For Susan Bufford, Louisville has always been home.

She grew up here, attending Dunn Elementary School, Ballard Junior High, and Eastern High School, and her family’s Louisville roots go back generations. Her parents, Gene Jaggers and Barbara Johns Jaggers, both attended Male High School. Gene played football, while Barbara was a cheerleader and part of the school’s first graduating class of girls. Gene later played football at the University of Louisville on the same team as Johnny Unitas.

Susan attended the University of Kentucky, but Louisville remained home. It was also where she met her husband, Randy Bufford, although their childhoods could hardly have been more different.

Randy grew up in a military family and lived around the world, but his family is originally from Georgia. He came to Louisville to serve as basketball manager under legendary UofL coach Denny Crum. Along the way, he made lifelong friends and was fortunate enough to be part of the Cardinals' 1980 national championship team.

Susan and Randy met on a blind date arranged by Susan's sister Karen and her then-future husband, Otto Knop.

"The thunderbolt struck," Susan recalled.

They married in 1984 and raised three sons, David, Jonathan, and Clinton. Today, their family also includes daughters-in-law Rachel, Samantha, and Paige, plus five grandchildren: Hayden, 17; Hunter, 15; Beauregard, 4; Palmer, 3; and Pamela, 1. Susan's sisters, Karen Knop and Leigh Ann Ackermann, still live in Louisville, while Randy's siblings remain in Georgia. And no family introduction would be complete without Susan's dog, Sasha.

Family has always been central to the Buffords' lives. In fact, Susan and Randy now have all three sons living in the same neighborhood.

It started when Rachel mentioned that she would love to live closer so her boys could eventually ride their bikes to their grandparents' house and the family could have Sunday dinners together. Susan immediately took up the challenge. Within weeks, she found a house that checked the boxes for David and Rachel. Eventually, their other two sons moved into the neighborhood, too.

That closeness eventually inspired another idea: creating a business the family could build together.

Susan had held her real estate license for more than 30 years, working in real estate while raising their sons and while Randy built Trilogy Health Services, the senior living company he founded and led from 1997 to 2023. Susan, however, had always loved interior design.

She started decorating homes for friends and family, then got an opportunity to put her talents to work on a much larger scale when Randy was developing a senior living community. Susan believed senior living could feel more like an upscale hotel, with beautiful interiors, more amenities, and spaces residents could genuinely enjoy. The concept was a hit and helped Susan expand from residential design into commercial projects.

Years later, as Susan and Randy began thinking about their next chapter, they knew they wanted it to include their children.

"We'd been thinking for a long time that we wanted to start a family business for our children and daughters-in-law to be able to work with us," Susan said.

They considered several ideas before realizing the answer was right in front of them. After nearly 35 years of caring for older adults, why not take that same service-minded approach and apply it to caring for children?

That idea brought LeafSpring School to Kentucky.

The Buffords opened their first LeafSpring location in Norton Commons in 2025, remodeling an existing building. Their newest school, LeafSpring at Eastpoint at 13230 O'Bannon Station Way in Anchorage, is their second location and the first they have designed and built from the ground up.

It is truly a family operation. Randy serves as Co-Founder and developer, Susan is co-founder and designer, David is the attorney and, according to Susan, "knows a little about everything." Clinton works in accounting, Rachel heads operations and Paige runs public relations. Their middle son, Jonathan, has followed his own passion for basketball and is coaching at Indiana University SE, while his wife, Samantha, owns a successful PR company with international clients.

At LeafSpring, children from 6 weeks through 5 years old receive much more than traditional child care.

One of the biggest differences is the Get Well Place, something Susan says no other preschool in Kentucky offers. Registered nurses are on staff every day, allowing mildly ill children to be cared for in separate rooms with their own restrooms and HVAC systems. Children entering the Get Well Place even use a separate entrance to help prevent illness from spreading through the school. Nurses can administer prescribed medications and are also available when a child gets the inevitable playground "boo-boo."

The Buffords also focus on what Susan calls caring for the "whole child."

LeafSpring's PLAYWORKS curriculum emphasizes learning through play, combining two valuable life lessons in one bundle. One of Susan and Randy's goals is for children to be able to be as individually ready as possible for kindergarten. Students are evaluated throughout the year to track their progress, while teachers also pay attention to physical growth, interests, and even changing food preferences.

Fresh food is prepared daily by LeafSpring's in-house chefs, with an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, proteins, and healthy eating habits. Younger children even have their own Redbuds Bistro, where they learn to sit at a table, use their napkins and practice table manners before moving up to the school's larger café.

"They'll just come right out here and sit and feel so grown up," Susan said.

Parents may appreciate some of the smaller details just as much. Diapers, wipes, sunscreen and food are included, and bottles are washed and sterilized each day so parents take home clean bottles rather than another chore.

Then there is Susan's specialty: the surroundings.

She designed the Eastpoint school herself, filling it with elevated wallpapers, charming details, and spaces that feel more like a beautiful home than a traditional preschool. The library features child-sized wingback chairs, while the youngest Saplings classroom uses black, white and plum to provide visual stimulation for babies. There are indoor and outdoor play areas, age-specific playgrounds, science and art centers, and even "Water Wednesdays," are made easier by an underground water system Susan incorporated into the playground design.

"I want the children to learn visually and stimulate them also," Susan explained. "And have them feel like they're right at home."

That philosophy extends to the people caring for the children. Susan says they look for "rock stars" with both strong education and a servant's heart. She and Randy also believe owners should never ask employees to do something they would not do themselves. They have been right alongside their team, moving furniture and cleaning floors as they prepared the new school.

It is all part of LeafSpring's B.E.S.T. philosophy: Beliefs, Experience, Service, and Trust.

The idea is reminiscent of the philosophy Susan and Randy followed at Trilogy. If they would not have placed their own parents in one of their senior living communities, they did not expect another family to do so. Now they apply the same standard to children.

"We feel the same way about the children," Susan said.

For Susan, though, none of it feels much like work.

Interior design is still her passion, and now it has become part of something even bigger: a family business built around taking care of other families.

"I want all the families to know that their children are really, truly cared for," she said. The goal is for children to spend their days having fun, learning, and knowing they are loved. At the Norton Commons school, Susan says they have even had children "kicking and screaming" because they did not want to go home.

For a family that spent decades caring for one generation, there seems to be something wonderfully fitting about devoting their next chapter to another.


LeafSpring at Eastpoint

13230 O'Bannon Station Way
LeafSpringEP.com