Advancement Ally - Kimberley Jean Harvie
Director of Prospect Development
1. What is your full name and is there a meaning or story behind it?
Kimberley Jean Harvie.
I have the extra "e" in my first name because I was named after a man my father served in the Army with when he was drafted for the Vietnam War. That Kimberley passed away so his name continues through me. (Kimberley is the second-most popular spelling of my name, and finding another Kimberley is always fun.)
My mom wanted to name me Christine, but I guess my dad won, so I got her middle name, Jean. Harvie is my married name and according to my father-in-law, it is a Polish name. I'm glad my name isn't Christine since I married Chris.
2. Pronouns:
She/her
3. How do you identify yourself or what is something you would like others to know about you?
I identify as a cis-gendered heterosexual white woman. I believe that love is love and I am a safe space for others.
My ancestry is German and Scottish.
We foster-to-adopted our now almost-9-year-old son. It was a fairly painful 3-year wait as we went through all of the HOOPS and just plain waited to be matched with a foster child. We often worried we would never become parents. We were told we would never get an infant (I was down for that, skipping diapers and daycare, HOORAY!) But one day we got the call. A baby boy was safely surrendered to a fire station the day prior. We were matched and we formally adopted him about 10 months later.
He was from Garden Grove, which is the city I was raised in, which I think is rad. We even went back to the fire department on his first birthday and we were on TV talking about the Safe Surrender program and letting his mom know if she was watching that we would welcome her into our lives. If you ever have questions about doing foster care or foster to adopt, I'm your gal.
4. What is your favorite comfort food?
Mexican food all the way especially with thin, crispy and salty tortilla chips (and a margarita)
5. What are your favorite cultural or family traditions?
Growing up we didn't really have traditions, we were just plain old boring white folks. As an adult, I have silly traditions like Mexican food for dinner on Halloween, Chinese food on Christmas Eve, and watching Badder Santa while decorating the tree.
6. What is something people wrongly assume about you? (biases, stereotypes, ethnic identity, etc.)
Since I stopped dying my hair, people assume I am my son's grandmother, which always makes me cringe a little. I mean, technically I AM old enough to have a child who IS old enough to have a child my son's age, and we don't look alike (he is Vietnamese), but come on folks, start off young - I mean if I was his grandmother, I would be FLATTERED to be mistaken for his mom! I often smile and say, "Please assume youth for the next woman you encounter."
Since I am a Christian, people assume my political alignment. My car has cross stickers, Black Lives Matter stickers, and other sarcastic stuff. I will let you figure that one out. Or just ask me.
7. If you could change/create any policy (campus, state or national) what would it be and why?
Whoa, this is a deep one. I strongly believe that people should have autonomy over their own bodies. That goes for gender and sexual identity, their reproductive rights, and I believe people with terminal diseases should be allowed to have physician-assisted suicide. I lost a very close friend with a terminal illness who was in constant extreme pain. It was heartbreaking, especially considering how easy it was that our elderly dog to get a shot to make him fall asleep, and then another shot to euthanize him. He died so peacefully in our arms.
On a lighter note, I want to keep daylight savings time year-round and stop moving my clocks forward and backward. I'm not a farmer and it's just weird to manually adjust time in my opinion.
8. If you could have any social justice superpower, what would it be?
When I was a kid, I used to dream of waving a magic wand over peoples' homes and the home would be instantly transformed into a beautiful version of it, and all of the people who lived there would be happy and have everything they needed or wanted. Of course in my childhood brain, transforming the homes often meant they would become a rainbow of colors and some had unicorns prancing in the yard.
9. What is something you enjoy doing for others?
I enjoy helping others as anonymously as I can. One day I was at my son's dentist and a young mom came in. I heard her whispering to the office person that her husband lost his job so they lost the dental insurance and she was asking about the cash price. I walked up to the counter to talk to the clerk about X-rays and slipped her a note telling her to charge her bill to my credit card, but she was not to tell the woman who did it. We left before they did. It was only $100 to me, but hopefully, it took some of that stress from her. (Thankfully it wasn't a massive root canal, LOL.)
It was also a great chance to demonstrate to my son that helping others is what we are here to do.
10. What is something that makes you feel most alive?
Right now our son is killing it in Taekwondo and the Dojang is one of our happy places. Watching him absolutely thrive and loving what he is doing fills me with so much love and hope for his future. I wish he had classes every night.
11. If two (or more) worlds (i.e. music, artists, clothing, movies, eras, genres) could collide/collaborate, what would you choose?
Music and movies. We have a friend who plays music and sometimes it winds up in movies which I think is really cool. I never really thought about how music really sets the tone of movies before we met him.
12. What is something that should be free but is not?
Food, clean water, shelter, and safety.
13. Which affiliations/clubs/organizations/hobbies have you been involved in?
I was a Big Sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of OC (my "Little" is now in her mid-twenties and we are still close even though she "aged out" of the program.) She has become a beautiful young woman and I was so glad I was there for her when her family went through some really hard times.
14. What makes you feel uncomfortable?
Seeing other people in need and knowing that I can't wave a magic wand to fix everything.
Also, people who can't really see beyond their own realities. A childhood friend's daughter videoed herself dancing around and laughing in their Florida neighborhood after Ian hit. Basically, they were making fun of the news saying that Ian was devastating because it didn't devastate them. Meanwhile, another Florida friend's neighborhood was hit really hard and they were displaced and lost stuff. And, well, people died. So the video was cringeworthy to me.
15. What is your favorite thing about working at UCR or your favorite UCR memory?
Well, I am a bit of a newbie, but just having this space and this group just makes me feel like I really made the right decision in taking the leap and coming here. Everyone has been so welcoming and down to earth. Even strangers I encounter as I walk across campus are so nice and helpful with giving me directions or something. UCR is really rad.