By Ethan Sirles
For many years, West Louisville has been the victim of economic neglect. Due to the financial struggles throughout the years, the area saw restricted investment and development, leading to limited economic opportunities.
Despite the area’s difficulties, two Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) alumni worked to rejuvenate the area through partnerships and a $170 million investment. On March 20, 2024, DeVone Holt and Emery Scott Lee celebrated the official opening of the Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus.
Holt, ’95, who grew up in West Louisville, has spent his career giving back to the community he calls home and bringing the opportunity campus from an idea to a reality. In July, Holt was named the new president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, becoming the first Louisville native to hold the position.
About his vision for the Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus, Holt said, “We wanted to build something the community could be proud of. We wanted to make sure this building served as a catalyst for more development in West Louisville.”
Lee, ’87 ’92, who is also originally from Louisville, is the regional director of the Norton Healthcare West Louisville Opportunity Center and is carrying out its mission now that the campus has opened.
“We want to make sure that everybody knows they are welcome here,” said Lee. “This is basically their house.”
The opportunity campus includes a 125,000-square-foot lifestyle enrichment facility and Norton Healthcare’s comprehensive medical center. The medical center is the first hospital in West Louisville in more than 150 years and, across the several partnerships, is one of the largest investments into the community in recent history.
The long-term goal of the opportunity campus is to create a space that rejuvenates the community. Through education opportunities, better access to healthcare, financial literacy courses and more initiatives, the opportunity campus aims to decrease poverty in the area by giving people resources to succeed.
“We are focused on creating a place where people can come into this building with the connections to job opportunities to put them on pathways to self-sufficiency,” said Holt.
In addition to the institutional goals, Holt said one of his desires for the opportunity campus is to inspire hope in the members of the community.
“We have a phrase here in the facility that says ‘hope happens here,’” he said. “I think the greatest thing you could ever give someone is hope. We want to make sure that they don’t only come through these doors and get skills, but they walk out really believing that they can do something different and be something different—that there’s a hope for a future that maybe they didn’t see before they came into this space.”
Lee’s personal hope is not only to embrace his role as regional director but to find opportunities to expand the ways the campus can connect and serve community members.
As the opportunity campus continues to spread its impact in the West Louisville community, Holt said he is eager to see the ways it continues to grow and affect change.
“I’m proud of what this center has done already in generating hope and inspiration for people who didn’t think this type of investment was possible in West Louisville,” said Holt. “I think it has spurred a new sense of possibility for people who live in this area.”
Holt and Lee both said that though their careers have evolved and changed over time, their time at EKU prepared them well for life after graduation.
Holt said he was able to fine-tune his communication skills in college, which has been incredibly foundational to his career. “It helped me to think critically and helped me think about nuanced perspectives of issues that we consider important topics,” said Holt. “It helped me connect with people.”
Lee said that in addition to his education, his time at EKU gave him tools that span across any career path. “It really helped me learn levels of perseverance,” he said.
He also shared praise for the work Holt put in to get the opportunity center to become a reality.
“I can’t say enough about (DeVone’s) support. He held true to a vision,” Lee said.
In Holt’s new position with the Muhammad Ali Center, he continues to empower and give back to both his home community and Louisville as a whole, while positively impacting the lives of others.
Together, Holt and Lee are making a profound difference in the community. The vision of hope for the future has become a reality in West Louisville, inspiring a contagious optimism among those local to the initiative.