Kate Hart Collier, a former executive in St. Louis and St. Louis County government, is the new human resources director for the city of St. Charles.

Collier began her new job June 1 after working 15 years in a similar position for Columbia, Tenn. near Nashville.

Collier, then known as Kate Hart Butler, directed Operation Brightside - St. Louis' beautification agency - in the late 1980s under then-Mayor Vince Schoemehl.

In the 1990s, she was a high-level county health department official and for a time was acting health director under then-County Executive Buzz Westfall.

She first made the news as a high school and St. Louis University basketball star and is in SLU's athletic hall of fame.

Collier's mother, Suzanne Hart, is a former St. Louis Police Board member and formerly headed St. Louis' Operation SafeStreet anti-crime program.