We recently connected with Devaney Cole and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Devaney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

The defining moment in my professional career happened in my personal life, outside the lab. As a medical laboratory scientist, working in hospitals and various healthcare settings, I became very familiar with how healthcare is typically approached. I also grew up with a sibling who had cancer early in our childhood. My sibling did all the treatments and procedures prescribed and although they were effective in the moment, the cancer kept finding its way back. Growing up watching my sibling’s decades of battle with cancer, becoming educated in the health sciences, and being exposed to all the breakthroughs and treatments, I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. Something was off balance because all the science was focused on treatment, which mostly provided a temporary fix. Unfortunately, when we became adults, my sibling was eventually diagnosed as terminal and was given a short timeline to live. After decades of battle, my family decided as a last approach, to explore a different method of healthcare and we sought out physicians that were trained in holistic medicine, that was how we discovered Doctors of Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.). These NDs were board-certified formally educated physicians and I never knew they existed. Through the care of an N.D. I noticed the heavy emphasis on prevention rather than treatment and learned so much from them. I realized what the missing link was, I saw the imbalance and it was the lack of science around prevention. The sciences are heavy on treatment (which is great) but not so much on prevention and cause and it was then that I got my own N.D. and was able to compare my knowledge of the medical lab sciences and the science around wellness and longevity. This is the inspiration for my belief that kids should not solely focus on learning academics, pursuing good test scores, and high GPAs; but also learning about their health and wellness is just as important. Learning about longevity and how nutritional choices and mental health affects their future just as much (if not more in some cases) as their G.P.A, academic and/or athletic performance does. This was the inspiration that pushed me to create a space to provide that balance that I saw missing in education and health care.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Devaney Cole and I’m Founder and Executive Director of KC Metro Homeschool Wellness Education, Inc. (also known as KC Metro Wellness). I am a full-time homeschooling mother by day and a Medical Laboratory Scientist by night. Both my journey through the obstacles of homeschooling as a black family in the KC metro area combined with my passion and conviction for students to learn health, wellness and longevity education alongside their academics is the inspiration for KC Metro Wellness. KC Metro Wellnes is a nonprofit organization for homeschooling families in the KC metro area. Students learn physical education, mental health, culturally relevant nutrition and cooking in various ways. This program is unique because it supports the experience and diversity of household structures in the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) homeschooling community. Few homeschool organizations are structured to meet those needs. Another unique aspect of KC Metro Wellness is the Physical Education classes. Traditionally, PE for home-educated learners is usually in the form of sports/dance teams and expensive athletic clubs. Although this is great, sports and dance do not embody the academia that physical education provides. KC Metro Wellness provides a physical education curriculum that is relevant regardless of athletic prowess or fitness level and explores physical activity in various ways. Lastly, Mental health wellness is imperative at the adolescent ages; providing mental health education from instructors that are familiar with the realities of BIPOC students and how that may affect their mental health is necessary for effective teaching. KC Metro Wellness is an organization that was built to provide relevant solutions to these obstacles and enhance the home-educated learners academic journey.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

The initial funding for my business was an extremely laborious task. I knew I wanted to create a nonprofit organization but I needed the funds in order to begin that process and actually start doing the work I felt compelled to do. I had no knowledge of fiscal sponsorship for nonprofits, so I set out to find grant funding for businesses that were not established nonprofits. That was very difficult. I eventually was granted a small personal grant of $10,000 and I made a plan to stretch that money as far as possible and began the work KC Metro Wellness was designed to do. Unfortunately, since I was not established as a 501c3 when I received that grant, I had to pay personal income taxes on it, which ate up a significant chunk of the money. Afterwards, I discovered fiscal sponsorship and how established nonprofit organizations provide that service for developing nonprofit organizations. That was a huge relief and I wish I had known about that initially. So I received fiscal sponsorship with a local nonprofit organization that believed in my work and I was able to apply for more grants under their stewardship and EIN until mine was established. So moral to the story, if you want to start a nonprofit, get a fiscal sponsor during the infancy of the business.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I’m learning that in my field as a nonprofit organization, building relationships with organizations and individuals that believe in your work is extremely important. It is also just as important to educate yourself on effectively collecting data and how to use it. Having data to show the relevancy and impact of your organization is necessary to secure donations and grants. These are two skills that I was not initially good at and am continuing to get better at.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kcmetrohomeschoolpe.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kcmetrope/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/-n2302eGEYQ

Image Credits
credit to Herston R. Fails at NEVRFAILS for website videography and Christa Rice @Crissicurly for headshot