OUTSTANDING ALUMNA OF THE YEAR
Kathy
HA L BE R T Abundance is a watchword for Kathy (Gay ’78) Halbert. “When I think about all God has given me, it motivates me to try and help other people,” says the president and cofounder of the Caris Foundation. “I’m also motivated by the people who have helped me in my journey. If I can help someone else in theirs, and do a good job with what I’ve been given, there’s real satisfaction in that.” Halbert and her husband, David D. Halbert (’78), founded Caris in 2002 with the mission of alleviating as much human suffering as possible. Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with a small on-site staff, the foundation works primarily in Haiti and Kenya, collaborating with local health workers to provide multilayered, culturally relevant and sustainable services to marginalized mothers, children and teenagers. Growing up as the daughter of a preacher, Halbert watched her parents lead medical mission trips and also engage people with love and grace in their everyday lives. “They did what they did because they loved people,” Halbert says of her parents. “They loved everyone for who they were. Watching my parents serve people was really an inspiration to me. I wanted that for my kids, too: an example of loving and serving people.” 28
Fall-Winter 2023
ACU TODAY
Halbert met her husband when they both were students at ACU. “They cared about your success socially and academically, but they cared so much about your soul,” she says of the people she met at ACU. “That made a difference in my life as I raised my kids and worked. Struggling or successful – everyone was kind of in this together.” That same spirit of community and empathy pervades Caris, where, Halbert says, “the people who work with us are the angels. They are there, on the ground, living with people. They call us [in the States] and they can tell us the names of the people they work with: who is sick, who is recovered, who is learning, who is successful.” Caris employs more than 400 people in Haiti and Kenya in addition to its U.S.-based foundation staff. All of them, Halbert says, deserve an award more than she does. Most of Caris’ executive team, including a nephew, Christopher Harmon (’01), also have connections to ACU. “It’s been cool to see that next generation with those connections,” she says. She notes that government agencies and non-governmental organizations are surprised by the spirit they find at Caris. “All of our people were raised by very frugal parents,” Halbert says, laughing. “That godly, frugal, careful work ethic really makes a difference in the work we do. USAID really
wanted to work with us, because they knew that everything they gave us would go straight to the work. In any realm, when you’re trying to do well with the resources you have, it’s such a fun challenge to make the most of what is there.” There’s also a different sense of accountability, she says: “We’re not answering to an agency. We’re answering to ourselves and to our determination to do what is right.” Caris’ work in Haiti began with medical missions: providing surgeries and medical supplies to underserved communities. Through a friend who was doing graduate work at Johns Hopkins University, the Halberts heard about a dried blood test for newborns born to HIV-positive mothers, which could help determine which children were positive for HIV and needed medication. As Caris staff kept working in the community, testing infants and working with mothers, “it kind of morphed,” Halbert says. “When we were testing these babies, we found out some of their siblings weren’t eating, and the teenagers weren’t in school.” In addition to EID (early infant diagnosis) testing and treatment for infants and mothers, Caris now provides clinical follow-up for HIVpositive children until age 18, and community clubs for children and mothers. They also have helped send more than 7,000 HIV-positive