Each quarter we will feature a story about our Parchment alumni here.

By Dave Person

Heather Knotts Graves has a love for learning that started while a student in Parchment and has continued during her journey through her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and into a career that offers educational pursuits to others.

“One of my greatest joys is just showing what is possible, whether that is for myself, or the kids I work with, or the staff I work with,” says Graves, a 1988 graduate of Parchment High School who currently serves as Executive Director of the Catamount Institute, a youth development and outdoor and environmental education organization in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

While the institute is open to anyone ages 2 through 18, it has positioned itself to work with those who are disadvantaged or disabled. Graves says it does such things as lead inner-city youths on a hike to the summit of Pike’s Peak and make the natural world more accessible to those with disabilities.

The bottom line, she says, is “trying to remove any barriers kids have to being outdoors and improving their mental and physical health.”

“We really place an emphasis on getting kids outdoors that may not have access,” she says.

Graves’ journey through higher education and career has been long and winding, but self-fulfilling for the first-generation college student.

“I wouldn’t say that I took the most traditional route,” she says. “I did go to Kalamazoo Valley right after high school, and went to Western after that, but it took me eight years to get my bachelor’s (in English and Spanish) because I worked two or three jobs and went to school part time.”

One of those part-time jobs, at the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo, turned into a full-time position as a director in the youth development and child care department after she graduated from WMU.

“I did that for a few years and then I had an opportunity to take a job with the YMCA at Jacksonville, Fla.,” she says.

“Then (after a few more years) I moved to Colorado … and worked my way up to senior leadership in the YMCA.”

In 2010 she made a career move.

“After being at the YMCA for 17 years total, I started to get into community and public health and made a change over to hospital-based health care,” she says.

She held a variety of administrative positions at Centura Health, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, in Colorado Springs for 10 years.

“I did everything under the sun there,” she says.

She also earned her master’s degree in management, leadership and strategy, online from Michigan State University, while she was there.

During the pandemic she left Centura Health and went to work for Children’s Hospital Colorado as director of volunteer services and community partnerships and then El Paso County Public Health as division director of community health promotion, both in the Colorado Springs area.

A little over a year ago, she assumed leadership of the Catamount Institute.

“I really wanted to get back to my nonprofit roots,” she says.

“The nonprofit work I’ve done and the community health work I’ve done,” she points out, “have a common thread of breaking down barriers.”

She loves having an impact on someone who may not believe in themselves by instilling in them that they have potential, and then watching them “really soar and come into their own.”

Graves, 53, has been married for 22 years to her husband, Eric, whom she met while they were students at WMU. They have a son, Kaden, 19, who is a freshman business major at Chaminade University in Honolulu, where he is on the cross country and soccer teams.

Graves says growing up and going to school in Parchment paved the way for her career.

“Knowing there were teachers and coaches that believed in me, and having the resilience and grit, maybe I’m delusional in (thinking I can do) anything I want, but I certainly will try.”

She credits her choir teacher at Parchment, Dan Gillett, with inspiring her to reach for the stars.

“Out of all the great teachers I had, Mr. Gillett really saw something in me that no one else did,” she says. “He pushed me, encouraged me and stayed by my side. … It’s really quite profound the impact he had on me.”

Spanish teacher Ruth Moser also was a strong influence. Graves says Moser had high expectations for her and pushed her hard to accomplish them, but she also was very supportive.

Graves says she returns to Michigan several times a year to visit. Her mother, Cindie Taylor, father, Rex Knotts, and sister, Monica Markillie, an early-education teacher at Gull Lake, all live in the Kalamazoo area.