Kathi Matthews-Risley

My Story

Here are  a few things to know about me.  I’m now a graduate of UW-Madison with a master’s degree in the Life Sciences Communication program.  I finished my degree in fall 2015, and I just heard my diploma is in the mail.

It was a long haul but I’m really glad I did it.

I’m also the Director of Communications at the UW-Madison Graduate School.  Before coming to the Graduate School in 2001 I worked for UW-Hospital and Clinics producing segments for the Picture of Health series.  Before that I produced the morning news program at the CBS affiliate, WISC-TV in Madison. There’s nothing quite like producing live television.

Natural Connections

Connections are very important to me.  Friends and family. Home and community.  Past and present.    My husband and I moved to our home just outside of Sauk City, Wisconsin, twenty years ago.  We wanted to raise our two daughters in a small community.  He grew up in the neighboring village of Prairie du Sac. The villages sit side by side along the Wisconsin River.   Sauk Prairie seemed like a perfect fit for us.

Aldo Leopold is one of my heroes.  When he escaped to “the Shack” outside  of  Baraboo he walked along  the Wisconsin River, not too far from where I live.  The river and its wildlife inspired many of the essays that eventually became A Sand County Almanac. The words he wrote over sixty years ago have  inspired generations of conservationists  —

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” (Leopold, 1949).

My reason for this blog is fairly simple.

I want to share what I love about the Wisconsin River – its quiet beauty, the majestic eagles that winter here, and the history that connects us to Leopold’s legacy.