New Horizons CEO aims to continue former leader’s legacy

CEDAR RAPIDS — Katie Oatsvall has been working as the new chief executive officer and president of Horizons — a Cedar Rapids nonprofit that offers Meals on Wheels, neighborhood transportation and other services — for less than three weeks now, but already she feels like a part of the Cedar Rapids community.

“I want to just mention what a welcoming community this has been,” Oatsvall said. “It already feels like home. I look forward to being here for years to come.”

Oatsvall started her position with Horizons on Nov. 11. She takes over from Mike Barnhart, who announced earlier this year plans to retire in November. Oatsvall has had the opportunity to transition into the new role with the help of Barnhart, and she said she’s excited about the opportunity to continue to build on his work with the nonprofit.

Before joining Horizons, Oatsvall worked for as the CEO of Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa in Oklahoma, where she helped complete a $15 million capital campaign and establish a 30,000-square-foot commercial kitchen and service center.

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“Through the interview process, I learned that Horizons is at the very beginnings of a campaign that will bring a center for older adults, called ‘Our Place,’ here to Cedar Rapids. I couldn't be more excited about the project,” Oatsvall said. “I know firsthand the power of bringing services like that to a community, and I think Cedar Rapids will be so thrilled with what we're planning.”

Oatsvall is a native of southeastern Wisconsin, and she said she was excited for the opportunity to move back to the Midwest. She has a daughter who recently relocated to Cedar Rapids, which made the decision to apply for the Horizons position an easy one for her, she said.

“I really just missed that Midwest spirit, Midwest values. I wanted to be near family, and when the opening, due to Mike’s retirement, became available at Horizons, I just thought it was an absolutely perfect alignment of the stars, so to speak. It’s the Midwest, the area I love, my family is here, and it’s the work I love,” she said.

Oatsvall started her career in nonprofit work almost by accident. When she was finishing up her bachelor’s degree in business from Concordia University, she landed a job in fund development with a local nonprofit, and was drawn to the work.

She has since also received a master’s of public administration from DeVry University and additional certifications from the University of Wisconsin, University of Houston and Johns Hopkins University.

“I really enjoyed the community connections aspect of it, but very quickly was able to advance in my career and move into executive leadership roles, which is what I've really maintained from there. It was just that draw to do good, but in a way that energized other people to do good as well,” she said.

Before taking the job in Tulsa, Oatsvall held leadership roles in Wisconsin with the Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services and the Hannah Neil Foundation and Family Services of Racine.

Looking at her career so far, Oatsvall said two of the projects she has completed that she’s most proud of happened when she worked for the Foundation and Family Services of Racine, an outpatient mental health counseling clinic, which also offered consumer credit counseling services.

The first project was a veterans art therapy program, which Oatsvall helped launch by connecting the local center for veteran’s issues with an art gallery that regularly offered classes. Gallery staff were able to bring some of those classes to veterans at the center. Oatsvall said she still has some original works that she bought from one of the veteran painters who has since died.

The other project was a character-based auto-loan program designed to support individuals who were struggling financially after the 2008 economic crisis. The first individual to benefit from the program was a single mother who drove buses for the city, but didn’t have a way to get home at the end of her shift — which was the last bus shift of the night.

In her work with the Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services and with Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa, Oatsvall has had a lot of experience working with the same populations that are served by Horizons in Cedar Rapids.

“I think the really exciting thing about Meals on Wheels programs is that even while there is a national association, every community really approaches their program in a way that best fits the needs of their community,” Oatsvall said. “The multicounty services we have here through Horizons is incredibly impressive and in line with programs I've run in the past.”

Oatsvall said she’s excited about what Horizons has accomplished already in Linn and Johnson counties, and hopes to see the nonprofit’s services grow to include more programming for support of older adults, like programs that work to reduce loneliness or offer services like home modification for disabilities, as well as the completion of the “Our Place” capital campaign.

“Our staff back here at the office are such an amazing resource for people. So, to be able to use those connections and that relationship we already have to offer more services is really the growth trajectory of the organization,” Oatsvall said.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com