Kelly Doyle

Executive Director, CARES

Kelly Doyle began her relationship with CARES of Southwest Michigan as a volunteer, after losing a friend to AIDS in 1997. The health services nonprofit has served clients with HIV/AIDS for 40 years. Today, the 52-year-old Doyle leads the organization, which opened its new primary health clinic and sexual wellness center, Iridescent Health, in October to provide for LGBTQ+specific health care needs.

“We’ve expanded our services to serve the broader LGBTQ+ community with regular health care services,” Doyle says.

Doyle, who grew up in Chicago and Allegan, says she was drawn to social work early on. “I really feel that social work was my calling — which was a concept I learned early on, from the Catholic school nuns in Chicago,” she says.

She earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Western Michigan University and has worked in social services in Kalamazoo and Chicago. She became an employee at CARES in 2003 as an adherence specialist, became director of client services in 2011, and took over as the organization's CEO in 2016.

How did you get to where you are today?

Believe it or not, I always wanted to be an executive director. My mother had been a vice president with (the grocery chains) Jewel-Osco in Chicago and Harding's here in Michigan. She was a great example for me.

I worked at Gryphon Place (a local nonprofit that provides a crisis line and conflict-management services) for 10 years, starting in 1995, and got really lucky with that being my base. They have a really good, intensive training. I learned how to communicate with people, how to be in crisis with people and not freak out, how to listen and how to take feedback. After every call, you would get an immediate assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. At that time I was not someone who took feedback very well. It was a good lesson.

In 1997, I had a best friend and roommate who died of AIDS. He was a very capable person but didn’t know how to handle or manage his diagnosis. And we didn’t talk about treatment, even though there was treatment available. After he died, I found a prescription that he never got filled, and it was because he didn’t have knowledgeable support — he didn’t have a CARES. I felt guilty for not stepping in.

After he died, I volunteered at CARES as a buddy and a transporter. After two years, my buddy died, and I needed a break. I came back in 2003 as an adherence specialist, working with people on taking their medications. I stepped away in 2009 but returned when (then-) Executive Director David Feaster hired me as director of client services in 2011.

David really set the standard for client-centered care. He always said, "If you’re mad at your client, you need to change your expectations of them." Another of his sayings was, "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?" That helped me learn how to pick my battles. When he moved on to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, I applied to replace him and was offered the job in January 2016. I came in with guns blazing. I was ready with a strategic plan.

How has the work serving people with HIV/AIDS changed since you became involved?

When I started, the goal was to help people die. If you were a gay man in the '80s and '90s, you were losing a lot of friends. It was sad and hard and filled with overwhelming grief. Medications came along

in 1995, which began our evolution to helping people live. Now you can take a pill once a day or get a shot every couple of months, and your HIV levels can be undetectable and untransmittable. We’re in a very different space now, from helping people die to helping people live a healthy life with HIV — including having a strong, intimate sex life like everybody else — and living to an old age.

What keeps you up at night?

Anxiety about losing funding. But what do they say about worrying — that you’re just suffering twice? So, I can worry about funding all I want, but it is more effective to get out there and advocate and call, educate and talk to my elected officials.

As well, the demonization of trans people right now is chilling to me. The stories I’ve heard about trans people being suicidal are terrifying and sad. This is a group of people that’s so vulnerable, who are just trying to live their authentic life.

What keeps you going every day?

The people I work with — their passion and love and dedication — and the clients we work with, always. They are so grateful to have the support and care that we give, because they come in scared, whether it’s an HIV diagnosis or just an STI (sexually transmitted infection). It makes a huge difference to receive non-judgmental, unbiased care, love and support. It’s the way they get through — and not just get through, but thrive.

CARES is 40 years old this year. What are you excited about for the future of the organization?

We are actually realizing our future by opening Iridescent Health. We’ve evolved from a place that was very grassroots and run by volunteers to hiring social workers, providing medical case management, and opening an actual medical practice. That’s the future that we wanted to be in, and that’s where we’re at.

— Interview by Katie Houston, edited for length and clarity