The Leadership Training it Takes to Be a Good Friend to the Less Fortunate

When Deric Kimler MA ’20 moved from media sales to a position as executive director of Central Illinois FRIENDS, he was handed keys to a closet in what was then called UnityPoint Health Clinic and told to have at it. With no training, no employee handbook, one part-time team member, and very little guidance, the idea was for Kimler to return to school so he could more effectively lead. 

Inspired by enthusiastic conversations with Bradley Nonprofit Leadership program coordinator Brad McMillan and sold by the program’s immediately applicable curriculum, Kimler started diving into classes within 4 months of being hired at FRIENDS. The impact was immediate.

“Before my graduate work at Bradley, my team and I were operating on passion and dedication, but we lacked the scalable architecture needed for long-term impact. My time in the program provided the structural integrity we were missing. It shifted my perspective from ‘survival’ to ‘sustainability,’ giving me the rigorous framework of organizational design, strategic alignment, and data-driven management that allowed us to mature into a multi-site, high-capacity organization.”

Kimler built his team up from two employees to 35, and from one location to four. Along the way, he implemented specific management protocols he learned at Bradley. These interventions, ranging from Mission/Vision/Values alignment to rigorous internal auditing and community-based strategic planning, allowed him to maintain operational excellence during a period of rapid scale.

“This academic-to-practice application was the direct catalyst for our service growth from 650 to over 6,000 clients annually,” Kimler said. “Bradley gave me the resources and the confidence to jump in, listen, take a beat, and guide lasting change. We didn’t just grow, we evolved because I finally had the right tools to build. Central Illinois FRIENDS wouldn’t be the organization it is today if I hadn’t gone through the Nonprofit Leadership program.”

–Jenevieve Rowley-Davis