MIZZOU magazine Fall 2022 School of Social Work edition

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mizzou.com | Fall 2022

SCHOOL OF

SOCIAL WORK

SPEC

IAL EDITION 65

FIRST LOOK THE YOUNG OAKS With the passing of the old pin oaks on Francis Quadrangle, a father and daughter in the plant business have pitched in to supply long-lived species at home in Missouri’s climate and soils. No doubt they would ascribe to the 17th-century English proverb, “Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs,” a nod to providing for future generations. Three years ago, Wayne Lovelace, BS Ag ’58, owner of Forrest Keeling Nursery, and his daughter Kim Lovelace-Hainsfurther, BS Ag ’81, nursery president, provided a total of 70 saplings of five white oak species that have been gathering strength at MU’s South Farm research facility.

This summer, planting commenced on the Quad, and, after a pause, the work is scheduled to finish this fall. Remaining trees in this Legacy Oaks program will find homes around campus. In the spirit of botanical posterity, we propose an amendment to the proverb: Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs, And Show-Me folks called Tigers grow oaks.

— Dale Smith, BJ ’88

Packing a power auger and plenty of brawn, workers sink a young oak into Francis Quadrangle as Jesse’s dome supervises the job. The planters are, from left, Dylan Aitkens; Josh Pemberton, BS ’09; and Jerry Nichols. More on the Quad: Page 38. More on the young trees: showme.missouri.edu/2022/planting-a-legacy Photo by Nicholas Benner

FALL 2022

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MIZZOU

FROM THE PRESIDENT

®

Editorial and Advertising Mizzou Alumni Association 123 Reynolds Alumni Center 704 Conley Avenue Columbia, MO 65211 phone: 573-882-6611 mizzou@missouri.edu executive editor Ashley Burden managing editor Dale Smith art director Blake Dinsdale class notes editor Jennifer Manning editor emerita Karen Worley advertising Scott Dahl: 573-882-2374 Mizzou Alumni Association 123 Reynolds Alumni Center Columbia, MO 65211 phone: 573-882-6611, fax: 573-882-5145 executive director, publisher Todd A. McCubbin, M Ed ’95 Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of the University of Missouri or the Mizzou Alumni Association. ©2022

MIZZOU VISUAL PRODUCTIONS

MizzouForward: Collective Potential When I talk with Tiger alumni, I like to highlight our talented faculty who are working in labs and classrooms, in studios and on stages to make the world a better place. Now with MizzouForward, there’s more to share — real progress in critical areas that save lives and advance society.

MizzouForward is our 10-year, $1.5 billion initiative to strengthen and expand MU’s research enterprise. That commitment takes many forms, starting with growing and supporting our faculty.

We’re adding up to 150 new world-class investigators over five years while ensuring that current faculty have the tools to make interdisciplinary breakthroughs. MizzouForward is a transformative investment in our collective potential, and it’s already paying off.

Scientists Haval Shirwan and Esma Yolcu, pictured above, came to campus two years ago and were among the first with lab space in the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building (a MizzouForward priority area). They recently published the results of a 20-year investigation showing that, in a large-animal model, transplanting insulin-producing pancreas cells can successfully treat Type 1 diabetes. It’s groundbreaking research that included researchers from Harvard

and Georgia Tech. Their findings offer new hope to the nearly 1.9 million Americans with Type 1 diabetes.

A story in this issue introduces researcher Lei Lei, MizzouForward’s first official hire. As Lei delves into the secrets of how life develops, she seeks to discover new ways of understanding and treating cancer. (See Page 36.)

As of this writing, almost 400 candidates have applied for MizzouForward positions, more than 60 have visited campus, and we’re on track to hire 30 new faculty members this year. As the new academic year begins, we’re welcoming experts from an array of disciplines, including public affairs, engineering, education and reproductive biology.

It takes the entire Mizzou community — faculty, students, staff, supporters and alumni — to make this initiative possible. By working together, sharing ideas and sparking inspiration, this infusion of talent will change the way we serve our state, students and stakeholders.

Please continue to support our work by sharing these updates with others and advocating for our mission. Spread the word: Big things are happening at Mizzou.

Statements of Purpose The Mizzou Alumni Association proudly supports the best interests and traditions of Missouri’s flagship university and its alumni worldwide.

Lifelong relationships are the foundation of our support.

These relationships are enhanced through advocacy, communication and volunteerism.

MIZZOU magazine reports credible and engaging news about the University of Missouri community to a global audience.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Jeff Vogel, BS Acc ’90 President-elect Mindy Mazur, BA ’99 Immediate Past President Sabrina McDonnell, MBA ’15 Treasurer John Gamble, BS ’00 Secretary Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95 Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair Joe Valenciano, BA ’95 Directors Clarissa Cauthorn, BS ’15; Morgan Corder, BA ’18; Renita Duncan, BS Acc, M Acc ’08; Pete Ferretti, BA ’93; Matt Jenne, BS CiE ’97, MBA ’15; Chuck Kaiser, BA, BJ ’93; Emily Kueker, BS ’02; Christine Mathews, BS BA ’10, MBA ’17; Daniel Pierce, BA, BJ ’99; Martin Rucker, BS ’07; Mark Russell, BJ ’84; Jim Simmons, BS ’93, MD ’98; Dawn SmithPopielski, BA ’96; David Townsend, JD ’00; Kim Utlaut, BS ’89; Vanessa Vaughn West, BA ’99; Janet Wheatley, BS HE ’77 Student Representative Rachel Henderson MIZZOU magazine Fall 2022, Volume 111, Number 1 Published triannually by the Mizzou Alumni Association

MUN Y. CHOI, PHD President, University of Missouri

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Departments

MORE MIZZOU ONLINE

1 First Look

The old pin oaks most of us knew as students are gone. Find out what’s next.

6 Around the Columns

Most toothsome tailgate ever! In two videos prepared for MIZZOU magazine, Chef Billy Parisi walks viewers through new recipes for Show-Me favorites grilled pork steaks and gooey butter cake. They’re so good you may forget to go to the game. Check them out at tinyurl.com/MIZrecipe.

Stephen Ornes, MS ’03, author of Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations, is a science writer whose work has appeared in Discover and New Scientist. He introduces MizzouForward’s first hire, researcher Lei Lei. Page 36.

T. Kent Jones, BJ ’86, an Emmy and Peabody award winner, has written and performed for The Daily Show on Comedy Central and The Rachel Maddow Show. Check out his humorous cover story about living on his opinions. Page 16.

Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98, is a New York City-based journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Parade. She profiles Metropolitan Museum of Art curator James Draper, BA ’65. Page 30.

About the cover Illustrator Jason Seiler has painted TIME magazine’s person-of-the-year cover twice — Pope Francis (2013), and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (2020). His work also appears in the animated film, Escape from Planet Earth. Seiler gives us a swashbucklingly whimsical take on Kent Jones, BJ ’86, whose comic essay starts on Page 16.

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MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Meet a children’s book author who won the American Indian Youth Literature Award and a Tiger who has run a marathon on all seven continents.

53 Class Notes

CONTRIBUTORS Jason Seiler’s caricatures have appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard and The New Yorker, and he helped design the Red Queen character for Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland. His cover illustration riffs on the Indiana Jones film franchise.

52 Mizzou Alumni News

facebook.com/mizzou twitter.com/mizzou instagram.com/mizzou

Alumni dish on their latest anniversaries, jobs, weddings and babies.

64

Semper Mizzou

After the passage of Title IX in 1972, Alexis Jarrett helped Mizzou launch eight new women’s sports programs.

Council for Advancement & Support of Education Awards 2022: Bronze, Periodical/Magazine Design 2021: Gold, Feature Writing (“Who Was I in College?,” Winter 2020) 2020: Bronze, Feature Writing (“Forever Young,” Spring 2019) 2019: Bronze, General Interest Magazine Society for Publication Designers Awards 2022 merit awards “The Long Quiet,” Winter 2021; “International Reach,” Spring 2021; Spring 2021 cover 2021 merit awards “Eli’s Calling,” Fall 2020; “A Third Act,” Spring 2020

S T E A K : B I L L Y P A R I S I ; S C U L P T U R E : M U S E U M O F A R T A N D A R C H A E O L O G Y, U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S O U R I ; J A R R E T T : C O U R T E S Y A L E X I S J A R R E T T

An MU researcher is making farming more economical, and the Museum of Art and Archaeology returns to campus after nearly a decade at Mizzou North. The collection includes Anten-nalope by Nam June Paik.

Features

The Tigers play Vanderbilt Oct. 22 for the Homecoming game. But first, a parade!

N AT H A N PA R K E R

16 22 26

30

My Incredibly Important Opinions

Ever since this movie nerd fell for a famous film critic, it’s been all about me — my views, reviews, jokes and unsolicited attitude. story by t. kent jones, bj ’86

Gaming the System

Will it be thumbs-up or thumbs-down? In a gamebased classics course, students argue the trial of Socrates. story by tony rehagen, ba, bj ’01

The Double Life of Emily Newell Blair

36 38

At a time when few women even thought about having it all, suffragist Emily Newell Blair bucked convention in the world of work and marriage. story by kelsey allen, ba, bj ’10

One Last Roundel

By the time James Draper’s schoolmates were joining the Cub Scouts, he already knew he’d make his life in the world of art. He capped a legendary curatorial career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a remarkable gift. story by mara reinstein, bj ’98

42

Sleeping Beauties and Precision Health

A new faculty researcher seeks to understand a central mystery of life itself. story by stephen ornes, ms ’03

Go for Gold!

Homecoming 2022 Page 46

The Quad Goes Retro

This year marks the removal of aging pin oaks that had long spread blankets of shade on Francis Quadrangle. We put the dramatic new-old scene in perspective with a look back at more than a century of images at the heart of campus. story by dale smith, bj ’88

Gridiron Guild

This year’s squad is long on fraternity.

Can that be the route to victory? story by tony rehagen, ba, bj ’01

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AROUND THE COLUMNS

Professor Blake Meyers is a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences whose research helps enhance yield gains in crop plants.

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MIZZOUMAGAZINE

It’s common that a scientist modestly admits they happened upon a career-changing discovery by mere chance. But for MU plant scientist Blake Meyers, a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the research methods that would alter the trajectory of his life were found literally in the room next door.

It was 1999, and Meyers was a postdoc in agricultural genomics at DuPont when he noticed a research group adjacent to his using a new DNA sequencing technology. Now called next-generation sequencing (NGS), this experimental tech was able to read and sequence millions of DNA and RNA strands all at once, exponentially more than had been possible previously. “After returning to an academic position, I looked around at academic labs working on molecular biology, and no one was using this technology,” Meyers says. “I saw tremendous untapped potential.”

Meyers secured a grant to explore this new tech, and with help from a fellow professor who was an RNA biologist, the two adapted NGS for analyses

of plant genomes and diverse RNAs. Through the years, he has used NGS to examine plant RNA in many species, tissues and conditions. These studies are now leading to applications in the production of edited or genetically engineered crops with favorable traits, such as robust disease resistance, increased and more selective pollination, improved plant architecture, and higher yields. In short, Meyers’ lab is uncovering myriad ways to make farming more economical and bolster the world’s food supply.

After two decades in the field, Meyers is still on the hunt. “The technology led me and my lab to many interesting areas of biology,” he says.

“Because of this broad, technology-based interest in RNA biology, I’ve probably endured longer than people who studied small RNAs with narrowly focused questions that they answered and then moved on. In our case, because RNA is so broadly applicable, we’ve been opportunistic about studies we pursue, able to jump from question to question.”

DEVON HILL

The National Academies Came Calling

Briefly

Biology May Affect Career Choice

SHUT TERSTOCK

From the White House to community-based organizations, numerous groups and initiatives are encouraging girls and women to pursue STEM education. Will it pay off?

In a new study, career aspirations of nearly half a million 15- and 16-year-olds across 80 developing and developed nations show consistent sex differences. It came down to things vs. people. When asked what kind of job they expect to have when they are about 30 years old, more boys than girls aspired to things-oriented or STEM occupations, and more girls than boys gravitated toward people-oriented occupations. Things-oriented careers such as computer programming and engineering involve work with machines, and people-oriented occupations such as teaching and nursing involve face-to-face interaction.

What’s more, the sex differences were larger in countries with a higher level of women’s empowerment, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. For example, in the more egalitarian Norway, around five boys to every girl aspired to a things-oriented occupation. In the more traditional United Arab Emirates, roughly two boys

to every girl aspired to such occupations. Study author David Geary, Curators Distinguished Professor and a Thomas Jefferson Fellow in the Department of Psychological Sciences at MU, says the results show the influence of biology on occupational preferences. “If it was completely social, the sex differences should disappear or become very small [in gender-equal countries], but they actually become larger,” Geary says.

The researchers attribute this phenomenon to greater national wealth, which allows students to pursue their intrinsic interests unconstrained by economic limitations.

Even though girls in two out of three countries perform as well or better in science than boys and social shifts have offered girls more opportunities to enter STEM fields, Geary says they have not become more interested in such professions over the decades. “Studies that are more than a hundred years old basically show exactly the same patterns,” he says, referring to a 1918 survey of almost 1,700 U.S. adolescents. “Lots of money gets spent trying to change things that just aren’t going to change.”

BRAIN TRAINING Older adults with dementia or mild cognitive impairment may have difficulty remembering daily tasks, such as taking medications, turning off the stove or locking the door. Researcher Andrew M. Kiselica had a hunch that smartphone technology might help improve their memory and make their lives easier and safer. Some colleagues were skeptical that these older adults would be able to use such technology successfully. Undeterred, Kiselica trained participants to use an app that provided reminders for tasks and upcoming events they may struggle to remember. During a four-week trial, the app not only improved participants’ memory performance but also increased their independence and enhanced their quality of life. This research appears in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

• Mizzou will grow its research capabilities with new construction: A 40,000-square-foot addition will expand the University of Missouri Research Reactor. A fourth-floor build-out will add about 18,200 square feet of labs and offices to the NextGen Precision Health building. The MU Lottes Health Science Library will be renovated to connect academic and research areas of the medical science complex.

Pershing Commons will be renovated to accommodate the student health center and offices for faculty and physicians at the hospital and School of Medicine.

MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine ranks No. 7 in the country for veterinary medicine research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranking shows the college earned more than $14.3 million in NIH research funding in 2021.

The university earned a 2022–2023 Military Friendly Schools Gold Award for helping student veterans and their families succeed on and off campus.

Services include the MU Student Veterans Resource & Support Center and the School of Law’s Veterans Clinic, which includes a Veterans Wellness Center.

The veteran-owned firm, VIQTORY, ranks schools based on public data sources and survey responses from nearly 2,000 schools.

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AROUND THE COLUMNS Twitter Buzz About

#Mizzou

@PhoenixMercury Only two players in the 26-year history of the league have done it. Cynthia Cooper in 1997 and Sophie Cunningham in 2022.

Culled from 88,000 negatives rescued from oblivion, O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town is an insider’s look at early 20th-century life in Columbus, Mississippi. The author, journalism emeritus associate Professor Berkley Hudson, grew up in the small town and was part of the quintet who found the forgotten images and saw to their preservation.

Pruitt (at right in photo) worked as a professional photographer in Columbus for 40 years and died in 1967. His subjects ranged from debutantes, weddings and church events to street scenes and circus performers to victims of lynching.

“With ethnographic rigor and the intimacy of a local, Pruitt’s eye roves matter-of-factly between scenes of gilded refinement — the crafted splendor of privilege — and the gruesome violence that makes privilege possible,” writes Lauren Christensen in The New York Times. The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded a traveling exhibit, Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Trouble and Resilience in the American South, showing at the State Historical Society of Missouri through Nov. 5. At the same time, a satellite exhibit runs next door at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Learn more about the exhibit at shsmo.org, the book at uncpress.org and the project at thepruittproject.com.

SOMEBODY STOP ME! Yet again, MIZZOU magazine art director Blake Dinsdale, BA ’99, raked in Society of Publication Designers awards. This time for the Spring 2021 issue (cover and “International Reach” story) and Winter 2021 issue (opening design for “The Long Quiet” story). He also came away with a Council for Advancement and Support of Education overall periodical design award for the Winter and Spring 2021 issues.

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MIZZOUMAGAZINE

@MaggieLJohnson I’ve got some big, BIG news! So honored to be joining the Kansas City Sports Network for a brand new “Mizzou, That’s Who” podcast!

Find out how to listen in the comments and be sure to follow @KCSportsNetwork! #MIZ @MizzouNews #Mizzou engineers are embodying the age-old adage of ‘work smarter, not harder’ by using artificial intelligence to speed up the innovation process, with the help of a nearly $4.9 million grant from @ArmyERDC.

COURTESY BERKLEY HUDSON

LIFE IN POSSUM TOWN

@MizzouAdmission “I first toured Mizzou during a family vacation my junior year and though I really liked the campus, I wasn’t in college choice mode yet. Then senior year, Mizzou was the first campus I toured. From then on, every campus I visited I found myself comparing to Mizzou.”

B R O W N : R O B H I L L ; A R T : M U S E U M O F A R T A N D A R C H A E O L O G Y, U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S O U R I

SHOE SPA

Blake Brown was thirsty. A water bottle at Navy Pier cost $5. At a convenience store a few blocks away, his dad, Tim Brown, BGS ’87, bought the same bottle for $1. That day, Blake became an entrepreneur: He spent the summer selling marked-up water bottles in front of his dad’s insurance agency in Oak Park, Illinois. With his earnings, he bought sneakers.

Today, the senior marketing major runs BTB Kicks, a shoe restoration business he started in 2019. “I never liked having dirty shoes,” says Brown, who owns more than 30 pairs of stylish footwear. “Being a sneakerhead, you have to keep your shoes clean.” His classmates took notice and started asking Brown to bring their kicks back to life.

It takes 45 minutes to an hour to clean a pair of shoes, a process he has refined by watching hours of YouTube videos and practicing on his own shoes.

He cleans several pairs a week.

For now, BTB Kicks is a side hustle — Brown interned at PwC this past summer and hopes to work there after he graduates — but he plans to open a storefront in Chicago one day. “I love how I can take a shoe that’s beat and give it a new life.”

ART MUSEUM COMES HOME The Museum of Art and Archaeology has moved. More than 16,000 precious and fragile items, including artifacts dating to the time of the pharaohs and statues and paintings of world-heritage status, were crated, moved, and are now being unpacked and held in controlled temperatures and humidity. An extraordinary teaching resource since 1961, the museum has been located on the Mizzou North campus, at 115 Business Loop 70 West, for the past eight years. But the 85-year-old building that housed it, the former Ellis Fischel Cancer Hospital, has been scheduled for demolition. That turns out to be a good thing for students and faculty, who will no longer have to hoof it crosstown to study art and antiquities. The museum will reopen in Ellis Library in fall 2022. Workers are remodeling the library space into six galleries, a gift shop and a study room.

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AROUND THE COLUMNS

B O O K FA I R Thirty-three Mizzou faculty published 31 books in 2021, including a first-of-its-kind social justice anthology, a comprehensive review of coronaviruses, and a reassessment of T.S. Eliot’s life and work. Ellis Library has copies of each book below.

The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual: Volume 3 by Frances Dickey, associate professor of English Anti-Racist Educational Leadership and Policy: Addressing Racism in Public Education

by Sarah Deim, educational leadership and policy analysis department chair Strengthening Anti-racist Educational Leaders by Sarah Diem, educational leadership and policy analysis department chair The Black Man in Brazilian Soccer translated by Jack A. Draper III, associate professor of Portuguese Women and Resistance in the Early Rastafari Movement by Daive A. Dunkley, associate professor of Black studies Picturesque Literature and the Transformation of the American Landscape, 1835-1874 by John Evelev, professor of English Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Mechanisms and Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Evaluation and Management by David Gozal, child health department chair, and Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, director of the Child Health Research Institute

10 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Strategies and Tactics in Organic Synthesis by Michael Harmata, Rabjohn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Handbook on the Human Impact of Agriculture by Harvey S. James Jr., professor of agricultural and applied economics Agroforestry and Ecosystem Services

by Shibu Jose, associate dean for research, and Ranjith Udawatta, research professor, both in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

The Origins of Concrete Construction in Roman Architecture

by Marcello Mogetta, assistant professor of ancient Mediterranean studies

A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume II: “The Missouri Question” and Its Answers (Volume 2) by Jeffrey L. Pasley, professor of history

The Erotics of Grief: Emotions and the Construction of Privilege in the Medieval Mediterranean

by Megan Moore, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures interim chair

Teaching English in Rural Communities: Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy by Robert Petrone, associate professor of learning, teaching and curriculum

Strange Encounters: Short Stories

by Speer Morgan, professor of English

Crony Capitalism in U.S. Health Care: Anatomy of a Dysfunctional System

by Naresh Khatri, associate professor of health management and informatics

High-throughput Crop Phenotyping by Henry T. Nguyen, professor of plant science and technology, and Jianfeng Zhou, assistant professor of plant science and technology

Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate by Anthony R. Lupo, professor of atmospheric science

The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology

by Phong Nguyen, professor and Miller Family Endowed Chair of Writing

Domitian’s Rome and the Augustan Legacy

by Raymond Marks, associate professor of ancient Mediterranean studies, and Marcello Mogetta, assistant professor of ancient Mediterranean studies

A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume I, Western Slavery, National Impasse (Volume 1)

by Jeffrey L. Pasley, professor of history

Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, Grades K-8: Positioning English Learners for Success by Rachel J. Pinnow, associate professor of learning, teaching and curriculum Coronavirus Disease: From Origin to Outbreak

by Adnan I. Qureshi, professor of neurology Supply Chain Management in Manufacturing and Service Systems: Advanced Analytics for Smarter Decisions

by Suchithra Rajendran, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering and of marketing, and Sharan Srinivas, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering and of marketing Emotional Landscapes: Love, Gender, and Migration by Linda

Reeder, associate professor of history and women’s and gender studies chair The Right of Instruction and Representation in American Legislatures, 1778-1900 by Peverill Squire, professor of political science and Hicks and Martha Griffiths Chair in American Political Institutions Engaging Employees Through Strategic Communication: Skills, Strategies, and Tactics

by Jon Stemmle, professor of strategic communication Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Marketing and Sales

by Niladri Syam, Robert J. Trulaske Sr. Associate Professor of Marketing Rational Choice Using Imprecise Probabilities and Utilities by Paul Weirich, Curators Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Die Konfigurationsfrequenzanalyse by Wolfgang Wiedermann, associate professor of educational, school and counseling psychology Grid-based Nonlinear Estimation and Its Applications by Ming Xin, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering

SIRI, TEACH ME TO READ!

The Great Gold Way Back in May, 17 Mizzou students — aspiring actors

B R O A D WAY : Z A N E O S L E R ; B A S K E T B A L L : M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S ; I L LU S T R AT I O N : B L A K E D I N S D A L E / S H U T T E R S TO C K

all — got their chance to command a Broadway stage and perform for industry professionals, alumni and friends. Their moment under the spotlight was just one highlight of a four-day trip to the Big Apple through Mizzou on Broadway. With funding from Gary Tatlow, BA ’62, JD ’64, and his late wife, Marilyn Tatlow, BA ’62, the program launched 20 years ago, returning this year after a decade-long hiatus. Students attended workshops, including one with Michelle West, an understudy for seven female roles in Tina the Musical. They also met Keenan Scott, an actor, playwright, director and producer whose critically acclaimed Thoughts of a Colored Man debuted on Broadway in 2021. And, of course, the young actors attended productions. The cast of one show, Phantom of the Opera, included music alumnus Jason Forbach, BM ’00. To learn about supporting Mizzou on Broadway, visit mizzougivedirect.missouri.edu.

JOINED AT THE HOOP When Laurence Bowers attended Mizzou, he and his basketball teammates often invited their football counterparts to Mizzou Arena for pickup games. “It was a brotherhood,” says Bowers, BA ’12, M Ed ’13. “Both programs were doing well, and everyone was rooting for each other.” He and former teammate DeMarre Carroll, BGS ’08, revisited those glory days by organizing a basketball game on July 16 at Mizzou Arena that featured past Tiger greats from both sports. The game, a fundraiser for United Community Builders and The Carroll Family Foundation for Pediatric Liver Disease, featured the likes of football stars Brad Smith, BS BA ’05, MPA ’16, and Jeremy Maclin, Arts ’09, and basketball legends Doug Smith, Agric ’91, and Melvin Booker, Bus ’95.

For Bowers, the game was a way of reminding alumni of their role in the future of Tiger athletics and Mizzou itself. He’s on a mission to boost fan support, which translates not only to winning games with top recruits but also to strong enrollment on campus and economic growth in Columbia.

Betsy Baker waited 40 years for technology to catch up with the idea. Now a professor in literacy studies, she taught elementary school back in the 1980s, and when it came to helping students learn to read, she employed a little-used innovation: transcription. She would invite children who were learning to read and write to dictate their story, and she would write their words on paper in front of them. This enabled them to meld their own familiar words and ideas with printed words on a page. It worked remarkably well — except that it was too timeconsuming to be practical. But now, each of us carries a smartphone that can transcribe anything we say. In collaboration with eMINTS, a program designed to help educators integrate technology into their classrooms, Baker has received a $4 million grant to figure out the best way to use speech recognition (e.g., Siri, Alexa) to help today’s young readers. Kids speak into the tablet, and the words appear on screen. “In a book, young readers might not connect written words to spoken words,” she says. “But if they dictate it, they make the match between what they’re saying and what they’re seeing.” Bonus: No more writer’s cramp for the teacher.

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AROUND THE COLUMNS

Amari Celestine’s routine propelled the Tigers to the NCCA Championships, the team’s first appearance there in more than a decade.

12 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

When gymnast Amari Celestine came to Mizzou on a recruiting visit, she was struck by something she saw at a practice. Coach Shannon Welker’s athletes supported one another while they huffed and puffed through conditioning exercises.

“They were cheering through the pain,” Celestine says. “It was amazing to me. I loved how the team interacted with each other.”

The chance to be part of a competitive but supportive team inspired Celestine, a native of Southern California who grew up rooting for UCLA, to choose Missouri. She quickly helped the Tigers soar to new heights. Celestine finished as the national runner-up in the vault, and sophomore teammate Sienna Schreiber was the runner-up on the beam as Mizzou placed fifth in the nation.

The highlight came in the NCAA regional meet in Raleigh, North Carolina, when Mizzou needed Celestine to score at least a 9.925 on the floor exercise in the last event of the night to edge out UCLA for a spot in the NCAA Championships. None of Celestine’s acrobatics during the performance matched the heights she reached when she heard her score and realized the Tigers were advancing for just the second time in program history.

“I don’t think I’ve ever jumped so high and cried so much — tears in every picture — and it was ugly crying,” Celestine says. “It was the greatest feeling I’ve ever had just to be a part of team that wanted something so bad and worked so hard for it, and we finally got it.”

M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S

Reaching New Heights

Scoreboard

BEEFING UP

Harrison Mevis says it was former Missouri punter Grant McKinniss who gave him the nickname Thiccer Kicker one day in the locker room before his freshman season. “It had a nice ring to it,” Mevis says. “I’m a bigger guy and a kicker, so why not?” The name caught on with Missouri fans as Mevis — who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 257 pounds — quickly established himself as one of the nation’s best, converting 40 of 45 field-goal attempts in his first two years. The owner of Columbia’s Campus Bar & Grill reached out to Mevis about endorsing a cheeseburger named in his honor. The Thiccer Kicker Burger includes two thirdpound beef patties, four strips of bacon, Colby jack cheese, an onion ring, lettuce, tomato and special sauce, which is a sweet chipotle mayo that Mevis selected himself during an extensive sauce-tasting session. Mevis says he has put away a few of his namesake burgers, though he limits his intake for all the right reasons. “Being an athlete,” he says, “you can’t eat that every day.”

Alexis Kerman helped form Mizzou’s women’s disc golf team and win the national championship title in the same year.

M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S ; S H U T T E R S TO C K

Spin City

Alexis Kerman is working on a master’s thesis titled “Insight into Disc Golfing in Columbia, Missouri.” But Kerman, BS ’18, is doing more than just chronicling her college town’s rise as a hotbed of the sport — she is one of the players who helped club teams representing Mizzou win two titles at the 2022 College Disc Golf National Championship.

Columbia is deep in disc golf infrastructure, she says.

“We’ve got all different types of courses that give us the opportunity to practice skills that maybe other players elsewhere don’t get to practice.”

In disc golf, players throw Frisbee-style discs into elevated metal baskets to complete holes. Kerman took up the sport in 2019 and quickly got hooked, practicing

five days a week. In the summer of 2021, she recruited fellow MU student Renae Beasley to form a women’s team. They completed their first season together by winning the national tournament, shooting 4-under par to win on April 9 in Marion, North Carolina.

On the same day on a nearby course, the Mizzou men’s team gave the Tigers a sweep of the national championships. The squad of Quentin Borengasser; Jared Brabant, BS ’20; Drew Cantrell and Noah Free erased a 5-shot deficit on the final nine holes to win with a score of 26-under par and establish Columbia as disc golf’s title town.

“We were ranked second going into nationals last year, and we took 20th. I was really upset,” Cantrell says.

“Winning it this year, the word I use is ‘redemption.’ ”

1 — The rank of Phil Pressey, BGS ’21, on the Missouri men’s basketball team’s career assists list. The former star point guard has returned to the program as a graduate assistant on Dennis Gates’ coaching staff.

2 — Former Mizzou players chosen in the 2022 NFL draft. Cornerback Akayleb Evans was picked in the fourth round by the Minnesota Vikings, and running back Tyler Badie, BS ’21, was selected in the sixth round by the Baltimore Ravens.

13.63 — Length in meters of Arianna Fisher’s school-record triple jump at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships.

Competing against America’s best pro and amateur track athletes, Fisher placed fourth in the event.

14 — Spot on the 2022 U.S. Open leaderboard where former Tiger golfer Hayden Buckley, BHS ’18, finished. It was the second straight year Buckley qualified for the U.S. Open, and he capitalized on the opportunity by making the cut and shooting 2-overpar for the tournament.

56 — Home runs hit by softball player Kimberly Wert in her career. That moved Wert ahead of Jen Bruck, who hit 47 homers from 2005 to 2008, as MU’s alltime leader in that category.

FALL 2022 13

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14 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

“You think you’ll wake up and you won’t have your kid anymore.

But Nevaeh is here.

I can’t thank this team enough.”

- Melissa, mother of Nevaeh (age 2)

Our new Children’s Hospital, opening in spring 2024, brings our world-class pediatric resources together under one roof — allowing patients with rare conditions or complex treatment plans, like Nevaeh’s, to remain close to home.

We’re building up the future of health care.

Join Us Today You can make a difference for children in mid-Missouri and beyond.

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573-884-9933 mizzougivedirect.missouri.edu/buildingup FALL 2022 15

FEATURE

16 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

FALL 2022 17

PROFILE

THE MOVIE Dances With Wolves won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, and was hailed by most critics as a modern masterwork, a bold reimagining of the Western genre.

And yet.

It only took three perfectly crafted sentences to reduce Costner’s Oscarfest into a pile of buffalo poop.

You could do that if you were Pauline Kael.

While teenage me had a bit of a crush on Valerie Bertinelli from One Day at a Time, (admit it, so did you), that was weak tea compared to the full-blown case of Farrah Fawcett bedroom-wall-poster love I harbored for The New Yorker magazine’s film critic, a great and powerful Oz who lived a thousand miles away, physically, culturally, intellectually.

From 1968 to 1991, Pauline Kael opined passionately, masterfully and, yes, viciously about New Hollywood’s Raging Bulls: Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg. In a business based on the opinions of men, the opinion of this 5-foot-tall woman mattered even more. Ego-bloated producers lay awake dreading the morning her reviews hit the newsstands, and her approval was crucial to the success of such cultural landmarks as The Godfather, Nashville and Raiders of the Lost Ark (more on that later).

My perplexed parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I answered, with alarming speed, Taking It All In, a beefy collection of film reviews by a writer whose name sounded vaguely like cabbage. My folks blinked a couple of times, shrugged and bought it for me. At that age, they were just happy I didn’t say Penthouse.

By the light of the Christmas tree, I read Taking It All In and let it tattoo my brain. Here was my turkey, my stuffing, my Red Ryder BB gun.

Her writing was, and is, a highlight reel of great one-liners: “In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.”

“This movie is a toupee made up to look like honest baldness.”

“Her only flair is in her nostrils.”

Pauline (I thought of her mononymously, like Cher) could do that all day.

18 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Pauline was Funny. Pauline was Right. Pauline was Powerful.

And God help you if she didn’t like you.

It may surprise you to learn that my feelings went unrequited. For some reason, this winner of the National Book Award failed to fall for a spotty teenaged movie nerd living in Jefferson City, Missouri. (I blame logistics. A nationwide network of high-speed light rail might have solved this.)

Still, if her goal was to plant ideas in squishy gray matter like mine, ideas that would bloom into much strange foliage over the course of a lifetime, Pauline Kael succeeded utterly. Possibly too well.

I went off to Mizzou with mislearned lessons from her writings rattling in my skull. This one rose above all: Opinions are a hammer. The world is a nail.

MY MOVIE ADDICTION, already well underway worshipping movies like Star Wars and Excalibur, started in earnest one night at Mizzou in 1983.

The Missouri Student Association had curated an excellent film series, and I was headed out to see How to Marry a Millionaire, starring Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. I settled into a seat at Brady Commons, all set to watch three dolled-up Manhattan models sing and dance their way into my heart. Then, up on the screen came a series of Japanese characters and haunting black-and-white visions of a ruined temple in the rain.

Marilyn? Lauren? Betty? Hello?

By mistake, I had stumbled into Rashômon, the profound 1950 masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa about the arbitrary nature of Truth. (Google it.

See it.)

Only there are no mistakes. Someone, somewhere, somehow meant for me to see that film.

Yes, that’s when I started saying “film.” The clouds parted. From that moment on, to quote another popular hit from the ’80s, I was on a mission from God. And what a mission! The years 1981 through

1986 gave us, among many Maneater and the Missourian other delights, E.T. and The where my sub-Pauline putEvil Dead and Amadeus and downs could roam free range.

Ghostbusters and Stranger About 1984’s Swing Shift: "opinions Than Paradise and Lost in “Director Jonathan Demme America and Blood Simple has dived headlong into the are a hammer. and Blade Runner. And the look and the romantic gush of the world wonderful This Is Spinal Tap, his film. The problem is he foris a nail." which contained a line that got to come up for air.” summed up so much of my “A precocious 8-year-old life: “There’s such a fine line with a VCR and a crayon could between stupid and clever.” have come up with this plot.”

I subscribed to American How much fun it was to Film magazine and Film Comment. I bought the judge things! So much easier than creating someVillage Voice alt-weekly at Aardvarx to read what thing new! That’s what Pauline does, right? critic Jim Hoberman, another hero of mine, had I gorged my ego on culture like the bloated Mr. to say. I studied the ads for movies playing in New Creosote from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.

York City in the Village or the Upper West Side, There was always room for one more bite. (“It’s dreaming of the day I could see the Buster Keaton waffair thin.”) festival at the Regency or Pier Paolo Pasolini at As my screen time and confidence and column the Thalia. inches grew, so did the obnoxious certainty that I Flush with My Incredibly Important Opinions, Was Always Right. And where do people who are I started writing, ahem, “film” reviews for the Always Right live? Pauline, I’m home!

FALL 2022 19

PROFILE

dow Show, with the Gen-X icon and opinioniste extraordinaire.

Money, awards, attention ensued. My Incredibly Important Opinions were being fed and watered and pampered like a 400-pound show poodle. Careful, she bites.

The world had deliberated and decided I Was Right. I wagged my tail. What could possibly go Wrong?

Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes winners never looked so happy. Somewhere deep in the Maneater office during their student days, Kent Jones, right, and Jim McWard, BA, BJ ’89, MA ’91, bask in the reflected glory of a Rocky IV poster.

AFTER J-SCHOOL, I moved to New York City where it turns out my dismissive worldview synced with an emerging Gen-X ethos: thrift stores, sludgy indie rock, hip hop, post-disco electronica, video games, a blanket cynicism for boomers and their nonstop self-congratulation. Irony was poured on everything. My orange bowling shirt bought at Leo’s on Ninth Street was surprisingly de rigueur.

The business of feeding My Incredibly Important Opinions began in earnest. I got jobs with magazines, I wrote for New York tabloids, I snarked and judged others for money, and the Old Media was there to give it to me. Validation!

In 1996, Comedy Central took all this to the next level when they shoved news and opinion and comedy into a Mixmaster to create The Daily Show, which hired me as a writer.

Writing jokes! About news! On TV! All without the burden of being an actual journalist. The Daily Show was once perfectly described as “MacNeil/ Lehrer for misfits,” and so we were, flinging our info-poop in all directions. Mean-spirited?

Juvenile? And your point is?

I even got into the movie critic game co-writing “Out at the Movies,” a flamboyant review segment delivered with maximum irony by Frank DeCaro.

Are you watching, Pauline? Call me!

Next came a gig on Air America Radio, more opinions, more comedy, and then a stint writing and performing and opining on The Rachel Mad20 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

BACK IN 1985 when I was playing Robotron at Gunther’s Games on Broadway, how could I have known that staring hypnotized at screens would be my future, your future, everyone’s future?

Turns out all kinds of folks, not just the privileged white guys who got past the Old Media gatekeepers, also had Important Things To Say About Life. Once the internet gave the planet access to an Opinion hammer and an audience, no one would ever put it back in the toolbox.

You know what happened next. The Old Media giants downscaled and digitized and just plain dropped dead, replaced by a billion frogs on a billion lily pads croaking out a billion opinions, jokes, songs, “likes,” fantasies, prejudices, cat videos all day, every day. Ribbit.

What’s a 400-pound show poodle to do? Had I been wrong all this time? What good are my opinions in a swamp like this? What good are anyone’s? Are we all just frogs now?

Ribbit?

“THERE’S NO EXHILARATION in this dumb, motor excitement.” “It isn’t beautifully made.” “Spielberg fumbles a lot of his action sequences.” “Seeing Raiders is like being put through a Cuisinart — something has been done to us, but not to our benefit.”

Yes, this is what my hero Pauline Kael actually wrote in 1981 about Raiders of the Lost Ark, one of the greatest movies of all time.

Three years later, here’s what she said about the sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, one of the greatest movies of no time.

“This is the most sheerly pleasurable physical comedy I’ve seen in years.” “This kind of storytelling doesn’t have to be heartfelt; it just has to hold your interest (and delight you).”

So, to recap, Pauline Kael dismissed an acknowledged masterpiece and, for millions of fans, their favorite movie ever. Yet despite being at the height of her power and influence, her negative review was unable to stop Raiders from becoming

Pauline was Funny.

Pauline was Right.

Pauline was Powerful.

And God help you if she didn’t like you.

HARRY JACOBUS

a massive popular and critical hit. The hammer came down and the nail didn’t budge.

She later lavished praise on a movie that many people found heartless and overbearing (Prove me wrong. I’m listening.), including its director, Steven Spielberg.

Are we allowed to say it? Was Pauline Kael … wrong? Is it possible, just this once, that she is the one with feathers in her head?

Yep. And I have feathers in my head for expecting Pauline Kael, or anyone else, for that matter, to be “right” all the time.

On any given day, everyone has a different story, which is the message of Rashômon by the way.

(Google it. See it. Begging you.)

We are neck-deep in Opinions, but opinions change and evolve and even reverse, especially ones written on deadline. What did Elvis Costello say? “Yesterday’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.”

Pauline’s brilliant championing of movies as art, her palpable excitement, far outweigh any passing thoughts she may have had about any one movie at any one time. Her contribution was never about the one-liners and putdowns I devoured as a teenager.

She was in love with the movies, and she wanted you to be in love, too. Passion can be wrong.

So, Pauline had an off day. So what? That just means she was human. Babe Ruth led the majors in strikeouts.

And if Pauline Kael, genius, can be wrong sometimes, that means me, nongenius, can be wrong most of the time.

My Incredibly Important Opinions aren’t and never were. And, I suspect, neither are yours.

Opinion-wise, I’m cutting way back. This show poodle needs to lose a few hundred pounds.

I SPOKE TO HER ONCE. People magazine, where I was working at the time, was preparing an issue honoring the 100th anniversary of the city of Hollywood. Reporters like me were calling leading film

The film industry’s biggest names would have fallen all over themselves to buy Pauline Kael’s next round. Her reviews in The New Yorker wielded huge influence over moviegoers.

critics to get their lists of the 10 best and 10 worst films ever made. My job was to call Pauline Kael.

I took three deep breaths and dialed. Ring. Ring.

Hello? She sounded friendly, light.

I explained what we were doing, trying not to hyperventilate or blurt out I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! Or, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT ABOUT RAIDERS!!

She replied, without anger or impatience, “I don’t really participate in those kinds of lists.

Thanks anyway.” And she hung up.

She knew. You don’t have to comment on everything.

Pauline Kael died on Sept. 3, 2001, eight days before 9/11.

I have this dream of meeting her in the afterlife. We’re sitting next to each other in a movie theater. I ask her, what are the 10 best movies of all time?

She says, “Well, Raiders of the Lost Ark, obviously.

You people really need to learn to take a joke.” M FALL 2022 21

Game-based learning casts students in historic roles where they take on big themes.

System Gaming the

story by tony rehagen ba, bj ’01 photos by scott schaefer, bj ’04

Jacob McIntosh bounds down the stone and grass steps

at Traditions Plaza, stops at the bottom of the amphitheater and turns to speak to a gathering of fellow students.

“Good morning,” he says to the hushed crowd. “Today, I am here to defend our democracy … .”

The crowd meets this grandiose statement with a smattering of applause, a few cheers and a couple boos. The mixed response is a preview of the much more heated public debate that will ensue. The crux of the argument is how much responsibility public figures and influencers should bear for the violent criminal actions of their acolytes.

“You all need to understand that young, impressionable people are being led to this man who is spewing some dangerous things,” says Sigi Ris, who majors in journalism and political science.

“But he condemned those very actions,” someone shouts from the crowd.

“Actions speak louder than words,” says Ris, turning up the volume to make herself heard over moans and grumbles. “It doesn’t matter that he condemned the acts, when it still led to our city’s destruction.”

“Your logic does not follow,” says another person from the throng.

“Logical fallacy!” calls yet another.

Students repeatedly shout phrases like “saving our democ22 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

racy” or “freedom of speech” — topics from today’s newsfeeds.

In these politically charged times, this could be a scene from any college campus in America.

Except most of these MU students are wearing bedsheets.

This isn’t a campus demonstration. And it’s not Shakespeare in the Park. The linens are meant to represent chitons, the traditional garb of ancient Greece. Welcome to AMS 2100H: The Ancient Greeks (Honors) — a “gamified” role-playing class.

Built around the game The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BCE, the semester-long exercise at times transforms the classroom into the ancient city-state during that period of rebellion and instability. Today’s class is a short game, The Trial of Socrates, who has been accused of treason and corrupting youth. Each student has developed their own agenda, based on the character sheet, faction and goal they were assigned at the beginning of the term. The idea is to persuade enough fellow students — through their own words, based on the class readings — to achieve that individual character’s (secret) objective, be that citizenship, election to office or even staying alive. As with any game, the object is to win.

For example, Ris was assigned the character of Anytus, a leader of the Periclean Democrats working to preserve Athenian government by fending off the rise of Socrates’ so-called philosopher kings. She wants to see the defendant

T H E D E AT H O F S O C R AT E S , J A C Q U E S - L O U I S D A V I D , 1 7 8 7

Students in a role-playing class debate the trial of Socrates at Traditions Plaza.

convicted by a majority of her peers.

A student speaks up to assail Ris’ logic. “If they were truly led by Socrates’ teachings, they wouldn’t have ended up like that because Socrates spoke out against those actions.”

“It doesn’t matter that he condemned the actions,” Ris responds. “He still mentored them.”

Observing — and grading — all of this from his seat beside the stage is Jim Crozier, assistant professor of classical studFALL 2022 23

Top: Anytus, played by journalism and political science major Sigi Ris, attempts to persuade the crowd to convict Socrates.

Bottom: Students in the crowd respond to Ris’ argument. Role-playing games help students put what they’re learning from readings into practice.

24 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

ies. The idea behind this exercise is neither to recreate history (Spoiler Alert: The real Socrates was convicted and put to death) nor to rewrite it.

Crozier wants the students to inhabit that time, place and perspective and to interact with one another in that setting. When it happens, they’ll not only better understand that period of antiquity but also sharpen critical thinking, debate and oratory skills.

“It’s a test of character,” says Crozier, who has been teaching this “reacting” class for two semesters. “Participating is the important thing. That’s why I try to make as many avenues as possible for everyone to get a win. I want to give students an experience they’ll really remember from their time at Mizzou and challenge them to think outside of the box and put themselves in someone else’s shoes. But above all, it should be fun.

The “fun” Crozier refers to is not just merriment for its own sake. Rather he’s referring to an emerging school of thought that finds when students are enjoying themselves, they become more engaged, which fosters deeper learning.

It’s an approach to teaching that is new to Mizzou and institutions around the country. And it was brought here by one of the field’s pioneers.

One of the people in the crowd at Socrates’ mock trial, a person who is in the back and quietly taking in the scene, is Victoria Mondelli, founding director of the MU Teaching for Learning Center. About a decade ago at the City University of New York (CUNY), she became aware of game-based learning and the Reacting to the Past consortium that developed this Athenian game and others. Fascinated, she and fellow CUNY professor Joe Bisz started running workshops and eventually conducted research on the interactive pedagogy. Together, they’ve written the soon-to-be-published book The Allure of Play: The Educator’s Design Guide to Active Learning Exercises and Games, which breaks down the mechanics of game-based learning in the classroom.

Research has shown that role-play games encourage students to take what they’ve learned from the readings and put it into practice, creating a cognitive connection to the material and making it easier to learn. Assuming the role of another person also pushes students to practice empathy and look at things from a different perspective. Acting out these perspectives and trying to influence classmates also sharpens skills such as public speaking and debate. This approach seeks to stimulate a higher order of thinking than does rote memorization, Mondelli says. “It moves students toward opportunities to manipulate and create within the field rather than just telling them to read this book or listen to this lecture.

You still have to have readings and professors sharing expertise, but when students don’t get an opportunity to engage, they only retain a portion of that and for a very limited time. It’s not longlasting, deep learning.”

Mondelli didn’t push this new method on faculty when she first arrived at Mizzou to help launch the teaching center in 2018. The game-based approach requires a special kind of facilitator who wants to strike a balance between orchestrating the game with a light touch and yielding control of the class to the students.

In Crozier, Mondelli saw a teacher with “an energy about him,” she says. And it turns out he had some skills he didn’t pick up in graduate school.

Crozier grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons

TEACHING

in high school and college, frequently acting as Dungeon Master — equal parts planner, moderator and narrator. Mondelli had mentioned the Reacting to the Past curriculum to Crozier’s department chair, and after checking out the materials online, Crozier was intrigued. In spring 2021, he built the Athens game on top of the regular AMS 2100 class. Students are still responsible for completing readings, concept maps and presentations.

On top of that, they participate in these microgames (like the Trial of Socrates). Each student also delivers two speeches during the semester.

For the role-play games, Crozier built factions of introverts and extroverts and then set to work.

“Students heated up to the idea,” he says. “During the first session, they started to go after each other.

I was surprised at how seriously some students took their roles and how relatively little it mattered when someone made a small mistake. After seeing how much they were into it and how they were improvising, I started thinking: It’s working.”

After the students all say their piece and the amphitheater has quieted, it’s time for the assembly to vote on Socrates’ fate based on the arguments. Crozier has distributed tumble rocks to each citizen — four to those in chitons — half of the stones blue, half red. They now quietly line up near the stage, waiting their turn to pass by the Silver Urn of Counting (a tin milk churn) and Glass Jar of Discarding (a vase). In the former, students cast their votes on the verdict, blue for acquittal and red for conviction, then discard the remaining stones in the jar.

Once the solemn act of voting is complete, Crozier picks up the urn, stones rattling inside. He announces that there were 22 votes, so he will stop counting when he reaches 12 of either color.

“The first stone is … acquittal.”

Cheers erupt from the gathering.

“It’s a test of character,” says Crozier, who has been teaching this “reacting” class for two semesters.

“Participating is the important thing. That’s why I try to make as many avenues as possible for everyone to get a win.”

“The second stone is … acquittal.”

Crozier draws two more blue stones before the first red stone, which elicits a more raucous, if less prevalent, whooping response. But the outcome is becoming increasingly clear both from the balance of applause and the volume of blue stones that Crozier is lining up on the stone wall. “Socrates is about to break out some wine!”

Crozier exclaims.

Sure enough, the count reaches 12 votes for acquittal with little drama. Socrates is cleared of all charges.

Having come up short of her objective, Anytus/ Ris briefly challenges the results by asking the gathering if they are sure they voted correctly.

But the majority quickly strikes down the move, and Anytus is resigned. As Crozier dismisses the class, Ris slips out of character and stuffs her chiton sheet back into her backpack. She’ll return next week to lobby her classmates in an attempt to save democracy and boost her grade. M

Top photos: Students line up to vote on Socrates’ fate: blue for acquittal and red for conviction.

Jim Crozier, assistant professor of classical studies, presents the Silver Urn of Counting, which holds Socrates’ fate based on the students’ arguments.

FALL 2022 25

TRAILBLAZER

THE

DOUBLE DOUBLE LIFE LIFE

OF EMILY NEWELL BLAIR At a time when most women didn’t even think about having it all, suffragist Emily Newell Blair bucked conventions in the world of work and marriage as she attempted to balance a happy, fulfilled personal life of the Victorian era with the respected professional life of a more modern moment. But it cost her. In Blair’s effort to do both, she ended up living two lives, neither of which was as complete as it might have been in another age. STORY BY KELSEY ALLEN, BA, BJ ’10 Despite having been born in 1877 in Joplin, Missouri, and raised there, somehow Emily Newell Blair never fit into Victorian norms or small-town life.

Her parents were transplants from back east in Pennsylvania who opened up the wide world to their children. “Exiles [my parents] felt themselves to be and so did we children,” Blair wrote in her autobiography, Bridging Two Eras.

She grew up hearing stories from her father’s business trips to New York and overhearing her parents discuss commerce, politics and public events.

Unlike many of her classmates, she took art classes and music lessons and studied Latin and French, and her family often read Shakespeare and Elizabethan dramas aloud together. “I was 17 before I realized I was a Missourian,” she wrote.

After graduating from Carthage High School in 1894, Blair was determined to leave the Midwest in her wake. She attended Women’s College of Baltimore (later Goucher College) — but only for a year before her father died and she returned home to help care for the four younger children. At the University of Missouri, she attended a summer session, which included a pedagogy course that helped her land a job teaching at Sarcoxie High School. The salary was welcome income at home.

In 1900, she married her high school classmate, Harry, then a circuit court reporter in Joplin. Decades later, Blair reflected on their nuptials: “If anyone ever drew a surprise package at the altar, he did. What is more, the wrappings stayed on the package for 10 years, and all that time he thought the wrappings were the real woman. … Not that she knew they were wrappings. She did not. If anyone had told her what was inside, she would have thought him crazy. I know very well what kind of woman she appeared to Harry Blair, for she appeared the same to herself. She expected to do the same things her mother had: bear a family, run a house and spend her husband’s money.”

For a decade, while Blair’s ambitions were those of husband’s future as

D

26 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

a lawyer, she followed the traditional paths of teacher, wife and club member. “I lived in and through him,” she wrote. Harry ran for circuit judge in 1908, and Blair managed his letter campaign, responding to citizens and newspapers across the state. He lost. But along the way, Blair acquired a taste for politics, and Harry came to appreciate his wife’s writing abilities.

One day, an issue of Cosmopolitan arrived containing the article, “Confessions of a Rebellious Wife.” Blair wondered aloud why no one writes about the happy wives, and Harry challenged her to compose such a piece herself. Almost as a joke, the 33-year-old Blair penned a retort, saying, in part: “If they had only realized that perfect understanding and trust do not happen accidentally or spring full grown from a marriage vow, but had made a little more effort, theirs might be such an ideal marriage as we are striving for — one which the foundation of faith and harmony and the atmosphere of love make perfect.” Published in 1910, “Letters of a Contented Wife” not only launched Blair’s writing career but also reinvigorated her life both in and out of the home. Within a year, her magazine articles on matrimony and domesticity appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Lippincott, Outlook and Woman’s Home Companion.

Blair gradually traded church potlucks and home-cooked meals for luncheons with fellow writers. An organizer at heart, she founded the Missouri Women’s Press Association in 1912. Around that time, MU’s internationally respected journalism dean, Walter Williams, made her a charter member of the Missouri Writers’ Guild. Soon she was regularly appearing on campus to present talks at Journalism Week, as well as hobnobbing with New York publishers and successful writers and editors. Williams nurtured her abilities. In one exchange, Blair called him “a horticulturist who cultivates our sprigs of talent.” His reply: “I know a peach when I see one.” She later wrote it was one of the nicest compliments she ever received.

But it was an encounter with Kewpie cartoon creator Rose O’Neill, then at the height of her success, at a guild retreat that Blair recalled as truly transformational. After two days of dancing, musical performances, poetry readings and late-night discussions about Paris, books and the craft of writing, Blair was enamored and inspired. She saw in O’Neill a “free soul … untrammeled by the trappings, physical, mental, social, in which everyone I had known was bound.” O’Neill recognized the same glimmer in Blair, telling her: “Be yourself. You have it in you — the sacred fire.” Blair later wrote that she was “never afterward quite the conformist” she had been.

However, the editor of her autobiography, which was completed in 1937 but not published until 1999, isn’t as sure. “That’s just the way women in that time period presented themselves,” says Virginia Laas, professor emerita of history at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. “I don’t think she needed anyone else to make her feel empowered. She knew she wanted to have a life other than what she had here. It didn’t take any great awakening. She probably felt the need to make others comfortable with a woman exercising power. It was somewhat unwomanly to push yourself forward in public activities. It takes her some time to become comfortable with just saying, ‘I’m pretty good at this. I have skills. I could do these things.’ ” Regardless of whether she benefitted from encouragement, Blair was no longer willing to remain in drawing rooms and church sewing societies. Through a local woman’s club, she participated in a countywide Far left: Emily Newell in 1900, then living a conventional, small-town life as a teacher in Sarcoxie, Missouri. Left: Two decades later, Emily Newell Blair was known nationally in literary and political circles. In 1924, she was re-elected as the first fully equal woman vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

FALL 2022 27

TRAILBLAZER

“ There came to me the thought, ambition, or temptation, whatever it was, that my life need not be bounded by the four walls of a home.”

Emily Newell Blair with her children, Newell and Harriet.

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campaign to pass a tax to build a new almshouse.

Her advocacy ran the gamut from writing speeches to going door to door urging women to persuade their husbands to vote in its favor. “True, the women did not have a vote, but they did have tongues,” she wrote.

Gaining a reputation as a speaker, Blair was invited by a leader in both the state and national movement for women’s suffrage, Helen Guthrie Miller, to put her words to work. Miller offered a position that would come with a secretary, which greatly appealed to Blair, for an assistant would give her more time to write. Again, Blair called out the ego boost that came from being chosen for her skills and capabilities, the allure of escaping the cult of domesticity, and the desire to extend her sphere of influence beyond home and family. She said yes and shortly thereafter in 1915 became the first editor of Missouri Woman, the monthly magazine for the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association.

Both experiences broadened her horizons beyond small-town Missouri life. “There came to me the thought, ambition, or temptation, whatever it was, that my life need not be bounded by the four walls of a home,” she reflected. “Another way to put it would be that the cocoon of Victorianism was beginning to crack.”

With this growing sense of conviction, Blair began working 18-hour days while also rearing two children and supporting her husband’s law practice. It was taxing, and she often struggled with guilt. “The fact was that … I had put the suffrage activity first,” she wrote. “Although never put into

words, I knew my husband felt this. Something had gone out of our relationship. The realization was bitter medicine.” In an attempt to better balance professional fulfillment and private happiness, Blair declined an invitation from Carrie Chapman Catt to come to New York and work for suffrage at the national level. For the next two years, she worked in Missouri as vice chair of the Missouri Woman’s Committee for the Council of National Defense and as president of the Carthage Equal Suffrage Association.

In 1918, when Harry volunteered to go overseas for the YMCA during World War I, Blair quickly wired Catt that she was available. A week later, Blair was in Washington, D.C., publicizing the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense, which organized women’s role in the war effort. She threw herself into the job, writing an interpretive history of the committee, honing skills as an organizer, and working closely with Ida Tarbell and Anna Howard Shaw.

Harry returned from France in 1919, and the Blairs moved back to Missouri — Harry happily and Emily reluctantly. After the 19th Amendment gave women the vote in 1920, Blair helped found the Missouri League of Women Voters and turned to integrating women into party politics.

She was elected Missouri’s committeewoman to the Democratic National Committee. The following year she became the vice chair of the Democratic Party, the first woman to hold that position in either major party.

Blair was a force in Missouri, Laas says. “She

HARRIS & EWING

In 1915, Blair became the first editor of Missouri Woman, the monthly magazine for the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association.

was very intelligent, but she also was very much a lady. She wasn’t in your face, but you knew that she was serious about what she was talking about.”

One Missouri politician nicknamed her Southern Comfort because she “goes down so smooth and easily but has an awful kick afterwards.”

Using Missouri as a model, Blair organized more than 2,000 Democratic women’s clubs across the country, sponsored Schools of Democracy in each region and, with the help of Daisy Harriman, formed a national Democratic Women’s Clubhouse in D.C. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported her nickname as “the little Napoleon.”

During these years, Blair continued to write on women, politics and public life, and from 1926 to 1933, she was an associate editor of Good Housekeeping, writing a monthly book column.

But Blair was still based in Joplin. “It took a great deal of energy and time to live two lives simultaneously,” she wrote of her frequent and sometimes extended trips to the East Coast. “She spent years struggling to pry Harry out of southwest Missouri and get him to go east,” Laas says.

“But he would have been perfectly happy to practice law in Carthage the rest of his life.”

Again and again, Blair rode her ambition to the brink of damaging her marriage and then pulled back to her family responsibilities. “Blair’s desire to balance personal ambition with marital harmony is also an apt illustration of her contention that women of her generation bridged two eras, from Victorian to modern times,” Laas wrote in “Reward for Party Service: Emily Newell Blair and

Political Patronage in the New Deal,” a chapter in the book The Southern Elite and Social Change.

Blair wrote that “It takes wisdom to know how far she can sacrifice her family without danger to something more valuable than her work, and how much she is really required, in justice to all, to sacrifice her work to her family.”

Ultimately, Blair could have been the assistant secretary of state in the Roosevelt administration and instead asked for a position for her husband.

“She had always overshadowed Harry,” Laas wrote in “Reward for Party Service.” Blair knew Harry would only move to Washington — where she wanted to be — if he were offered a job. She used her influence, and Harry was eventually appointed assistant attorney general in charge of the lands division. The decision brought stability and marital harmony, but it cost her prestige and power.

“She didn’t become the central figure she could have been in the network of women active in the New Deal,” Laas says. Instead, she served as chair of the Consumer’s Advisory Board of the National Industrial Recovery Act and chief of the women’s interest section of the War Department’s Bureau of Public Relations. She retired after suffering a stroke in 1944 and died in 1951.

A little over a century after Blair helped secure women’s right to vote and rose high in national politics, Laas says there’s much to learn from her story: “If nothing else, she gives us insight into how difficult it was for women to walk that line — to try to get equal rights for women and still have happy, personal relationships.” M

Living in Washington, D.C., and working with the most important and well-known women in the country transformed Blair.

Here, Blair, right, is photographed with D.A. McDougal, the national committeewoman from Oklahoma and fellow member of the Arrangements Committee, at the Democratic National Convention in New York in 1924.

FALL 2022 29

One Last Roundel

By Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98

By the time James Draper’s schoolmates were joining the Cub Scouts, he was already immersing himself in the world’s creativity. That was in Lebanon, Missouri, where, his sister Ruth jokes, the nearest thing to a notable artifact was a Civil War cannonball. Even so, Draper went on to a distinguished curatorial career at the celebrated Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. When he died in 2019, his gift enabled the museum to buy what is now one of its most remarkable holdings.

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P. 30

PROFILE

One of the most meaningful artifacts in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will never be on display.

It’s also worth a grand total of zero dollars. But for the staff in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, the work — actually, a Met purchase report from 2003 — is priceless.

James Draper and his sisters — Betsy, on the piano, and Ruth — grew up in blue-collar Lebanon, Missouri.

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It was written by James David Draper, who, at the time, was the longtime and highly respected Henry R. Kravis Curator in the department. Draper, BA ’65, had his heart set on a bronze roundel that dated back to the Italian Renaissance of 1500.

When it finally came up for auction at Christie’s New York, he was determined to obtain it for the Met — and, per protocol, filled out the necessary paperwork in advance. He was outbid, and the documentation got lost. That is until Draper’s original request was recently fished out from the museum counsel’s office.

His former colleagues were gobsmacked by what they read. “Jim was soaring on the wings of eagles when he wrote that report,” says Denise Allen, a curator in the department.

She points to his response to the first question, for which he had to state the reason for recommending the piece. “He wrote, ‘This is the most thrilling Renaissance bronze to appear on the market in ages,’ leaving no doubt as to how he came down on the issue. That was typical Jim.” Nineteen years later, the dream of this beloved curator and proud Mizzou art history graduate has been fulfilled in the most wonderful of ways.

Draper, you see, adored the Fifth Avenue landmark that he called his home away from home for 45 years. Although he retired in 2014, he stayed on as a curator emeritus for European sculpture and reported to his office nearly every day. Upon his death in 2019 at age 76, he made a large financial bequest to the Met on behalf

of his foundation earmarked for acquisitions within the department that he helped shape. The money was put to use in February, when the Met spent $23 million to buy the roundel from a gallery in Britain — making it the museum’s secondlargest purchase ever, per The New York Times. It now hangs in Gallery 536, with Draper’s name imprinted on the credit line.

“We decided that acquiring the roundel that he had been so excited about would be the best way to honor his gift as well as his tenure at the Met,” Allen says. “It’s rare that you can speak for someone, but I know that he would be pleased.”

Gotta Have Art

Speaking of eye-popping numbers, how about this one: 2. That’s the age a young Jimmy Draper first showed interest in art in his blue-collar hometown of Lebanon, Missouri. “He’d get in the kitchen cabinet and take off the papers of all the cans and then draw pictures on the back,” recalls his younger sister, Ruth Rebmann. “Even as a baby, he’d teethe on my daddy’s fancy fountain pen.”

As his two sisters tell it, Draper’s passion for beauty was a gift from the gods. “None of us have any idea where it came from because there’s just nothing like it in our family,” says his older sister, Betsy Erb. Indeed, though their family boasts impressive lineage — their great-great-grandfather

C O U R T E S Y F A M I LY O F J A M E S D R A P E R

“ He’d get in the kitchen cabinet and take off the papers of all the cans and then draw pictures on the back. Even as a baby, he’d teethe on my daddy’s fancy fountain pen.”

Joseph McClurg was the governor of Missouri from 1869 to 1871 — no Drapers have ever carried the art gene. “Our daddy ran a stave mill, which is about as opposite of a curator of sculpture at the Met as you can get,” Rebmann adds.

While Rebmann was outside playing ball with her dad, Draper holed up in his room listening to opera. He checked out every art-related book from the local library, becoming so obsessed with the subject that the elderly librarian had to special order periodicals to feed his voracious appetite.

He slept with encyclopedias and could rattle off facts about obscure artists, even though his family preferred camping to art museum field trips. Not that Lebanon had one, anyway.

By fifth grade, Draper had already determined his future. For a homework assignment in which he had to predict his career, he declared that he was going to be a curator either at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The teacher presented his mom with the paper after he had made good on his promise. “She told Mother that it was the first time she’d ever had a student be so specific about a career and then do it,” Erb recalls. “Usually kids would say they wanted to work on a farm.”

But first, college: His sisters, who both studied early childhood education at Southwest Mis-

souri State, surmise that Draper chose Mizzou because it was the closest university with an art department. As an art history major in the 1960s, Draper would sometimes be the only student in his class.

He succeeded, of course. He excelled in his language classes, too, and earned a prestigious Woodrow Wilson fellowship. But Rebmann jokes that he was lucky to receive his degree, as an algebra professor took pity on his woeful math skills and passed him. With a D-minus.

Draper’s passion for beauty stood out in a family that preferred camping to art museum field trips. His sisters Betsy, left, and Ruth became teachers.

Draper’s 1984 Vatican Museums ID card

Big Apple Bite

It’s easy to invoke the lyrics of “(Theme from) New York, New York” when detailing Draper’s next chapter. Yes, he left Missouri in 1965 to be a part of it, earning a master’s degree at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and later a doctorate. His little-town FALL 2022 33

PROFILE

As a curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Draper traveled extensively, as evidenced by his passport from the late 1960s and early ’70s.

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blues melted away. And in 1969, he took a job as a curatorial assistant at the Met — which would ultimately make him top of the heap/king of the hill/a-number one in his field.

“He was so good at his job because he had a beautiful eye,” Allen says. “When he looked at art, he could be focused and put it in a context. He’d pick up a bronze and judge the quality of its design and modeling. He was also incredibly charming and was really good at rallying the troops.”

Seconds Ken Soehner, the Met librarian, friend and co-worker of 27 years: “Jim worked very hard and took great pleasure from just looking at objects. But No. 1, he loved what he did.”

As a curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Draper traveled extensively. During a trip to Madrid with his sisters and their families, “Jimmy took us to museums and led us past all the tour groups so he could find the specific paintings that he wanted to see,” Erb says. On his own turf, he prided himself on his exhibits and acquisitions and was quick to give private tours to visitors during off-hours.

Erb still remembers her reaction when she ap-

proached the Met’s famous steps in 1978 and saw the massive banner for the “Arts of Napoleon” exhibit hanging outside. “My jaw about hit the street!” she says. “This was his first solo exhibit, and I knew it was a big deal. I didn’t realize it was that big.”

With his longtime partner, fur trade heir Robert Isaacson, Draper also established the IsaacsonDraper Foundation that enabled the department to purchase objects, sponsor museum exhibitions and put on concerts. Exulting in the good life, “He bought a coffee table that cost $45,000,” Rebmann says. “I was an elementary school teacher and my salary was $8,000!” She notes that he would even buy a first-class plane ticket for his pug.

Yet he was deeply proud of his Missouri roots.

“Jim was very attached to his background,” Soehner says. “He was happy to have his experiences growing up in Lebanon and was always positive and good-natured about it.” If anything, his humble beginnings helped him become a popular figure within the sophisticated hub of his universe: “He had an important job in an important place, but he never wore his rank on his sleeve.”

H E N N Y G A R F U N K E L ; PA S S P O R T: C O U R T E S Y F A M I LY O F J A M E S D R A P E R

“ Jim was happy to have his experiences growing up in Lebanon and was always positive and good-natured about it.

He had an important job in an important place, but he never wore his rank on his sleeve.”

In the early 1990s, Harper’s Bazaar published an Hour Town feature, including a photo of Draper, that touted the Met as a date destination in New York City. But Draper knew the Met was a dream destination since he was in fifth grade when he declared that he was going to be a curator either at the Met or the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

GETTY IMAGES

A Great Legacy

Draper eventually did come home to Missouri in 2019 so his family could take care of him as he lay sick with cancer. Upon his death that November, nobody in his inner circle was surprised that he left 37 pieces of his personal collection to the Met as well as his sizeable fortune. “He didn’t have any children, so the museum was like his baby,” Erb says. “He really loved it.”

And his colleagues knew it. That’s why they prioritized purchasing the one-of-the-kind Italian Renaissance-era roundel. Crafted by Italian goldsmith and sculptor Cavalli, who worked for the Gonzaga court in Mantua, it’s embellished with gilding and silver inlay. Allen explains that the bronze roundel is extra-exquisite because it was made to be hung on a wall like a painting (as opposed to being a free-standing sculpture). It’s also derived from a direct and unique cast and features a complicated composition of Roman mythology figures Mars, Venus, Vulcan and Cupid.

Despite Draper’s enormous spend limit at the auction back in 2003, he was outbid by a Saudi prince. “It became clear at the auction that he was bidding against somebody for whom money meant nothing,” Allen says. The roundel stayed out of sight for more than a decade, save for the two years that he lent it to the Victoria and Albert

Museum in London. In 2019, five years after the sheikh’s death, his son decided to sell it.

Draper never did speak of the object that slipped from his grasp, by the way. But he never forgot about it. Allen says that when she helped clean out his office, she found the ill-fated Christie’s auction catalog. His handwritten forensic-like observations were scrawled all over the margins.

“It told you everything you needed to know about Jim,” she says.

And now that the roundel is on view to all Met visitors, it’s a fitting coda for someone who, despite his posh surroundings, liked to think of himself as just a man from Missouri who followed his dream. “He’s a real success story,” says Rebmann.

“We’re all terribly proud of him.” M

Draper with Michelangelo’s “Young Archer” (aka Cupid).

Three of Draper’s exhibition books

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RESEARCH

Sleeping Beauties and Precision Health MizzouForward’s first faculty hire wants to understand one of the central mysteries of life itself.

A

Story by Stephen Ornes, MS ’03 • Photo by Scott Schaefer, BJ ’04 woman is born with about a million egg cells, which are all she’ll ever have. They remain dormant for decades until, somehow, some of them wake up to produce mature eggs one at a time. Although researchers understand the process in broad strokes, how that happens, exactly, remains something of a medical mystery. To Lei Lei, a reproductive biologist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, it is the most remarkable thing about how life persists.

“I call them sleeping beauties,” Lei says. “I don’t see any other biological events this beautiful.”

The overarching goal of Lei’s work is to understand the entire system, starting from birth.

This year, Lei became the first faculty member recruited to Columbia as part of MizzouForward, the university’s ambitious $1.5 billion plan to accelerate research. Announced last November, the program includes the hiring of a planned 150 new faculty members, upgrades to existing research facilities and support for an assortment of educational opportunities.

One of MizzouForward’s central areas is precision health — the idea that a better understanding of genes, cells and environments can inform personalized treatment for health conditions. Research like Lei’s directly contributes to that understanding. “We need to know the exact mechanisms of how cells work to treat disease in a precise manner,” she says.

Lei’s projects span the reproductive timeline.

She wants to know how the ovary forms during the

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fetal stage and what genetic and environmental factors can interrupt that process. “Understanding how ovary formation is interrupted is key to early diagnosis and prevention of many female reproductive issues,” she says. Some cancer treatments pose a risk to a developing fetus. “If we can find a way to protect those egg cells from being damaged by chemotherapy, that would be a tremendous contribution to female cancer patients.”

Lei also studies cellular mechanisms that lead to ovarian cancer. Egg cells are in constant communication with surrounding cells, but before menopause, the egg cells start to die off quickly.

“When the other ovarian cells lose those signals, how do they behave? Do they contribute to the onset of cancer?” she asks.

Understanding how cancer forms at the cellular level could inspire new approaches to early detection, prevention and treatment, she says.

To investigate these mechanisms, Lei and her collaborators use a variety of tools, including single-cell genomic sequencing (which can reveal cell-specific markers and show the influence of mutations), experiments with mouse models and human cells, and sophisticated computer models.

But putting all those pieces together requires both cutting-edge technology and an interdisciplinary effort — two things at the heart of MizzouForward.

“There are many opportunities to work with experts in other fields like drug discovery and data science,” she says. “Mizzou already has a really strong reproductive biology program in OB/ GYN and in animal science, and I think this is the best place to push research to the next level.” M

FEATURE

FALL 2022 37

The Quad Goes Retro

E

arly photographs of the Quad betray a botanical austerity. It was all about the buildings those generations ago. Perhaps only the grayheads who trod Francis Quadrangle in the 1950s could recall what it looks once again, largely bereft of tree cover. The pin oaks most alumni have known, of late aged and failing, were felled this summer for the safety of passersby. With that, our beloved sylvan yard had its first shave in the better part of a century. The last time was back in the winter of 1947 when an ice storm shattered a rank of elms ringing the Quad.

We all bemoan the loss. There was comfort in the beauty, cool in the shade and luminous color in fall at leaf turn. It wasn’t just

A drone’s-eye image, made in August, shows replacement oak trees along the eastern (left) edge of Francis Quadrangle. The rest are scheduled to be planted this fall.

The pin oaks that had long presided over the Quad were taken down for safety reasons over the summer.

38 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

the squirrels that lost their nests — those mighty stems were ever-ready backrests for reading or informal colloquy.

Yet consider what a walk on Francis Quadrangle offers now.

M.F. Bell’s elegant layout and architecture retake center stage.

The scale has recalibrated. Views have re-emerged for the first time in decades. Bell’s grand brick-and-stone structures are every inch a match for the big ideas pinging their labs and classrooms. The quality and significance of the buildings and spaces between have landed the Quad district a coveted spot on the National Register of Historic Places. With that in mind, we take a look at images of Francis Quadrangle going back well over a century. — Dale Smith, BJ ’88 More on the new trees: showme.missouri.edu/2022/planting-a-legacy

CAMPUS

A E R I A L : M I K E B O L E S ; M I L I TA R Y PA R A D E : M U A R C H I V E S C : 0 /4 6 / 6 2 ; A C A D E M I C H A L L : M U A R C H I V E S C : 0 /4 7/ 2

Cadets parade down the Quad circa 1907. The annual military parade celebrates the university’s foundation as a land-grant institution.

This circa 1875 illustration, though not technically of the Quad, offers a sense of the rustic surroundings.

FALL 2022 39

CAMPUS

Top, the circa 1915 ivy-covered buildings of Francis Quadrangle in panorama. Above, a 1949 ice storm decimated elm trees, which made way for the pin oaks that were felled this summer.

Hard to say who is enjoying the Quad more — pet or person — in this 1977 Savitar photo.

On Oct. 23, 2010, ESPN’s College GameDay rolled into Columbia, and a crush of Tiger fans jammed into the Quad near the show’s set. The football team responded with an upset over No. 1 Oklahoma.

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FALL 2022 41

PA N O R A M A : S TAT E H I S TO R I C A L SOCIET Y OF MISSOURI; STORM: 1949 S AV I TA R ; C O LU M N S : 1 9 7 7 S AV I TA R : 2 0 1 0 G A M E DAY: S H A N E E P P I N G

GRIDIRON THIS YEAR’S SQUAD IS LONG ON FRATERNITY. CAN THAT BE THE ROUTE TO VICTORY? STORY BY TONY REHAGEN, BA, BJ ’01

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TIGER FOOTBALL 2022

Last spring, Javon Foster walked into the Missouri football locker room and saw something different in his teammates.

The incoming redshirt senior was reporting for his fifth season as a Tiger offensive lineman, and in that half-decade, he had seen players, trainers, coaches and even a head coach come and go. But this time, there was a distinctive feeling, something the veteran had never felt during his time at Mizzou.

“These guys actually want to play for each other and build and become better,” Foster says. “It’s like a brotherhood.”

Jaylon Carlies noticed it, too. “I’ve met a lot of fun people in my time,” says the junior defensive back. “But sometimes it just doesn’t feel like a family in the locker room. This year feels the best in terms of unity.”

Unity in college locker rooms, these days, is more elusive than ever. In 2018, the NCAA introduced the transfer portal, which enables student-athletes to switch schools without having to sit out a year. Whereas previously teams had to assimilate only a handful of transfers along with incoming freshman, now dozens of student-athletes were free to jump from school to school. Last offseason, there were 950 undergrad transfers and 477 graduate transfers in football alone, up from 2020’s 587 and 309, respectively. This offseason, the Tigers welcomed more than a dozen newcomers via the portal and said goodbye

to about the same number. With all this year-to-year tumult, it can be difficult to maintain any sort of team culture — much less a positive one.

Any coach will tell you that all the top-down goals, standards and expectations don’t mean much without players who embody those principles on and off the field. “Players have to buy in,” says Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz. “They have to see the value in what we’re preaching. Anytime you’re welcoming in a large number of new players, you need strong locker-room presences to assimilate the group quickly.”

Those strong presences come from players like Foster and Carlies — stalwarts who don’t necessarily get the recognition on game day but who have nonetheless bought into the program, worked hard and emerged as leaders through voice and action. And a football team is a particularly unwieldy body.

Comprised of more than 100 players divided and subdivided into various units on offense and defense and special teams, each must function as an individual and also mesh with the larger squad.

Here are some of the 2022 leaders and some of the ways they keep the Tigers working as one.

P H OTO S C O U RT E S Y M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S

OFFENSIVE LINE

Of all units that comprise a football team, none has to work together as seamlessly as the O-line. Together, the five of them rely on one another to pick up blitzes, block for running schemes and protect the quarterback.

“It’s vital that those five guys work in unison, or there’s no chance for the offense to be competitive,” Drinkwitz says.

Since Javon Foster arrived from Detroit in 2018, he’s seen the group go through its share of growing pains. Despite Foster’s quiet demeanor, the All-SEC Honorable Mention, who started every game last year at left tackle, has emerged as a journeyman’s role model.

Foster will line up beside Connor Wood, a grad-student guard who transferred from Montana State in 2020. Despite starting his career elsewhere, Wood has become a vocal leader, whether it’s in the locker room, sitting together at meals on the second floor of the Show Me Club or at a Saturday BBQ at the home of offensive line Coach Marcus Johnson. O-liners, he says, cannot be selfish.

Success there requires selfless sacrifice. “We are one.”

Javon Foster, Senior Detroit, Mich.

Connor Wood Graduate Student Meridian, Idaho

FALL 2022 43

TIGER FOOTBALL 2022

WIDE RECEIVERS

Compared to the relative anonymity of the offensive line, wide receivers often come off as more self-reliant. And when Tauskie Dove arrived in 2018 from Denton, Texas, he was ready to jump right in, start making plays, win games and have fun — until he was benched, redshirting his freshman year.

“It was a reality check,” he says. “There were older guys who were stronger, had been on the field and in the film room. I learned you have to work for your spot and out-compete whoever is in front of you.”

Now a redshirt junior who played in all 13 games last year, Drinkwitz calls Dove “Mr. Dependable,” the veteran who can mentor young receivers like Luther Burden, Mekhi Miller and Ja’Marion Wayne, who are coming in with a lot of media hype. “When I first came, it was about winning and having fun,” Dove says. “But now it’s about brotherhood and bringing the edge every day.”

Tauskie Dove, Senior Denton, Texas

DEFENSIVE LINE

Even though he lines up on the opposite side of the ball, defensive tackle Darius Robinson believes his unit is every bit as in sync as the O-line. And as a true senior from Southfield, Michigan, who has battled through injuries to play all four years at Mizzou, Robinson has taken it upon himself to lead. He does so formally as a delegate to the SEC StudentAthlete Leadership Council and informally as a facilitator of card games, dinners out at Hoss’s and video game sessions.

Robinson says leadership entails holding himself and teammates accountable where it matters most: on the practice field. “We’re out there sweating on those super-hot days, when we don’t think we can get through it,” he says. “We get through it together.”

44 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Darius Robinson Senior Southfield, Mich.

LINEBACKERS

Redshirt senior Chad Bailey has powered through a career plagued with injuries to establish his position as a leader of the linebacking crew in the training room and on the field. He has also drawn on his upbringing to set an example off the field. While raising him in Missouri City, Texas, Bailey’s mother also devoted herself to being a foster parent for children who needed a place to live. Now, Bailey uses his name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities to sell T-shirts with his face on them to raise money for Coyote Hill, a foster care community that helps children find a home. “He’s a guy who has worked his way into becoming a leader in the locker room and in the community,” Drinkwitz says. (See sidebar for more on NIL.)

The Business of Recruiting

Chad Bailey Senior Missouri City, Texas

DEFENSIVE BACKS

P H OTO S C O U RT E S Y M I Z Z O U AT H L E T I C S

It’s easy to talk about sacrifice for the team. But Jaylon Carlies did more than just talk. Highly recruited out of high school as a wide receiver, he agreed to switch sides of the ball and become a defensive back. And his teammates in that backfield value his example.

“We all trust each other back there,” Carlies says. “We know what we have to do. If you mess up, your teammates got your back.” M

Jaylon Carlies Junior Orlando, Fla.

When it comes to recruiting top high school football talent to Mizzou, particularly that from Missouri, some part of the pitch has always centered on business. Coaches have naturally had to sell MU as a place where a young student-athlete can start a career — whether it’s on the football field or in another walk of life.

But the calculus of recruiting has changed drastically in recent months, bringing money into the equation much earlier in the players’ evolution. That’s because, in 2021, the NCAA instituted a policy enabling college athletes to benefit from use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) on things like commercials, apparel and other endorsements. The state of Missouri followed a month later as one of the first to pass an NIL law (SB 718), and the legislature recently amended the law to allow state institutions to guide student-athletes and help them take advantage of the new opportunities.

At big schools, this means big money — Alabama quarterback Bryce Young has a reported NIL value of more than $3 million — but most students make between $1,000 and $10,000 a year. “Before, recruiting was more about the right fit and development and preparing yourself for an opportunity in the NFL,” says Mizzou football Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz. “Now, it’s about business opportunities that will present themselves right now.”

For instance, Mizzou has already moved forward on projects that will produce Topps and Fanatics trading cards of Tiger athletes and Nike jerseys for current football players, who will receive a portion of the sales. And it’s not all dollar signs for players: There is also an educational component through a collaboration between the athletics department and the academic units of journalism, law and business to train students how to protect and maximize their NIL. Some athletes, such as linebacker Chad Bailey, have already used the opportunity to raise awareness and money for local charities (See main story).

Although the quick action of the state and school would seem to give Mizzou a recruiting edge, especially when it comes to other schools in the SEC, Drinkwitz says there is still much work to be done in the NIL arena to make MU more of a destination. There is a broad statewide market, including two top-50 media markets in St. Louis and Kansas City (not to mention Springfield, Columbia and Jefferson City), that could present ample exposure and endorsement opportunities. “If we want to win championships, we have to be one of the best in the country in NIL opportunities for our student-athletes,” Drinkwitz says. “And for a lot of local and statewide companies, now is the time to support MU, not just in football and basketball, but in all sports.”

FALL 2022 45

Meet Chef Billy Parisi, then check out his recipes for great tailgate fare as well as videos on how to prepare them.

46 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

HOMECOMING 2022

Tastier

Tailgating

C O U R T E S Y B I L LY PA R I S I

Story by Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98

on’t tell anyone, but Billy Parisi’s culinary journey started illegally. This was in St. Louis back in the ’90s, when a family friend hired him to wash dishes in his restaurant. He was just 13. As young Billy scrubbed dirty dishes in the kitchen, he became enthralled by the beautiful plates leaving it. “I loved seeing all these colors on a white dish,” he says. “I’m thinking, ‘Golly, that’s beautiful art right there.’ ” Now Parisi, BS ’07, is doing the creating. A classically trained chef, he uses his decades of experience to make how-to videos of recipes so delectable that viewers may be tempted to eat their screens. Parisi creates all the recipes himself — he estimates “close to a thousand” since 2009 — and shoots from a studio close to his home in Crown Point, Indiana. He does his own producing, shooting and editing. “I know how to speak well about food and make food look pretty because of my background,” he says. “I really just combined the two talents and homed in on that niche.”

Parisi earned his chef stripes as a graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona. But he credits his time at Mizzou with helping him put all the professional pieces together.

When he enrolled at MU at age 22, he was already burned out from logging impossible hours at restaurants. He wanted a new direction. While taking a television studio production elective during his sophomore year, he sat in the director’s chair and had his aha moment. “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is incredible,’ ” he says. Parisi changed his major from Spanish to communications the next day.

He moved to Chicago after graduation and started rolling.

For years, Parisi created content “for every food brand you could

think of” and did his videos as a side hustle. The pandemic proved to be a game changer: Knowing that everyone was stuck at home and experimenting in the kitchen, he ventured into his studio more frequently and taught fundamental techniques, such as smoking and barbecuing, via his YouTube channel, Facebook and website, BillyParisi.com. Perhaps not surprisingly, his lesson on artisan bread has racked up 1.8 million views on YouTube.

Now solely focused on expanding his brand, he films five days a week and boasts, “I’ve never had the Sunday blues.” M

Let’s Get Cooking Hungry to see Chef Parisi preparing his tailgating faves — pork steaks and gooey butter cake? Scanning the QR code takes you directly to the videos.

FALL 2022 47

Homecoming Captains Chris Staley

Karsen Idelman

Matthew Rothermich

St. Louis Nursing

Wood Dale, Illinois Journalism

Columbia Accounting

Self-description: Silly, tender, calm On the Homecoming theme: A fun, actionable way to spread Homecoming spirit Favorite thing about Homecoming: Seeing the streets filled with people in the early hours the morning of the parade Favorite class: Microbiology Biggest surprise about college life: How little I know about cooking Ultimate dinner companion: Gordon Ramsay Have always wanted to: Dunk a basketball A casual friend would never guess: I was homeschooled growing up.

First purchase after winning the lottery: A really nice grill First crush: Taylor Swift Obsession: Dr. Pepper Superpower I’d like to have: Teleportation Best way to relax: On my couch watching the St. Louis Cardinals

Self-description: Loud, independent, passionate Why I got involved in Homecoming: The magic in the air when Homecoming rolls around — I wanted to be one of the magicians who pulls it off.

Proudest of: Coming to Mizzou knowing no one and looking back on the friendships I’ve made Favorite class: Social media and audience strategy Biggest surprise about college life: Dining halls aren’t that bad.

Most exciting experience: Being there when we beat LSU in 2020 Ultimate dinner companion: Betty White A casual friend would never guess: I was a competitive dancer for 16 years.

First purchase after winning the lottery: The Mizzou football helmet cart

Self-description: Charismatic, driven, personable Most challenging things about being a director: Balancing schedules and adding new spins on old traditions Favorite class: Business and Society Biggest surprise about college life: Your college professors are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Have always wanted to: Hit a hole-in-one Glad I did it but wouldn’t do it again: Hike in Glacier National Park in snow up to my hip I splurge on: A meal at Murry’s First purchase after winning the lottery: G-Wagon because that is what Coach Drinkwitz drives Biggest weakness: Ice cream Dream job: General manager of the St. Louis Cardinals First crush: Truman the Tiger

48 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

CJ HARRIS

Three student leaders guide a larger group as they bring this year’s theme to life: Let’s paint the town gold!

HOMECOMING 2022: PAINT THE TOWN GOLD

Homecoming Events

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Come celebrate with us! Mizzou’s Homecoming is one of the best anywhere.

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Football Game vs.

Vanderbilt Time TBA, Memorial Stadium Root for your Mizzou Tigers as they take on Vanderbilt’s Commodores, and hang around at halftime to learn who is crowned 2022 Homecoming royalty.

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Oct. 22 Parade Time TBA, Campus and Downtown Columbia Tiger pride struts through the streets of campus and downtown CoMo. Watch live on facebook.com/MizzouAlumni.

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Step Show Time TBA, Jesse Auditorium National Panhellenic Council organizations compete to see who can stroll and step the best.

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Oct. 21 Campus Decorations 6 to 9 p.m., Greektown Stroll through Greektown to see fraternities’ and sororities’ themed decorations.

CHERRY ST.

Spirit Rally 8:30 p.m., Traditions Plaza Get charged up for the game with Truman the Tiger, Mizzou Spirit Squads and Marching Mizzou. Watch live on facebook.com/MizzouAlumni.

TIGER AV

Oct. 17–19 Talent Show 6:30 to 9 p.m., Jesse Auditorium Mizzou students are a talented bunch. Watch them sing, dance and joke in person or catch the highlights at mizzou.com.

Oct. 20 Tiger Trot 5K Time and place of your choice Strap on some sneakers to join this virtual 5K run wherever you are. Recruit friends and post the moment on Instagram. Preregister by Oct. 2. Details at tinyurl.com/MIZZOUrun

PROVIDENCE

Oct. 10–13 Homecoming Blood Drive 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Hearnes Center Donate blood at one of the nation’s largest college-based drives. Register to give at Mizzou with donateblood.com or find a partnering location at mizzou.com.

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Show your pride every day with the ultimate fan accessory!

Proceeds from plates support student scholarships.

ORDER TODAY AT MIZZOU.COM/PLATES Texas-based Tigers can purchase Mizzou Texas plates. Check out the link above!

FALL 2022 49

Transformational Talent

In his new role as director of medical informatics for NextGen Precision Health, Dr. Russ Waitman will be leading cross-campus efforts to gather important clinical data and allow our researchers to access this data more quickly and effectively. As a national leader in medical informatics and a top researcher in his field, Dr. Waitman knows excellence in health care requires a strong evidence base and research that moves efficiently from bench to bedside – and none of that can happen without high-quality data.

Thanks to funds available through the Chancellor’s Fund for Excellence, Mizzou was able to act quickly to recruit Dr. Waitman to join the team providing leading-edge research and world-class care. Your contribution can help us continue to recruit researchers as talented as Dr. Waitman.

Whether it’s a star faculty member or a unique research request, leadership can leverage this unrestricted fund when time is of the essence. Help us ensure Mizzou remains nimble enough to compete and thrive against the largest of institutions — no matter what the future holds.

Support the Chancellor’s Fund for Excellence with your gift today.

SCAN ME 50 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

tinyurl.com/MUChancellorsFund

25

%

OFF

ONE MIZZOU GEAR OR GIFT ITEM

CODE: YOURMIZZOUSTORE Expires Dec. 31, 2023. One time use.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEMBERS SAVE *10% DAILY *Valid on Mizzou gear only. Not applicable to tech.

MU alumni qualify for educational discounts on Apple® , Dell and more. Order online today.

FREE SHIPPING on all orders $99+

themizzoustore.com/t-tigertech

The Mizzou Store is owned and operated by the University of Missouri. Every purchase you make FALL 2022 51faculty, at The Mizzou Store supports students, staff and campus initiatives.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Jeff Vogel is the Mizzou Alumni Association’s newest volunteer president.

He is chief financial officer at Walsworth Publishing.

52 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Jeff Vogel, the Mizzou Alumni Association’s 2022–23 volunteer president, will move the association forward by drawing on and enhancing its many strengths — including the MU student experience. “An important way to ensure graduates become active alumni is by making sure they have a high-quality experience as students,” he says.

Vogel, BS Acc, ’90, credits his own time on campus with his current commitment to the association. “I am thankful that I had wonderful years at Mizzou — not only for the tremendous education I received but also for the relationships I established and the networks I formed that still benefit me today,” he says.

His Mizzou story began long before his arrival on campus. His father, LeRoy, BS BA ’66, the first of his family to go to college, studied accounting at MU. “That laid the foundation for me, my brother

and my sister to attend Mizzou.” It also opened doors for other students. In 2010, the three siblings honored their father by creating the LeRoy Vogel Family Endowed Business Scholarship. To date, about 10 students have received the award, which is available to Bowling Green High School graduates accepted to the Trulaske College of Business.

For the past two decades, Vogel has served as chief financial officer for the Missouri-based Walsworth Publishing Co. Leveraging that business experience on behalf of the alumni association, Vogel has been working with MAA volunteers and staff to develop a three-year strategic plan. Their work will be presented to the alumni association board later this fall. As the plan takes shape, one thing is certain: The association’s future will grow out of its commitment to improving the student and alumni experience.

ROB HILL

Supporting Mizzou Is a Family Affair

Class Notes 1960

Robert Tad Perry, MA ’67, PhD ’72, of Fort Pierre, S.D., was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

HSteven “Ed” Musen, BJ ’68, MA ’69, of Creve Coeur, Mo., wrote Marketing Beyond Compare: How I Built Imo’s and Other Iconic Brands (Mira Digital Publishing, 2022).

1970

HMark Blackmore, BS Ed ’76, M Ed ’81, of Wright City, Mo., is a trumpet player in the Saint Louis Wind Symphony.

HArthur Holliday, BJ ’76, of St. Louis was inducted into the Missouri Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

Memories of Mizzou

MICHAEL CALI

Of music’s many magical qualities, today I’m thinking about memory — about how hearing a song can transport us back to a particular time and place. Somehow, we are there, years younger perhaps, emotions and all. I ride the time machine in the dog days of every summer when I come within earshot of a Marching Mizzou rehearsal. Suddenly, I’m a student again making my way back and forth past Loeb Hall on a blistering August afternoon.

Marching Mizzou, affectionately known as M2, is a campus icon. During my time at the university, they’ve also provided my soundtrack for football Saturdays throughout the autumn season. This year, they will represent the Mizzou Family by appearing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an American tradition (Check NBC listings around turkey day for the schedule). M2’s director, Amy Knopps, BS Ed ’01, is a band alumna herself. The trip she has arranged to New York is one more brick in the band’s proud tradition of performing at major venues around the world — think St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin and a soccer match in London’s legendary Wembley Stadium. I can’t wait to see M2 appear before a worldwide audience in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

A final note: This is the last issue for MIZZOU magazine’s Managing Editor, Dale Smith, BJ ’88. I’ve had the great fortune to work with Dale for many years, and I’m grateful for his care and feeding of the magazine.

Telling stories about the university is a passion for him, and he’s done it very well. Godspeed, Dale — MIZ! TODD MCCUBBIN, M ED ’95 Email: mccubbint@missouri.edu Twitter: @MizzouTodd L IF E M EM BER

David J. Young, BJ ’84, of Arlington, Va., is the U.S. ambassador to Malawi.

HFaye Fairchild, BSN ’85, MS ’89, DNP ’19, of Benton City, Mo., was published in Nursing Education Perspectives for her single-author research “Increasing Nursing Student Success With Early Individual Remediation.”

HLaura Pickard Meyer, BA ’85, BS Ed ’86, of Glenview, Ill., is president of the American Podiatric Medical Association.

Jacqueline Cottrell, MA ’89, of Charlottesville, Va., is vice president of communications, board engagement and events for the National Fisheries and Wildlife Foundation.

Esfandiar “Esse” Baharmast, BS ChE ’77, of Golden, Colo., was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

1990

HHWilliam Greenblatt, BS Ed ’77, of St. Louis was the first photographer inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Minkah Makalani, BA ’96, of Baltimore is the director of Johns Hopkins Center for Africana Studies.

Brad J. Smith, BS Ed ’91, of Lawson, Mo., was inducted into the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame.

HMarvin Goodwin, BJ ’78, of Pontiac, Mich., was inducted into the Michigan chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

HHJanell SouciePittman, BS BA ’98, of Johnston, Iowa, was named one of the 50 innovative chief digital officers to know by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Randell Scott Beck, BJ ’79, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

Jody Sowell, MA ’98, of St. Louis is president of the Missouri History Museum.

1980

Chris Balsman, BS ME ’99, of Valencia, Calif., is director of rides and safety for Universal Studios Hollywood.

HLisa Blackmore, BM ’81, of Wright City, Mo., is a trumpet player in the Saint Louis Wind Symphony.

executive director, Mizzou Alumni Association

H M I Z ZO U A LUMNI A SSO CIATIO N ANNUAL MEM BER | HH

HHMark Ayers, BS Ag ’77, of Hamilton, Mo., retired after 41 years with the Hamilton Bank, serving 22 years as president.

HHMichael Melton, BS EE ’81, JD ’84, of Dunn Loring, Va., received the 2022 Missouri Honor Award recognizing his outstanding contributions to the Mizzou College of Engineering.

FALL 2022 53

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP Membership is more than just the gift you give yourself — it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Each time you renew, you support all the things you love about Mizzou, while rewarding yourself with another year to enjoy all the benefits that membership brings.

As a member, you’re joining thousands of Tigers in making a positive impact on the University of Missouri. Thank you for helping us make Mizzou stronger!

Visit Mizzou.com/Benefits to discover the many rewards of membership.

Not sure if you’re due for renewal?

You can check your membership details by calling us at (573) 882-6611 or emailing us at maa@mizzou.com.

Renewals extend your active membership for a full year; you’ll never be penalized for renewing early.

54 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Engage with memb ers, ne your fellow ar and far Save at local national reta and ilers Connect with mater and s your alma tay up to dat e Support our st campus and udents, traditions

RENEW TODAY!

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Bonded by Heart Surgery As Richard Schultz, MD ’60, paged through the Winter 2022 issue of MIZZOU magazine, he saw an item about Hugh E. Stephenson, BA, BS Med ’43, performing the first open-heart surgery at University Hospital in 1958. That cast Schultz’s memory back to 1959 and a defining moment of his time as a medical student. He spent three sleepless nights on duty at the bedside of a tiny, curly haired postop patient of Stephenson’s, and she made such an impression on him that he kept in touch for decades afterward.

Schultz rummaged through a box of keepsakes in his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and finally found a letter from 1981 that included a phone number. It seemed like a long shot that Sandy McQuerry, MSW ’86, would still have the same number, but he dialed the digits anyway.

In Kansas City, Missouri, McQuerry’s phone rang.

“I saw on my caller ID it said ‘Richard Schultz,’ and I thought, ‘I know that name,’ ” McQuerry says.

They caught up on each other’s lives and discussed the event that had brought them together. As a 2-year-old, she needed surgery to repair a ventricular septal defect — a hole in her heart. Schultz, then a third-year medical student, was assigned to tend to her basic needs in the hospital in the days before and after surgery. McQuerry, whose maiden name is Rinkert, didn’t want much to do with him at first, but he won her over with crushed ice and chocolate milk. After surgery, he was her heart monitor in the days before electronic heart monitors.

“I remember I had my chair right by her bedside, and I think I spent three nights there with my finger on her radial pulse to make sure things were OK,” Schultz says.

Later that summer, Schultz and his parents visited the Rinkerts in Kansas City, and the Rinkerts returned the favor by visiting the Schultzes in New Franklin, Missouri. After graduation, Schultz went to Florida for surgical residency and, after a two-year stint in the Navy, began a long career as a general and trauma surgeon. He did not see McQuerry again, but the families continued to maintain contact through phone calls, letters and Christmas greetings. McQuerry’s mother saved those letters and passed them on to Sandy after her death. A letter Schultz penned to McQuerry’s parents in August 1959 summed up why he never forgot that curly haired girl.

C O U R T E S Y R I C H A R D S C H U LT Z

2000

HHWes Milligan, BA, BJ ’01, of Memphis, Tenn., is director of internal communications for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

HBarbara Buffaloe, BS HE ’02, MS ’07, of Columbia, Mo., is mayor of the city of Columbia.

Richard Schultz, MD ’60, will never forget this 2-year-old patient who needed surgery to repair a ventricular septal defect.

“Believe me, that Friday morning and the following 3 days and nights were just as long for me as they were for you,” Schultz wrote. “But I must truthfully say that when Sandy twice rolled over on Saturday and reached up and put her arm around my neck, that was the best ‘thank-you’ I have ever and will ever receive for anything.” — Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92

Michael LaPlaca, BJ ’02, of Nashville directs digital and social media with the Nashville Predators.

son, BA ’02, of St. Louis is director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Saint Louis University.

HHKristin Peterson, BJ, BA ’02, of Richardson, Texas., is senior vice president of marketing for Chowly.

Anitra Schulte, BJ ’02, of Geneva, Ill., wrote Dancing with Daddy (Two Lions, 2021).

Chalana Scales-Fergu-

H M I Z ZO U A LUMNI A SSO CIATIO N ANNUAL MEM BER | HH

L IF E M EM BER

Joseph Moore, BJ ’06, of Columbia, Md., is

design editor for The Washington Post.

Commerce’s Virginia Fry Rising Star Award.

Jeremy Woodall, BS BA ’06, of Batesville, Ark., is a commander and executive officer in the U.S. Navy.

2010

HHRachel Anderson, BGS ’08, of Springfield, Mo., received the Springfield Area Chamber of

Danielle Washington, BSW ’10, MSW ’11, of Florissant, Mo., is chief program officer for Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.

HJordon Griffin, BS FW ’13, of Albia, Iowa, is a FALL 2022 55

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

NAVAJO STORIES Picture it: A recent Mizzou grad is logging hours in a Pfizer call center in St. Louis. He begins to doodle on scrap pieces of paper nearby. Those scribblings lead to sketches, which lead to an acclaimed illustrated children’s book, which leads to another one.

By 2022, Daniel Vandever, BJ ’09, is a freshly minted recipient of the American Library Association’s American Indian Youth Literature Award. “It was quite the surprise!” he says.

Vandever, a Navajo from Haystack, New Mexico, originally set out to inspire his young nephew and nieces with stories about important social topics set in “Navajo Nation.” But he quickly became aware of the opportunity at hand. Noting the dearth of contemporary Native American stories, “I realized the books could be a positive tool in starting discussions and working toward change,” he says.

His first effort, 2017’s Fall in Line, Holden!, was set in a boarding school and promoted individuality amid assimilation. His new book, Herizon, focuses on how females can use intergenerational strength to empower one another. It’s wordless and completely visual “because I noticed when I’d do readings in schools that a lot of kids were intimidated by literacy,” he says. “This way, nothing will be misinterpreted.” Vandever, who earned a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of New Mexico, also worked in the community for a decade as a teacher and communications director at Navajo Technical University.

Although he just moved from New Mexico to Arizona, he points out that he’s never leaving his roots.

“It’s part of our culture that you always return to where your umbilical cord is buried,” he says. “So I always believed it was my destiny to go back and help my people.” — Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98

HMichael Sam, BS ’13, of Dallas is head coach of the Barcelona Dragons in the European Football League.

HHCraig Oliverius, MPA ’16, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., is fire chief of the Isle of Palms Fire Department.

Neal Fandek, M Ed ’18, of Columbia, Mo., wrote Peter Pike and the Silver Shepherd (Full Moon Publishing, 2022).

56 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

HHRobin Smith, Ed D ’19, of Jackson, Mo., is an appointed commissioner to the Missouri Community Service Commission board.

Weddings

John Schad, BS ’09, and Laura Cary, BS Acc, M Acc ’11, of Chillicothe, Mo., April 30, 2022.

HHMitchell Greenblatt, BS BA ’11, and Laura Stolberg of St. Louis May 14, 2022.

Corey Jonak, BS ’16, MD ’22, and HHKelly Dough-

erty, BS ’18, MD ’22, of St. Louis, Mo., May 28, 2022.

8, 2022, at 93. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi.

Deaths

HLaurance Hyde Jr., BA ’50, JD ’52, of Reno, Nev., April 25, 2022, at 94.

He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and served in the U.S. Army.

HHDonald Martin, BA ’48, of Kansas City, Mo., March 29, 2022, at 97. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta and served in the U.S. Navy.

HHRuby G. Moss, BS BA ’49, of Kansas City, Mo., March 29, 2022, at 94. She was a member of Alpha Phi. HHHarry M. Cornell Jr., BS BA ’50, LL D ’03, of Carthage, Mo., May

HRichard Province, BS BA ’50, of Washington, Ill., May 8, 2022, at 94. He served in the U.S. Marines.

HHJames M. Casey, BS BA ’51, of Tulsa, Okla., March 4, 2022, at 94. He served in the U.S. Air Force.

HHelen-Louise Elliff, BJ ’51, of Carthage, Mo., March 27, 2022, at 92. She was a member of Delta Gamma.

HJames R. Reinhard, BA ’51, JD ’53, of Hannibal, Mo., Nov. 11, 2021, at 91.

Arthur Malcy, BS PA ’53, of Leawood, Kan., April 5, 2022, at 91.

HHOwen Samuel Ard Sr., BS BA ’54, of Colorado Springs, Colo., May 5, 2022, at 90. He was a member of Delta Upsilon and served in the U.S. Army.

H M I Z ZOU ALU M N I ASSOCI ATI ON AN N UAL M EM B ER | HH

L IF E ME MB E R

COURTESY DANIEL VANDEVER

natural resources manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

FALL 2022 57

WELCOME, TRADITIONS CIRCLE MEMBERS Traditions Circle recognizes alumni and friends for their contributions to the Mizzou Traditions Fund. Their support of the Mizzou Traditions Fund preserves the traditions we love and provides scholarships for students.

Mark Bauer Mary Clearman Blew Catherine & Glenn Blumhorst Linda & Larry Burton Julie & David Corley Sara Schmid Denney Deborah & Robert Dolgin Cordelia (Dee) Esry George Ferguson Kate & Robert Fick Jim Fitterling & Alex Lee Sherri & Randy Gallick Edwin Gladbach Karen Grace June & Sam Hamra

Kathy & Steve Hays B.W. Hoecker Pamela & Ralph Hylton Jan & Jim Jackson Randall & Chantelle Kammerdiener Jan & Ron Kessler Joyce & David King Christine Ladd Cheryl & Craig Lalumandier Beth & Dudley McCarter Debbie & Todd McCubbin Sabrina & Eric McDonnell Teresa & Bruce McKinney Mary & Jerome McKinney Virginia & Bruce McMillan

Richard Miller Lisa (Kormanik) & Brian Osgood Karl Lee Perrey Lisa & Frank Rodman Robert Ross Gene A. Schillie Gema & James Simmons Carol & Gary Smith Jean Springer Nancy Staats Cheryl & Joseph Stephens Kate Snider Thrailkill Julie & Jeff Vogel Robin Wenneker

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Join Traditions 58 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Circle today at mizzou.com/traditionsfund | 800-372-6822

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Lucky Seven

Katrina Pon is recently back from Antarctica, where she ran a marathon in freezing temperatures and 40 mph wind gusts.

During her student days at Mizzou, she started running a mile or 3 to get in shape, but things have since escalated: Now 44, she’s run a marathon on all seven continents.

Back in the early 2000s, as Pon, BS Acc, BS BA, M Acc ’99, accompanied a then-boyfriend on runs, she began to wonder what more her body could do. Initially, she trained in isolation: She moved to Toronto for work and didn’t know anyone, so she’d prepare herself and travel to races alone. By 2006, she had completed a half-marathon and a half-Ironman; to date, she has completed nine Ironmans.

Once Pon moved back to St. Louis, she joined a U.S. Masters swim class and a triathlon club. At long last, she had found like-minded, training-focused folks and went on to travel with many of them on “race-cations.”

Fellow racers understand one another in ways nonathletes don’t, Pon says. “I would go out with some of my girlfriends and be tired at 9 p.m. because I had gotten up super early to train.

They don’t get why you have to be away eight or nine hours on a weekend. With my triathlon friends, if we have a party, everybody goes to bed early. We have to get up and work out. We eat the same kinds of foods; we’re adventurous A-types.”

She and husband Aaron Hughes, BS HES ’91, often race together. In fact, he proposed to her in Indiana after a half-Ironman. “He carried the ring all through the bike and the run,” she says.

Pon aims to run a half-marathon in each U.S. state before she turns 50 — so far, she’s up to 32. But mostly, she says, “I really could care less about the race. I only sign up for something if my friends are going, too.” — Sarah Protzman Howlett, BJ ’04

Pin oaks are one of the most short-lived oak species; with a lifespan of 70-90 years, Mizzou’s original trees were considered end-of-life.

Our newly transplanted white oaks have a natural lifespan of over 200 years, and have been growing on MU’s South Farm for 6 years in preparation for their transplantation to our Francis Quadrangle.

Make a gift today to support the Legacy Oaks project, and ensure our campus remains beautiful for decades to come.

B I L L G R E E N B L AT T

SCAN TO GIVE

MIZZOUGIVEDIRECT.MISSOURI.EDU/SUPPORT-LEGACYOAKS 573-882-4240

FALL 2022 59

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

MEET COLUMBIA THROUGH THE EYES OF MO LOUIS RADIO DJ, 102.3 BXR, DISC GOLF ENTHUSIAST Mo Louis is a man of many scenes — music, disc golf, social, culinary, microbrew — and for him, Columbia checks off all the right boxes. Whether it’s catching a live show at Rose Music Hall or trying to beat the world-renowned disc golf course at Harmony Bends, there’s a good chance you’ll find Mo making the most of his Columbia any day of the week. See his story and others at MeetCOMO.com.

BACK TO CAMPUS CHECKLIST Memorize directions from my dorm to Faurot Field

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60 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

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HHColleen Frances Davis, M Ed ’55, of Harrisonville, Mo., Dec. 30, 2021, at 101. She was a teacher for 31 years.

HHWilliam “Bill” Lenox, BA ’55, of St. Louis May 9, 2022, at 92. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Order.

HHPaul Greenberg, BA ’57, MD ’61, of Dallas May 31, 2022, at 87.

Carol Vaughan, BA ’61, MA ’71, of Columbia, Mo., June 8, 2022, at 84. She worked for MU’s Ellis Library for over 43 years.

HHJerry Dean Roberts, BS BA ’62, of Broken Arrow, Okla., Jan. 7, 2022, at 85.

HEugene “Doc” Miekley, BS Ag, DVM ’57, of Purdy, Mo., June 20, 2022, at 88.

HHNaomi Vetter, BS Ed ’62, of Jefferson City, Mo., June 9, 2022, at 81. She was a legislative assistant in the Missouri House of Representatives for 23 years.

HHRuby Long, M Ed ’58, Ed D ’67, of Farmington, Mo., May 9, 2022, at 99.

HMichael Davis, BJ ’64, of Blue Springs, Mo., May 10, 2022, at 80.

Ernest John Roseman, BS Ed ’59, of El Dorado Springs, Mo., Aug. 10, 2021, at 83.

HMichael Ackerley, BS CiE ’65, MS ’67, of Bella Vista, Ark., March 12, 2022, at 78.

HHBill Wyckoff, BS CiE ’59, of San Antonio May 3, 2022, at 85.

HHAlice S. Handelman, BJ ’65, of St. Louis May 16, 2022, at 79.

A

HHJohn Franklin Wells, BSF ’65, of Lebanon, Ore., April 21, 2022, at 81. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 40 years.

HHJames Willis, BS BA ’65, of Tulsa, Okla., April 23, 2022, at 83.

HRaymond Hayes, BS Ed ’66, of Columbia, Mo., April 11, 2022, at 80.

He worked in education for 25 years.

HGerald “Jerry” Oberlag, BS ME ’66, MS ’67, of West Chester, Ohio, May 1, 2022, at 78.

HW. Scott Fry, MA ’69, of Sylvania, Ohio, June 19, 2022, at 76. He was president and CEO of the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio for 37 years.

HBarry Garron, BJ ’71, BA ’72, of Mesa, Ariz., June 23, at 72. He was the chief TV critic for the

great move

As a University of Missouri graduate, you and qualifying family members may be eligible for senior living discounts that can help you get the care you deserve. You could experience a senior living lifestyle with restaurant-style dining, housekeeping, laundry and more, with special savings available for Mizzou alumni.

7.5

% OFF monthly fee/basic service rate*

HDavid Plengemeier, BS BA ’74, of Chesterfield, Mo., April 21, 2022, at 69.

He was a member of Delta Tau Delta.

HHDeborah Johnson, BS Ed ’76, M Ed ’80, of Carterville, Ill., June 3, 2022, at 68.

HHJames “Jim” Ogle Jr., BJ ’80, of Topeka, Kan., March 13, 2022, at 64.

He worked in broadcast journalism for more than 30 years.

HDennis A. Mosier, BA ’81, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Nov. 20, 2021, at 62.

HHWilliam P. Browne, BS Ag ’86, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Feb. 1, 2022, at 62. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and a passionate Mizzou football and basketball fan. Along with his

wife, Nancy, BA, BA ’81, JD ’84, he contributed to scholarships for MU students.

Daniel K. Knight, BS BA ’89, JD ’92, of Columbia, Mo., June 4, 2022, at 55.

He was a member of Beta Theta Pi. HEdgar D. McKinney, PhD ’90, of West Plains, Mo., Oct. 3, 2021, at 86.

He served in the U.S. Army.

HJohn Wilcox, BS ’91, MS ’94, of Columbia, Mo., April 11, 2022, at 78. He served in the U.S. Army.

HHDerin Campbell, BS AgE ’92, of Mexico, Mo., April 7, 2022, at 52.

He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho. Stephen Wyse, BA ’92, JD ’98, of Columbia June 6, 2022, at 55. He served in the U.S. Army.

For more information, call (866) 749-7445 or visit Brookdale.com/mizzoualumni.

for MIZZOU alumni

SENIOR LIVING:

Hollywood Reporter.

Applicable to all discounts: Residents under a Life Care Agreement are not eligible for the discounts. These discounts do not apply to any room, board or services which are paid for all or in part by any state or federally funded program. Discounts are available to Mizzou alumni and their family members, including spouse, adult children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and corresponding in-law or step adult children, siblings, parents, and grandparents through current spouse. Subject to availability. Further restrictions may apply. *Discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale independent living, assisted living, or memory care community admitting under an executed residency agreement.

Discount applies only to the monthly fee/basic service rate, excluding care costs and other fees and is calculated based on the initial monthly fee/basic service rate. **Discount is only applicable to new clients of personal assistance services by a Brookdale agency under an executed service agreement. ***Discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale assisted living or memory care community admitting under an executed respite agreement. Discount applies to the daily rate.

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BY COMMUNITY***

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H M I Z ZO U A LUMNI A SSO CIATIO N ANNUAL MEM BER | HH

L IF E M EM BER

FALL 2022 61

“Those pin oaks were a lot smaller when I was on campus. But they only live 70, maybe 80 years.

I’m nearly as old as they are!” — Bruce Loewenberg, BSF ‘61

A

s a lifelong forester, Bruce Loewenberg’s passion for trees is matched only by his love for his alma mater. When the Mizzou Botanic Garden team made the difficult decision to replace the aging trees on the Francis Quadrangle, Bruce resolved to sponsor one of the 24 new “Legacy Oaks” being planted in their stead. Now, thanks to his charitable gift annuity, Bruce has an investment that’s growing right alongside the new trees — as he puts it, “a win-win for just about everyone.” When creating a charitable gift annuity, your initial gift to Mizzou is invested by the university; based on your age at the time of your gift, you’ll receive a fixed annual income supported by the account for the rest of your life.

Learn more: 1-800-970-9977 | 573-882-0272 | giftplanning@missouri.edu

62 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

Disclaimer: State and federal laws regulate gift annuities, and regulations differ from state to state. The University of Missouri will provide you with a statement disclosing any information required by state and federal regulations governing your agreement. Certain states have specific disclosure requirements for gift annuities: Annuities are subject to regulation by the State of California. Payments under such agreements, however, are not protected or otherwise guaranteed by any government agency or the California Life and Health Insurance Guarantee Association. A charitable gift annuity is not regulated by the Oklahoma Insurance Department and is not protected by a guaranty association affiliated with the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Charitable gift annuities are not regulated by and are not under the jurisdiction of the South Dakota Division of Insurance. Persons should seek the advice of competent counsel when considering an annuity.

The information on this page is for educational purposes only. Consult your financial and tax advisors before making a gift.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS Marchers Make Macy’s

A DV E RT ISI NG I N DE X

Save a slot on your turkey day calendar to watch Marching Mizzou perform in New York City during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Check NBC listings in November to lock in the schedule.

Bank of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 800-932-2775 Brookdale Senior Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 brookdale.com Champion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 champion.com Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau . . . . . . . . . 60 meetCOMO.com Geico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3 geico.com/MyDiscount Les Bourgeois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 missouriwine.com Missouri Soybeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 MOSOY.org Mizzou Advancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50, 62 giving.missouri.edu Mizzou Alumni Association . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 49, 54, 58 mizzou.com Mizzou MBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-4 business.missouri.edu Mizzou Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 themizzoustore.com MU Botanic Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 gardens.missouri.edu MU Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 muhealth.org

Bachelor’s degrees: BS Acc, accounting BS Ag, agriculture BA, arts BS BA, business administration BS Ed, education BFA, fine arts BS FW, fisheries and wildlife BGS, general studies BHS, health sciences BS HE, home economics BS HES, human environmental sciences BJ, journalism BS Med, medicine BSN, nursing BS, science BSW, social work

Bachelor’s degrees in engineering: BS ChE, chemical BS CiE, civil BS CoE, computer BS EE, electrical BS IE, industrial BS ME, mechanical Master’s degrees: M Acc, accounting MS Ag Ed, agricultural education MA, arts M Ed, education MS, science MSW, social work MPA, public affairs

Doctoral degrees: PhD, doctorate EdD, education JD, law MD, medicine DVM, veterinary medicine Did not graduate: Arts, arts and science Bus, business Educ, education Engr, engineering Journ, journalism *For a more detailed list of current degrees, visit catalog.missouri.edu/ degreesanddegreeprograms.

JULIA HANSEN/MISSOURIAN

To advertise in MIZZOU, call MAA at 573-882-6611

DEGREE DESIGNATIONS 101*

FALL 2022 63

SEMPER MIZZOU

After the passage of Title IX in 1972, Alexis Jarrett, center, helped Mizzou launch eight new women’s sports programs.

Growing up in the 1960s, Alexis Jarrett loved sports but always found herself on the fringes. She could keep up with the boys in the sandlots and on the playgrounds, but there were no organized sports for girls. She covered sports for her high school paper in Independence, Kansas, and worked as a sportswriter and sportscaster while she was a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth, but she never got the chance to compete.

That’s just the way it was — but not for much longer.

In 1972, the passage of Title IX — the law banning sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding — meant public universities would soon need to sponsor women’s athletics. Two years later, Jarrett sat before a hiring committee at the University of Missouri. Mizzou was launching eight new women’s sports programs for the 1974–75 school year and needed to find someone who could coach three of them — track, basketball and softball — as well as being an assistant athletics director and sports information director. The salary would be $7,500, about the same as she was making as a high school teacher in Minnesota.

The job description was impossible. The pay was laughable.

She said yes.

“I had a dream my whole life to be able to play,” Jarrett says.

“When I watched all those boys, I wanted to be out there. This was the opportunity to start that dream.”

She arrived at Mizzou in August 1974. She was 26 years old, and her only coaching experience was as a high school assistant coach. She had no players, no equipment, no facilities and no schedules. But she had a knack for making connections with people who could help her navigate this strange new world without spending money, which she did not have.

Jarrett had a tiny office in McKee Gymnasium, where students signed up to become the pioneers of Mizzou women’s athletics. The athletes sold concessions at football games to raise money for uniforms while Jarrett scrambled to find places 64 MIZZOUMAGAZINE

where they could practice and play. Just getting to road games was a big challenge, as the size of the travel squad depended on whether she could wrangle one or two vans when she took her voucher to Jesse Hall.

Jarrett fondly recalls the can-do spirit of her athletes and the kindness of many of the key figures in Mizzou men’s athletics, including Norm Stewart. He took one look at the warped hardwood at McKee and arranged for Jarrett’s basketball team to practice and play at the Hearnes Center. She still vividly remembers the speech she gave before the first basketball game.

“We had one light that was shining like a beacon to the middle of the floor,” she says. “We were sitting in a circle, and I told them: ‘I want you to understand that you are making history.

Someday you’ll be able to tell your children and grandchildren what you started.’ ” The women’s basketball and softball teams both finished with winning records that season. Jarrett wound up coaching basketball for one year, softball for two and track for three. In 1977, she wanted to be closer to her ailing mother, so she left Missouri for Indiana, where she ultimately became an insurance agent.

Jarrett stayed in touch with her former players and colleagues but didn’t return to Columbia until April 2022, when she was invited back for a Mizzou softball reunion. It was now 50 years after Title IX, and she was delighted to see women competing in a gleaming stadium in front of large crowds. It bore little resemblance to her first year as coach, when the Tigers played softball at the American Legion baseball field, where they would lose fair balls in outfield briar patches. When she addressed the current Tigers, she got emotional.

“I told them: ‘I want to thank you for being girls who dreamed.

Never stop dreaming and growing. Someday, you’ll come back here and be as shocked as I am at how much it has progressed.’ ” — Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92

COURTESY ALEXIS JARRETT

A Woman for All Seasons

MIZZOU S C H O O L

O F

S O C I A L

W O R K

S P E C I A L

S E C T I O N

Celebrating a Century of Caring True to its calling, the School of Social Work has always tended to Columbia and surrounds as students learn from faculty in classrooms and alongside them in the field.

FALL 2022 65

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK NEWS EMPHASIZING EMPATHY

Gashaye Tefera and Gashaye Tefera knows firsthand how difficult it is for international students to deal with unfamiliar health his family — wife care systems. In 2018, he was a fellow at the world’s Mackda and daughlargest nonprofit, United Way Worldwide, in Alexan- ters Melos, left, and Barckot — were dria, Virginia, when he started having gastrointestinal recently reunited in issues. But he struggled to understand the care and the Columbia after being cost of coverage, so he delayed seeking treatment. “I’m separated for nearly used to health services that are more universal,” says two years due to the Tefera, who grew up in Ethiopia and studied in five pandemic.

European countries through the prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship. Despite his education and experience, he says, “I still didn’t know how to navigate the insurance system.”

After completing a master’s degree that looked at a gender-based violence prevention program in Ethiopian refugee settings, he came to Mizzou to earn a doctorate in social work. His research: immigrant women’s access to health services. Tefera’s systematic review published in February showed that immigrant women experience personal-level barriers, including lack of transportation and language proficiency, as well as system-level barriers, including discrimination and miscommunication, and that they rely on family, community support and cultural solutions to overcome them. His dissertation will focus on the experiences of African immigrants.

Tefera relied on his own resilience and the support of the MU School of Social Work during the pandemic. When COVID shut down embassies around the world, he was separated for nearly two years from his wife and two young daughters who were in Ethiopia getting their international travel documents in order. Read more about his family’s story online: tinyurl.com/Gashaye 66 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

SURPRISING SNAPSHOT OF TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS

Contrary to common belief, the portrait of a human-trafficking survivor in Missouri is not that of a young, white teenager who is abducted and forced into the sex trade. Instead, Kathleen Preble’s survey of the state’s social service providers found that survivors usually are Black or brown (46%) and Asian (10%).

The assistant professor of social work also found that 18- to 35-year-olds make up the bulk of the survivors (56%). The vast majority were not immigrants but rather poor or working-class U.S. citizens trafficked for sex (83%), labor (5%) or both (13%). In considering survivors’ prospects for the future, she says, they had to possess great “agency, strength and resilience to have survived the experience of exploitation.”

Even so, Preble says, survivors need access to treatment for mental health and substance use as well as appropriate housing.

T E F E R A : S A M O ’ K E E F E ; G I V E N S : M I C H A E L C A L I ; I L LU S T R AT I O N : S H U T T E R S TO C K

Health Care for Newcomers

Ashley Givens first got into social work because she wanted to help underserved youth. During her years of study and research, her focus turned to working with mental health and the adult criminal legal system. Now an assistant professor of social work at Mizzou, Givens’ interests have come full circle: She recently received a Richard Wallace Faculty Incentive Grant to study using structured journaling to strengthen the bond between incarcerated mothers and their children. “It’s a way for these women to reconnect with their kids and maintain the mother-child bond in a directed, meaningful way,” Givens says.

Givens’ early work included training probation officers in recognizing and better interacting with people dealing with mental illnesses. Overall, she says, the criminal legal system still has much work to do when it comes to the mental well-being of the people it affects. “As a social worker in that system, we have the opportunity to change the mentality,” Givens says. “Just because someone is convicted of a crime doesn’t mean they are any less human or deserving of humane treatment.”

Location Matters

I L LU S T R AT I O N : B L A K E D I N S D A L E ; W O O D S : C O U RT E SY C H R I S T I N E W O O D S

A youngster’s neighborhood often shapes their exposure to firearm violence or substance use — situations that raise their risk of becoming homeless, says Hsun-Ta Hsu, associate professor of social work.

For earlier studies on suicide and HIV prevention among people experiencing homelessness, Hsu walked block by block identifying signs of blight — broken windows, sidewalks in disrepair, piles of garbage — because neighborhood-level data are difficult to find. The scarcity of information prevented him from conducting research on a larger scale.

To help remedy the problem, Hsu and Jianlin Cheng of the College of Engineering developed a program that allows them to drop a pin on a digital map and download relevant Google Street View images. With that on screen, they can document characteristics of a homeless youth’s neighborhood without visiting in person.

Getting people into housing is a main method of addressing homelessness, but Hsu’s research suggests the location of that housing affects whether they will become homeless again.

“Neighborhood characteristics play a critical role, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to understand through the technology we developed,” Hsu says.

Next, Hsu wants to develop an artificial intelligenceinformed algorithm that can catalog even more widespread areas automatically. Eventually, he hopes homeless youth could give their location to researchers or clinicians, who could quickly access data to see how the area might affect their behaviors.

CULTIVATING BLACK SOCIAL WORKERS Sixty-five percent of young Black people with mental health concerns don’t receive treatment due to the lack of both access and therapists of color. “For the African American community … the research says that they do better and they’re more apt to seek services from people they can identify with,” says Christine Woods, who directs the Bachelor of Social Work degree program. In response, Woods, BS ’97, MSW ’02, EdD ’21, has during the past four years grown the program by 46% and increased the diversity of its students.

“I’m very intentional about using every chance I get in representing the school because when people see there’s someone that looks like them in the school, they’re more apt to lean toward that because there’s someone who can under-

stand their experience,” Woods says. She is quick to point out that the program’s concept of inclusion efforts also includes men, LGBTQ individuals and socioeconomic diversity.

The dearth of Black therapists is an issue Woods addresses in her private therapy practice, too. Crowned Counseling in Columbia employs and trains Black clinicians to increase access for Black Missourians seeking therapy.

“Her efforts represent a national model for what we must do to increase the number of Black therapists,” says Aaron Thompson, who directs the School of Social Work.

In the coming year, Woods plans to expand her practice and hire more therapists of color in other parts of Missouri.

FALL 2022 67

M U P U B L I C AT I O N S F I L E P H OTO S

FEATURE

68 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

Not Just in Case

Over the past century, social work has expanded to be about much more than casework.

In the early 1980s, Missouri farmers were in crisis. Small farms, many that had been in the same family for generations, were failing at an alarming clip. Even more concerning was the frequency with which these financial struggles were ending in violence from desperate farmers lashing out against judges, lawyers and foreclosing financial institutions; against each other; and even against themselves. The suicide rate among farmers was skyrocketing.

Agriculture Extension managers and state human service officials were frantically trying to find someone, anyone, who could help them offer mental health help and financial services to rural families. They found their answer in what at the time seemed like an unlikely place — the University of Missouri School of Social Work (SSW).

This was before the term “mental health” was common, much less synonymous with caseworkers who were then thought to deal mostly with children, the elderly and the poor.

But MU had long been sending social workers to far-flung areas of the state. Beyond that, the school was ready to support agents in the field and set up a hotline offering support and resources to these colleagues on the frontlines. “We called it crisis intervention, but it was mental health,” says Joanne Mermelstein, MS ’61, former professor and SSW director from 1988 to 1989. “We were way ahead of the game in trying to offer social work education in rural areas where our graduates would be practicing.”

Few professions have evolved as much over the past century as social work — in fact, at the turn of the 20th century, many people argued that the job lacked the specialized skills and knowledge base to even be considered a profession. But by 1919, as overcrowding in cities accelerated the need for social services, 17 schools of social work in North America had been accredited. One of those founding schools was Mizzou.

Although the influx of immigrants and the Great Migration

within the U.S. during the first decades of the 1900s drew attention to the needs of urban America, MU’s social work faculty never lost sight of the university’s land-grant mission. As early as 1929, Mizzou built a curriculum for rural public welfare workers who would be desperately needed in the state’s small farming communities during the ensuing Depression and beyond.

This grassroots focus grew largely from the fact that, throughout the middle part of the century, MU’s social work faculty comprised almost solely professionals with vast casework experience in the field. By the 1950s, the newly dubbed School of Social Work (renamed from the Department of Social Work in 1953) included teachers who had worked in child welfare, health care, eldercare, criminal justice and corrections, public welfare, and advocacy and public policy. This included luminary instructors such as Clara Louise Myers (child welfare), Marilyn Maddux (health care), Bettyann Dubansky (eldercare), Clotilde Moller and Virginia Southwood, MS ’59, who lived in California during the Great Depression and worked as a social-welfare advocate in South Africa before earning a degree at Mizzou and joining the faculty. “It was all about real-world experience,” says Mermelstein, who studied under Southwood. “The master’s program had two internships, and you met practicing social workers throughout your education as well as being taught by them. You could learn a lot.”

In 1967, two years after the SSW joined the new School of Social and Community Services, it started providing statewide outreach programs through University Extension. By the 1970s, Associate Professor Paul Sundet, MSW ’68, saw the growing need to extend the social work program even farther into the parts of Missouri that didn’t have local access to master’s-level courses. He worked with Professor Michael J. Kelly to set up such programs in St. Joseph, Springfield, Cape Girardeau and Hannibal.

FALL 2022 69

Wilson Watt teaches an internship class in the 1990s. He is now an associate professor emeritus.

This new reach provided much of the infrastructure and networking that became so vital during the farming crisis of the 1980s. But while the school was expanding geographically, it was also expanding in scope. In addition to traditional casework, Mizzou faculty saw value in teaching administration, planning and management to provide upward and outward mobility. “A social work degree from MU is nimble,” says Marjorie Sable, professor emerita and SSW director from 2007 to 2016. “We teach students skills that they can apply to various practice areas, from child welfare to gerontology, and in a wide range of settings. Graduates could start out as clinical social workers, then work as agency administrators or go into academia or even politics. There’s a lot of flexibility.”

Speaking of politics, SSW also encourages students and faculty to get involved in policy, advocating for social workers and clients on everything from criminal justice reform to Medicaid expansion. And in 1989, SSW faculty were instrumental in persuading Missouri’s legislature to require that social workers be licensed — the 45th state in the U.S. to do so.

Missouri may have been woefully behind in licensing its social workers, but SSW was ahead of the curve nationwide in using technology to reach remote practitioners in need of continuing educa-

70 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

tion to obtain those licenses. They also used tech to provide master’s degrees, which were fast becoming necessary to receive government funding for social programs to help rural Missourians. It began in the late 1980s with interactive TV, through which instructors could broadcast lessons from Columbia to MU’s regional outreach hubs. Then, as soon as the technology was available in the mid-1990s, Associate Director Carol Snively began to push for growth of the school’s online curriculum, enabling rural social workers to study at their own pace — in their own place. “In some rural areas, there’s not a lot to attract people to move there,” says Andrea Aderton, MSW ’09, assistant clinical professor and field education coordinator. “This gave us an opportunity to work with the agencies already in the community.”

As of fall 2021, 62% of the school’s undergraduate and 78% of its master’s students were enrolled online. Ensuring its reach throughout Missouri is increasingly important as demand for social workers continues to expand. “I was contacted recently by a library that wanted to build a practicum; law enforcement is incorporating social work. … I think it will continue to grow,” Aderton says. “So, I think the program will continue to be of value to expand knowledge and help develop skills. There’s such a need.” M

MU SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK FILE PHOTO

FEATURE

SOCIAL WORK AT MIZZOU Following an era of unparalleled social change in the late 1800s, MU began offering social work training in affiliation with the St. Louis School of Philanthropy (later named the Missouri School of Social Economy), and the university was one of 17 that helped develop the first uniform standards for training and professional education in the field. Over the next century, the profession evolved in response to the needs of vulnerable individuals and populations. Today, social work at MU focuses on developing leaders for social and economic justice.

1906 MU first offers social work training through an extension program in St. Louis.

1919 MU is one of 17 schools accredited by the Association of Training Schools for Professional Social Work (now the Council on Social Work Education).

1925 The College of Arts and Science introduces curricula in social work through the Department of Sociology.

1929 The College of Agriculture establishes a curriculum for training rural public welfare workers.

1935 All social work training transfers to the Graduate School. A one-year graduate curriculum leads to a master’s degree in sociology with a major in social work.

1946 The College of Arts and Science establishes the Department of Social Work along with a one-year graduate program that leads to a Certificate of Social Work and an undergraduate social work program that leads to a Bachelor of Science degree.

1948 Mark Hale becomes chair.

director, followed by Lee J. Cary.

1949 A two-year program leading to a Master of Science in social work is added with an emphasis on training corrections workers.

1975 The School of Social Work offers a Bachelor of Social Work, and the ​​Master of Science in social work is renamed the Master of Social Work degree. Roland Meinert becomes director of the school, which has an enrollment of 237.

1953 The department becomes the School of Social Work within the College of Arts and Science.

1954 Arthur Nebel becomes director.

1965 The university forms the School of Social and Community Services, comprising the School of Social Work, the Department of Regional and Community Affairs, and the Department of Recreation.

1965 Arthur Robins becomes director.

1967 The School of Social Work begins providing statewide outreach programs through MU Extension.

1970 John J.O. Moore becomes director.

1973 J.F.X. Paiva becomes

2000 The school launches a new doctoral program with an emphasis on state social policy. Student minority representation in the oncampus master’s program increases to 16%.

2003 Colleen Galambos becomes director.

1977 Richard Boettcher becomes director.

2004 The school enrolls 364 students across all of its programs.

1983 Roland Meinert becomes director again.

2008 Marjorie R. Sable becomes director.

1987 Judith A. Davenport becomes director.

2017 Dale Fitch becomes director.

1988 The School of Social Work joins the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Joanne Mermelstein is interim director.

2020 Social work faculty petition to move to the School of Health Professions. The provost approves this move in October.

1991 Mizzou students establish the Chi Delta chapter of Phi Alpha, the national honor society for social work students.

2021 Aaron Thompson becomes director.

1996 The school celebrates its 75th anniversary.

1997 Charles D. Cowger becomes director.

2022 The School of Social Work celebrates more than 100 years of social work education at Mizzou. Enrollment is 371, including 119 undergraduates, 234 master’s students and 18 doctoral students.

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FEATURE

72 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

MIZZOU SOCIAL WORK N O W

A N D

L O O K I N G

A H E A D

Existing programs are models of how to educate students while cultivating community impact, and the school’s plans reach out to ever broader bases of students and clients.

After overturning a school desk in a fit of anger, a sixth grader and his parents are referred to the Family Access Center of Excellence of Boone County.

A social worker living in a small town finishes work at a local hospital, eats dinner and then begins online studies toward a master’s degree in social work from MU. Instead of toughing it out on his own, an unemployed young man who is too depressed to continue his job search receives free mental health counseling at the Integrative Behavioral Health Center.

All these situations — and hundreds more — show the MU School of Social Work plying its mission throughout mid-Missouri. “As a flagship organization, we are responsible for addressing the needs of Missourians,” says Aaron Thompson, who directs the school. “Teaching and research are essential aspects of our mission.

But for social work, it’s important that we get out into the community and provide services for problems people are dealing with. The types of problems we confront today ultimately will be those of the future.”

The school tackles issues such as racism, discrimination and economic disparities through its innovative programs as well as by preparing the next generation of social workers to empower individuals and improve their quality of life.

Over the past 25 years, a body of research and new data-driven methods have made social work practice more accountable and effective. “The evidence-based model teaches our students not only to use assessment data to select the best scientifically supported approaches to alleviating a problem but also to build an evaluation cycle so they can understand whether their approach is working,” Thompson says.

Social workers play a key role at a critical time, and demand for their skills is on the rise. Why? An aging population depends on a range of services to maintain its quality of life; the opioid crisis continues to destroy lives, stress families and overburden local resources; and then there’s the pandemic. The human race has always suffered from depression and anxiety, but the pandemic has fueled a surge in mental health problems across age groups.

Here’s a look at what the school is doing now and where it is headed.

SHUT TERSTOCK

THE NOW Long before the pandemic, a suite of programs in the school’s Family Access Center of Excellence (FACE) was reducing the local toll of social, emotional and behavioral problems. When COVID came along, the school responded quickly to social isolation, uncertainty and trauma. FACE provides no-cost clinical assessment and case management services, helping local children and

families navigate a complex system of care to find the right programs and services that address their concerns and help them lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. It is funded by a Boone County Children’s Services Fund quarter-cent sales tax earmarked for mental health needs. Alongside faculty associated with the Missouri Prevention Science Institute, Thompson and other MU faculty guide FACE, hiring licensed professionals to FALL 2022 73

staff the organization and training those staff and social work students in effective engagement, assessment and case-management practices.

Through FACE, the school also provides mental health training and consultation to other organizations, including 55 Boone County schools.

FACE intervention specialists visit the schools, providing direct support services to students and teachers in need. This multilevel approach, which improves the social service infrastructure while serving the immediate needs of children and families, has earned widespread recognition. The National Association of Counties awarded Boone County and FACE a place on its distinguished listing of “100 Brilliant Ideas at Work.”

Even the best-designed programs for addressing mental health and behavioral problems rely on the public’s willingness to seek assistance. “Look Around Boone” is the school’s answer to diminishing the stigma of getting help. This public awareness campaign aims not only to change attitudes and encourage school-age children to accept their need for help but also to raise awareness that their friends might need support. The program targets students, teachers and parents with messages intended to eliminate the stigma of seeking services.

“Our goal is to normalize the concept that everybody has troubles from time to time, and we want to make it easier to ask for help,” Thompson says.

To help uninsured or underinsured adults, the School of Social Work opened the Integrative Behavioral Health Clinic (IBHC), which provides free therapy to adults in need. Associate Professor Kelli Canada conceived the idea of IBHC and co-directs it

74 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

with Assistant Clinical Professor Danielle Easter, a licensed clinical social worker. Operated by supervised graduate students, the clinic (see sidebar) also collaborates with other free health clinics at Mizzou.

WHERE TO FROM HERE

The School of Social Work has long built relationships beyond the confines of campus. In looking to the future, the school is extending its services and curriculum into small towns. “We are always searching for community leaders and organizations — especially in rural parts of the state — to partner with,” Thompson says. Students, working under the supervision of local professionals, benefit by gaining real-world experience at more than 300 community placement locations where they provide services to individuals in correctional institutions, the juvenile justice system, and health and mental health clinics. Such collaborations allow MU faculty and students to confront a range of issues that reduce individuals’ quality of life and harm communities. Faculty take an active role throughout mid-Missouri, not only serving as consultants to local social service organizations but also bringing the most up-to-date social science research to bear on local concerns.

The school is moving more of its courses online, offering the possibility of a career in social work to people who never considered it an option.

Students can now earn a master’s degree in social work online, and the bachelor’s program could come next. “For instance, a young mom may be working at a local convenience store while taking

ROB HILL

The Family Access Center of Excellence (FACE) has received national recognition for its multileveled approach to social services.

Read more about FACE at tinyurl.com/MizzouFACE.

Danielle Easter, left, and Kelli Canada

MOTHER: UNSPLASH; IBHC: SAM O’KEEFE

“ A young mom may be working at a local convenience store while taking community college online classes that count toward a bachelor’s degree in social work at MU. With that in hand, they can go on to build a social work career in their community.” community college online classes that count toward a bachelor’s degree in social work at MU,” Thompson says. “With that in hand, they can go on to build a social work career in their community.”

People who already have a bachelor’s in social work can earn a master’s in an expedited manner through the school’s advanced-standing Master of Social Work program.

“Affordability is a big issue,” Thompson adds.

Private agencies, foundations and individuals donate money to the school so it can reduce students’ financial barriers to pursuing a social work degree. “We’re continually developing scholarships that help fund students in rural areas.”

Since becoming part of the School of Health Professions in 2020, the School of Social Work has increased community-engagement opportunities for students, including practicums in health care settings. As society’s need for professionally trained and educated social workers grows, community engagement for students and faculty has never been more essential, Thompson says. “If someone is receiving a social service, they’re generally looking at a social worker.” M

An Innovative Model of Social Work

A week after the pandemic shut down nonemergency health clinics throughout the country, Mizzou’s Integrative Behavioral Health Clinic (IBHC) continued serving clients via a pilot program for telehealth it had launched just months before. “We were really lucky we started the telehealth pilot prior to COVID,” says Kelli Canada, associate professor of social work and co-director of the IBHC, which is located at the MU Family Impact Center in central Columbia.

Through the clinic, social work graduate students get real-world experience working with clients while under the direct supervision of licensed clinical social workers. The students, in turn, provide comprehensive mental health care to Missourians who are uninsured or unable to afford care. Since the clinic opened in 2014, about 170 students have served more than 500 clients. Evaluations show that clients experience less anxiety and depression and better quality of life. Thanks to hands-on mentoring from faculty, students are better able to apply what they learn in the classroom to their clinical practice.

With the launch of the telehealth program, not only did clients continue receiving care, but cancellations also decreased. The telehealth option also allowed the social work online students to participate in the clinic. Most of these aspiring social workers live in medically underserved counties with too few licensed professionals providing behavioral health services.

“We can have a direct impact on those communities while students get hands-on experience doing the kind of work that they’ll probably end up doing in their community,” says Danielle Easter, assistant clinical professor of social work and IBHC’s co-director.

Both online and in-person students are gaining experience with telehealth, which has grown 38-fold since the pandemic began and isn’t going away, even if COVID does. “There’s limited opportunity for students to learn how to do telehealth well,” Canada says. “We’ve been able to teach our students best practices in clinical telehealth and ethical use of technology while also building therapeutic rapport.”

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ALUMNI PROFILES

A degree in social work opens doors to a range of careers and disciplines. But at its core, social work is a career for people who want to improve the well-being of individuals and communities.

Here’s a look at six MU social work graduates who are helping to build a more just and equitable world.

Community

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Care 76 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

Sower of Hope Becky Beck didn’t set out to become a social worker. Her original plan was to become a teacher. In her final semester in the MU College of Education, special education Professor Tim Lewis recognized Beck’s passion for social justice and desire to be a sower of hope for those in need of advocacy and support.

After she graduated with her master’s from the MU School of Social Work, Beck, BS Ed ’99, MSW ’01, helped launch the Center Project in 2003, a nonprofit resource center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally community in mid-Missouri. She was board president when it opened the doors to its first brick-andmortar gathering place in Columbia in 2009. “I still have a piece of the ribbon,” she says.

Beck has also been working with DeafLead since 2001, providing crisis intervention and victim services to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. One of the state’s few master’s-level social workers fluent in American Sign Language, Beck is the nonprofit’s director of clinical services, offering counseling, advocacy and education to victims of crimes, particularly domestic violence and sexual assault.

“I’m passionate about providing hope and rays of sunlight to people who are in the depths of despair and violent situations,” Beck says. “For people who have experienced abuse, sometimes the best revenge is to be well.”

BECK: ROB HILL ; KIMBROUGH: COURTESY ORVIN KIMBROUGH

Social Work Alum Banks His Values Three years ago, Orvin T. Kimbrough left the nonprofit sector for the corporate world of banking. But he didn’t leave his education or his values behind. He combines a banker’s pursuit of profits with a social worker’s focus on creating a more vibrant and inclusive community.

Formerly the chair and CEO of United Way of Greater St. Louis, Kimbrough, BSW ’98, MSW ’00, now serves as chair and CEO at Midwest BankCentre, the city’s second-largest privately owned bank. “I am a social worker who happens to be a banker,” he says.

Kimbrough also happens to be the only Black CEO of a bank in the St. Louis area. “My move to Midwest BankCentre is my way of making an even bigger impact through the services we can provide marginalized individuals.”

The impact includes launching programs to help people with compromised credit scores get not only low-interest loans but also checking accounts that require no minimum balance. Throughout St. Louis and its northern counties, the bank will invest $200 million over the next five years creating loans that boost small businesses, promote home ownership, and support nonprofits and community development projects. “We are showing that you can marry purpose with profits,” Kimbrough says.

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ALUMNI PROFILES

A Knowing Advocate Caitlin Bartley’s first foray into disability advocacy came in the second grade when her fellow students repeatedly asked about her wheelchair.

In response, Bartley persuaded her teacher to let her speak to the class about muscular dystrophy.

Years later, she was still at it. While earning undergraduate degrees, Bartley proposed that the school make two classroom buildings more accessible to individuals with wheelchairs. “It was really exciting to advocate for something like that and then to see it happen. And it’s not just something that benefitted me. It will benefit students in wheelchairs for a long time,” she says.

Today, Bartley, MSW ’17, continues to advocate for others through her job with the Missouri Department of Mental Health’s Division of Developmental Disabilities. She coordinates the state’s participation in the National Core Indicators project, which surveys people with developmental disabilities on whether they are happy with the state services they receive and their quality of life. “The traditional disability service system focused on: ‘OK, this is how you should live your lives. If you are going to use our services, this is what’s going to happen.’ ” Her unit seeks to change that approach. “Yes, we are providing services, but everyone has the right to say how they want to live their lives, and we are there to support the person.”

Meanwhile, Bartley is pursuing a doctorate in social work at Mizzou and plans to research independence and choice in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. “A lot of state and national laws could be changed to better support people with disabilities. But those types of changes will not happen unless you have the data to back it up.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the largest employer of master’s-level social workers in the United States — and Col. Stan Remer, MSW ’68, is a big reason why.

Remer graduated from the MU School of Social Work during the height of the Vietnam War. As a medical social worker at a VA medical center in the 1970s, he saw many soldiers coming back with PTSD. “We were learning that we needed to treat mental health more forward into the battlefield,” he says. “It’s a lot better if they can deal with combat stress early on.”

In 1977, he helped start the first U.S. Army Reserve psychiatric detachment. It was the first time social workers were integrated into the military combat theater of operations, and it laid the foundation for a major change in the way the VA used social workers.

After 34 years in leadership positions advocating for the role of social work in the VA, Remer retired in 2005.

Today, he is a congressional and legislative liaison for the Association of VA Social Workers, representing the now more than 16,000 master’s-level social workers in the VA. He and his wife endowed the Stanley G. and Sondra S. Remer Scholarship Fund at the School of Social Work. The scholarship is for someone who exemplifies the goals of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work in integrating Christian faith and professional social work.

78 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

B A RT L E Y : C O U RT E SY C A I T L I N B A RT L E Y ; R E M E R : C O U RT E SY S TA N R E M E R

Social Work Pioneer

Matching Needs and Resources In every community, people need help. Fortunately, a corresponding group typically exists with the desire and resources to provide that assistance. But what Jane Williams, BSW ’76, MSW ’77, found surprising was how out of sync the two sides of this equation often are. “There is a constant need for relational support and coordination,” she says. “We try to match the needs of the community with the times, talents and resources in the most effective way.”

Communities’ needs change as the years go by. In 2005, Williams left her 20-year career as a social worker in health care to help set up shelter and a furniture bank for refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Three years later, when she started Love Columbia, community residents needed help finding work and developing job skills in the wake of the Great Recession. By 2015, it was easier to find a job in CoMo than it was to find affordable housing, so Williams and company shifted their focus to transitional housing. And when COVID-19 hit in 2020, Columbians needed fast relief in all these areas.

For now, Williams’ biggest challenge is demand outpacing the organization’s ability to respond. “But I feel like the model is working, and our hope is to keep growing it,” she says. “The skills I learned at Mizzou, along with the connections with faculty and students, have turned out to be exactly what we’ve needed.”

WILLIAMS: SAM O’KEEFE; HANNEKEN: ROB HILL

Stepping In2Action for Former Inmates Dan Hanneken knows all too well that releasing a person from prison doesn’t free him from the problems, habits and environment that led to incarceration. Before learning that lesson, the assistant teaching professor in the School of Social Work served three sentences as a violent offender. Today, Hanneken, BSW ’06, MSW ’08, not only turns life experiences into teachable moments for social work students but also helps newly released inmates get back on their feet.

In2Action, the residential transition program he founded and directs, provides drug-free housing for up to 50 former offenders at a time on its 4-acre campus in north Columbia. The comprehensive program offers food, clothing, counseling and referrals for other services. “Housing is only one piece of the puzzle,” Hanneken says. “You can give somebody a job, a car and a place to live, but if they don’t stay clean, they lose everything.”

Hanneken credits his religious faith and his determination never to spend another day behind bars as the sources of his successful transition 19 years ago.

Recognizing Hanneken’s contribution to society, last year Gov. Mike Parson issued him a full pardon, which restores all rights of citizenship forfeited by his convictions.

FALL 2022 79

CELEBRATING

100+ YEARS

OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AT MIZZOU

Scan QR code or follow @MizzouSocialWork on Facebook to find out about celebration events for fall 2022.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

MU SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK WE'RE PROUD OF

Burrell Central Missouri Leaders & MU School of Social Work Alumni Mat Gass & Megan Steen burrellcenter.com/careers 80 MIZZOUMAGAZINE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SPECIAL SECTION

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