Community advocate and Organizational and Systems Coach Kate Trompetter was ten years old when her mother gifted her with one of the more important lessons she could ever receive.
“I’ve shared this story many times, but it continues to inform my life,” Ms. Trompetter recently recalled.
“I had read this story in the newspaper of a child who had been born HIV-positive and this child’s family needed money. So I sent some of my allowance off to this family, and then I got excited when this baby had a first birthday party and I was invited to go. As an adult, I asked my mom why she had said yes to taking me to that birthday party — we didn’t know this family, they didn’t live in our safe neighborhood — and my mom answered by saying that all of us are only one streak of bad luck or one bad decision away from being in the same boat. That the only distance between us is the distance we impose.”
Ms. Trompetter has seized upon that early lesson about empathy and awareness and made it a cornerstone of her work. For more than twenty years now, she has been finding ways to bring people in the Valley together to work toward common goals and a better community.
Ms. Trompetter readily admits that while in many ways her privilege and experience destined her to be the highly accomplished social advocate and organizer she’s become, when she graduated from U.C. Davis, “I didn’t have any idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
“I was born right here in Modesto, at Doctors Hospital,” she recounted, “My dad came here from Pennsylvania. My mom’s family is from Ceres, and they have deep roots in Ceres, and go a long ways back in the community. My grandpa was the Chief of Police there for a long time.”
From an early age, Ms. Trompetter was trained as a classical pianist, and music continues to this day to hold a crucial place in her life.
“I was supposed to go to Downey High School,” she explained, “but I’m a musician, and I was very much interested in continuing to pursue music and Johansen had a stronger program for that at the time.”
She had earlier attended Fremont Elementary School’s Open Plan, which she credits as being “a very formative experience for me.”
“It’s as if from a very young age,” Ms. Trompetter shared, “everything in my environment was pointing me at healing the world and being in relationship with people and valuing diversity and differences. And it all started with my parents, grandparents, and the teachers I had at Open Plan. My dad is the public figure in our family and has had a profound impact in his community and field. I think I may have inherited that more extraverted, leadership from him, and my mom is a quieter, fierce leader – she is one of the wisest women I know. I hope I got a part of that, too. No matter what, it all felt so beautifully woven together, as did growing up in the synagogue. Everywhere I turned a part of myself was being nurtured that would ultimately lead me to doing the type of work that I do around community leadership and change.”
Many years later, after graduating from college, all those lessons she had learned from her parents and teachers about community and connectedness and caring for others would come back into focus for Ms. Trompetter as she searched for her first job as an adult. Although she “had no intention of ever coming back — and I think that’s true for a lot of us who grew up here in the Valley — I got very lucky and got a job right out of school in Modesto, at Therapeutic Pathways, and I worked for a couple of years with kids diagnosed with autism.”
These experiences, Ms. Trompetter noted, “were very rewarding. I think that working with kids was another thing that helped me to become serious about families and people and to develop more empathy for those who have had a different life experience than I have had.”
During the early 2000s, she worked for a time as the business manager of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, and continued to play piano professionally, often finding gigs at the Queen Bean Café, Del Rio Country Club, and more. And it’s through music where she me met her husband, musician David Rogers. “Music has always threaded in a big way through everything I do,” Ms. Trompetter said. “And music remains a huge part of our lives. All of our kids play – music is happening in our house all the time. I’m really proud of David and his Drum Circle facilitation and all the music he’s bringing to town.”
When she was in her mid-twenties, Ms. Trompetter began working for Center for Human Services, where she worked for the next fifteen years.
“CHS was another lovely group of people, and an organization that offered me a great opportunity for growth. I wore many hats in the years that I was there. It really is a transformational organization. They raised me professionally in many ways. They allowed me to pursue my own interests, in much the same way my earlier employers had done. The fact that I could walk into the executive director’s office and announce that I was leaving and she was totally supportive and continues to be totally supportive speaks volumes. I think in many ways I stand on their shoulders.”
Inspired by the work of so many before her, including her parents, Ms. Trompetter started her own business in 2017, specializing in coaching and facilitating in the non-profit, community, and public sector. A primary focus is on engaging and working with the people these sectors are intended to serve, and creating opportunities for people to learn and adapt together. She is currently supporting several key community-wide efforts, including Project Resolve, Forward Together, Cradle to Career, Focus on Prevention, among others.
“I call myself a consultant, but I’m much more comfortable with the title of ‘Coach,’” she stated.
“I don’t have an expertise in many of the areas or sectors that I’m working in, but I know how to ask really good questions. I know how to help people think through things that are really complicated. I know how to really investigate circumstances or conditions against the backdrop of what our community wants to do moving forward. I think a lot of my work revolves around getting people out of arguing about their positions, and really getting them to think about what their interests are – and how those interests are so often aligned with others about what we want for this community.”
Ms. Trompetter is passionate in her belief that our community can only thrive if we learn to listen to each other, if we make the effort to show up and roll up our sleeves and discuss the hard things with our neighbors.
“I don’t care if people leave our community, but I don’t want people running away from this place. I want my daughter and sons to feel proud of where they live. I want to live somewhere where even when we disagree about things we are still connected enough that we can still talk.”
“I wish that poverty wasn’t an issue — that people didn’t experience homelessness in our area — and that we experienced more equitable educational outcomes. I do wish for all of those things, and more. We’ll always be confronted by these issues. I think the way we show up and the way we work with each other is what matters. We will produce all the right things if we pay attention to the quality of our interactions with each other. And I would hope that people would feel supported in that when they are with me.”
My Dear Ms. Trompetter,
You lost me at: “We’ll always be confronted by these issues.” I often choose to be emphatic, but not so emphatic as to express that we will “ALWAYS be confronted” by issues of homelessness and poverty.
It is exactly by thinking such defeatist thoughts as you expressed that we are confronted by these issues. From my perspective, giving voice to such defeat, lends excuse to the people who, thus far, refuse yet to believe “that our community can only thrive if we learn to listen to each other, if we make the effort to show up and roll up our sleeves and discuss the hard things with our neighbors.”
Not to seem slighting, if I may make a suggestion, since you did grow up in the synagogue, please weave together much prayer, rather than making wishes. I believe humbling ourselves and praying is the beginning of experiencing the tight knit community you and myriads of others need, in order to think and act positively, especially about “the quality of our interactions with each other.” I, too, “think the way we show up and the way we work with each other is what matters.”
Please, since viewed in the community as a consultant or “a coach,” put more thought into weighing your words that may be unintentionally disguising the spread of harm towards those yet impoverished and yet without homes within this community and many others.
May I pray early Shabbat blessings over you, this community, and all the communities of people groups scattered upon the earth. Shabbat Shalom to all…
Of course words are always important Lou Valero, but maybe parsing every one gets in the way of understanding our overall meaning. There can be little doubt Ms Trompetter is a champion for the poor through her actions. We need more like her.
This lady seems to practice what she preaches, as the saying goes. If her writing is not quite liked because of the way she expresses it, then she belongs to a very large group of people. She does work at it, helping people, and that’s better than all the Opinions that say “nay” or object to wording, If we all worked for equality, justice and fair treatment of all, my, wouldn’t we be in a much better place right now. Cheers lady!
Dear TheRootMatters:
I know neither you nor Kate Trompetter.
I was inspired by Mr. Portwood’s story on her.
But your comments are hurtful, as I’m seeing one good person criticizing another this way.
Wishing you both a thriving New Year….
Ms. Trompetter is an exemplary leader. The work she accomplishes in the community speaks for itself. As Mr. Caine pointed out, “we need more like her.”
THEROOTMATTERS- ugh. Really? She has to say it the right way or you will be lost? Ms Trumpetter is an amazing community advocate and powerhouse. She is WORKING hard to make our community better and you want her to stop and pray ?!?! God gave us our gifts. Where do you get your information that prayer will make change the community needs? Please stop criticizing and get out there and work with us.
She did “grow up in the synagogue”? Where was any mention of that in the article, THEROOTMATTERS? Sounds like you have some digging to do – within – to get to the root of your matter.
And “(n)ot to seem slighting…”? The preface to the ‘synagogue’ comment? Well, you certainly do seem slighting
I know it has been some weeks since I made my sincere comment having to do with what Ms. Trompetter said in Tom Portwood’s interview. I had no idea that what I commented would have such a reaction from valley citizens. My attention was drawn back to this post and the comments made since. I would suppose , based on some comments made, that people would like me to apologize. I have nothing to apologize for. I agreed with everything but one single word that she used. I even repeated her own words back to her.
Actually, I am pleased that so many people made comments supportive of Kate. She is an outstanding woman, no doubt in my thoughts. I am surprised and saddened that anyone thought what I said was wrong or hurtful towards her. Saddened for those who thought talk of “prayer” was wrong or hurtful.
As for Kate having grown up in the synagogue, it was something she revealed in her fifth set of quoted comments made to Tom that appear in his post. I too spent my life surrounded by people, in synogogues, who are entrusted to keep the word of God Almighty. Romans 3:2 “Great in every respect. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God [His very words].
If there is one thing synagogues have in common, it is that those who spend time together, inside and outside, in fact, make a practice of reminding, even challenging, one another to apply the words we keep close in our hearts. In fact, if any one, not familiar with how we speak up to one another, were to hear us converse, one might think that we would hold a grudge against one another over the things that we spoke up to each other about. We live by the words of God very intentionally. Yet, if those who witnessed us speak up, were to, thereafter, witness us walking arm and arm together, light hearted and enjoying one another’s company, that too would perhaps be novel, considering their first impression of how they might have reacted, if what was said, were said personally to the one who witnessed. It is cultural, outside the experience of non-synagogue attenders.
I addressed Ms. Trompetter, speaking directly to her, as she must be very used to, by virtue of her growing up in synagogue. I simply reminded Kate, as we do, in our way of keeping the word of God, near and dear, that merely wishing something is so, is impotent when compared to the power contained from prayer.
As for the phrase, “you lost me at,” it is a phrase regularly used in modern times. It did not mean I was in reality, “lost,” any more than I meant “wishes” come true . Perhaps, coincidently, wishes appear to have come true but we who go to synagogue do not truly place confidence in wishes. Use of the word “wish” is as much a figure of speech as “you lost me at” is. Kate knows what I meant, if she had opportunity to read what I said.
I simply stated to Kate what practically anyone who attends a synagogue would have reminded her of. As a cultural experience. “Wish” is a word some of us have adopted, when in the public, because if we were to use the word “pray” we would run the risk of raising too many eyebrows. Just as a commenter in this stream questioned the legitimacy of “prayer,” when addressing me. I am not ashamed of God’s words, and I wanted, and still want, to encourage Kate to speak the words of God, rather than some watered down version such as “wish.”
Since people truly see Kate’s worth, as an individual working on behalf of impoverished individuals, then people will accept her for what she truly believes in. I would expect that to be the worthiness of “prayer,” over mere “wishes.” We live in precarious times, more and more citizens are experiencing poverty, therefore, trying times need “prayer.” Eric Cain informed us that the founder of “The Valley Citizen” wanted all valley citizens to have an opportunity to speak what is on there mind. That is one of the reasons that I am pleased that citizens spoke up on behalf of Kate Trompetter, and spoke out to me. I could feel the passion. Thank you for your passion. May we read more passion to come…