Staff Spotlight: Kelsey Bosley

Club Director, Clem & Ann Buenger Club

Working with children has always been about more than education for Kelsey Bosley. It is about building relationships, strengthening communities and helping young people discover their own reasons to be excited about learning.

As Club Director of the Clem & Ann Buenger Club in Newport, Kentucky, Kelsey brings a diverse background in education, libraries and community programming to her work with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati. Her path to the Club began with a childhood influence, her stepmother, who was a fifth-grade teacher that later became a principal.

Kelsey thought she was going to be a teacher just like her stepmother. She attended the University of Louisville and joined Teach For America, an AmeriCorps program, after graduation. Kelsey taught third grade in eastern North Carolina, where she experienced firsthand the challenges facing an education system dealing with a significant teacher shortage.

After two years in the classroom, Kelsey’s career took her to Lexington, Virginia, where she worked as youth and family programmer at the library, and eventually to Washington, D.C., where she became a preschool director. She returned to Cincinnati shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. While she loved education, Kelsey realized that the traditional classroom wasn’t where she belonged.

That realization ultimately led her to Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati. When Kelsey discovered BGCGC’s mission, she saw an opportunity to combine the parts of her previous careers she valued most, including education, community engagement and working directly with children and families. “I wanted to work in the community and work with families,” she said.

Kelsey joined BGCGC as a program coordinator at the Covington Fischer Club. Within a few months, she knew she had found the right place. When the Club Director position at the Clem & Ann Buenger Club became available, she saw an opportunity to make an even greater impact.

Finding the Spark in Every Child

“I think all children have a natural love of learning,” Kelsey said. “You just have to find a way to spark it.”

Her experience working with children from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities has reinforced that belief, as well as the importance pf looking beyond academics. While reading, writing and math are essential, Kelsey believes children also need opportunities to develop socio-emotional skills and learn how to navigate relationships. At the Club, that can mean teaching something as seemingly simple as how to make small talk or start a friendship.

Those everyday interactions are part of what makes the Club different from a traditional classroom. Kelsey wants members to develop the confidence, communication skills and relationships they need to succeed both inside and outside of school.

Most importantly, she wants them to want to be at the Club.

Teaching the Value of Service

Service has also played an important role in Kelsey’s own life. As a high school student, she participated in required service hours and discovered that volunteering gave her an opportunity to explore her interests and passions. Now, she is helping Club members discover that same sense of purpose.

Through the Club’s “Ready to Serve” initiative, members learn that being part of a community means contributing to it. Even simple responsibilities, such as cleaning up a shared space after lunch, become opportunities to teach members that everyone has a role to play. Those experiences reinforce the important lesson that communities become stronger when people invest in them.

Building a Stronger Newport Community

Kelsey’s connection to Newport runs deep. Her husband’s family is from the community and her aunt works across the street from the Club at the Newport city building. Kelsey and her husband regularly attend local football games and school functions, giving her the opportunity to know the families and caregivers she serves beyond the walls of the Club.

That connection is central to Kelsey’s approach to leadership. Since she became Club Director approximately two and a half years ago, she and her team have focused on building a Club culture rooted in strong relationships, mutual respect and a sense of belonging. For Kelsey, creating that kind of environment starts with making sure young people know they are supported by adults who care about them and creating a space where they feel safe, valued and heard.

Kelsey credits her consistent leadership team for much of that progress. Many of the same staff members who joined her at the beginning of her tenure have remained with the Club through renovations, challenges and growth.

A Club at the Heart of Its Community

The Clem & Ann Buenger Club reopened in October 2025 following a major renovation. Less than a year later, Kelsey is focused on making the most of the expanded space and creating the best possible Club experience for every member.

The Club is welcoming more children than it has in years and is working to fill every available spot. Most of the members returning for the new school year are familiar faces, including young people who have been part of the Club since they were very young.

That sense of connection is something Kelsey takes seriously. When members move on from the Club, she believes it is important to recognize the relationship they built and the impact they had on one another.

Looking ahead, she hopes to strengthen partnerships with Newport’s three local schools, which account for approximately 90% of the Club’s membership. She also sees an opportunity to connect the Club more closely with BGCGC’s Workforce Development Center, helping members build a path toward graduation, employment, trade school and other postsecondary opportunities.

“We would love to start aligning goals and working with the schools to get kids to graduation, to jobs, trade schools and more,” she said.

Creating Opportunities That Last

Outside of the Club, Kelsey lives in Burlington, Kentucky, with her husband and their two dogs. She enjoys creating balloon art and spending time with family. But much of her energy remains focused on the Buenger Club and the young people who walk through its doors.

At the Buenger Club, her focus remains on helping every child discover their potential and giving them the relationships, experiences and support they need to realize it to the fullest.