LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s a new era for the Louisville Urban League. Dr. Kish Cumi Price succeeded Sadiqa Reynolds as the League’s president and CEO in Nov. 2022, making Dr. Price only the second woman to lead the civil rights organization in its over 100 year history.

“Sadiqa was the first president and CEO of the league that was a Black woman—so let’s start there,” said Price, noting her own appointment speaks to the League’s continued evolution and work. “When we talk about that marginalization, if you have the intersection of gender and race, Black women are right at the center of that intersection.”

Price described her taking of the helm with a running metaphor: “I’m not stepping into shoes, but really just running my leg of the race.”

Much like a sprinter, Price is moving the League forward at full stride. She doesn’t just have a plan — she has clear metrics the League is actively working to achieve to combat the systemic inequities hurting Black and brown communities. They’re prioritizing education, housing and Black business.

“We can’t continue to just look for the resources and not address the actual issues that continue to keep people in this place of not being able to have enough,” Price explained.

The League is dedicated to positively affecting tens of thousands of Louisville students with programs to maximize academic achievement, college access and college persistence. They’re also partnering with the city to address a shortage of affordable housing units by committing to build approximately 3,000 of the 33,000 housing units needed over the next five years.

The League is also investing in Black business in Louisville with efforts to add 500 additional Black employer businesses. Only 2.6% of Louisville businesses are currently represented by Black people, Price noted.

It’s both struggle and privilege that brought Price to this role. She’s originally from Flint, Mich., where her dad worked for General Motors, and later moved to Franklin, Tenn. The National Holmes Scholar, University of Louisville, and Wake Forest University alumna is a first-generation graduate who developed a passion for helping marginalized populations early in life.

“My background has really been in this space of really trying to understand… the lies that we were told, you know, about meritocracy and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and understanding that that is not a reality for most of us,” Price said. “And so how do we get to a place where we are addressing the real issues and not being in a place where we are complacent with what we get? What’s being presented to you should not be your reality.”

Price started her career as a school counselor before moving into higher education at Fairfield University. She said she moved around a lot early in life, but when she arrived in Louisville, she knew it was more than a pit stop in the journey.

“When I landed here in Louisville, it was just this city really spoke to me. After living in so many different places, and then coming here, and just feeling called to the city and believing that there’s so much potential here,” said Price. “We can do things differently here and we don’t have to adopt the norm.”

A few of her many titles over the years include Founding Executive Director of Smoketown Family Wellness Center, Senior Policy and Advocacy Director of Early Childhood and K-12 Policy at Kentucky Youth Advocates, and most recently, Commissioner of the Kentucky Workforce Development and special adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear.

Her leadership at Louisville Urban League comes as the city grapples with ways to address historic busing, ongoing gun violence, insufficient housing, a Department of Justice investigation of its police department and open wounds from the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March 2020.

“What keeps me up at night really is the lack of investment in youth in the city and specifically Black and Brown youth, and so I am really committed to how do we as a city provide supports in ways that we have never done collectively,” said Price. “We can be different and I think we have that opportunity and we have the responsibility to do it. There is no city that has the resources that we have, the history that we have, and then the opportunity for this future that we can all see. And it feels so far away, but so close.”