For the first few years after moving to St. Louis in 1986 from Arkansas, Kimberly A Brown, MPPA, LNHA worked in the for-profit sector. Her job – making money for other people – conflicted with her passion, which is helping others. She then put her passion to work by joining the staff at Doorways, a nonprofit housing organization for persons living with HIV or AIDS.
Now Brown has been with Doorways for 23 years. Over the years, she extended herself to doing whatever needed to be done – office manager, housing coordinator, housing subsidy manager. In 2003, Brown became the administrator of its 36-bed residential care facility, now known as Cooper House, which opened in 1997 as Doorways’ Supportive Housing Facility.
“The program that I run is when they really get to the point that they really can’t take care of themselves,” Brown said of Cooper House.
The facility serves people who are unable to live independently due to HIV/AIDS. Taking an overall approach to well-being, Cooper House focuses on physical and medical support of HIV/AIDS and co-occurring afflictions.
They provide housing, meals, medication management and coordination of doctor’s appointments – “their whole care,” Brown said.
“We can get them at the end stage, and a lot of times, we are able to bring them back up where they can go back out and live on their own again,” Brown said.
“I’ve had people come in, walking in on an IV pole, and just a matter of us providing those meals for them every day and managing their medications – within two weeks, we are looking for the IV pole.”
Cooper House also connects residents to resources that address mental illness and addiction and works toward increasing client’s financial and overall stability.
Brown said it is no easy task because their clients come in as homeless, with different coping mechanisms.
“You come in and live in a communal setting with people that you don’t know,” she said. “Residents do pay rent; they only pay 30 percent of their income. If they are homeless and have no income, 30 percent of zero is zero.”
She also enjoys the mentoring opportunities – and working on behalf of clients who have thrived with the help of Doorways’ services for many years.
“When I first started, we’d get a diagnosis, and six weeks to two months later – they were gone,” Brown said of the early years in the fight against AIDS.
“I am most proud that, I have patients that I met 23 years ago that are still with us. When their disease has progressed to a point where they have to come to the residential facility, they are so happy to see a face that they knew – and that’s me.”
Brown is also very proud of having mentored the same young woman for 20 years.
“And she has done fabulously,” she said.
Recently Cooper House became a Medicaid facility.
“In addition to that, we had our very first Medicaid audit, with zero findings, which is a rarity for a new Medicaid facility,” Brown said. “Right now I’m trying to make sure that this facility is shored up tightly. So far, so good.”
Brown credits its continued success in serving this special population to group effort and collaboration among Doorways’ staff.
“We all work hard toward the same goal,” she said. “Up here we basically operate on six words: ‘work hard, have fun and no drama.’ That’s our motto.”
Brown said she is considering a doctoral program in public health or in health care administration. She earned a master’s degree in public policy administration and a graduate certificate in non-profit management and leadership from the University of Missouri – St. Louis; a bachelor of science in business from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. She is a graduate of CORO Women in Leadership Program.
Brown serves as a committee member of the Missouri Institute of Mental Health’s Girls Holla Back program and a volunteered as a mentor at Epworth Children’s Home.
Brown is a member of New Cote Brilliante Church of God, pastored by Rev. Mikki Merritt.
