Interviews Archive - Kansas Oral History Project

Interview of Kim Moore, May 7, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter

Kim Moore was the President of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund for 31 years. He started out as a lawyer with a large Wichita law firm trying to save banks from regulators in the 1980's, but yearned for "something he could be passionate about." He saw that possibility in the Health Ministry Fund position so he moved his family to Hutchinson and "took a big risk" (and a big pay cut) that this foundation would be a way to align his spiritual views with practical opportunities including oral health, a safety net, rural health, access to care, Show Moreearly childhood programs and hospice care, to name a few. His interview details how the foundation's programs developed and the coalitions he created with communities and organization across the state as well as the battles they fought. After leaving the Health Ministry Fund in 2018, Moore continued as a consultant to non-profit groups.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Benjamin Anderson, May 7, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter

Benjamin Anderson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System where he is responsible for the management, direction and coordination of all organization operations. He is a great story-teller and his personal story about his experiences getting into college and later gaining entry into the health care system shows his determination and creativity toward solving problems. He rescued failing Kansas rural hospitals in Ashland and Lakin by figuring out how to engage these communities and provide services that people needed. His story about organizing a basketball game to pay for mammograms for women Show Moreis inspiring and unusual. When asked if this was a role of a hospital administrator he replied, "It is the role of a leader." Anderson described his reaching out to Somalian immigrants who worked at Tyson's Food Processing plant. That outreach led to strategies to engage the community and deal with all sorts of community attitudes towards the immigrants. His philosophy was, "Pick one meaningful thing to measure that brings about meaningful change, lowers costs, and improves outcomes. Show them how you did it and they will run to you. Don't wait on the feds to solve your problems. You solve them." After spending six and a half years in rural southwest Kansas, Anderson made a decision to leave and work for the Colorado Hospital Association for four years in order to get specialized services for one of his children. He was recruited to come to Hutchinson because the hospital needed to make some changes. Anderson is now meeting those challenges with creativity and energy.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Brenda Landwehr, May 5, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter

Brenda Landwehr went to the Legislature to solve problems. She didn't shy away from the tough ones, either. "I've always been one of those people that it's like, put up or shut up. You can only complain so long." So, she "jumped in with both feet" to the Legislative Health Academy, learned a lot, and at the end of the day, the participants had a great dialogue. Brenda tackled foster care privatization, trying to get the judges to participate. She chaired the Mental Health Modernization Committee and the Joint Committee on Children's Show MoreIssues. Child behavioral health issues became a passion for her and she started a pilot program in six districts around Kansas. During her second stint in the legislature she was chairing important committees that dealt with the state budget and medicaid. After 22 years of public service, Landwehr remains one of the most knowledgeable people about health policy issues. Her interview is a good read! Show Less

Interview of Matthew (Matt) All, April 21, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter

This is a very important interview in this series about Healthy Kansans because it embraces the discussion on health care financing. It is also interesting because of All's experiences in the political arena that led him to his current role as CEO of one of the state's largest health care insurers. He was involved with the proposed merger of Anthem and Blue Cross when he worked for Gov. Sebelius who turned down the merger. He said, "It became really clear to me at the beginning that this was an important office, and that Kansans sometimes in Show Morethe biggests moments of their lives need somebody to stand beside them. So, I was proud to do the work!" The largest part of the interview is a discussion on how health insurance works, how costs affect premiums, and what the options for the future hold. Despite the difficulties in finding ways to control costs, Mr. All is optimistic about the future. Show Less

Interview of Carla Stovall-Steckline, May 4, 2026

Interviewed by Dale Goter

This interview of former Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall Steckline highlights the importance of her two terms in office as the first and only woman elected Attorney General in Kansas. She has a fascinating story, starting as the county attorney in Crawford County where Pittsburg is located. The county attorney told her "Crawford County juries are not ready for women in the courtroom yet." So she ran against him and defeated him. What she found was "so much child sexual abuse there that I would never have imagined existed." Governor Hayden appointed her to the Show Morestate Parole Board and she became more visible in Republican politics while learning about the problems with sexually violent predators. Former Attorney General Bob Stephan noticed her and she had lots of interaction with his office. When Stephan announced his retirement, he backed Stovall for the AG position. During the campaign a young college student at Pittsburg State was murdered violently and became a campaign issue. Stovall proposed the Sexuallly Violent Predator Law that became the biggest issue in her campaign. After the election, several other heinous crimes occurred which propelled the proposed law into the public arena. Stovall ended up defending the law at the U.S. Supreme Court. (See End Notes to the transcript for her explanation of that court process.) During her second term she was pursuing litigation against the tobacco companies. She won $1.6 billion dollars from the tobacco companies and the legislature dedicated that money to children's programs and set up the Children's Cabinet to administer the fund. She was also involved with water legislation about the Colorado River. At the end of her two terms, she was persuaded to run for Governor, but ended up withdrawing from the race because her heart wasn't in it. She met and married Larry Steckline and left the political work behind, although she started a charity to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault which she operates today. Show Less

Interview of Martin Hawver, August 13, 2025

Interviewed by Jim McLean

In this 2025 interview, Martin Hawver discussed his career in journalism, focusing on his years reporting from the Kansas Statehouse. Hawver’s interview examined the role that his Hawver’s Capitol Report played in providing news and insider analysis about Kansas politics and government for three decades. Hawver reported Statehouse news and described how the issues being debated would affect Kansans. He had a reputation for asking the questions no one else would ask, often in a signature quirky manner. Hawver focused on what people needed to know, and delivered the news in a unique style. His goal was to Show Morewrite “what people think is interesting, what they ought to know, what they wish they know, what they hope other people don’t know.”

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Jill Docking, April 1, 2026

Interviewed by Chris Courtwright

This very thorough and comprehensive interview of Jill Docking, took place on the third floor of the reconfigured Docking State Office Building in Topeka under the portrait of her father-in-law, Governor Robert Docking. The interviewer, Chris Courtright, takes her through a number of significant milestones in Kansas political history, having married into one of Kansas' most prominent political families. She has run for office herself, in 1996 for the U.S. Senate, and again in 2014 as the Lt. Governor candidate with Paul Davis at the head of the ticket. She was a tireless advocate for higher education Show Moreas a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. She serves on numerous boards such as the Kansas Health Foundation and promotes health, financial fitness and philanthropy. The stories she tells are entertaining, but they also illuminate important events in Kansas history. As the interview moves to its conclusion, Docking talks about gaps in the health care system and comments on the divisiveness in our political system as being "a cancer in this country." She sees the number of people running for public office as a positive swing and she is still engaged, supporting numerous candidates. She is still working, and not retiring!

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Cynthia Hornberger, April 10, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter

Dr. Cynthia Hornberger is a nurse-leader in nursing education and health care. In this 2026 interview she explains how nursing education evolved at Washburn University and how the status and competency of nurses has grown in hospitals across the country. Hornberger sees advanced practice-trained nurses as critical components of the health care team and critical to delivering health care in rural settings. Today the demand for nurses often exceeds the supply. She traces the history of the development of nursing programs in Kansas to the Axtell Hospital, Axtell, Kansas and overall to Lillian Wald who in 1893 advised Show MoreDr. Samuel Crumbine, Kansas' most famous public health official. When asked why Kansas is slipping in health rankings compared to other states, she suggests Kansas lacks access to services to prevent, monitor and treat illnesses. Shortage of health care professionals is another cause. She notes there are political ramifications - politicians who do not prioritize the health and well-being of infants and children or people who are socioeconomically challenged. The discussion of how the role of nursing changed over time reflects changing attitudes about gender roles and nurses' desire for more training and a larger leadership role. Hornberger believes some things in health care eventually will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), such as diagnostics. The interview ends with her summarizing of her 50 years in nursing and describing her passion for gardening.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Mary Briscoe, March 23, 2026

Interviewed by Richard Ross

This interview of Mary Beck Briscoe, a former judge in both state and federal courts, describes being one of the first women in law in Kansas. The interview covers three primary areas, Briscoe's service on the Kansas Court of Appeals and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, a comparison of the two, and lessons learned. Briscoe described an instance of discrimination on the basis of sex from Georgia Pacific Paper when she was denied entry into management training. She cites that experienceas the trigger that led her into the legal profession. Briscoe co-chaired the Gender Bias Show MoreTask Force of the Kansas Bar Association in the eighties. She discusses the concept of merit selection of judges and why, at the time of the interview, she opposed a proposed constitutional amendment to elect Supreme Court Judges. She described the "Blitz Docket" on the state court of appeals and how much the appellate court judges traveled to hear cases which resulted in them getting to know each other very well. In 1990 a position on the federal Court of Appeals opened up. Kansas' US Senator Bob Dole was totally focused on getting her the appointment, despite the fact she was a Democrat. She paints a picture of how differently the federal court operated, as compared to the Kansas court, and suggests the Kansas court process is a better model.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

Interview of Tim Carpenter, August 4, 2025

Interviewed by Jim McLean

In this 2025 interview, Tim Carpenter described how reporting from the Statehouse evolved over his almost 40-year career. The setting for the interview was the historic site, Red Rocks, which was the Emporia, KS home of renowned journalist William Allen White. Carpenter recalls that early in his career, reporters were given time for investigative reporting that informed the public about important issues. Today, due to drastic staff cuts, reporters often only are able to write about legislation after it has become law. He observed that that there has been a loss of an Show Moreopen leadership style and collegiality in the Statehouse, with some elected officials closing themselves off from the press and refusing to share information with the public -- while complaining about press coverage. Carpenter shared his concern that people only want “echo chambers” that tell them what they want to hear, and don’t distinguish between opinion pieces and factual reporting. In Carpenter’s words, “Now people are so combative they don’t even want to listen to other people’s ideas, and that’s to the detriment of all Kansans.”

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

Show Less

12 Next