For Lindsay Kist, a healthy community is one where people come together to explore ideas and have thoughtful conversations that create connections, spark curiosity and expand perspectives.
Kist brings this philosophy to her new role as executive director of the Winter Park Institute.
She had spent the previous eight years in various leadership roles with the Winter Park Health Foundation, most recently as vice president responsible for leading strategic initiatives, cross-sector collaborations and public engagement programs.
“I learned so much in that role,” says Kist of her time with the Foundation. “Now I think with the Institute, the biggest challenge is the extraordinary possibilities. Meeting our potential in a disciplined, intentional way is really the key to our success.”
Kist’s career has given her a unique perspective on the power of learning from people who espouse a wide range of viewpoints. She spent more than a decade in New York City at the Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by tennis champion and social justice icon Billie Jean King. There she held roles across communications, marketing and event planning.
Now, she wants the Winter Park Institute to create opportunities for dialogue on a much broader scale. “We want to be so much more than a keynote speaker series,” adds Kist, who envisions “an ecosystem of programming” with experiences for everyone.
In addition to bringing influential speakers such as, most recently, chef and humanitarian José Andrés to Central Florida, Kist—who was a varsity swimmer during her college years at North Carolina State—will oversee a wide range of intriguing and thought-provoking programs around the core theme of “Human Flourishing: How We Live Well Together.”
One example is “Pages for the Ages,” an intergenerational media club co-founded by Institute board member Stephanie Carmany.
That program brings college students together with older adults to discuss books, podcasts and documentaries that tackle a wide variety of topics and issues.
Says Kist: “Through the Institute, world-renowned thinkers don’t simply visit Central Florida. They spark conversations that will continue around dinner tables, in classrooms, in boardrooms and throughout our community.”
Visit winterparkinstitute.org for more information.
