Kathy Glover

Kathy Glover spent about 15 years as a paralegal in construction litigation and medical malpractice at firms in Kansas and California before establishing an independent practice. Her work representing major engineering firms even took her overseas.

Then she moved to Florida and found a position unlike anything she had done before.

For more than nine years, Kathy, with help from her team, has coordinated Sumter County’s Drug Court and Veterans Treatment Court, which give eligible people charged with felonies an opportunity to receive treatment, accept responsibility, avoid prison time and rebuild their lives with a clean record.

Participants spend at least a year attending drug and veterans treatment court, receiving substance-abuse services, participating in support meetings, undergoing random drug screenings and meeting with Kathy.

“I am firm with them, and if they get off track and try to blame everybody else, I won’t let them do that,” Kathy says. “I bring them back to reality.”

She also answers calls after hours when someone needs help, even when industry standards don’t require it. 

“It’s just who I am, I guess,” she says.

At graduation, Kathy celebrates each graduate with a cactus, a tangible symbol she came up with, and that she uses, to illustrate how each person has transformed their lives. While presenting them with their very own cactus to take home, she reminds them how cactuses survive harsh conditions, store the resources they need and flourish in healthier environments…just like them.

Graduates also receive a personalized story about their progress, a journal, tassel and framed certificate.

The tradition became so meaningful that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathy held small ceremonies in a Publix parking lot, so graduates would not miss their cactus presentation.

“I want to make sure that they feel heard, that they recognize their value because a lot of the people that come into the program, they’re so beat down, and have lost their family over drug use,” she says, adding that many remain in touch, sharing news of jobs, cars, babies and businesses.

Editor’s note: Kathy has retired since this interview was conducted.