Sylvia Lovely has been a student of leadership and helping finding Resilience all her life. Born in eastern Kentucky but raised in Dayton, Ohio, she was just three months old when her parents realized they could not make a living farming their beloved Kentucky land and rocky hillsides. As did many poor and uneducated Kentuckians, they they headed for factories in the north where her dad worked as a drill press operator at National Cash Register, and her mother kept the home fires burning in one of the many Kentucky diasporas spread across the northern then industrial states.

A first generation high school and college graduate, Sylvia learned just about everything as she went along. She describes herself as adaptable to a fault. Overcoming the shock of her announcement that she wanted to attend college, her parents imposed one condition – that she attend Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, a place that to them was “back home” and safe in a culture that keeps family close by. She describes herself as the turnip that fell off the truck when she arrived on campus. A favorite story was about eating out – at that point, one of the few times in her life– with a group of professors and students. When asked if she wanted soup or salad, her nervous reply, “Yes, I’ll have that supersalad.” Meeting Bernie Lovely, her husband at Morehead, she went onto Law School as she puts it, by accident. Though she didn’t know what lawyers did, she threw herself headlong into it. Bernie soon abandoned pursuit of a Ph.D. in literature to follow her into law school.

She went on to serve as Executive Director/CEO of The Kentucky League of Cities for 25 years. She left that position in 2009 to start a consulting business, Sylvia Lovely & Associates where she teaches people how to live well both at work and at play in crazy times. She is also a partner with The Azur Food Group, which owns Azur Restaurant and Patio, Lexington Diner and Mane on Main, Dupree Catering. She is co-host of Food News and Chews Radio on WVLK 590 a.m. and appears every Friday morning with Chef Jeremy Ashby, her business partner, on the popular Jack Pattie Show talking food. She lives in Lexington with Bernie and Heart, her extremely loving goldendoodle, who she calls the chief of staff of her home office. She has two sons, Ross and David, both lawyers and authors, and two wonderful daughters in law, Jennifer (Ross) and Lauren (David). Grandchildren include Jack and Nora (David and Lauren); Simon, Mary, Levi, Edy, Iona, and the newest Azelie (Ross and Jen). YES, you got it – I have eight grandchildren!