Some say “what you see is what you get”, but frequently, what you get is what you see. Perception often depends upon pattern recognition. We see familiar impressions, and we “fill in” the rest. rest. We need to know not just what we look AT, but also what we look FOR. To meet Kim Eaton, you can share with me the joy of looking for who she is, and has been, and has done.
Born and raised in Rouzerville (east of Waynesboro ) back in the days when that was a small town with its own grade school, she lived with her sister, parents and aunt. They fished all summer, camped whenever and loved it.
When Waynesboro Schools were centralized and the smallest were closed, Kim and sister moved to Hooverville school. Her teen years were disrupted by her parents’ divorce, when she and her sister stayed with dad in the family home. His mom came to help also. Later, the sisters moved to live with mom and stepdad.
Her vocational career began selling linens at the Waynesboro Factory Outlets. The business was owned for 10 years with her husband, her dad and her in-laws, but the outlets were fading and competition was growing. As she anticipated the closure of the Outlets, Eaton decided to get further degrees to prepare for other jobs. She had been a “good student” and resumed those skills.
She took courses at Penn State University-Mont Alto, matriculated with an AA summa cum laude and studied online. She became familiar with computer access and programmed teaching/testing. She completed a B.A. at Hood College magna cum laude. She did her master’s of social work commuting to University of Maryland Baltimore. Her Ph.D. in clinical social work was from Walden University.
Since her schooling was done while raising children and working full time, credit courses often filled the summers. Eaton was spinning very fast, schooling, raising young children. She also got a real estate license and did well selling houses. During this time, she went through a divorce, though her ex remains a good father and they keep in touch.
Years later through real estate connections, Eaton met and married Len Eaton. During my interview with him, Len’s admiration of and care for Eaton shone very bright.
Eaton’s career has been dedicated to helping people “get it together.” In 1995, she started with Crisis Intervention. In 1996-99, she did counseling, primarily for women who experienced domestic violence. In 1997-2005, she was with San-Mar Children’s Home where she started as a case manager and progressed to director. Her mentor was the director who hired her and was an excellent therapist, but retired due to illness.
Eaton found “you can’t run this place without policies and procedures,” she says. “I’m good at Big Picture and then details.” At each level, Eaton expanded her responsibilities from individual through group and family therapy, coordinating intakes and discharges, designing programs and managing staff, budget and compliance issues.
“We had an independent group living program with three girls. We had a regular group home with 27 girls. We had a therapeutic home with eight and a treatment foster home with about 25.” Eventually, she said she burned out. When she left, it took several people to do the things she alone had been managing.
Eaton sustains a private counseling service, and her Realtor’s license. She teaches on-line for several institutions. She reviews grant applications for several funding sources.
In 2005-2024,she went to work with the Franklin County judicial system which spends a significant portion of the county revenue. She managed programs designed to reduce the 50% of people leaving jail who are back in jail within two years.
She helped design and develop the Day Reporting system for Franklin County, the first of its kind, creating alternatives to incarceration. Again, she started by counseling individuals, then trained others and started new programs, got funding, ensured compliance and pursued strategic planning with related agencies and achieved statewide honors for the local justice department.
When she first started counseling, she said she “felt she could deal better with men because they just needed to get their life in order kind of thing.” Women had a “victim mentality” she found problematic. After years of caring, however, she understands much more about trauma.
So many of these troubled individuals don’t understand that they are living out scars or broken parts of themselves and not just that they are making bad choices. Many troubled people are living what they learned, often very young. Eaton believed they could learn another way of responding. That’s the big picture. Now the details, such as you must do this and this to succeed going forward.
“Dr. Eaton spent more than a decade helping newly released inmates get back on their feet and stay stable in society.” That was how the announcement read of her STAR (Special Thanks And Recognition) award by the Franklin County commissioners.
“She has served in many roles including managing co-chair of the Franklin Together Reentry Coalition, which helps individuals transition from incarceration to stable lives. She is also the volunteer coordinator for the Waynesboro Youth Aid Panel, a restorative justice program with exceptional success in reducing the instances of convicted criminals committing another crime. She has been a driving force behind youth courts in local school districts and a longtime leader in the Leadership Franklin County Youth program.”
In 2025, Eaton was honored with the International ATHENA Leadership Award, which honors an individual who exemplifies professional, community and personal leadership as well as someone who actively assists women in reaching their full leadership potential and/or personal and professional goals.
Eaton acknowledges she is a dynamo and that she can be a problem for people not wanting to accelerate to her speed to get things accomplished. Her husband, Len, has developed multiple skills at coping. He mentioned how, while recovering from cancer, she would not just watch television but had to be busy doing needlepoint as well. Her work got several ribbons at the county fair. He sees her as a 150% doer, given to creating a vision then implementing it.
As she approached retirement from the county, Eaton learned that the Waynesboro YMCA needed a director who could facilitate a renewal of mission and function. Eaton felt strong affection and allegiance to the Y for the years her family had enjoyed it. She felt she could refine programs and expand relationships with the wider community and correct some major structural problems like a leaking pool, so she stepped into the job. And now she has something to do to avoid boredom….. 😉
