McDaniel new president of Rotary Club of the Vista Night

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – Kathleen McDaniel is the new president of Rotary Club of the Vista Night, a position she’ll hold through mid-2016.

McDaniel joined the organization in 2011. She’s held other leadership positions with the Vista Night chapter, including Rotary Foundation chair.

Her Rotary involvement began in 2010, when she traveled to India as part of the Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange. During a month in the country, she immersed herself in India’s culture and history, shadowing fellow professionals and living with host families.

Rotary International is a service organization with 1.2 million partners and 34,000 chapters worldwide. The goal is to help business leaders develop skills and to encourage community involvement both at home and overseas.

Internationally, Rotary has backed causes such as eradicating polio. The Vista Night club served its community through projects such as adopting an elementary school and raising money to support a therapy center for special-needs children.

Service through Rotary is only part of McDaniel’s service to the community. She’s also volunteered her time to help the homeless and low-income clients with legal issues. She’s served as downtown neighborhoods community leader for the Neighbors in Network project that helps church partners in need.

Her exceptional commitment to public service was recognized in 2013 when she received the Richland County Bar’s Civic Star Award.

Her legal work has been recognized as well, with honors such as the Compleat Lawyer Silver Award in 2012 from the University of South Carolina School of Law Alumni Association.

McDaniel’s practice includes litigation, land use and zoning and environmental law.

She earned a master’s in forestry at the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s in aquaculture, fisheries and wildlife biology at Clemson University.