I Came to Northern Kentucky for College and Stayed for My Career

Find out why this Northern Kentucky University grad chose to remain in the region after finishing school.

By Rebecca Treon on March 14, 2024

Adam Caswell

As a region that boasts excellent higher education institutions, a wealth of great job opportunities and highly collaborative business and education sectors, it’s easy to see why students who are drawn here for college choose to stay here to start and grow their careers in Northern Kentucky.

One example is Adam Caswell. Though he started at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, he fell in love with the woman who is now his wife and followed her to Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in 2006 – a choice he says was the best decision of his life. Since graduating from NKU in 2009, Caswell has worked in government or with government systems in lobbying.

Today, he is vice president of corporate development for Gravity Diagnostics, a clinical laboratory headquartered in Covington. He shares why he decided to stay in Northern Kentucky and why he loves living in the region today.

What about Northern Kentucky made you want to stay after graduation?
Before moving here, the only thing I knew about Northern Kentucky was that there was a local restaurant my dad loved to go to after Cincinnati Reds games. But when I moved here, I truly fell in love with the place.

I love that it is a metropolitan atmosphere where we have all the amenities of a big city, but we also have charming neighborhoods where I now get to raise a family. For me, it was having the best of all worlds: I could be in downtown Cincinnati experiencing the hustle and bustle of a major city and then drive 15 minutes and hear the crickets chirping. It’s just a magical community that has everything to offer.

What do you and your family do for fun in the region?
I have three children under the age of 12, so the majority of our activities revolve around whatever they’re active and engaged in. We love enjoying the park system. We live in a small town called Fort Thomas that has great outdoor activities.

We like to get out and explore. We can go to a park like Washington Park in Cincinnati, and we’re within a two-hour drive of Red River Gorge, one of the most scenic trail systems in the country.

What kind of career-growth opportunities are available in the region for young professionals?
I’m really glad you asked that question because it’s something I like to brag about in this region. In a lot of my professional history, I’ve had to travel across the state and across the country for some of the work that I do in different cities.

Because of that work, I’ve been involved in various civic organizations outside of Northern Kentucky. I can honestly say that nobody does it as well as we do. Starting at (the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce), our economic development organizations, like BE NKY Growth Partnership and REDI Cincinnati ­– they provide the ability to network and interact with our regional leaders that are C-suite leaders. They are as accessible as any that you’ll find anywhere. For me, that’s been a significant piece of my professional growth trajectory – the ability to have mentors who truly care and want to build that next generation of leaders.

What local events do you and your family attend?
The don’t-miss events that are on our list would be the Fall Festival at Kelder’s Farms. You can’t have fall without that festival. We are obnoxious Cincinnati Bengals fans, so every Sunday they’re playing, we’re tuned in, if not actually at the game watching. There’s also a professional baseball team (Reds) and a professional soccer team (FC Cincinnati), and these are all amenities that we are so fortunate to enjoy.

Which neighborhoods are best for people considering a move to the area?
I think the work that’s been done in our riverfront communities is absolutely remarkable. We’ve seen urban revitalization that rivals any sort of development that’s happening across the country, especially in Covington, Newport and Bellevue. These are all places that are thriving with housing options and quality of life amenities and, in my opinion, they’re all still quite affordable compared to cities across the country. If I were a young professional, then I would look at one of those. For those who are growing a family like my wife and I, we’ve ventured just a little bit further out from the riverside and reside in Fort Thomas.

One thing that’s so interesting about Northern Kentucky is, in terms of state rankings, the public school systems are at the top of the list. The Fort Thomas Highlands school system is frequently No. 1 or No. 2 statewide. It’s been a great transition for my family that we got to experience the life of a young professional and what that provides for those in that demographic in our community. But as we evolved into expanding our family, we were naturally and seamlessly able to expand into other areas of Northern Kentucky that could accommodate us.

What would your ideal Saturday look like?
An ideal Saturday for me would be that my kids decide to sleep in a little bit. Then it would begin with either a nice workout at the local gym here in Fort Thomas, CrossFit SOTO, or for my wife, a workout at a new gym in Covington called the Southside Strength Co.

Following that, it would be brunch at Cedar in Covington or Grassroots & Vine in Fort Thomas, followed up with a trip to Washington Park in Cincinnati to enjoy the local farmers market or fun on the playground. And then hopefully we would segue that into an evening out and catch an FC Cincinnati soccer game or experience some of the cultural amenities we have in our charming neighborhoods, like Over-the-Rhine or Northern Kentucky’s river cities.