BusinessReport.com

Kristy McKearn has managed to put together an impressive résumé in a short period of time.

She’s been an executive with Cox Communications, a policy adviser to former Gov. Mike Foster, chief strategic officer and vice president of business operations for the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets and is now a public policy adviser for one of the country’s biggest law firms. And on the side, she’s working on a doctorate in political science at LSU and serving as an adjunct professor.

“People have come to me for these jobs,” McKearn says.

While there’s been a lot of concern about the smart, ambitious young people who leave Louisiana to take jobs elsewhere, McKearn is a transplant. A native of Mount Vernon, Ill., who graduated from Southern Illinois University, she moved to Baton Rouge in 1996 to pursue a master’s in public policy.

“I didn’t really have Louisiana on my radar, but I have an uncle who lives in Covington who asked me to consider going to LSU.” McKearn made a road trip with her twin sister and fell for Baton Rouge. “The day I got here was the most beautiful day ever in the city,” she says. “Then I moved here in August with all the heat.”

Along with her professional accomplishments, McKearn has been giving back to the community, working as a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and donating her LSU salary to scholarships for political science students. The money covers travel expenses, allowing the students to present papers at academic conferences.

McKearn says she’s making the donation as a way of honoring James Garand, an LSU political science professor who she says is one of her true mentors.

What is the best advice you ever received?

“People are not going to change, so the way you deal with that person should change. That advice rings true for both my professional and personal life every day.”