We’re looking forward to introducing you to Jody Love. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Jody, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
What I’m most proud of building are the things people don’t always see. The policies and systems that quietly change how opportunities flow in a community are many times the hardest to see through fruition. It might look simple on the surface, like connecting a local farm to a restaurant, but behind that connection is a whole system: meeting volume needs, procurement rules, distribution networks, and most importantly trust. Or when a school district adopts stronger policies around vaping, or our small businesses adopt family friendly policies, it’s a shift in culture that enhances quality of life and encourages economic growth.
I’m also proud of the partnerships we’ve built that connect our communities to statewide and regional resources. For example, we’ve worked to open doors to technical assistance, capital, and business resources that were once only available in larger cities. This was at times seen as a threat to local institutions, because it challenges the old way of doing things or shifts power dynamics. But at the end of the day, I fight for the people who need resources the most. I focus on families, small businesses, and residents who don’t always have a voice at the table. My role is to make sure the system works for them, not just for those who already have influence.
The work I do is about creating infrastructure that makes opportunity more accessible. It builds hope in places where people sometimes feel forgotten.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Jody Love is the President & CEO of the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team (HBCAT) and its subsidiary Rural Community Partners (RCP). She leads regional initiatives in Southeast Kansas focused on small business technical assistance, entrepreneurship, workforce development, food security, and community health. Under her leadership, HBCAT has grown its small business client base from 3 to over 200, securing more than $3.5 million in capital injection, and launched a regional mentorship program connecting entrepreneurs with experienced business owners.
Jody has spearheaded innovative funding strategies, including seeding new small business endowments, microloan programs, and supporting multi-county coalitions, to expand access to resources in one of Kansas’s most economically challenged regions. Her work bridges partnerships with universities, state agencies, local governments, and grassroots organizations, always centering equity, self-sufficiency, and long-term community resilience.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
What breaks the bonds between people is usually a loss of trust. I’ve seen this happen when decisions are made without community voices at the table, when people are operating under a scarcity mindset, or when they feel invisible in the process. That creates division and discouragement.
But I’ve also seen how those bonds can be restored. It happens when you open the process, invite people in, and give them real ownership in shaping the outcome. For me, that also means valuing lived experience as expertise. When residents see that their knowledge of daily struggles and local realities is taken just as seriously as professional credentials, trust grows. In my work, bonds have been rebuilt by consistently showing up, listening, and following through, whether it is connecting a farm to a restaurant, supporting a small business through mentorship, or helping residents gain access to resources they never had before. Bonds are restored not by one time gestures, but through steady proof that voices matter and change is possible.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I wouldn’t say I almost gave up, but I did have to show more grit than ever when I was moving to HBCAT full time. The county had restructured its economic development organization, merged it with the city, and went a completely different direction instead of hiring me as the economic development director, a position I already held. They wanted me gone and acted as though my nonprofit and all of our resources belonged to them, even threatening litigation.
I ended up on unemployment while the county held my grant funds hostage simply because they didn’t understand what a fiscal agent was. Our board ultimately decided to give the county our furniture that had been used to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. But what they couldn’t take were the relationships we had built, with KansasWorks, with our small business support services, with the business community, and with our funders.
Those relationships became our strength. Because of them, we not only survived but prevailed, and we came out of that experience stronger and more resilient than before.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes, the public version of me is the real me, but it is the part of me that is most grounded in my values and purpose. What people see publicly, my persistence, my passion for fairness, and my focus on relationships and systems change, is all authentic. The difference is that it does not always show the private moments of doubt, exhaustion, or struggle that I also experience. I see the public me as the version that channels my best energy into building trust and hope for the community, and it is anchored in the same core beliefs that guide me in private.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people tell the story that I fought for those who didn’t always have a voice, and that I created opportunities where people once saw none. I want to be remembered for building systems that made it easier for the next generation to start a business, access resources, or believe in their own potential. That is why in large part I started the endowment, because I want to leave a legacy that outlives me and continues to strengthen Southeast Kansas long after I am gone. Most of all, I hope the story is that I left my community stronger, more hopeful, and more connected than when I found it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hbcat.org
- Instagram: ruralcommunitypartners and healthybbco
- Linkedin: ruralcommunitypartners and The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jody-love/
- Facebook: healthybbco and Rural Community Partners
