Kimberly Taylor's internship with Hope for HIE has come to an end, and this community is better because of the time she spent with us.
Kimberly joined us from the University of Kentucky, where she has been pursuing her Master of Social Work degree. She completed three practicum semesters with Hope for HIE through August 2026, under the direction of our social worker, Jennifer Schaefer, CAPSW.
Kimberly has been part of the Hope for HIE community since 2013, walking alongside families through her own daughter Natalie's HIE journey. That firsthand experience as an HIE loss parent shaped how she worked with our community, and it shaped what she built during her time here.
Her focus within social work centers on children and families navigating complex medical journeys, particularly pediatric palliative care, hospice, and grief and bereavement support. She holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Purdue University and has worked as a Braille transcriber, a paraprofessional, and a preschool teacher in inclusive early childhood classrooms.
She helped facilitate and schedule support groups, making sure families had consistent, reliable access to spaces where they could connect with people who understood. She led the HIE loss community poll, a project that gave bereaved families a direct way to tell us what kind of support actually matters to them, and gave Hope for HIE valuable information to help guide our work. She hosted parent panels that let families hear directly from people further along in their own HIE journeys. And she brought forward insightful new ideas for engaging our community as a whole.
We're grateful for her time here, and more than that, we're better prepared to serve families because of her contributions. The HIE loss community poll she led will continue shaping our work to support loss families.
Kimberly, thank you for the care you brought to this work and the trust families placed in you because of it. We're proud of what you built here, and we're glad to send you off as you receive your Master of Social Work degree and our full confidence in where you'll go next. The Hope for HIE community wishes you the best of luck!
Hope for HIE continues to grow its mission by offering meaningful internship opportunities across multiple disciplines.
Our current internship tracks include:
These programs create pathways for students and emerging professionals to gain hands-on experience while contributing to a powerful mission that ensures no family faces HIE alone.
Interested in exploring internships? Contact Us.
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