010 - Kim O'Malley

Kim O’Malley is a Youth Development Specialist with 20 years of experience designing and delivering leadership curriculum in a wide range of settings. Kim has been a public high school teacher, head cross-country and track coach, an outdoor trip leader, a parent education facilitator and a professional development coach, blogger, public speaker, mom, and seasoned ultra-marathoner.

Kim’s coaching career began as an undergraduate student at Northwestern University when upon discovering the university lacked a running program- started her own. She co-founded Northwestern’s running club, served as its president and coach, and eventually elevated the program to varsity status at which it remains today.

Kim has successfully led large co-ed cross-country and track programs with diverse populations in California and Colorado.

She led the North Monterey County girls’ cross-country team to the first sectional championships for any girl’s program in the school’s history while focusing on holistic coaching practices that prioritized personal wellness, character development, and leadership.

As a program manager for the national non-profit organization Girls Leadership and a curriculum specialist for the Girl’s Athletic Leadership School network ( GALS INC), Kim is committed to equipping teachers, coaches, parents and students with the tools they need to bring holistic, relationship-based teaching and learning into the arena. Kim’s career reflects her life-long passion for connecting leadership, athleticism, and social-emotional development.

In this interview Kim discusses how coaches can “coach the whole athlete,” a topic Kim will cover in detail at the 2020 Boulder Running Clinics. She also discusses Social Emotional Learning and how coaches can use that framework when working with their athletes.