The KIS Foundation was founded in 2006 at the urging of many friends and SCD Advocates that Ms. Shepard met over a 17 year period of Raising Awareness of Sickle Cell Disease. At the end of 2006, after celebrating the success of the poster child, Paizley Jenkins, being declared cured of Sickle Cell Disease from a bone-marrow transplant surgery, Ms. Shepard’s friends and ardent supporters began the task of helping her to establish her own foundation.

In 2016, The KIS Foundation successfully launched two of its newest community service programs. The “Crisis Care Package” is a Response-Aid Kit/Package for Sickle Cell Disease patients who have been admitted to the hospital because of a Sickle Cell Crisis. The “CATCH-UP Plan” Tutorial Program is designed to bridge the gap between general instruction in the classroom and detailed independent learning because of unexpected absences. It is a two week dedicated tutoring program created for Sickle Cell Disease patients from grades Pre-K to 12, that supports students after emerging from an in-hospital crises stay. Both programs are available to SCD patients at no cost.

The KIS Foundation, Inc., is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life for children, adults, and families living with Sickle Cell Disease because “sickness has no boundaries and compassion has no limits.”