Working to pay the bills versus working to follow a passion makes a difference when looking back at the years spent in a career. Steve Roling, CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City, can attest to that.
Roling, 65, will retire this year, with no set date. In his role with the healthcare foundation, Roling has become a friend to Allen County. The Kansas City foundation has provided financial assistance to local efforts, including the dental clinic with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, healthy lifestyle and sustainability grants to Thrive Allen County and grants to Iola’s SAFE BASE after-school program.
Roling said he doesn’t plan on making himself comfortable in a nice chair with a good book or spend his time at the golf course. Roling plans to stay involved.
“I have my health, lots of energy and passion,” Roling said. “I will get involved in different ways.”
He said he doesn’t have all the details worked out yet, but that he plans to dedicate his time to volunteering.
Changing hats isn’t a foreign concept to Roling.
Roling is from Jefferson City, Mo. He attended the University of Missouri, where he got his degree in psychology as an undergraduate student and a master’s in social work.
He started off his career as a social worker when he was in his 20s, running a home for mistreated children in Missouri.
He then worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Tom Eagleton in Washington D.C. He eventually made his way back to Kansas City, where he was a banker for a number of years.
From there he became publisher of the Kansas City Business Journal, which was followed with a position at the Kauffman Foundation, where he worked at the Entrepreneurship and Education center under Ewing Kauffman.
He jumped back into social services when he took the director position at the Department of Social Services in Missouri.
Roling has been in the CEO position at the Healthcare Foundation for the past eight years. It is where he will end his tenure.
Roling said he realizes his resume might seem eclectic but that type of career path is more common in today’s world.
“In my father’s generation someone would stay in one organization for their entire career. In our generation that’s more rare,” Roling said.
The common denominator for most of his career opportunities is that he began at an entry level position and worked his way up.
“Once you have the CEO experience that’s not hard to transfer,” he said. “Someone has to give you a shot.”
Roling also attributes a lot of his success from being a social worker to becoming a CEO is being a people person.
During his time with the foundation Roling has been able to contribute to projects such as the clean air initiative in all restaurants and bars.
The foundation helped fund the Clean Air Kansas campaign along with the Sunflower Foundation. He has been part of a project to create more community gardens all over the region and has done a lot of work to bring dental care into rural communities.
One of the projects nearest to Roling’s heart is the Metromed KC where doctors of all specialties come together and see how many free patients they can take on. This program allows for someone who usually would have succumbed to a deadly disease such as cancer.
Though the program cannot accept a large volume of patients, Roling said it still helps.
“The need is much greater than that, but it’s a good start,” he said.
Roling has been largely involved in the health initiatives in Allen County and says its improvements over the last eight years is “nothing short of miraculous.”
“Money doesn’t solve problems, people solve problems,” Roling said.
CEO retires after eventful career
