If you can’t find me, I’m probably Fountain Hunting ~ Lori Ventura

My Work Story

Full circle is how I would best describe my life… I grew up in the Kansas City Metro area and attended post-secondary school when Missouri State University was Southwest Missouri State University.  Upon graduation, I packed up my belongings and followed my Mom out to Phoenix, AZ.  For the next 24 years, I spent a full and successful career. I started as a middle school math teacher; true to my wanderlust fashion, I actually had no assigned classroom my first year, so I traveled to my students each hour with my math bag of tricks on a cart!  I immersed myself in the culture, sports, and academics of the school and quickly became a favorite with my students because I was determined that math for middle schoolers could be fun and any student who entered my classroom (I only had to be “Cart Teacher” for 2 school years) should feel welcome to learn, welcome to make mistakes and welcome to enjoy the world of mathematics.  However, after 7 years, I realized I was working harder than my students and I decided to look anew. The next 7 years were spent helping to energize and build an online curriculum company that was looking to expand and overhaul their business.  I was successful, loved my work because my efforts were helping students across the country succeed in an alternative learning method, learned software development and database language and, eventually rose to the Director of Curriculum.  Sadly, the company was sold, a new direction was planned and VPs took the place of the original Directors; thus I moved on. Next up – Education at the state level, but now in the Informational Technology arena.  Using what I had learned previously, I was successful in rolling out a statewide enterprise student-data suite of applications that helped school districts make decisions about student learning, receive timely state funds and, improve data analysis.  From there, I was fortunate to become part of the IT Executive Team as the Support Administrator; meaning I was able to serve over 600 school districts and about 400 Department of Education full-time employees. Towards the end of my time at the Department of Education, I felt a tingling in my soul to return to my roots, so after much planning, a lot of mixed emotions, and a “full-steam ahead” approach, I again packed up my belongings and moved back home to Kansas City.

Embracing the Change

I was fortunate to find work at the Federal level in IT for 2 years, but knew that something more was in store for me; thus I made the crazy, all-in, can’t go back kind of move.  I fell in love with exploring Kansas City all over again and soon found my first fountain – The Meyer Circle Seahorse Fountain!  I knew I was hooked, so on the weekends, I would get in my car and just drive hoping to get lost, hoping to find a fountain, and hoping that my wanderlust soul would emerge again, and guess what, IT DID!  Thus, Kansas City Fountain Tours and I couldn’t be more excited to share my love of these structures that have brought so much joy to my soul with those that choose to go on a journey of fountain hunting with me!

My Personal Story

I’m a Mom to one of the best kids on the planet, Jackson.  He’s a funny, kind, caring, compassionate soul and we are truly a team; always have been and always will. He is the best thing I’ve ever done or will do in my life and I’m grateful that I get to be his Mom. I’m also Mom to the 3 Cs; my 4-legged rescues,  Comet, Charlie and our newest edition Clem. Sadly we lost our oldest boy Cash at the end of 2021. Bitter sweet moment, Clem showed up on doorstep a year to the day that we lost cash. So he lives in our hearts through her. Each has come along for different reasons and in different seasons, but they are a constant source of joy and comfort for us.
I’m a library nerd and can easily spend an entire morning or afternoon browsing for the right book to fit my mood, I’m a creative kitchen cook because I love to experiment with different recipes, I’m an explorer of our beautiful city, and lastly, I’M A DIEHARD, LOUD, PROUD CHIEFS FAN – nothing like Arrowhead September thru January! See you at the Fountains!