Personal History:
I was born on November 5th, in the heart of the 60’s, in the Heart of Dixie: Birmingham, Alabama. I lived there with my parents, Buster and Gail Kilpatrick, until I was 16. I grew up in Southern Baptist churches. I attended college for one year at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, and then finished my undergraduate degree in Social Work at Tallahassee's Florida State University at the ripe old age of 19. My final semester I took an internship as a student lobbyist and was bitten by the Legislative Bug. I spent the next decade working as a budget and policy analyst in and around the legislative process. In 1989 I earned a Masters in Public Administration from Florida State.
During the summer of 1985 I met Kevin Klein, who was home on break from Harding University. I began to attend a local church of Christ. We dated long distance for a year, and then he graduated, and came back to Tallahassee to pursue a Ph.D. in History. We married in the summer of 1988.
In the summer of 1994 we moved to Searcy, Arkansas in order for Kevin to accept a professor’s position at his alma mater, Harding. I was pregnant with our first child, and Sam was born in October of 1994. Our second child, Seth, was born 21 months later in July of 1996. In 1997, I began to teach one class per semester at Harding. I began teaching full time in 2005. I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Harding University. I teach American National Government, Public Policy, State and Local Government, and Public Administration. I deeply enjoy contact with my students, and the chance to pass along my belief that being a Christian public servant is a high calling. For me, the only significant challenge of 'my beloved Harding' is that she is located way too far from the Gulf of Mexico.
I have taught bible classes in many formats,
including children’s bible classes, vacation bible school, Tuesday
Ladies’ Bible class, small group Bible classes, conference break-out
groups, and Ladies Days.
I have some
neuromuscular and neurological challenges, but I work very hard not to
let them control my life.
We have three small flocks of heirloom chickens, all named after American First Ladies. Like my mother and my grandmothers, I love to garden. I grow mostly flowers, and an occasional tomato for my husband. I have a varied collection of heirloom plants, hand me down plants, store-bought plants and wildflowers. I travel with a shovel in the back of my convertible Bug…