its own personality and community, and principals bring a variety of expertise and talent to their work.

 

That variety “makes my mission each day very fresh,” Dr. White says, adding, “It makes me excited to come to work each day.”

 

As she begins her new position in the Diocese of Rockford, Dr. White says she is someone who loves learning, loves working with people who love learning and loves her faith, so having all three interwoven together has her feeling “very blessed.”