Kim Springer, a 2003 MSW grad, is named executive director of the Indiana Neuroscience Institute at St. Vincent Hospital.

Kim Springer

April 28, 2009 - Kim Springer’s innate business sense combined with her social work skills made her the perfect choice as executive director of the Indiana Neuroscience Institute at St. Vincent Hospital.

Springer, who received her Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2002 and her MSW degree from the Indiana University School of Social Work at IUPUI in 2003, had been the interim executive director at the institute since August of 2008. She was recently named executive director of the institute.

Springer noted that before she was named executive director on a permanent basis, physicians were asked whether she was the person they wanted for the job. “Thankfully they all endorsed me,” Springer said.

“One of them gave the highest compliment. He said what I like best about you is you never took the course in administrative double speak.”

“I would attribute that to the communication styles I learned at the School of Social work and some to the fact that I never learned to be a “BS-er,” said Springer.

Her business acumen comes in part from running small businesses as a non-degreed professional for many years before deciding to follow her dream and go to college and get her social work degree. But it is her social work skills that help her thrive in her job.

“I say almost weekly, I have to put on my social worker hat,” Springer said. And she’s not alone in realizing how important her social work skills are to her job.

“I have administrators within the hospital say to me, “Kim, use your social work skills.” Springer works with a diverse group of people, “who have all different motivations and different levels of time and temperament.”

At meetings Springer has to be prepared to “draw people out of their shells and ask questions that are not threatening ….basic group facilitation” she said.

After spending years starting up and running small businesses for other people, Springer decided to follow her own dream and go to college. Springer noted she has good communication skills and had been told all her life she ought to be a counselor.

That, coupled with a decision to adopt a baby made her think that becoming a school social worker would give her a schedule that would fit in with her new family dynamic.

The plan had one flaw. Springer realized after entering the BSW program and working at a middle school she wasn’t really cut out to be a counselor. Springer found she didn’t have the capacity to separate emotionally from the things she saw and heard.

When she entered the MSW program, Springer decided to focus on leadership training so she could combine her prior career experience with her education.

Her courses in the MSW program proved invaluable.

In one class dealing with management issues she had to reduce a budget by 10 percent. “Trust me, that’s helpful,” Springer said laughing. She recalled a class by Professor Robert Vernon constantly exposed students to different types of technology and technology functions in the work place. Another valuable class taught by Professor Teresa Roberts provided an opportunity to write a comprehensive program proposal.

Discussions about human management style also came in handy when she began working after getting her MSW degree. “Not that you necessarily get to pick those when you go into an organization, but it helped me familiarize myself with the landscape much quicker. I could see, oh, this is their style.”

The “hands-on nitty-gritty practicum assignments also proved to be particularly important, Springer said. For example, she polished her skills as a grant writer. That skill came into use when she accepted her first job with Indiana Legal Services.

She was hired as an assistant to the agency’s executive director and as their grant manager. “In that role, I managed 38 different grants for them. That was an entry position right out of my Master’s program.”

Before accepting her current job, Springer served as the training director for the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives in 2005. She joined the St. Vincent Hospital Neuropsychology Department in 2006. When the department restructured in 2007, Springer moved into a business management role. She migrated to a neuroscience consultant position with the institute in December of 2007.

Springer has no regrets about her change of mind from being a school social worker to focusing on leadership issues.

 “Your education is as valuable as you let it be,” Springer said.

 “You have to complement your natural skills. I have some natural talent in writing and communication and organizing. My education supplemented those skills.”