The week’s Face of Northeast is Loren Persley. She moved seven years ago from the Swope Parkway area, where she grew up, to Northeast as a first-time home owner through the Kansas City Homesteading Authority program.

Her home, over 100 years old, had been damaged by the previous owners, which meant she had to have the electric wiring and plumbing repaired, as well as replace the front door.

A graduate of the University of Missouri, with a degree in Textiles and Apparel Management, Loren has recently found herself unemployed as the women’s fashion store she worked at has shuttered all their brick-and-mortar locations, due in part to the pandemic and the shift in consumer buying habits. While she searches for a new job opportunity, she’s become an independent consultant for Paparazzi Jewelry.

Loren describes herself as a “creative,” whether it’s trying a new recipe or styling a new outfit from pieces in her fashionable wardrobe, just anything that sparks her creative energy.

In the upcoming year, she’d like to return to school to get a degree in Advanced Chemistry, with an eye on being a major motivator in the medical marijauna movement.

One of the things Loren likes about living in Northeast is the proximity. “No matter what part of town you’re going to, it’s only about a 25-minute drive, just real easy to get from here to there.”

She also praises the diversity. “It’s an accepting diversity. There’s no other place that has the history, the diversity, the acceptance of all the cultures than this neighborhood.”