Walking into the West Colfax Avenue office of Kayla Rael Garcia, the first thing you notice is its spartan-like nature. Everything—those few things that you would expect—is perfectly in its place. It is not overstuffed with plaques, awards and kitsch, but simply the nuts and bolts of what she needs to operate.
The office is a picture of total efficiency. It’s a reflection of this warm and affable, ready-to-launch sky-rocketing executive. It’s just the way she wants it and a mirror image of the way she operates as CEO of Girls, Inc., of Denver.
But one should not be fooled by her natural warmth. She is the CEO of Girls, Inc., for a reason. She gets things done and has a platinum resume to prove it.
The Pueblo native—she makes sure to proudly share her roots—sits on the boards of both the Denver Leadership Foundation and History Colorado. But that just scratches the surface. Her name is also found on a bouquet of other city and state leadership teams from Metropolitan State University of Denver to the Food Bank of the Rockies. Governor Jared Polis recently named her to the Colorado State University System Board of Governors. CSU Ft. Collins also happens to be her alma mater.
While her track record speaks for itself, Garcia is remarkably humble, a trait she attributes to great parenting. Her father is a retired Pueblo steelworker and her mother a pre-school teacher. They blessed her with love, understanding and the courage to be all she could be.
“For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to do something for others,” she said as she sat comfortably in her office. Working for others, her church, her high school, her community, she said, wasn’t work as much as it was just being part of something, being part of a team.
“What drives me is going all in on every community I’ve been in,” Garcia said. It could be working with “youth, adults, seniors…it’s all of our responsibility.”
Garcia was just thirteen when she landed her first job. Again, it was part of a team. In this case, a catering team that handled weddings, dinners, political events or anything else that took place at Pueblo’s historic Union Depot, the city’s iconic train station. “Every big event…every Thursday, Friday or Saturday.” But as she tells the story, it seems more like an adventure than a job. She calls it “a front-row seat” to a world she never knew.
Garcia’s role at Girls Inc. of Metro Denver is to make sure the mission gets met. And the mission is simple; teaching young girls they have value.
From the youngest to the oldest, a few are already in college, the young charges are given guidance, mentoring and support in the things they are experiencing. They are encouraged to pursue active, healthy lifestyles, how to avoid risky behavior and how to be successful in school. It’s a prescription that if followed, makes graduating to a post-secondary education a higher percentage result. Very simply, said Garcia, “We inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold.”
Despite the ship she captains, a ship that provides so much to so many, Garcia still laments a daily reality. “There are so many girls we’re not reaching,” she said. “How are we going beyond the metro area?” More basically, how many ‘young Kaylas’ will slip through the cracks. Outside of the metro area, she said, “we need that same support system.”
While Pueblo had no Girls Inc. to provide the kind of guidance she and her team provide here, her North Star growing up was her family. Garcia said her family was not rich, but one with a wealth of love and guidance. “My foundation was so strong growing up.”
While education wasn’t stressed at every meal, it nonetheless was understood. And just weeks after graduating from Pueblo South, Garcia said goodbye to her hometown and landed in Fort Collins. She gives thanks for the adventure every day.
“Higher education and college shaped me in ways I didn’t know,” she says with the smile that holds a warm memory. It’s where you learn to navigate the world by yourself, gain new perspectives and grab new opportunities.” Little did she know one of the brass rings she would grab would have her one day sitting on the board of not simply her alma mater, but all of the CSU system.
“Being on the CSU Board of Governors is a really big deal,” Garcia says without a hint of hyperbole. “I take it very personally.” Being a governor, she said, means having a role in the future of all of its students. The Board of Governors oversees CSU Fort Collins, CSU Pueblo and CSU Global.
The ladder Garcia has climbed to reach the point where she now resides, shocks no one who knows her. Her trajectory has always been skyward. But it has taken her away from a hometown she still speaks of with, not reverence, but an endearing affection.
“It’s about tradition and culture…its community and traditions,” she says. She visits what used to be called the ‘Steel City’ whenever she has the opportunity. It’s also a treat for her two children, a boy and a girl. Over the summer, her family took several trips to Pueblo and Garcia made it a point to pitch in and help out where she could when fires swept across communities just south of the city. “Denver is my home,” she said. “Pueblo is my heart.”
Garcia has found a way to make the most efficient use of her already overpacked schedule. But her family still comes first.
“My little girl is ‘little Kayla to a tee,” she says, smiling as she speaks of her. “I love raising a little girl, especially one that is exactly like me.” “We’re (husband Joseph) making sure every day she’s feeling confidence to really go out and shine.” Of course, she also dotes on her son. “He is just so kind.”
Garcia is ‘the small-town girl who made big.’ But she says that it could only happen with a family that not only believed in her but encouraged her to not simply set goals, but to exceed them. She maintains her core is and always will be one forged in Pueblo and the San Luis Valley where her father’s roots are and the Arkansas Valley east of Pueblo where the other side of her family once called home.
While she is far too modest to say it, those who know Kayla Rael Garcia will say it for her: remember her name.
