“I work with individuals with disabilities and their families,” Kleiser said. “I help them transition into whatever is next for them after they finish school.”
Many of her clients have difficulty envisioning what happens to them after the school buses stop coming. So Kleiser works with them to develop a transition plan and links them to agencies, helps them set goals and teaches them how to advocate for themselves.
“This always looks different from person to person,” Kleiser said. “But the main thing is, it helps them get ready for work and to eventually become independent.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Originally from Texas, Kleiser moved to the area when her military husband was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1989. The couple have a family of six adult children and seven grandchildren.
“I loved kids from the time I was in school,” Kleiser said. “My sisters were teachers or nurses, but since I have two nephews with special needs, I was always drawn to education.”
She met her husband after she got a job working for the Department of Defense dependent schools in Iceland. He was stationed at the same base. The couple married in 1988.
“I taught special education at Weisenborn for 13 years,” Kleiser said. “Then I went to Wayne and helped start the transition program there.”
Though young people with Individual Educational Plans (IEP) are able to remain in school up to age 22, they may only continue only if they have goals they are actively working toward. She was nominated as a Dayton Daily News Community Gems by Josh Welhener, who she met while working at Wayne.
“Kathy never has strived for notoriety for what she does,” Welhener said. “She describes herself as just trying to improve the lives of people in her little corner of the world.”
In 2015, Kleiser retired from teaching and realized that since her children were all grown, she had an opportunity to do something that really aligned with her passion of working with young people to help transition them into independence.
Hired as a job coach with the Greene County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Kleiser invited her former coworker and friend, Welhener, to join her and help build a transition program.
“There was a real need then for connecting school age students to services in the county,” Kleiser said. “It’s scary for anyone to think about building life as an adult. But when you put a disability into it, it becomes even scarier.”
Kleiser isn’t content to help others through her full-time job alone. She helped start the Huber Heights Special Olympics team and now volunteers for Four Paws for Ability, fostering future service dogs. She volunteers to take the therapy dogs to libraries and after school programs.
“What it’s really all about it trying to help people and do what’s right,” Kleiser said. “I think we are all put here for a reason, and this is mine. We all need to learn our spots in life and sometimes we just need help figuring that out.”
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