Kathy Mendenhall has worked at Columbus Academy since 2012 and currently serves as special programs assistant and one of the CASE supervisors for our after-school program. Her initial role at Academy was as a part-time substitute teacher for CASE before becoming a long-term substitute and snack nutrition coordinator. As the supervisor for CASE, Kathy is responsible for helping to oversee staff and students in the program, onboarding new CASE employees, mentoring and coordinating the upper school CASE assistants, floating to support each grade group and serving as a substitute when needed. Kathy assists the Special Programs office with various administrative support for Summer Experience. For the Summer Experience, Kathy originally began working in its aftercare program before becoming the coordinator of the Junior Counseling Program and the instructor for the Interpretive Dance Camp. Her role as coordinator includes parent and student orientation, student placement, mentoring and monitoring of junior counselors as well as weekly evaluations and reviews. During high school, Kathy studied and completed theatre and music training in a vocational performing arts school and later studied various forms of dance at Irveline’s School of Ballet, Dublin Dance Center and BalletMet. She has an associate’s degree in business management from Franklin University and in January 2025 earned a bachelor’s degree in both business administration and management & leadership from Franklin University with support from Columbus Academy’s tuition reimbursement program. Kathy also holds a managing cosmetology license from Ohio State School of Cosmetology and previously owned, managed and worked at K Mendenhall Salon. Kathy returned to the stage after 36 years in the spring of 2019 as Lena Younger – aka “Mama” – the lead role in “A Raisin in the Sun” and graced the stage again in the August Wilson stage play “Fences” as the lead role of Rose Maxson in the spring of 2024. Her daughter Aylah ’19 is a professional actress and her son Gyvnn ’22 plays football at WashU.
- B.S. Franklin University , Business Administration and Management & Leadership
- A.A. Franklin University , Business Management
- Ohio State School of Cosmetology , Managing Cosmetology License
