MIZZOU_S25_CHS_edition

M ZZOU

College

HOW TO WRITE YOUR MEMOIR

Tiger alumna and Gotham Writers Workshop Dean shows you how to turn midnight mischief, beautiful mistakes and unreliable memories into lasting literature.

(Expect edits from your former roommates.)

FIRST LOOK

IN THE LINE OF FIRE

Earlier this year, photojournalist Patrick T. Fallon captured the aftermath of California’s relentless wildfires with unflinching clarity, from the skeletal remains of homes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades to the broader devastation visible from the sky.

For more than a decade, Fallon, BJ ’11, has documented the state’s most destructive blazes, including the Thomas, Woolsey and Camp Fires. This aerial image, taken on Jan. 8, 2025, shows thick smoke from the Eaton and Palisades Fires blanketing the Los Angeles skyline. It’s a stark visual testament to the region’s vulnerability.

Fallon has spent his career distilling catastrophe into singular human moments, whether documenting the wreckage of Joplin’s tornado, the political turmoil of a U.S. election or the quiet grief of a man standing in the ashes of his family home. His award-winning photography has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Getty’s global archives, ensuring that these fleeting, harrowing scenes are not lost to time.

Support moments they’ll never forget with the Mizzou Traditions Fund.

Scan to give or visit mizzou.us/traditionsfund

M I ZZOU

FROM THE EDITOR

Summer, Tuned to Columbia

This town tunes to a different frequency when the semester ends and the campus clears. The volume drops. Sidewalks open. Parking lots empty. You can walk into any restaurant and sit wherever you want.

Summer in Columbia isn’t just quieter. It’s weirder. The students who stick around stretch out, some picking up campus jobs, others diving into fun courses like History of Popular Music in half-empty lecture halls. Faculty and staff stay too, and they know the rhythm. They bike to work. They linger at lunch. You’ll find them at Ragtag Cinema catching a matinee, iced coffee in hand. The season feels like a 90-day secret. Thankfully, it doesn’t last, which makes it more magical. By late August, the city transforms. The quiet gives way to freshmen finding their footing and athletes training on the fields. Grocery stores bustle. Classes fill. In the student-heavy neighborhoods east of campus, couches migrate to porches and claim their spot for the season.

The summer before my senior year, I worked at the Blue Note. I’d show up early evenings to quarter limes and restock the bar, then stay for the indie bands and the late shifts, walking out at 2 a.m. with $150 in tips and ringing ears, feeling like a millionaire. During the day, I was flattening century-old newspapers at the State Historical Society of Missouri to be photographed on microfilm. I was sunburned and basically living at KCOU, where I played records for anyone still in town with a half-working radio and a fan in the window. The station ran 24/7. So did I.

Sunsets brought porches, easy laughter and the flicker of lightning bugs. The whole town seemed to pause. Much of that still holds true, but now the Mizzou International Composers Festival unfolds across Columbia every July, with events at the Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield Music Center and the Missouri Theatre. It’s among the country’s most forward-thinking summer programs of its kind, where student composers and musicians bring contemporary scores to life through ensemble-in-residence Alarm Will Sound. The New York-based group also will perform works by distinguished guest composers Hilda Paredes and Judd Greenstein.

This issue of MIZZOU picks up the same offbeat rhythm of summers in Columbia. Two families take to the water in separate sailing stories. One alum chases presidential libraries across America. A campus researcher listens in on insect vibrations. Ag scientists grow rice in the Bootheel. A former U.S. ambassador reflects on 30 years in diplomacy. We spotlight alumni behind standout podcasts and studentathletes landing perfect scores.

Much like those summer months, the stories twist, linger and sometimes circle back, by the end changed just enough to feel new.

— RANDALL ROBERTS, BA ’88 Editor

Editorial and Advertising

Executive Editor

Robert D. Waller

Editor Randall Roberts, BA ’88

Art Director

Blake Dinsdale, BA ’99

Class Notes Editor

Jennifer Manning, BJ ’18

Advertising Scott Dahl: 573-882-2374

Mizzou Alumni Association

123 Reynolds Alumni Center 704 Conley Avenue Columbia, MO 65211 573-882-6611

Executive Director, Publisher Todd A. McCubbin, M Ed ’95

Mission

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

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, BS HES ’89, BS Ed 90, M Ed ’91

President-elect Kim Utlaut, BS ’89

Immediate Past President Mindy Mazur, BA ’99

Treasurer Kevin Gibbens, BS BA ’81

Secretary Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95

Directors Joanna Russell Bliss, BA ’07, BSEd ’07; Brent Buerck, MPA ’05; Clarissa Cauthorn, BS ’15; Morgan Corder, BA ’18; Renita Duncan, BS Acc, M Acc ’08; Christine Holmes, BS BA ’10, MBA ’17; Chris Hurt, BA ’88; Matt Jenne, BS CiE ’97, MBA ’15; Cheryl Jordan, BA ’84; Col. Pete O’Neill, BA ’00; Daniel Pierce, BA, BJ ’99; Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano, BS BA ’91; Amber Rowson, BS ME ’99; BS ’07; Mark Russell, BJ ’84; Nick Ruthmann, BS ’05, MD ’13; Vanessa Vaughn West, BA ’99 Janet Wheatley, BS HE ’77; Justin Wilson, BS ’07

Student Representative Bhushan Sreekrishnavilas

Editors Emeriti Karen Worley, BJ ’73, and Dale Smith, BJ ’88

MIZZOU magazine

Spring 2025, Volume 113, Number 3 Published triannually by the Mizzou Alumni Association

ISSN 2833-3970

Address changes: mizzou.com/update or call 800-372-6822

Comments: mizzou@missouri.edu mizzou.com/magazine

Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position  of the University of Missouri or the Mizzou Alumni Association. ©2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MORE MIZZOU ONLINE

2025 Kemper Award Winners Each spring, Mizzou leaders and Commerce Bank executives surprise faculty members with William T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence. Videos capture the moments this year’s recipients learn they’ve been selected, each receiving a $15,000 award in recognition of their exceptional teaching. Learn more about the fellowship and the tradition behind it at mizzou.us/kemper25

CONTRIBUTORS

Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, BJ ’84, is the author of Green Chili and Other Impostors and Biting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s Heartland, the latter of which won the 2014 M.F.K. Fisher Grand Prize for Excellence in Culinary Writing. She traveled to the Missouri Bootheel for “Rice Country, USA,” Page 38.

Kelly Caldwell, BJ ’88, teaches memoir writing and leads the faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in Vox, House Beautiful and Newsday. Read her cover story — “How to Write Your Mizzou Memoir” — on Page 14.

About the cover

Tony Rehagen, BA, BJ ’01, has written for GQ, The Columbia Journalism Review and Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. He profiled the sailing Kuhners for “Found at Sea,” Page 24.

Serge Bloch is a French illustrator and author known for his minimalist, expressive line drawings featured in children’s books, magazines and newspapers worldwide. His work includes the popular “Max et Lili” series and collaborations with The New York Times, The Washington Post and major brands such as Hermès. He illustrated “How to Write Your Mizzou Memoir,” Page 14.

A tip of the red editor’s pen goes to art director Blake Dinsdale, BA ’99, who designed this ode to messy, meaningful memory. The Society of Publication Designers recently recognized his work, and photography from Mizzou Visual Productions, across five categories during its 60th annual awards.

facebook.com/mizzou x.com/mizzou

instagram.com/mizzou @mizzou

Departments

1 First Look

Photojournalist Patrick T. Fallon captured Los Angeles glowing beneath smoke from the Eaton and Palisades fires.

6 Around the Columns

A bounty of recent Mizzou achievements; a health data engineer advancing AI; researchers studying quasiparticles; and introducing new women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper.

44 Mizzou Alumni News

From presidential library quests to groundbreaking blood drives, Mizzou alumni have made an impact. Plus, highlights from Mizzou Giving Day 2025, and celebrating the recipients of the 2025 Geyer Award.

47

Class Notes

Mizzou grads keep making news: new jobs, new places and new faces. An update on what’s happening.

49 Alumni Podcasts

Whether in front of the mic or behind it, Tigers are entertaining and educating on podcasts including “Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.”

64

Celebrating Mizzou gymnast Helen Hu’s flawless performances during a banner year for the program.

Council for Advancement & Support of Education Awards

2024: District VI Award: General Interest Magazine

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

2025 medal finalists: “The Guardians of Silent Worlds,” Spring 2024; “The Invisible Networks,” Fall 2024

2025 merit awards: “Hog Harmony,”(2) Winter 2024; “Capturing Jumpers,” Spring 2024

2024 merit awards: “Vlad Has Stories,”(2) Winter 2023; “The Cosmochemist’s Guide to the Galaxy” Spring 2023

2023 medal finalist: “A LIFE in Focus,” Spring 2022

2022 merit awards: “The Long Quiet,” Winter 2021; “International Reach,” Spring 2021; Spring 2021 cover

Semper Mizzou

How to Write Your Mizzou Memoir

Teacher and memoirist Kelly Caldwell unloads her best tips and tricks for writing about a favorite episode from your campus years.

story by kelly caldwell, bj ’88

Thinking Inside the Box

What started as one mom’s hunt for the perfect keepsake case turned into a $10 million sensation — and caught the eyes of Shark Tank’s toughest investors.

story by mara reinstein, bj ’98

24

Found at Sea

After two trips around the world, Kitty and Scott Kuhner came to understand that all they need is a boat, a heading and each other. Plus: Last year, a School of Engineering alum and his wife left their desks behind, working remotely while boat-schooling their son. stories by tony rehagen, bj ba ’01 and blaire leible garwitz, ma ’0₆

The Botanical Sound System

How plants transmit the secret songs of insects. story by eric stann * photos by abbie lankitus

A Diplomat’s Guide to Uncertainty

Ambassador David Young recalls life lessons from a career on the road — and during his years at Mizzou. story by randall roberts, ba ’88

With their alien-like ornamentation and secret tremors, treehoppers are masters of plant-borne communication. To research these signals, Mizzou biologist Rex Cocroft uses special sensors that turn the insects’ silent vibrations into audible sound.

Rice Country, USA

Missouri’s Bootheel was once a vast, untamed swamp. Now it powers an agricultural industry that feeds the nation.

story by nina mukerjee furstenau, bj ’84

AROUND THE COLUMNS

Health Care’s Future is in His Code

Abdulmateen Adebiyi, a doctoral student in computer science, develops machine learning tools to help doctors diagnose skin conditions more accurately. His research could expand access to quality health care for patients in rural areas.

What can a Mizzou engineering student passionate about revolutionizing health care achieve during his doctoral studies? For Abdulmateen Adebiyi, the answer is a growing list of accolades and breakthroughs. The fourth-year computer science PhD student has earned the respect of his peers and professors, co-authored multiple studies in top-tier journals, and clinched the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award from Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the international honor society for computing disciplines.

Working under Associate Professor Praveen Rao in the Scalable Data Science Lab, Adebiyi explores engineering solutions to medical challenges.

“I enjoy collaborating with primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and oncologists,” he says.

This partnership applies machine learning via deep learning models to diagnosing skin lesions,

and the results are promising. Their research shows that combining images with textual descriptions of lesions produces more accurate diagnoses than images alone. Adebiyi hopes the work will help improve health care access and outcomes for patients in rural areas.

He credits much of his success to his mentors.

“In addition to supporting my research and studies, my advisor and committee members take an interest in my well-being and help me adjust to American culture,” says Adebiyi, who was raised in Nigeria and has been at Mizzou since 2021.

As the engineer looks ahead to completing his PhD within the next year, Adebiyi sees a bright future. “I’ll be able to walk into a research lab anywhere in the world and contribute to solutions,” he says.

— Jack Wax, BS Ed ’73, MS ’76, MA ’87

FROM THE PRESIDENT

It’s Time to Recognize Your Steadfast Impact on Mizzou!

For 186 years, the University of Missouri has prepared leaders who make a difference. No one knows the power of a Mizzou education better than the 365,000 alumni worldwide. As we approach two centuries of excellence, we are proud to grow our legacy and drive even more impact for all we serve.

As I complete my 8th year as president of the University of Missouri, I’ve been reflecting on the many achievements that were made possible because of the leadership and support of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, faculty and staff, alumni, and elected leaders.

But we’re not ones to rest on our laurels. This semester, we celebrated the opening of transformational facilities, including phase one of the new Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory and the groundbreaking of the second phase of the building, which will be named in honor of Dr. Dan Brown. We are breaking ground on ambitious projects such as the Michael L. Parson Meat Science Education and Training Laboratory to support Missouri’s ag community. In addition, we’re making progress on the Memorial Stadium Centennial Project, which aims to open in time for the stadium’s 100th anniversary in fall 2026. Success is also measured in the lives we improve. That’s why we completed a critical expansion of our University of Missouri Research Reactor facility to enhance radioisotope production. To advance our impact even further, we signed an official agreement to launch a design studies phase for a new, even more powerful research reactor, NextGen MURR.

Mizzou is the only supplier of four important radioisotopes in the United States. One of them, Lutetium-177, is a key ingredient in Pluvicto, a prostate cancer treatment that was advertised during this year’s Super Bowl. NextGen MURR will build on our proven legacy and secure our leadership in nuclear medicine for generations.

These initiatives advance our campus and bring pride — and incredible value — to our state. Missouri taxpayers and students recognize our impact, and we’re anticipating another year of strong state support as well as a record number of applications for next semester. We know there’s even more we can achieve. That’s why we’re preparing an exciting new fundraising campaign to support our land-grant mission. I’m thrilled to share more with you soon, including ways to get involved and help build our incredible momentum.

Thank you for your dedication to our students and university. M-I-Z!

— MUN Y. CHOI, PHD President, University of Missouri

The Power of Progress

A story of investment, partnerships and lasting impact

Mizzou has made substantial progress in recent years, advancing student success, research and economic growth. These achievements, as outlined by President Mun Y. Choi, demonstrate the university’s commitment to serving the state and its people.

$5 BILLION

Annual economic impact to Missouri — a 25-to-1 return on taxpayer investment

1.2 MILLION

Missourians reached through Extension programs focused on agriculture, rural health, economic development and education

$509 MILLION

Record-high R&D expenditures at Mizzou — up more than 74% since 2017

89%

Approval rating from informed Missouri residents who say they’re “better off” because of Mizzou

48%

Growth in Mizzou’s freshman enrollment since 2017

39%

Increase in state appropriations since 2020, following five straight years of gains

RAISING THE STEAKS

The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted to name the forthcoming meat sciences laboratory after former Missouri Gov. Mike Parson. The facility will be called The Michael L. Parson Meat Science Education and Training Laboratory.

“As a third-generation cattleman, I can think of few greater honors than to have my name on a stateof-the-art facility dedicated to teaching and training Missouri’s next generation of meat farmers,” Parson says. “I proudly supported the work of the University of Missouri to advance agriculture in our state during my tenure as governor.”

Parson signed budget bills in 2023 and 2024 allocating $35 million for the facility, part of broader investments he championed for higher education and agriculture.

“Governor Parson’s bold leadership and support to the University of Missouri System empowered our educational, research, outreach and workforce development missions,” Mizzou President Mun Choi says.

The laboratory will update and consolidate existing meat science facilities and expand lab space, classrooms and faculty offices. It will support workforce training, research and innovation in meat processing, enhancing the nationally recognized Mizzou College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Located near Mizzou’s food science and veterinary programs, the lab will provide a wellrounded educational experience.

A Strong Defense

As humans age, our cells are under constant attack. They endure DNA damage from ultraviolet rays, irradiation, toxins and other environmental factors. For women, this process decreases egg quality over time and can lead to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects or genetic disorders.

The body does have a defense mechanism: autophagy, which maintains cellular health by essentially recycling the body’s own components.

In a recent study published in Nature Communication and funded by the National Institutes of Health, a team led by Ahmed Balboula, assistant professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and researcher at the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building, discovered that in female eggs, autophagy is less efficient when there is already moderate or severe DNA damage, which is more common in older women. This increases the risk of aneuploidy, or an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell, which in turn is the leading genetic cause of miscarriage and congenital birth defects, including Down syndrome.

Fortunately, Balboula and team also discovered a possible solution: By stimulating the process of autophagy in female eggs, they improved egg quality and reduced DNA damage. Their findings open new directions for improving reproductive health for both humans and animals.

“The deactivation of autophagy that we found is likely just one of many underlying mechanisms contributing to aneuploidy,” Balboula says. “Going forward, I will continue to explore other underlying mechanisms contributing to poor egg quality.”

A lysosome joins with an autophagosome to help the cell break down and reuse old material. Illustration from the 2016 Nobel Prize in medicine.

RIPPLE EFFECT

In the world of quantum physics at nanoscale, new phenomena are invisible to the naked eye and even most run-of-the-mill microscopes. But that doesn’t mean their implications are small.

Such is the case for a new quasiparticle discovered by Mizzou researchers Deepak Singh and Carsten Ullrich, along with a highly involved team of postdoctoral students including Jiasen Guo and Daniel Hill and collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Their discovery — funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy — affects what physicists know about magnetism and may influence the future of energy and electronics.

Unlike fundamental particles such as electrons and photons, quasiparticles are not distinct entities on their own. Rather, they arise from the collective behavior of other particles. Ullrich offers an analogy: “A body of water is made up of many gazillions of water molecules. But at times they come together and form structures that are larger and have particular behavior — whirlpools and eddies, for example. We are interested in studying the properties of those larger structures that arise from the small molecules coming together and doing something collectively.”

The team surveyed the quasiparticle in multiple environments. “We observed exactly the same behavior, the same peculiar dynamics of this fast-moving quasiparticle,” Singh says. “It can be observed in any magnetic material. As long as it’s a very narrow constricted structure, this behavior can be detected.”

The next steps for this research are further observation and replication by the Mizzou team and, hopefully, other physicists. “If we can

HIDDEN SIGNS OF DEMENTIA

Mizzou researchers have created an affordable, portable system to help identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a potential precursor to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The system, which uses a depth camera to capture movement, a force plate to assess balance and an interface board to process data, analyzes subtle motor function differences linked to cognitive decline.

In a recent study, the device captured data from older adults performing simple movement tasks while counting backward. A machine-learning model then identified 83% of participants with MCI.

“The areas of the brain involved in cognitive impairment overlap with areas controlling motor function, so when one is diminished, the other is

Department of Physics and Astronomy researcher Deepak Singh, who studies magnetic quasiparticles at the nanoscale.

understand and control it, it does have potential for a field like spintronics,” Singh says, referring to an emerging alternative to electronics with the promise to drastically reduce power consumption for everything from high-level computing to the smartphones everyone carries in their pockets. “But first things first, we are physicists. We want to understand it.”

— Chris Blose, MA ’04

impacted as well,” Trent Guess, associate professor in the College of Health Sciences, told Show Me Mizzou.

With Alzheimer’s cases projected to double by 2060, researchers hope to expand the system’s use to clinics, senior centers and assisted living facilities for early intervention.

• Jonathan B. Murray, BJ ’77, has donated $10.3 million to the  Missouri School of Journalism’s Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism to enhance educational opportunities and solidify Columbia as a Midwest hub for documentary storytelling. The gift will support new initiatives, including increased student mentorship, expanded professional partnerships and innovative documentary production opportunities.

• Sara Parker Pauley, JD ’93, has received The Pugsley Medal, a prestigious national award honoring leadership in natural resource management. Established in 1928, the award recognizes individuals who advance parks and environmental stewardship at local, state and national levels. Pauley, the first woman to lead both the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, has enhanced outdoor access and guided key land acquisitions across the state.

• The  University of Missouri Advanced Light Microscopy Core (ALMC) has a new director: Tara Finegan, assistant research professor in the Division of Biological Sciences. Finegan, who joined Mizzou’s faculty in 2023, brings expertise in light imaging technologies and will continue her academic and research duties while leading the ALMC.

COLDER THAN ICE HOTTER THAN THE SUN

Suchi Guha and Gavin King are exploring the extraordinary properties of halide perovskites at the nanoscale — dimensions typically less than 100 nanometers, where materials can exhibit unique physical and chemical behaviors. At this scale, the ultrathin crystalline structure of halide perovskites makes them highly efficient at converting sunlight into energy. The Mizzou physicists’ work could lead to more affordable and effective solar panels and longerlasting LED lights.

“Halide perovskites are being hailed as the semiconductors of the 21st century,” says Guha, an expert in solid-state physics. “Over the past six years, my lab has concentrated on optimizing these materials as a sustainable source for the next generation of optoelectronic devices.”

A class of minerals with a distinctive cubic structure, perovskites have gained attention for their exceptional electronic and optical properties. To fabricate the material, Guha’s team used chemical vapor deposition, a scalable method refined by former Mizzou graduate student Randy Burns, PhD ’24, in collaboration with

MEET ROARY THE CHATBOT

Chris Arendse of the University of the Western Cape. The team analyzed the material’s optical properties using ultrafast laser spectroscopy before collaborating with King to enhance its electronic applications.

The scientist, who specializes in biological physics, applied ice lithography, an advanced technique that cools the material to cryogenic temperatures and allows for precise patterning at the nanometer scale.

“By creating intricate patterns on these thin films, we can produce devices with distinct properties and functionalities,” King says. “These patterns are the equivalent to developing the base or foundational layer in optical electronics.”

The researchers credit their interdisciplinary approach for the project’s success.

“When you collaborate, you get the full picture and the chance to learn new things,” Guha says.

Their work is part of Mizzou’s growing research portfolio powering the new Center for Energy Innovation. The team’s findings were published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Small.

— Chris Blose, MA

’04

Ready to help, Mizzou’s new AI-powered texting tool connects undergraduates to the people and resources they need to thrive. Roary navigates university policies, places, programs and people, and links students to the support they need — whether that means improving academic skills, joining campus groups or finding dining options.

“Mizzou is a big, complicated place, and Roary is like a GPS that helps students navigate their campus experience,” says Jim Spain, vice provost for undergraduate studies. Launched this semester, Roary already has answered more than 30,000 texts from students. Students can access it 24/7, and each week, it proactively checks in with messages tied to the academic calendar. Roary’s knowledge continues growing, but its mission remains the same: “Roary is all about helping students succeed,” Spain says. — Jack Wax, BS Ed ’73, MS ’76, MA ’87

@NFL

Mizzou Tiger Armand

Membou’s roaring 4.91u at 6’4” 332 lbs!

: #NFLCombine on @NFLNetwork

@BioNexusKC

At BioNexus KC, we believe in the power of partnership. Thank you, @Mizzou & @MizzouResearch, for being a champion of innovation and discovery in the life sciences. Your dedication to research are making a lasting impact on our region's scientific and healthcare landscape.

@MizFanJoe

Mizzou sports are boomin’. Back to back 10+ win football seasons, finishing ranked in AP/ CFP polls, entering next season with arguably the top transfer class. Basketball has wins over the #1 and #5 teams in the nation. Entered the poll at #22 this week. 15-3 and ROLLING.

@CoachDrinkwitz

MIZZOU STUDENT

SECTION NEVER DISAPPOINTS!! #MIZ

@Mizzou

Yesterday, #Mizzou leaders hosted a ribbon cutting celebrating a 47,000-square-foot addition to the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) facility. The addition offers new opportunities for industry collaboration and advances in nuclear science.

Wheelchair Basketball’s Next Power Move

As an undergraduate in the School of Health Professions in 2011, Scott Meyer needed a fieldwork requirement to complete his degree. At the bottom of a list of possible internships, he saw an opportunity with Mizzou’s wheelchair basketball team. Meyer, who played basketball through high school, figured he’d compile stats and film games for a year before moving on.

Instead, wheelchair basketball became his future. On Feb. 25, 2025, Meyer, BHS ’12, was named head coach of the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball national team. He will lead Team USA through a four-year cycle culminating in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

“Like a lot of people, I had no visibility into adapted sports growing up,” Meyer says. “Initially, I thought, ‘How can people play basketball sitting down?’ But then you see it and see how fast people go, hear the contact of the chairs, see people falling over and popping back up, being able to shoot sitting down from pretty much anywhere on the court. I fell in love with it.”

Mizzou is one of only 12 U.S. colleges to offer wheelchair basketball. Thanks to longtime coach Ron Lykins, the school has strong ties to the international game. As head coach of U.S. national

teams, Lykins won four Paralympic gold medals: two each for the women (2004, 2008) and men (2016, 2021).

“He’s the best to ever do it,” Meyer says of his mentor. “To be able to learn from him, it was like a third master’s degree for me.”

Lykins saw in Meyer an eager student with a strong basketball background who built trust with players and taught the game well. Post-graduation, he invited Meyer to stay as a Mizzou assistant coach and chose him for his Paralympic staffs. After winning gold in Tokyo in 2021, Lykins stepped down. Robb Taylor then led Team USA to a third straight gold in Paris, with Meyer assisting.

Now, as head coach, Meyer moves from making suggestions to making decisions, the easiest of which was inviting Lykins to be his assistant coach. They’ll be side by side again for a run they hope ends with a fourth straight Paralympic gold for Team USA.

“To see him grow and get this opportunity is well-deserved, and I’m really happy for him,” Lykins says. “He doesn’t need me — he’s good on his own — but for me to be there and offer advice when he needs it, it’s just payback for all he did for me.” — Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92

New U.S. wheelchair basketball coach Scott Meyer, right, stands with his mentor Ron Lykins. Both are longtime Mizzou coaches and pioneers in Paralympic wheelchair basketball.

AROUND THE COLUMNS

New Leader for Women’s Hoops

Mizzou has named Kellie Harper as the new head coach of its women’s basketball program. Harper becomes the fifth head coach in program history and brings more than two decades of head coaching experience, nine NCAA Tournament appearances and a 393-260 overall record to Mizzou.

She replaced Robin Pingeton, who led the Tigers for 15 seasons and guided the team to four NCAA Tournament appearances.

Harper, who most recently served as head coach at Tennessee, returns to the sideline after spending the 2024–25 season as an analyst with the SEC Network. A former national champion as a player at Tennessee, she also led Missouri State to two NCAA appearances during a successful six-year run in Springfield. At Tennessee, she guided the Lady Vols to multiple 25-win seasons and three Sweet 16 appearances.

“I am incredibly honored to be the next head coach at Mizzou,” Harper said of her new job. “Missouri is a special place, and I know firsthand the passion and pride that surrounds this program. The foundation is in place for success — and I can’t wait to get started.”

SOPHIE’S TRADE All-time Mizzou women’s basketball leading scorer Sophie Cunningham, BS ’20, will play alongside WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark after being traded to the Indiana Fever in February. Cunningham spent six seasons with the Phoenix Mercury, averaging a career-best 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in 2024. The 2025 WNBA regular season begins Friday, May 16.

OLIVO COMES HOME

Brock Olivo’s playing days at Mizzou are three decades past, back in the era of gigantic shoulder pads. Even then, the Tiger running back seemed like a throwback. He lived in spartan quarters, forsook fatty and frothy pleasures and pushed himself to legendary lengths in the weight room.

Those sacrifices transformed a lightly regarded recruit into a star back and special teams player. Olivo, BA ’01, was a firm believer in the notion that anything was possible in football if you outworked the other guy. As a senior in 1997, he and the Tigers earned their first winning season in 13 years.

The game has changed dramatically since then, and not at all.

“Football, I call it the great revealer,” says Olivo, who has served as Mizzou football’s special teams assistant since 2023. “There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance around college football, but on Saturday afternoons, you have to prove it. I don’t care how much NIL or revenue sharing you’re getting directly deposited into your bank account each month.”

Although the coach is a romantic about football, he says sharing his real-world experience has the most impact on Mizzou players. After four seasons as a player with the Detroit Lions, Olivo transitioned into coaching. He worked with the Chiefs, Broncos and Bears before returning to his alma mater.

“I’ve been in their shoes here,” he says. “I can give them perspective on what it takes as a player and what coaches look for at the next level.”

— Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92

Former Tiger standout Brock Olivo evades a tackle during a 1997 Mizzou win over Colorado. He was recently named an assistant coach.

The Hay Playbook

When Abby Hay finally decided to switch from baseball to softball as a freshman at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, she had some adjustments to make. She needed to learn how to hit riseballs, how to stay put on the basepaths until the pitcher released the ball and, perhaps most jarring, how to sing cheerful chants in the dugout.

“In baseball, it’s more ruthless. You’re trying to get under the other team’s skin,” Hay says. “The cheering is still not my favorite. I like to heckle sometimes. I have to control that a little bit.”

Hay has otherwise adapted just fine. As a freshman first baseman at Mizzou in 2024, she hit .282, earned second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors and helped the Tigers come within a game of the College World Series.

That Hay became a Mizzou athlete seemed natural. Her parents are both former Tigers: baseball player John Hay, BS BA ’92, and golfer Amy Smethers Hay, BS ’95. That Abby wound up playing softball, though, was no sure thing.

Her dad’s sport was her first love. She started by trying to keep up with her brother, Zack, who is four years older, and his friends in backyard games.

“I was the kid that would watch games and then go out in the yard and imitate the swings or the way they fielded ground balls to get the movements down,” Abby says.

John helped coach Abby’s baseball teams. She says he was always a little harder on her than the other players. He would tell her to shake off the occasional foul tip to the throat when she played catcher. Her parents never tried to steer her away from baseball.

“Who am I to tell her she can’t do something?” Amy says. “Why would I be the one that says no and defines what she can’t do?”

Abby decided to join some of her friends on the Rock Bridge softball team as a freshman. She continued to play baseball through her sophomore season before turning to softball full time for her final two years of high school. After Mizzou offered her a scholarship, the decision was easy.

“We’ve raised our kids at Mizzou football games and basketball games, and we’re just Tigers through and through,” Amy says. “The fact she wanted to stay here, it makes my heart swell.”

— Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92

Scoreboard

2 — Number of Missouri wrestlers who earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. Keegan O’Toole placed second at 174 pounds, and Cam Steed finished seventh at 165. As a team, the Tigers placed 14th.

4.0 — GPA of women’s basketball player Grace Slaughter, who was named the Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

197.650 — Program-best postseason score posted by Mizzou gymnastics at the NCAA Seattle Regional, where the Tigers advanced to the regional final. The performance featured a perfect 10 on beam from Helen Hu — the first in program history — and helped earn five gymnasts All-America honors, including Hu and Mara Titarsolej on the first team. (See Semper Mizzou, Page 64.)

7:53.61 — School-record time posted by Drew Rogers in the 3,000 meters at the SEC Indoor Championships. The win made him the first Mizzou man to claim gold in the event and the first to break the 8-minute barrier in school history.

17.04 — Length in meters of Jonathan Seremes’ triple jump, which earned him a gold medal at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. That leap — 55 feet, 11 inches — made the sophomore from Paris, France, the first triple jump national champion in Mizzou history.

Write Your Memoir How to

Warm football Saturdays. Wandering the stacks at Ellis. A bronze tiger statue. A menu featuring chickenfried steak. Something puts that faraway look in your eyes and unleashes your best stories — and it need not trigger an urgent need in your spouse or kids to check their phones. You can hold their attention while reliving your best moments. In fact, you should. Because looking back is just another way of moving forward, and your audience will feel the same acceleration. Read on as teacher and memoirist Kelly Caldwell unloads her best tips and tricks for composing a favorite episode from your campus years.

SIDE BY SIDE in the smallest apartment in Columbia, Sherry and I taught each other how to fry bacon.

We were sharing a studio on Rosemary Lane that we’d nicknamed “The Closet.” It could fit one single bed, so we took turns sleeping on the floor. We had a kitchen chair, too, but it went into the hallway when both of us were home at the same time.

It felt like living inside an oil can, and that summer, Columbia suffered a record-breaking heatwave. I spent my last dollar on a used window air conditioner and stored it overnight with a boyfriend. He sold it.

He was why Sherry was there with me, clogging her pores in The Closet at midnight when she should have been in a cool movie theater with a date of her own. After an argument with the air conditioner thief, I’d called her in tears at work; she came home instead.

She should have called me a putz like she did whenever I slept through our 8:40 a.m. Econ 51 class and needed to borrow her notes. She should have banned me from hanging out, eating Oreos and gossiping at her second job at the Brady Commons

commissary until I’d broken up with the air-conditioner thief. She should have told her co-worker to take a message. Instead, Sherry held my hand until I calmed down. Then she stood up, stuck the chair out in the hall and proclaimed, “I’m starved! Aren’t you starved?”

Of the countless nights I’ve stayed up too late eating fried foods with friends, this one stands out. I could joke that it’s memorable because of the Missouri summer heat, my almost nonexistent cooking skills or my questionable diet.

But that would be glib and unsatisfying. And it wouldn’t be true in the deepest sense. As a writer and teacher of memoir, it just won’t do.

That’s because in memoir, we excavate and share our memories not just to entertain friends or bathe in the balmy breezes of nostalgia. We also examine them in the hopes of unearthing deeper truths about what it means to be human.

Our college years — when our prefrontal cortexes are in the final stages of development, when we’re gulping down knowledge like thirsty hippos drinking water, and when

we’re experiencing more big firsts than we can count — are especially rife with memories begging to become meaningful stories. They’re also likely to bubble up to the surface with the slightest provocation: the mere existence of a football Saturday, the smooth spine of an old book, the tang of pizza sauce.

Once they’re unlocked, though, then what?

First, write them down before they have a chance to skitter off and get lost forever. Writing them down also may summon other memories you can preserve. Before you know it, you’ll have a notebook full of stories you didn’t even know you remembered.

If you’d like to take it further, to craft those stories into memoir and discover why they’re meaningful to you, read on.

HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU heard someone say, “Someday, I’m going to write my memoirs, and then everybody better watch out!”? What they really mean is, “Wait till I write my autobiography and exact revenge upon all those who have wronged me.”

As fun as it might seem to write a vengeance-inspired hit job, a memoir is a story written for other people. It’s also one story of your life, not the story of your life. That’s autobiography, which is mostly reserved for the super famous (or infamous): politicians, inventors, performers. Think of last year’s Lovely One by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson or the much-anticipated life story forthcoming from pop star Lionel Ritchie. Their successes are the destination; all that remains is to answer the question, “How did I get here?”

There’s no preset destination for the rest of us; any moment in our lives that feels urgent and memorable to us can be the focus of a good memoir. Everyone’s life is full of potential meaning— no fame required.

But we have to narrow and narrow and narrow the focus of our story. You don’t want to tell the whole story of living in your sorority or choosing your major or courting your spouse. You want to single out one moment that sings to you and write it down. Where was it? What music was playing? When did it happen? Who said what? Repeat for the next moment. And then the next.

You wouldn’t throw flour, sugar, butter and cherries into a blender, dump them into a pan and bake them, and expect them to turn into a pie. The same goes for memoir. You create each layer individually, then knead them together into a whole.

OFTEN THE MOMENTS that sing to you are when something disrupted the status quo of your life. Spring comes too early, prompting two best friends to commit to bottling a record amount of maple syrup. A tornado rips through your community. You land the lead role in the campus production of Angels in America

But great memoirs can start with a change that’s so small it wouldn’t be remarkable, except that it led to something more meaningful. You start going to the pizza place for lunch every Tuesday instead of every Wednesday and develop a friendship, ultimately an important one, with another regular customer. You attend the same St. Patrick’s Day party every year, but one year you wake up the next morning with a hangover, a wad of cash you didn’t have before and no memory of how you got it. (This sounds like the beginning of a thriller, but it happened to my grandfather.)

There’s meaning in the mundane. A friend’s father used to order a chocolate cake to be delivered to their home every Saturday morning. Sweet routine, right? Maybe not much more than that — until you learn that he grew up as one of nine hungry children and spent most of his childhood scrounging food for his younger siblings. Even then, with that crucial detail, it still isn’t a story. It becomes a story when the bakery van breaks down, or the mother gives the cake away to a neighbor’s family, or the dog eats it. Because then you have to answer the question, “What then?”

In her memoir Eastern Circle, forthcoming next year from Holt publishing, Catina Bacote describes how her grandfather looked out for the Connecticut community she grew up in. He scared off stray dogs and bullies, broke up fights and somehow materialized whenever anyone needed help. Again, it’s lovely but mundane. It becomes meaningful when we learn that “Dada” died protecting his community. He was shot to death defending teenage neighbors under attack by strangers.

Now it’s a story, albeit one that needs a focus. Bacote finds

that when she discovers a monument overlooking the neighborhood that honors long-dead soldiers who fought in long-ago wars. She argues a similar monument should be built to honor her grandfather and the thousands like him killed in violence during the crack epidemic of the 1980s. You can see that idea in the subtitle for Bacote’s book: Searching for a Just End for My Grandfather’s Murder.

Now, it’s a story.

SOMETIMES, YOU CAN describe an important memory to the point of exhaustion — capturing every word spoken, the slant of the sunlight, the smell of lunch bubbling over on the stove — and still, you have a memory, not a memoir. What’s missing is the action within yourself.

“Interiority moves us through the magic realms of time and truth, hope and fantasy, memory, feelings, ideas, worries,” Mary Karr writes in Art of Memoir. “Whenever a writer gets reflective … she moves inside herself to where things matter and mean.”

You’re looking for something more nuanced and granular than, “We broke up, and I felt sad.” Events trigger internal responses, and those responses shape us: our actions, our dreams, our fears, our hopes. The stuff meaning is made of.

How many times have you walked Mizzou’s Quad on a Homecoming weekend past crowds of alumni of all ages, staring at the Columns with misty eyes? You might assume they’re all feeling the same wistfulness and nostalgia. You’d also be mistaken.

Sure, some may be ruminating generally on the past because the Columns represent the whole Mizzou campus, all the places where they did some of their most important growing up. But others may be reliving meeting their best friend in Switzler Hall or breaking up with their first love in front of the chancellor’s residence or registering for classes in Jesse Hall after overcoming enormous adversity to be able to attend college at all.

They may all be united in their nostalgia, but not all nostalgias are the same. They can be a longing for one’s past, or a yearning to reconnect with something forgotten. Humans can feel nostalgia for the future, or for a past that never existed.

My favorite description, though, is from the novelist Michael Chabon. “It’s the feeling that overcomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored,” Chabon wrote in an essay on nostalgia for The New Yorker. “In that moment, you are connected; you have placed a phone call directly into the past and heard an answering voice.”

line to the past. In that way, they’re connected to each other.

That connection, too, is the strain of nostalgia that’s most useful to us in our quest to turn our memories into stories, because despite its bad reputation as a sappy time-waster, nostalgia can be an effective tool. Not only does it churn up memories and emotions — also known as material — it is useful in other ways. It prompts us to reach out to others (research), it opens conversations on long-forgotten or long avoided subjects (discovery) and it fosters empathy (just a good thing generally).

IT MIGHT SOUND DAUNTING,

diving into the crowded madhouse of your memory, grasping one moment from the many, and then trying to study it while it bucks and flips. But you already have practice at this. Think of all the times you’ve been at a party and pulled out an anecdote to share, changing it slightly depending on your audience. Leaving out the NC-17 parts when your boss is there, opening with the NC-17 parts on a bachelorette weekend. That’s memoir.

It’s also an opportunity to visit places and eras that no longer exist, with people (including your younger self) who no longer exist — except within you. It’s a chance to return with a gift better than any snow globe: a story that helps you understand yourself better and maybe helps others understand themselves better, too.

Take that night frying bacon with Sherry in The Closet. For years I thought of it as a story about heartbreak or about navigating romantic relationships or maybe about cooking. Only when I wrote it as a memoir did I finally understand: That sweltering summer, Sherry showed me what it takes to be a real friend. It’s listening even when you want to shake someone by her shoulders and tell her to snap out of it. It’s sacrificing a night at the movies because someone you love needs you. It’s showing up, even when it’ll be uncomfortable.

Memoir is one story of your life, not the story of your life. That’s autobiography, and it’s mostly reserved for the super famous (or infamous).

All those misty-eyed alums on the Quad might not be listening to the same voice, but I like to think they’re sharing a party

Like stepping onto campus as a freshman, you never know what you’ll find when you wander into your memories and look for the stories they hold. And like the adventure you embarked on then (and the adventures since), you navigate by reaching for what seems promising and see which ones lead you home.

For an example of a short memoir, take a look at the following story about Read Hall, with a few tips and tricks in the margins. Then try to write a memoir of your own. Think of a moment from your time at Mizzou that’s calling out to you. See how much of it you can remember. Ask yourself why it’s singing to you. See what answer floats in through the open window. M

One place, one time, one story. This moment orients the reader to where I am in my life revealing important facts for this story.

The Writing on the Wall

I WAS 19, SELF-CONSCIOUS, as quick to mortification as some drivers are to road rage, so, really, the incident should have killed me.

On an 80-degree day in mid-April, another reporter walked into the office wearing a jacket and heavy blue wool sweater.

“Take that sweater off!” I said. “You’re making me hot just looking at you!”

The room erupted into a middle school, “OhhhhhhOOHHHHoooohhhhhhhhhhh!!!” The next thing I knew, someone dragged over a chair. An upperclassman named Fred grabbed a fat black Magic Marker and started inscribing my words high onto the walls of Read Hall.

It was one of the proudest moments of my life.

You had to earn your way onto the wall, which made the memory, well, memorable.

For at least 15 years in the ’70s and ’80s, the Maneater third floor of Read were legendary for the graffiti covering every inch of the greenish-gray walls. Ceilings, too. It was of varying vintages, some so faded you could barely read them, and the handwriting fluctuated in its legibility, too. There were a few drawings, but mostly, it was text. You couldn’t make the wall with something so generic as your initials or “Kilroy was here” or earned your way onto the wall with bits of threats, jokes, insults and assorted weird nonsense muttered at 4 a.m

“I’ve got a lot of patience. And that’s a lot of patience to lose.”

Be specific about the place and time. Not just “in Read Hall” but the ’eater office on the third floor of Read Hall.

“The Digest is turning into a good paper.” (No doubt that was a sick burn when Eric said it in 1979, but I never figured out whether the burnee was

Examples make the mundane more vivid.

“You have to choose someday whether you’re going to be a journalist or a .” Underneath, someone replied, “Man, I hope you have a good

It wasn’t Basquiat. But it was ours.

This is the reality of life at the ’eater — what it would take to be immmortalized on the walls.

Story begins when everything changes.

it would be gone. At the end of that school year, the university Maneater out of Read Hall and move us into bigger, cleaner, more modern quarters in Brady Commons, where we’d be able to produce the paper with actual computers instead of the manual typewriters and rub ber cement we’d been using since the Wilson administration.

We lobbied hard to stay, but the administration rejected all our appeals. To the university, I suppose, one set of rooms was as good as another for the scruffy loudmouths who published the student newspaper. No doubt they thought we were being overly sentimental.

Why should you care about place attachment? Because you have it, too!

It was so much deeper than that.

What we had is called place attachment bond with a space where you’ve had intense personal experiences. It can develop because of the nature of the experience or because it took place in a community or because the place itself is special. Sometimes it’s all three.

Memoir is of necessity built mostly from our memories. But speculation and imagination are good, too.

You want to recreate not only the physical setting of your story but the emotional setting, as well. And if it finds common ground with your reader — like 20-somethings figuring out who they will be when they grow up — all the better.

Think of all the classes you remember? Maybe those skinny windows were on the left side of your Spanish classroom and the right side of your algebra classroom. Or was it the other way around? Does it matter? an earthquake hit the Francis Quadrangle. Two Columns lay on their sides, split in half. The other four are nothing but dusty chunks. That sensation you’re having right now of being place attachment.

Find meaning in your personal story, connecting it to larger subjects outside of your own experience — current events, social issues, history, etc.

Sure, Read Hall was special to us because it’s where we met our closest friends, saw our first byline, suffered heartbreaks, celebrated victories. It’s story of

our adult lives

Those pivotal, life-changing moments happened to us elsewhere on campus, too, on Lowry Mall or in Middlebush Hall. But our affinity for those spaces was never quite so fierce as our attachment to Read.

The difference is the graffiti.

We liked its audacity, this open, gleeful defacing of university property. It appealed to our desire to be perceived as rebellious, independent, willing to speak truth to power.

Memoir isn’t just recounting what happened. It’s shaping a story for other people. Seize opportunities to connect with readers on shared experiences.

Don’t be afraid to break your readers’ heart.

Private agonies read deeper than external whammies. Also good? Secret longing and aspiration.

First-person stories always risk sound ing self-indulgent, so be sure to an ticipate the reader asking, “So what?” Possibly with an eye roll. “Great, you kids defaced the walls of your offices and thought you were soooo cool. And I should care about this because ... ?”

It also gave us a sense of legacy: Every scribble connected us to aspiring journalists who became the real thing. We sat where they sat and hoped to follow their bad puns into careers of our own.

But most importantly for creating that cognitiveemotional attachment, the graffiti changed the physical space. Nowhere else on campus looked like the Maneater offices, and that made them indelible. It made events within those walls more vivid, special. We read it, preserved it, shared it, added to it. Hell, we curated it.

I saved this background for this moment in the story so it will show why the place was so important to me. Any earlier and I’m just one of 5,000+ overwhelmed freshmen.

It’s why my “Take that sweater off!” moment was so joyful. In the fall, it taken me a full month to work up the nerve to attend my first Maneater news meeting. By then, the campus had stopped seeming so overwhelmingly huge, and I’d met the woman who would become my best friend. I’d attended enough home football games to say hi to the students who sat in my section.

But as a shy kid eight hours from home, I fully a part of university life. Mizzou still did not belong to me. Not yet.

That feeling started to fade after I finally dragged myself into Read Hall and one of the editors read out the last story to be assigned. “You there,” he said, pointing at me in the back of the room. “What’s your name? This one’s yours.”

And here is where the interior story ends.

Each action in a story triggers a reaction; this is the ripple effect of the move out of Read Hall.

Now, I was being immortalized for saying fellow writers were teasing me with, “What else would you like him to take off, Kelly?” and “Is there anyone else you’d like to see strip, Kelly?” Now, just like Patient Laura or Eric ’79, I’d made the wall.

That one was mine

As the school year wound down and the move loomed, we were in genuine mourning. Some ’eaters declared they’d never set foot in the offices in Brady Commons, and they kept their word. Others tried but soon drifted away. It wasn’t the same. As promised, the space was clean and modern and sterile

Those of us who continued

This is the beginning of my interior story.

Memoir doesn’t feel authentic unless you are honest about moments when you messed up or said something stupid.

Above, the Maneater’s shop was in Read Hall before moving to Brady Commons. Top, a manual Royal typewriter in the Maneater offices. At right, in her student days, the author suited up to illustrate a story about the then-growing acceptance of gender-bending fashion.

Students started making memories at Brady Commons in 1961, clockwise from above: Grabbing a bite at the food court, 1994; navigating a tumble of texts at the bookstore, 1976; and registering for classes, undated photo.

bring our place attachment along with us.

After the Maneater’s move, a rumor around that before construction workers took sledgehammers to the walls, tearing them down to the studs and rebuilding them, a couple of editors tried to chisel out hunks, to save some of the quotes. The plaster crumbled in their hands.

Don’t say something is true when you know (or are pretty sure) it’s not. But as long as you’re clear with the reader, rumors, myths and legends are all fair game.

One place, one time, one story means you can only choose one idea to leave the reader with at the end. Here, I hope the reader leaves feeling like they time trav eled to that spring, hung out for a bit with a lively group of spirited young writers in a funky, sacred space — be cause that’s how it felt to me.

Age, cigarette smoke, neglect — there were plenty of sound, logical reasons why we couldn’t take those pieces of Read Hall with us.

For me, though, it’s more likely that the graffiti was an artifact, ancient and enchantoutside its temple. M

Kelly Caldwell, BJ ’88, who has published Newsday and teaches memoir and leads the faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City.

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX

What started as one mom’s hunt for the perfect keepsake case turned into a $10 million sensation — and caught the eyes of Shark Tank’s toughest investors.

by mara reinstein,

bj ’98

INDSAY MULLENGER turned a personalized trunk into a multimillion-dollar business.

Mullenger, BS BA ’10, founded Petite Keep, an online retailer specializing in custom-made, hand-crafted chests to store sentimental mementos from weddings, births and other major milestones. In more than 5 years, she’s grown her startup from a buzzy social media curiosity to a $10 million-a-year powerhouse.

Mullenger also has lured in some big fish along the way. On January 24, she appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and secured a rare threeperson investment from Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran and Jamie Kern Lima.

“I am obsessed about the business,” Mullenger says from her home in suburban St. Louis. “I feel so strongly about what we’re doing and the pure joy that we’re bringing to people’s celebrations. We’re a part of the highest moments of their lives, and

that’s so fun.” The married mother of five adds that the company “is my sixth baby.”

In 2018, pregnant with her second daughter, Mullenger struggled to find a personalized keepsake box. “I talked to my friends across the country, and no one had a great solution,” she says.

The entrepreneurship skills she honed at Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business kicked in. Despite working full time at Procter & Gamble with little product development experience, she poured her energy into Petite Keep. “It was like a Rubik’s Cube trying to figure everything out,” she says. “I listened to a lot of business podcasts and did a lot of Googling.” She also happened to launch at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. She benefited from customers craving new at-home to-dos that led them to discover her colorful trunks on Instagram.

In those early days, Mullenger and her husband set up shop in the attic and worked nights

and weekends. She got help from her parents: Her mother, Dotti (Heiman) Durbin, BS HES ’82, wrote every gift card, while her father, Mike Durbin, BA ’82, handled packing and shipping.

“It was a very bare-bones endeavor before it grew,” Dotti says. In just one year, the company produced six figures in revenue.

Mullenger first applied for Shark Tank a few years ago and waited it out until she got the call. She taped last September. “I was really nervous, but I realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she says. A confidentiality agreement precludes her from sharing details, but viewers surely made note of her moxie. She negotiated for 15% of her company in exchange for $400,000 — and she made an enthusiastic plug for her education at Mizzou. “I’m so happy it wasn’t edited out!” she says. While at Trulaske, Mullenger was accepted into the Cornell Leadership Program and

attended its first Tigers on Wall Street corporate trip in 2008. “It was an incredible experience because I saw a window to the world,” she says. The program also “had an emphasis on leadership, which I have definitely taken with me.”

She currently runs Petite Keep out of a warehouse in St. Louis. Teams across the country take on the fabric and sewing responsibilities. With her parents no longer serving as makeshift employees, they can marvel at her accomplishments. “We always had confidence in her,” Mike Durbin says, “and knew that whatever she did, she was going to make it a major success.”

Indeed, Mullenger encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to go for it. “A lot of people told me that it was crazy to start a business when I was building a family and had a steady career,” she says, “But there’s never going to be a better time than right now.” M

Lindsay Mullenger pitches Petite Keep on Shark Tank to Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner and Jamie Kern Lima. The Mizzou alum secured a rare threeinvestor deal.

After two trips around the world, Kitty and Scott Kuhner came to understand that all they need is a boat, a heading and each other.

STORY BY TONY REHAGEN, BA, BJ ’01

MIZZOU MAGAZINE SPRING 2025

Found at Sea

In the fall of 1969,

SCOTT AND KITTY KUHNER were working in New York City when Scott popped the question: “Will you sail around the world with me?”

Saying “yes” arguably wasn’t even the most impulsive thing Kitty had done that year. She had already met and agreed to marry Scott in the span of six weeks that spring. Still, in many ways, an ocean voyage around the globe in a sailboat was a bigger ask than “Till death do us part.”

Scott was a New Englander who’d taken sailing lessons since age 13. Kitty Heaton, BS Ed ’66, was a Midwesterner raised in Ladue, Mo. “Not many people in Missouri sailed,” Kitty says. “I’d never heard of anyone sailing around the world.”

On the other hand, Kitty had relished the couple’s honeymoon sailing from Westport, Conn., to Nantucket, Mass., and back. She loved living in the cramped quarters and “taking our home wherever we went.” Plus, she was an adventurer at heart. “I read a book written by an older couple from England that had sailed around the world,” Kitty says. “I thought, ‘If they could do it in their 40s, we could do it in our 20s.’”

Two years later, the Kuhners hopped aboard their ketch and embarked on a 32,000-mile journey across three oceans and five continents. They witnessed natural wonders, experienced foreign cultures and met fascinating people along the way. They also struggled to avert disasters in the form of hurricanes, pirates and medical emergencies. In many ways, the experience shaped them into who they became as individuals and as a family. “Every place we anchored, we made friends and had fun,” Kitty says. “Even though we’d faced the storm, there were so many good things. We wouldn’t have traded it for anything.”

IMPULSIVE

AS THE KUHNERS WERE, they didn’t set sail into the unknown on a whim. They spent more than a year preparing. First, Scott upgraded

Kathleen “Kitty” Heaton, from the 1965 Savitar yearbook

from his 23-foot O’Day Tempest to a 30-foot Allied Seawind, which they bought for $7,000 and named Bebinka, a Russian-inspired term of endearment for “little baby.” After refitting it with a diesel engine, a 30-gallon water tank and a spray dodger to shield them from sun, rain and surf, they installed a wind vane self-steering device to keep the boat pointed in the right direction relative to shifts in the wind. They both studied on a borrowed sextant, an essential sailing device. “We didn’t have a GPS or even a depth-finder,” Kitty says. “All we had was celestial navigation. We went to the planetarium to practice.”

On October 17, 1971, after quitting their jobs — his as a securities analyst, hers as a teacher — the Kuhners set off from Westport, Conn., to the Virgin Islands. Within two weeks, they encountered 40- knot winds, a Coast Guard helicopter asking if they needed assistance in the storm (they didn’t) and a leak in the onboard sink. The couple sang and danced in St. Thomas. Scott caught dysentery in Panama before they passed through the canal. They encountered a pod of whales en route to the Galapagos Islands and went 22 days without seeing another soul as they crossed the open sea. Then the Kuhners skipped across South Pacific islands, including Tahiti, Bora Bora and Fiji. They combed the beaches for seashells, rode out Hurricane Bebe (with Bebinka moored to some mangroves) and welcomed guitar-toting

Scenes from Kitty and Scott Kuhner’s first sailing adven- ture: navigating open seas in their 30-foot ketch, baking bread in a pressure cooker, cutting hair on deck, working office jobs in Sydney, renting motorcycles in Bali, sharing a guidebook with local kids at a temple and anchoring off the cliffs of Nuka Hiva.

Polynesians aboard to sing and dance into the night. They hitchhiked around New Zealand and paused for a couple of months to take jobs in Sydney, Australia. He was a financial analyst, she a secretary. Then to New Guinea and Indonesia. They crossed the Indian Ocean to skirt Madagascar and stopped in South Africa for a safari. They climbed the 699-step Jacob’s Ladder in St. Helena before crossing the Atlantic to Antigua.

“In the last 500 miles between Bermuda and Cape Hatteras, we got caught in a hurricane — but we didn’t know it was a hurricane,” Scott says. “We fell off this giant wave, blew the main hatch, bent the boom and scooped up water as we right- ed. I tell friends we were lucky enough to have the most efficient bilge pump in the world: a fright- ened woman with a bucket.”

After almost three years away, they returned to the workaday world. They lived in New York for a few years, where Scott worked on Wall Street and Kitty toiled in an art gallery. They bought a house and had two boys, Alex and Spencer. But it wasn’t long before the Kuhners again looked to the horizon. “We were spending a lot of summers and weekends on the boat anyway,” Scott says, “and as the boys grew up, they took on more responsibility on board. They loved sailing.”

“We wanted to show the kids there was more to the world than Fairfield County, Connecticut,” Kitty adds.

THREE YEARS, six months, 20 days and 30,347 miles after the Kuhners left Connecticut for the Virgin Islands, they returned home from their second trip around the world. The boys, now both teenagers, returned to school. They went on to private colleges and successful careers. Scott eventually went to work running the New York office of a Brazilian investment bank, and Kitty worked part-time until the kids got out of school.

In all, the couple spent $3,000 a year ($23,037 in today’s dollars) during their first round-trip and $18,000 per year ($49,278) on the second ring around the globe some 16 years later. “People assume you’re rich if you sail around the world,” says Kitty. “But no one’s living ashore. We had all we needed on the boat.”

“We wanted to show the kids there was more to the world than Fairfield County, Connecticut.”

In 2005, Scott and Kitty, both retired, sailed to the Azores, an archipelago in the North Atlantic, and wintered in Portugal, where they spent two years before sailing home. It was their last great adventure at sea. “We have body part malfunctions that keep us from using the boat,” Kitty says.

In fact, the couple is now preparing to move into an independent living senior center. The hardest part, Kitty says, is deciding which of the many paintings, sculptures, wood carvings and other mementos they collected during their travels will fit into their new quarters.

But what they don’t have to downsize are the hundreds of photos — sunrises igniting empty horizons, storm clouds swallowing the sky and strangers turning into friends in harbors around the world. Each image opens a portal, a reminder that, for a time, the sea was home. M

They upgraded their boat to the bigger Tamure (a hula-like Tahitian dance) and arranged for the boys, ages 9 and 11, to be home-schooled by Kitty onboard. After renting their home out in October 1987, the family began a trip around the globe, starting with St. Thomas and detouring through the Suez Canal. The boys raced canoes against village kids in the Solomon Islands. Kitty broke her leg while hiking in New Zealand. The family rented camels in Cairo to visit the Pyramids. In Indonesia, three men wearing black pajamas and ski masks boarded the Tamure.“Kitty and the kids were below doing schoolwork,” Scott says. “I start- ed yelling at them to get off, and Alex stuck his head out and noticed they weren’t armed. Next thing I know, Kitty comes out with three Coca- Colas and a pack of cigarettes. They immediately pulled off their ski masks and gave us big smiles.”

The Kuhners lived by rhythm and ritual as they circled the globe a second time in the ’80s: checking supplies, painting the hull, teaching Alex and Spencer, washing clothes in a bucket and reading magazines aloud. They wandered temple grounds in Bali, rode camels in Egypt, anchored near party boats off Bawaen Island and endured a long pause in New Zealand after Kitty shattered her leg on a cow path.

Pulled by the Current

Last year, two engineers traded their desks for decks, working remotely while boat-schooling their son.

PACKING UP YOUR BELONGINGS, leaving your old life behind and traveling around the world is an adventure most people can only dream of, but for Jim Bob Schell, BSBA ’05, it’s a dream come true. This past September, the Schell family — Jim Bob, his wife, Marlie, and their 5-year-old son, Aksel — set sail on their big adventure to circumnavigate the world by boat over the next decade.

Jim Bob’s interest in boat life originated in early 2020. “For some reason, the YouTube algorithm thought I needed to watch this channel about a family who sails around the globe,” he says. Given his love for travel, Jim Bob was hooked. He soon realized that sailing would be a great way for his family to experience different cultures around the world.

“When Jim Bob first pitched the idea, I thought it was crazy,” Marlie says. “But I soon realized it was actually smart. Living on the water would be beautiful. Plus, most of our sailing would be carbon-free by mainly using wind for propulsion. This eco-friendly form of travel really appealed to us.”

There was only one problem: They had zero sailing experience. So, the couple enrolled in an introductory course at a sailing school and bought a small boat to take out on the lakes in their home state of Wyoming. After sailing to the North Channel Islands in an intensive 7-day course involving heavy weather, Jim Bob and Marlie got their certification to charter a boat on their own to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. It was a much bigger boat than they were used to, more similar in size to the 49-foot boat they’re in now. “It was the final step to see if we really wanted to live this life, and it was an awesome experience,” Jim Bob says. Although they were much more experienced in water by then, they still needed to figure out the logistics for this new lifestyle. They hired sailing consultants to help them plan budgets, develop a homeschooling curriculum for Aksel and advise them on various other things, such as canning tips to save food. The Schells would rent out their home for supplemental income, and Jim Bob and Marlie (both engineers) could continue working part-time for their current employers using satellite internet.

The Schells — Jim Bob, Marlie and their son Aksel — turned the Caribbean into a floating classroom, blending boat chores and schoolwork with monkey encounters in Grenada, fishing expeditions, domino games in Dominica and a soak at Sulphur Springs in St. Lucia. 20.5825860

In June 2024, Jim Bob bought a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49i performance sailboat in Antigua and sailed it to Trinidad to store during hurricane season. On September 19, 2024, the family officially set sail on their adventure. So far, they’ve visited several Caribbean islands. They’ve spent an average of two to three weeks at each locale, depending on the weather, their affinity for the area and the number of other similarly inclined sailing families with children nearby. (To find these “buddy boats,” the Schells use an online resource where fellow sailing families can post where they’re currently anchored.)

Some of their favorite places so far include Dominica, Tobago and St. Lucia. “Trafalgar Falls in Dominica was incredible with its dual waterfalls, hot springs and lush landscape,” Jim Bob says. “It was the first place where I felt blown away. We attended Carnival in Tobago, which was spectacular. St. Lucia was the most visibly stunning place we’ve been.”

The best part of boat life? “We’re close with nature, which makes us want to be good stewards for the planet, and we’re able to spend much more time with our son,” Marlie says. “Our hearts are full because we see how much joy this life brings him.”

But it’s not always smooth sailing. “This lifestyle is amazing, but it’s not easy,” Jim Bob says. “We spend a lot of time repairing the boat and tracking the weather. Figur- ing out logistics, like getting groceries or visiting a doctor, requires a lot of planning. And it’s hard to watch Mizzou games! I usually have to catch the radio broadcast.”

What’s next for the Schells? They plan to sail to central Florida by May before hurricane season begins. Once it’s over, they’ll travel back to the Caribbean before heading to the Mediterranean for at least a year. Other must-see places for them include South Africa, Patagonia, Indone- sia, Thailand and India. “We have a general plan, but 10 years is an ambitious goal since we want to spend a decent amount of time in some of these areas,” Jim Bob says. M — Blaire Leible Garwitz, MA ’06

To live vicariously through the Schells’ adventures, follow their journey on Instagram at @sailingjaimeera.

THE BOTANICAL SOUND SYSTEM

Treehoppers communicate through tiny pulses that travel along plant stems. Biologist Rex Cocroft has spent decades listening.

STORY BY ERIC STANN | PHOTOS BY ABBIE LANKITUS

Lined up like thorns, treehoppers communicate through subtle leg vibrations. The signals are too faint for human ears but can be captured with special sensors.

Imagine

the mellifluous voice of Sir David Attenborough, British lilt and all.

“In the Amazon live many strange species. This is a treehopper,” the veteran actor and naturalist says during “Forests,” a 2023 episode of the BBC series Planet Earth III. The insect has a hard, tank-like protective shell. Its body is shaped like a crescent. It looks like it’s prepping for an alien attack.

“They not only have a bizarre appearance, but they also communicate in a remarkable way,” Attenborough continues. “Vibrating their bodies, they send signals through the forest plants they live on, and every sound has its own particular meaning.”

To analyze the footage and audio for this scene, which was shot within Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, BBC producers connected with Rex Cocroft. For more than 30 years, the Mizzou biologist has studied treehoppers — insects found on every continent except Antarctica — and how they signal each other through a plant’s leaves and stems. His fellow researchers even took the rare step of immortalizing his contributions by naming a new species of the plant-feeding insects

Cladonota rex — in his honor.

“Treehoppers have vibration sensors that detect when their legs move up and down, and they are extremely sensitive to that kind of motion,” Cocroft says. “Sound and vibration are very closely allied in treehoppers, and they experience vibration in the way we experience sound.” Human ears can’t detect treehopper utterances, so Cocroft uses a specific kind of sensor to capture and amplify the signals.

“Piezoelectric materials produce an electrical current when under mechanical stress,” Cocroft says. He compares it to a guitar pick-up. “A piezo disk is commonly attached to an acoustic guitar’s soundboard. The guitar’s vibrations become an electrical signal in the piezo, which can be amplified by a speaker to produce sound.”

Treehoppers communicate by activating parts of their bodies, usually the abdomen. Those micromovements stimulate plant stems via the insect’s legs. The bugs can mimic cicadas

by buckling a part of their thorax to make a clicking sound. They also can shake their abdomen or hindquarters to create songlike sounds that vary in pitch, tone and volume.

“One species sounded like an oinking pig, another like mournful whale song, another as if an entire drum circle had assembled on the thin little twig, and yet another like a zapping gun sound effect from an old school computer game,” BBC director Abigail Lees wrote in a post about her experience in Ecuador.

Lees noted one species whose mother “will actively defend her fifty-or 100-odd nymphs from predators. Mum and young communicate with one another using vibrations, but it also looks like they signal visually by waving their arms like an air traffic controller if a predator comes too close.” One scene in the episode suggests that this arm-waving serves a more urgent, transactional purpose: summoning honeybees to fend off a predatory ant in exchange for nectar secreted by the treehoppers.

The insects, Cocroft explains, typically have a repertoire of several types of signals. “They are good at distinguishing between those and responding appropriately,” he says. “It’s not what we traditionally think of as an insect sound because the mechanics of producing and transmitting sounds are different. To some people, they sound more like the clicks, chirps and whistles of birds, frogs or whales.”

SILENT SYMPHONY

COCROFT WAS FIRST INTRODUCED to treehoppers during graduate school. After borrowing a recording device initially

used to record caterpillar sounds, the researcher attached it to a plant with treehoppers on it. It was the first time he heard treehoppers, an experience he describes as an epiphany. He marveled at the sonic surprises of the Amazonian jukebox.

“With more than 3,000 species of treehoppers worldwide, every species has different songs, so you don’t know what you’re going to hear until you begin to listen,” Cocroft says. “And the plants are good at transmitting the treehopper’s vibrations because plant stems are thin, strong and flexible, qualities ideal for carrying mechanical waves.”

The biologist’s research on vibrational communication spans both plants and insects and reveals how organisms use mechanical signals to interact with their environments. Scientists long have known, for example, that sound influences plant growth, but its ecological role remained unclear. Although studies showed that certain tones, like those in the 200–300 Hz range, could affect root growth, these experiments often were conducted in artificial settings, which left unanswered questions about how plants respond to natural movement.

Cocroft’s work has shown that plants can detect and react to the vibrations of herbivores feeding on them. Arabidopsis thaliana plants exposed to chewing treehoppers increased their chemical defenses, suggesting they can distinguish threatening vibrations from other environmental sounds. Cocroft’s findings highlight the hidden networks that shape interactions among plants and the creatures that depend on them.

MUSICAL INSPIRATION

“It’s not what we traditionally think of as an insect sound because the mechanics of producing and transmitting sounds are different. To some people, they sound more like the clicks, chirps and whistles of birds, frogs or whales.”

COCROFT, WHO ARRIVED AT MIZZOU in 2000, says one of the best things about working on campus is teaching and mentoring the next generations while conducting research.

“Our students are great,” Cocroft says. “The best part about teaching is getting to know them as individuals. It’s fun and satisfying for me to help someone else get to a point where they can make their own discoveries. Then, I get to see how excited they are once they are empowered to do the work themselves.”

During high school, Cocroft learned to play the piano on an instrument that had belonged to his grandmother, a dancer and musician. The experience inspired him to pursue a music degree in college.

However, after graduating, his childhood passion for biology — fueled by reading the adventures of 19th-century biologists — quickly took over once he spent time volunteering as a research assistant with the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The experience would inspire a dramatic change in his career path.

Working at the Smithsonian gave him a chance to fulfill a childhood dream of visiting South America. The musical connection inspired by his grandmother served him well there as he identified frogs by the sounds they made.

“Communication is such a key part of the behavior of any animal, and it tells us a lot about their biology,” Cocroft says. After initially studying frog communication, he switched to insect communication in graduate school.

“I’ve always liked the exploration side of natural history, and there’s a lot we can still discover about how insects like treehoppers communicate,” Cocroft says. Even in the dense, chaotic tangle of the Amazon, where every inch of space hums with life, the quietest voices still find a way to be heard. M

Grab your headphones and scan to listen to treehoppers recorded in

Rex Cocroft explores how insects and plants use vibrations to sense, signal and survive in ecosystems with unseen communication.

Cocroft’s lab.

A Diplomat’s Guide to Uncertainty

Ambassador David Young recalls life lessons from a career on the road.

story by randall roberts, ba ’88

In February,

Ambassador David Young, BJ ’84, visited Mizzou to meet with students and faculty at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy. With a distinguished career spanning more than three decades, he has served in diplomatic posts across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Young’s expertise in human rights, governance and interna-

MIZZOU: You started in journalism at Mizzou and ended up in international relations. How did that happen? Do you still use any of those journalism skills in diplomacy?

David Young: Yes, I would say that my training at Missouri was really influential throughout my whole professional life. The skills I developed in journalism, especially communication, were crucial. In the Foreign Service, I was essentially a reporting officer on political and economic issues, so my journalism background — writing, reporting, editing — was decisive. Also, public speaking and working with the press were impactful, especially when doing TV, radio and print interviews. More recently, I got involved with social media outreach at embassies.

My path was a bit unconventional. After Missouri, I went on a Rotary Scholarship to Trinity College in Ireland, where I studied comparative religion and peace studies. I was interested in ministry, so I continued at Boston

Ambassador David Young participates in a ceremony at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, Malawi, the official residence of the country’s president, in 2022. He credits his Mizzou journalism training with shaping his 35-year diplomatic career.

University’s School of Theology, where I studied social ethics. After that, I earned a master’s in international relations, and one of my professors suggested that I take the Foreign Service exam. I thought I’d stay for three to five years — and then 35 years later, I retired from the Foreign Service.

You’ve spent time in global hotspots during some historically challenging periods. What moments stand out to you, both difficult and rewarding?

One of my most impactful jobs was in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 1998 to 2001. I was part of the second generation of diplomats at the newly established embassy. My role was as a human rights and religious freedom officer, and I analyzed the Communist Party Politburo. Since Vietnam had a communist government, I was followed and monitored by the secret police. Still, we managed to secure the release of about 40 to 50 political and religious dissidents. That was meaningful but challenging. The country is beautiful, the people are friendly, but the government was tough to deal with.

In the last decade of my career, I worked in leadership roles in sub-Saharan Africa: Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi and Sudan. As

tional relations has shaped key diplomatic efforts, from negotiating political transitions to securing the release of prisoners of conscience. In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, he discusses his journey from journalism to diplomacy, the challenges and rewards of his global service, and the powerful moments that defined his career.

ambassador, I was like the CEO of an embassy, leading strategy and outreach. As deputy chief of mission, I focused on internal management. I loved both roles. My ministerial background influenced my leadership style. I saw embassies as teams where everyone’s contributions mattered. The high point of my career was leading these embassies.

Did you raise a family while working overseas?

Yes, my wife and I have been married for 30 years, and we have two kids: Paul, 28, and Sarah, 27. They grew up moving between the U.S. and overseas. They attended preschool in Vietnam, middle school in Guatemala and high school in Zambia. It gave them a global perspective, which has been wonderful.

Have there been any particularly memorable experiences where you felt you were observing history unfold firsthand?

One of the most powerful experiences was in Zambia. I helped negotiate with the former president to allow the opposition leader to run for office; he had been arrested multiple times. When the opposition won in a landslide, we negotiated a peaceful transition of power.

Another moment was in Nigeria. There was a massacre in Plateau State, and a Muslim imam, Abdullahi Abubakar, sheltered 260 Christians in his mosque and saved their lives. He risked everything, even offering his own life to the attackers. I met him several times. He’s one of the most heroic people I’ve ever encountered.

Throughout your career, what have been the most profound lessons about diplomacy and the complexities of human relationships?

Leadership isn’t just about credentials — it’s about human qualities. People who are positive, caring and visionary make the best leaders. My diverse background — journalism, theology, international relations — allowed me to bring different strengths to leadership. Diplomatic skills aren’t just for diplomats; they’re for everyone. We all need to manage conflict productively.

One thing that pains me is seeing how divided the U.S. has become. Abroad, I led diverse teams — military officers, human rights experts, medical professionals, economists — all working together. It embodied our national motto , E Pluribus Unum. I hope we can reclaim that spirit here at home. M

Rice Country, USA

STORY BY NINA MUKERJEE FURSTENAU, BJ ’84

Missouri’s Bootheel was once a vast, untamed swamp. Now it powers an agricultural industry that feeds the nation, proving that transformation is cultivated from the ground up. Its fertile fields sustain communities, drive economies and push farming forward. Mizzou researchers collaborate with growers to advance innovation and sustainability.

KYLE SPRADLEY

Stephen McKaskle dips his hand into a bin and holds out his palm.

“You’re looking at the oldest rice variety in America,” he says, sifting through brownish and blunt-tipped grains. “Carolina Gold.”

McKaskle’s family farm is in Braggadocio, in the bootheel of Missouri. The farm raises rice, soybeans and popcorn on 5,000 acres and sells his rice to Whole Foods, Chipotle, Fresh Realm and others. It also sells directly to customers under the brand name Braggadocio.

“The original variety was grown in South Carolina,” McKaskle says. “Carolina Gold, by itself, doesn’t do very well here.” He adds that Santee Gold, a hybrid, fares better. Holding out a palmful of another cultivar (short for plants of a “cultivated variety”), he touches a few grains. “This one is Neches.” Another dip into a bin. “Brown Basmati.”

Rice and heartland America might not seem like an obvious pairing, but Asia’s terraced and flooded fields have had counterparts here since colonial times.

“We’ve got at least 15 cultivars that are commercially grown in Missouri,” notes Aaron Brandt, director of the T.E. “Jake” Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center.

The center supports Mizzou’s research and educational programs tailored to the Southeast Delta Region. Located in Portageville, the center encompasses 1,119 acres across five sites. Its focus is improving key regional crops, including soybeans, cotton and, yes, rice.

Missouri mainly produces long-grain rice and a handful of jasmine varietals. Although more than 1 million acres are cultivated in nearby Arkansas, the Bootheel’s 200,000 acres of rice crops are significant in one of the richest agricultural regions in the state.

McKaskle says his operation has sold 3.6 million pounds of climate-friendly regenerative rice in the past year. The Braggadocio brand carries enough weight that when a bullet pierced the windshield of one of his combines a few years back, McKaskle saw it as a warning — perhaps retaliation after a brand he supplies spoke out against genetically modified rice in a documentary.

Another area producer, third-generation farm

Martin Rice, has grown the grain on 7,000 acres in southeast Missouri since the 1970s and now plants jasmine, medium, long grain and organic rice. Arkansas-based Riceland, the world’s largest farmer-owned cooperative for milling and marketing rice and soybeans, refines Bootheel rice through a facility in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

In addition to Missouri and Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas farmers grow about 3.6 billion pounds of rice annually.

Perhaps even more surprising is that the Bootheel’s success with rice production — ranked fourth in the U.S. — is due to a public works project that was, at the time, among the largest in the world. It involved draining a swamp and moving more earth than during the construction of the Panama Canal.

Amber Waves of … Rice

United States rice cultivation began in the 17th century and owes the seeds of its economic power to South Carolina. The crop thrived under the care of enslaved people from the Rice Coast of West Africa (modern-day Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and parts of Guinea) who were targeted due to their familiarity with farming Orza glaberrima rice. The plant was perfect for South Carolina’s wet soil, and American rice was soon competing with rice exported from India into Europe by British colonialists.

Rice was transforming dining tables across America, too. An early cookbook by Sarah Rutledge, “The Mysterious Lady of Charleston” who penned The Carolina Housewife in 1847, included 100-plus recipes requiring the grain.

Then nature intervened: The 1911 Charleston Hurricane swept away South Carolina rice fields, hovering for more than 36 hours. The region’s crops of Carolina Gold washed down the river and, with them, the entire industry.

Interest in the grain remained. By the 1960s, Missouri farmers were cultivating rice in earnest, says Mollie Buckler, chief operating officer at the US Rice Producers Association. She’s also the staff liaison to the Missouri Rice Research & Merchandising Council, a partner to Mizzou’s agronomy program.

Buckler, BA ’10, M Ed ’12, says that rice first gained purchase in Stoddard County in 1910. Nearly 75 years later, enough rice was being produced that farmers established the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council.

“I think it’s really interesting when the land supports something new to the area,” Buckler says. “The people start adapting to having a food crop they may not have had before. It changes things.”

Left: McKaskle holds handfuls of organic white and brown rice, which he produces for the Braggadocio brand and supplies to Chipotle locations across Missouri.

Above: The location of the T.E. “Jake” Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center in Portageville, Mo., a 1,119-acre hub for agricultural innovation spanning five sites across Missouri’s Bootheel.

Top: Steve McKaskle, rice farmer at McKaskle Family Farm, stands in his processing facility.

Swamplandia

The arrival of rice farming in Missouri and other states owes much to that 1911 South Carolina hurricane. Still, earthwork and irrigation systems enabled by the development of steam power and advances in pumping technology were just as crucial. Political will did the rest.

The Little River Drainage District was formed to drain Missouri wetlands.

At the time, the region was mired in marsh, not much valued in the early 1900s. The region between the Mississippi and St. Francis rivers was host to cypress, oak, willow, tupelo, all manner of waterfowl, catfish, bass, mosquitoes, frogs, toads, cottonmouths, copperheads and surely alligators until it was drained.

Topography defined the project. Geiger says the land descends 100 feet in elevation between Cape Girardeau and the Arkansas-Missouri state line, a long, slow decline of about one foot per mile. The slope is steep enough for water to flow through 958 miles of ditches and 300 miles of levees.

By the end of 1928, 1,700 square miles, nearly 1.2 million acres, of highly fertile silt-rich land in Missouri was accessible. Afterward, timber and railroad companies harvested its valuable trees, some of them 27 feet in diameter at the base, until the timber was gone. Then the land was sold or often planted in cotton.

Nearly a century later, Missouri earns more than $246 million in annual revenue from rice, according to the USDA 2023 State Agricultural Overview — from an area that previously did not have a tillable acre in sight. Although Southeast Missouri is among the least economically developed regions of the state, it nonetheless produces one-third of all the state’s rice, soybeans, corn, cotton and wheat.

“All of our research faculty are very grower-focused and really drive their program by solving relevant problems.”

Currently, 31.5 million gallons of water pass through the drainage system every year. All that water is another advantage for Missouri rice farmers.

“Some places are losing a lot of their groundwater and having to pull water from deeper depths,” says Justin Chlapecka, a rice specialist. “We’re in a unique spot. Our aquifer will naturally deplete maybe 567 feet during the summertime when we are irrigating, and then the aquifer goes right back up to where it was. It’s recharging every year.” A former Mizzou researcher, Chlapecka recently joined the University of Arkansas as an assistant professor and research agronomist.

Milling Perfection

Inside the McKaskle mill, rice kicks through metal cylinders created to separate the grain from the chaff. Other machines cull broken rice from full grains, while others grind off rice bran to reveal white rice. It’s loud, surprisingly tidy and runs smoothly with few interruptions. Nothing is wasted. Not the rice grits (pet food), the hulls (animal bedding) or the bran (livestock feed ingredient).

Each grain runs through the mill twice to remove foreign materials. “This is where true quality control occurs. This is how you get a bag of perfect rice,” McKaskle says.

History also runs through this equipment — not just McKaskle family history but the story of rice in America. There are continuing struggles. The farm surrounding the family home was hit by a category EF4 tornado in 2006 that destroyed various structures, including the main house, vehicles, machinery and crops.

Then, after Chipotle stopped using genetically modified ingredients and aired a streaming series called Farmed and Dangerous, a .22 caliber bullet shattered the windshield of a Braggadocio combine harvester. McKaskle, who was interviewed for the documentary, suspects the shot came from a farmer with a different perspective.

He also faced ongoing health challenges. The community of farmers has dealt with the devastation caused by dicamba, a herbicide that kills nonresistant crops. In relatively flat areas like the Bootheel, it can spread 15 miles, making his organic crop rotation unsustainable.

McKaskle pivoted by adopting climate-friendly regenerative farming techniques and sourcing organic rice from growers farther away, beyond dicamba’s reach, ensuring a safer and more sustainable operation. The goal is fundamental.

“We’re growing food right here,” he says.

Shaping the Land

Buckler had connections to rice before she began working in the industry. “My family has been farming for three generations in southeast Missouri,” she says. “I have rice producers in my family.”

The span of Buckler’s family farming operations follows the state’s rice timeline and the Mississippi Delta’s fertility. She calls Southeast Missouri “kind of an anomaly. We’re able to grow not just rice, but watermelon, and potatoes and peanuts, and crops you don’t see around the rest of the state.”

“All of our research faculty are very growerfocused and really drive their program by solving relevant problems,” Fisher Delta Center Director

Brandt says. One emphasis: how rice is grown.

To optimize opportunities, the center focuses on researching rice varieties and hybrids, furrowirrigated rice and sustainable water use, rice researcher Chlapecka says. Furrow irrigation involves watering crops through shallow trenches called furrows rather than flooding entire fields, while flood irrigation relies on reshaping fields with levees to hold water.

“Furrow-irrigation was probably less than 1% of our acres until about 2017, and now it’s 30% of Missouri [rice] acreage,” he explains. Missouri farmers typically rotate rice with soybean plantings, which makes furrow-planting appealing. Rotating crops is simpler because soybeans and rice can be grown in the same fields without removing levees.

Flood irrigation, still used in 70% of Missouri rice fields and 80% of Arkansas fields, requires reshaping fields with earth movers. Chlapecka notes that this process can involve multiple passes with equipment to build and later dismantle the levees. This significantly increases labor and resource demands.

Furrow-irrigated rice fields have a slight gradient and, as part of a Fisher Delta Center research project, a pump at the low end recycles the water back

to the top to release again between rice furrows.

Regardless of irrigation method, Chlapecka says that the state has seen top yields in the last three years. “I’d say the new average is 7,700 pounds per acre or 171 bushels.” That’s about 30,000 cups of cooked rice per acre.

He partially attributes rice yields at that level to getting better hybrids. “We’re 70% hybrid rice, and hybrid rice is going to yield at least 10% better on average.”

Rice variety trials are set up at the Fisher Delta Center and the Missouri Rice Council’s research farm 30 miles from Glennonville, Missouri. In 2024, 24 varieties at 21 sites were used for trials across Missouri’s five major rice counties (Bulter, Stoddard, Pemiscot, New Madrid and Dunklin).

Chlalpaka says many farmers now use variable rate seeding, which means adjusting seed density based on water availability, “You don’t spend any more money overall, but you’re putting seeds where they’re more beneficial.”

Walking near the rice fields on McKaskle Farm, you can see a vast amount of land and rice, even though no flooded paddies are visible. Rice stretches across the landscape, much like in photos from Asia, appearing flatter while still conveying a deep history. M

and Education

improving rice cultivation.

Mollie Buckler, above, chief operating officer at the US Rice Producers Association, also in Portageville, Mo., draws on her family’s three-generation farming history in the region where diverse crops including rice, watermelon and peanuts thrive.

Above left: Aaron Brandt, director of the T.E. “Jake” Fisher Delta Research, Extension

Center in Portageville, Mo., leads research focused on

A legacy that lasts.

The Mizzou Alumni Association welcomes 2024's new life members.

Melissa Ait Belaid

Gary Allen, DVM, PhD

Luke Allen

Rebecca Anderson

Brenda Anderson

Molly Andrews

Jeff Anthony

Carl Armontrout

Stephanie Atkinson

Kennedy Atkinson

Ava Azara

Karen Bachert

Carol Banes

Laura Barczewski

Sally Batz

Bradley Baugh

Matt Bear

Chris Beaudoin

Sydney Beaudoin

Jeffrey Beeson

Jackson Bell

Fredrick Bennett Jr.

Abby Biggers

Brian Biggers, MD

Ronnie Bishop

Elizabeth Gerard Blake

Karley Blakemore

Patricia Blanchard

William Blanchard

Sally Hagood Blickhan

Laura Bolte

Caitlyn Bontrager

Leah Borland

Brenda Boulware

Lilian Bowen

Angela Bowzer, PhD

Eric Bowzer

Gary Boyd

Robert Bradford

Betty Jo Bramlett

Owen Bramlett

Christine Breite

Matthew Breite, MD

Elizabeth Logan Brenner

Genevieve Brinkmeier

Jo Britt-Rankin, PhD

Bruce Brookby, MD

Andre Brown, PhD

Jason Brown

Jeffrey Brown

Mia Brown

Nicole Bryan

Margaret Burfeind-Minear

Sara Burnett

Kristen Carranza

Alexander Casserly

Matthew Champlin

Sabrina Chapman

Duncan Chembezi, PhD

Hannah Childs

Grant Clayton

Drew Clutes

Vincent Cocozza

Stephanie Cooper

Gustava Cooper-Baker, EdD

Cayla Copeland

Brendan Cossette

Paula Cowdrey

Lucy Crain

Ty Crain, Ed.D.

Owen Cruz

Troy Culver

Nancy Cummings

Braeden Curless

Isabel Dahl

Kyndall Davidson

Jennifer Davis

Justin Davis, PhD

Lance Day, DVM

Meredith Deatz

Catherine Dent

Levi Dial

Sheryl Dickinson

Julie Diener

Brett Dinkins

Alice Distlehorst

Paige Dorrell

Thomas Draney

Diane Duenez

Hannah Dwiggins

Ryan Dye

Amber Dale Edwards

Erik Edwards

Mary Eichenberg

Rachel Reby Eidelman

Mitchell Ellebrecht

Alexis Emme

Karsen Idelman

Robert Esquivel

Chris Etheridge

Lesli Etheridge

Patrick Fanning

Tina Fanning

Patrick Farrell

Tom Faulhaber

Thomas Feldmann

Bradley Finnegan

Desiree Fleck, CRNP

Brian Flowers

Blaine Folsom

Allisa Foster

Megan Fox

Richard Franks

Mira Hillard Gandhi

Jonah Gardberg

Audric Gayo

Aaron Gee

Kierin Geed

Cindy Gerlach

Anne Gieseke

Drew Gieseke

Tammy Gillespie

Dylan Gordon

Colleen Goss

Edwin Goss

Troy Gounev

Debbie Grega, EdD

William Grega

Greta Gunderson

Gretchen Hackworth

Tyler Hackworth

Ann Hague

Brayden Hall

Jake Hamilton

Kayla Hamilton

Phyllis Hardwick

Spencer Hardwick

Nathaniel Hardy

Jasmeka Harley

Luke Harmon

Noah Harris

Michael Hart

Elyse Hartley

Tyler Hartley

Jack Hartmann

Kaitlyn Hartnagel

Deidre Hawkins

Nancy Hedrick

Sophie Heier

Blythe Heits

Brian Heits

Mark Hemmann

Brooke Hemmen

Francis Henke Jr.

Elsa Johnson Hennings

Lindsey Herbig

Tracey Watts Herigon

Alijah Hibner

Col. Robert Hill

Gale Hill

Jaxson Holman

Luke Hopper

Trana Houf-Madsen

Reyna Houston

Meghan Hudock

Jacqueline Hudson

Heather Humphrey

Ray Hunt

Cheryl Hunt

Hal Hunt

Spencer James

Paul Johnson

Maximilian Johnson

Erin Jones

Kelli Jones

Scott Jones

Heather Jordan

Cameron Kelly

Mitchell Kempker

Michael Kennon

Peter Kent

Julius Kerschinske

Rebecca Kessler

Thomas Killoren Jr.

Kenneth Kim

Marta Kimball

Nicolas Klein

Roger Kluesner

Adam Klumb

Steven Klumb

Peter Kramer

Bradley Krantz

Emily Krantz

Joseph Krygiel

Kelsey Lanier

Phillip Lees

John Legan, MD

Cole Lemasters

Katherine Lever

Samuel Levine

Harleigh Lewis

Sydney Lewis

Courtney Leyes

Cody Lillich

Vicki Little

Nancy Litzinger

Orion Litzinger

Charles Lonardo

Patricia Bonderer Lonardo

Curtis Long, MD

Kara Lovelace

Carolyn Lovelace

Payton Lujin

Robert Luke

Alison Lynch Baynes

Dalton Lytle

Emilie Maas

Tim Madsen

Brendan Mahoney

Jacob Mallard

Jack Matteotti

Peyton Maxwell

Laura McArthur

Chrissa McClellan, MD

John McClellan

Marshall McClure

Emma McCormick

Nelson McCouch III

Peggy McCouch

Catherine McFarland

Paige McPherson

Megan Meininger

Gretchen Meurer

Kirby Meyer

Thomas Meyer

Madison Talbot Meyers

Mackenzie Minana

Brent Minear

Maegan Miro

Mohua Mitra-Edwards

Adam Mittendorf

Sydney Monninger

Bentley Moody

Caroline Moots

Brandi Moritz

Olga Mossine

Catherine Mowery

Christopher Mowery

Hannah Mowrer

Gary Mueller

Timothy Nash, CAIA

Tiffany Nash

Ronald Nelson

Ann Neyrey

Jordan Nickell, DVM

Brett Nickels

Isaac Nickens

Meredith Norfleet, MD

Matthew Nugen

Joy O’Dell

Kenneth Ohr

Nancy O’Neal

Col. Peter O’Neill

Jesus Oropeza

Cheryl Orr

E. Scott Orr

Mehmet Orun

Courtney Owens

Seth Owens, DPT

Morgan Padget

Zara Patel

Ernest Perrica

Jewels Phraner

Alberto Pimentel

Shane Pitts

Tommie Plummer

Jackson Poehlman

Janelle Potts, MD

Michael Potts, MD

Shannon Prothero

Larry Ray

Natalie Reed

Caroline Regan

Gavin Rhode

Holly Richardson

Miles Rittmaster

Abigail Robinson

Katherine Rodgers

Gordon Roskamp, PhD

Claire Rothman

Marvin Ruback

Jennifer Rucker

Jeffrey Rude

Sayed Zabiullah Sadat

Jackson Sallee

David Saracini

Joe Scallorns

Fran Scallorns

Stacia Schaefer

The Honorable Kurt U. Schaefer

Kristen Schatteman

Quinton Scherer

Theresa Scheulen

Megan Schoemehl

Stephen Scholle, MD

Philip Schroeder

Katherine Schwartz Drowns, EdD

Thomas Searcy

Taylor Seely

Amelia Seiz

Leah Selm

Samuel Seppala

Katherine Sherard

Benjamin Shimel

Bruce Shimel Jr.

Laura Young Shimel

Tia Siebenman

Shaye Siegel

Colin Simmons

L. Dean Sims

Kyler Six

Janice Gogel Smith

Ted Smith

Tanner Smith

Jennifer Day Smith-Demsich

Aeriel Sneed

Austin Speiser

Amy McNeill Spencer, DVM

Joel Spencer, PhD

Meredith Stalley

Robert Starke

Daniel Steffen, PhD

Thomas Stinson

Eric Stoecker

Robert Stolz

Stephen Strauss

William Strubberg

Rebecca Norton Suarez

Kristina Suter

Donald Swayze

Meghan Sydow

Shannon Sydow

Stacy Syrcle, MD

Lauren Taylor

Hunter Testa

Christine Tew

John Theobald

Douglas Thomas

Patricia Thomas

Jackson Thomas

Hailey Thorpe

Support Mizzou for

Nathan Toepke

Michael Torres

Ashley Travis

Robert Treece

Kennedy Tunks

Nischelle Turner

Grace Utlaut

Isabel Valcarcel Bryan

Kenny Van Doren

Katelyn Van Dyke

Beau Viehmann

Julie Viehmann

David Von Fintel

Jennifer Von Fintel

Helton Walker

Brian Ward, MD

Janelle Ward

Willis Ware

Katelyn Weatherford

Joan Weaver

Rocke Weaver

Christopher Weber

Roy Weidle

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Daniel Whitaker

Chris Whitlock

John Wibbenmeyer

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Peter Wilkerson

Allen Wilkinson, CPA

Carey Wilson

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Phillip Wolff

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Molly Wooster

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Trevor Yaroch

Jason Young

Melissa Buckman Young

Laura Young

Sue Yun Fowler

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Tiger Strong for 30 Years

In a few weeks, I’ll celebrate my 30th anniversary at Mizzou — a milestone that fills me with gratitude and pride. On my first day in 1995 as coordinator of alumni relations, I never imagined the journey ahead. The friendships, challenges and experiences have shaped my career and deepened my appreciation for this university.

Even after three decades and countless moments of Tiger pride, I’m still in awe of Mizzou’s impact. While reviewing this issue of MIZZOU, I was reminded again of what makes our university so special.

This issue highlights how Mizzou researchers are changing the game for rice farmers in the Bootheel — a region I’ve long admired. It features a conversation with former U.S. Ambassador and proud Mizzou graduate David Young. I recently met David for coffee during his visit to campus. Though his career made for a fascinating discussion, what stood out was his passion for Mizzou and his commitment to giving back.

You’ll also read about a Mizzou professor whose research was so impactful that an insect species now bears his name — a tribute to our faculty’s caliber. And finally, there’s the story of Petite Keep, a MizzouMade business founded by Lindsay Mullenger, which recently made a splash Shark Tank. It’s a fitting story to mark the launch of the MizzouMade Business Network this year.

For 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of learning and sharing the stories that make Mizzou great. Our university isn’t just a place of learning — it’s also a force of innovation, leadership and pride that extends far beyond campus. No matter how many times I’ve roamed this campus, Mizzou continues to inspire me, surprise me and make me proud to be a Tiger.

TODD MCCUBBIN, M ED ’95

Executive Director, Mizzou Alumni Association

Email: mccubbint@missouri.edu

X: @MizzouTodd

Class Notes

1970

HHJim Guyot, BS F ’71, of Perryville, Mo., retired from Guyot Lumber Perryville.

HHDale Klein, BS ME ’70, MS ’71, PhD ’77, of Austin, Texas, is a member of the National Academy for Engineering.

1980

Jeff Briggs, BJ ’85, of Jefferson City, Mo., is chair of the Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazard Reduction.

Jeffrey Davis, BA ’89, of St. Louis is regional account executive, Midwest at Eisai US.

Richard Ransom, BJ ’89, of Germantown, Tenn., is director of strategic communications at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

1990

HHKen McFarland, BA, BS BA ’99, of London, is head of CD sustainability at Unilever.

Allyson Witherspoon, BS BA ’99, of Nashville, Tenn., was named a CMO to Watch in 2025 by Ad Age.

2000

Wright Thompson, BJ ’01, of Oxford, Miss., wrote The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi (Penguin Press, 2024).

J. Gordon Arbuckle, Jr., MS ’02, PhD ’07, of Ames, Iowa, received the 2025 Dean Lee R. Kolmer Award for Excellence in Applied Research from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.

Aaron Willard, BA ’04, MPA ’08, of Columbia, Mo., is chief partnership officer at the API Innovation Center.

Lisa Masso, BA ’05, MBA ’17, of Arlington, Va., is deputy director commander’s action group for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

HH Sydney Snider, BS Acc, M Acc ’05, of New York is managing director and chief operating officer global business finance at Apollo Global Management Inc.

Andrew Bagy, BS HES ’06, of St. Louis is senior vice president at Gershman Commercial Real Estate.

HJennifer Sorenson, BS HES ’06, of Golden, Colo., is chief donor engagement officer at Rise Against Hunger.

David Golub, BS ME ’08, of Mequon, Wis., is a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP.

Eric Hobbs, BA ’09, of Denver was named to the Denver Business Journal’s 2025 40 under 40 List.

Rita Horstman, MPA ’09, of Richmond, Va., is a grant writer for the geospatial technology team at Timmons Group.

Laura Merritt, BA ’09, of New York is a member of the board of directors for Unreal Snacks.

2010

HHLiz Cramton, BA, BJ ’10, of Chicago is marketing director –imports, above premium beer for Molson Coors Beverage Company.

Lindsay Mullenger, BS BA ’10, of St. Louis appeared on the TV show Shark Tank.

Kate Pfizenmaier Rankin, BA ’10, of Seattle is division administrator, neonatology, at University of Washington Pediatrics.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Public Service, Private Impact

Decades of leadership and advocacy earned these Mizzou alumni the 2025 Geyer Award.

Sarah Barfield Graff, BA ’06

Sarah Barfield Graff has served as a United States congressional staff member since 2006 and currently works as director of special projects for Rep. Sam Graves. She held positions on the staffs of Senators Roy Blunt, Kit Bond and Jim Talent, and served as policy analyst and deputy press secretary for the U.S. House of Representatives Policy Committee.

As a proud alumna, Graff has mentored countless young Mizzou graduates navigating public service. She is an advocate for Missourians and Mizzou-advanced projects, including the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building, a world-class medical research facility that improves lives statewide.

Don Nikodim, BS Ag ’74, M Ed ’77

Don Nikodim is the retired executive director of the Missouri Pork Association (MPA), where he spent more than 40 years advocating for the state’s agriculture industry. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Mizzou followed by a master’s degree in education. Nikodim began his career as a vocational agriculture instructor in Odessa and Liberty, Mo., later serving as executive director of the Poland China Swine Record Association. In 1981, he returned to Mizzou as an MU Extension Farm Management area specialist before being named MPA executive director in 1983. He held the role until retiring in 2024.

A tireless advocate for pork producers and agricultural education, Nikodim secured funding for university priorities such as the Commercial Agriculture Program, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources abattoir. His expertise has helped legislators better understand agricultural policy and ensured Mizzou leads in education, extension services and research.

Cindy O’Laughlin, BS BA ’78

From left, Cindy O'Laughlin, Sarah Barfield Graff and Don Nikodim, hold their Geyer Awards during a reception at the Missouri governor's mansion in February. The awards honor public officials and citizens who have advanced higher education and the University of Missouri.

Cindy O'Laughlin is Missouri Senate majority floor leader and has represented District 18 since 2019. She earned her degree in business administration from Mizzou and lives in Shelbina, Mo., where her experience as a private school administrator and school board member shaped her commitment to education.

As a senator, O’Laughlin has championed education reform while securing support for elementary, secondary and higher education institutions. Navigating legislative environments, she helped deliver record state appropriations and capital project funding for the University of Missouri. Her leadership was also key to passing a bipartisan education reform bill in 2022.

Tigers, Amplified

From sharp debates to expertly crafted narratives, podcasting may well be in its golden age. And with so many shows shaped by Mizzou minds, it might as well be shining black and gold. Working either in front of the mic or behind it, the Tigers below — many of whom honed their reporting, interviewing and producing skills at the Missouri School of Journalism — use their knowledge to entertain and educate on a variety of riveting topics. Their podcasts are available on most platforms. — Mara Reinstein, BJ ’98

1 Big Questions, hosted by Cal Fussman, BJ ’78. The author and veteran Esquire journalist engages in weekly conversations with educators and influencers. One recent topic: Can AI help you overcome your biggest roadblocks?

2 We Like That Too!, cohosted by Brad Jones, BA ’82. First, the two Jefferson City-based hosts review a bottle of wine, then, they discuss their latest top picks in arts, entertainment and leisure. Cheers!

3 Heart of the Matter, hosted by Elizabeth Vargas, BJ ’84. Vargas, a former ABC News anchor who’s been open about her struggles with alcohol, gives her

guests — some famous, some not the opportunity to share their stories about substance abuse, addiction and mental health.

4 College Football Enquirer, co-hosted by Pat Forde, BJ ’87. Twice a week, the longtime Sports Illustrated writer helps deliver the latest college football news from the SEC and beyond with a blend of analysis, investigative journalism and humor.

5 Inside Mizzou Athletics, co-hosted by Brad Tregnago, BJ ’06, and Matt Michaels, BJ ’09. The two Columbia-based broadcasters discuss the ups and downs and everything in between involving Tiger athletics on their weekly show.

6 Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, produced by Kryssy Pease, BJ BA ’07, MA ’09. The Emmy-winning icon, best known for Seinfeld and Veep, chats with notable women of a certain age — think Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett and Bonnie Raitt — about their life experiences. The show was named Apple’s Best Podcast of the Year for 2023.

7 The Wirecutter Show, produced by Abigail Keel, BJ ’15. Time to shop for mattresses like a pro! Based on the popular ecommerce vertical of The New York Times, this show offers expert advice and DIY hacks on everyday products.

8 Tradeoffs, produced by Ryan Levi, BJ ’16. The NPRaffiliated weekly series explores the ever-complicated world of health care by probing issues like cost, health equity, insurance, mental health and policy.

9 Ghost Story, produced by Emerald O’Brien, BJ ’16. Over four episodes, host Tristan

Redman investigates the connection between a 1930s-era murder and a ghost that subsequently haunted a bedroom in the house next door. Spoiler alert: It was his childhood bedroom!

10 City Cast, produced by Olivia Jewell Love, BJ ’21. Made by Denver locals for Denver locals, this daily show covers Rocky Mountain news and views with journalists, culture makers, activists, artists, athletes and more.

11 The Newsroom, produced by Kelly Kenoyer, MA ’21. A production of an NPR station in southeastern North Carolina, this monthly offering hosted by a local reporter dives into issues that affect the community via in-depth conversations.

12 The Next Harvest, produced by Jana Rose Schleis, MA ’23. The KBIA Newsproduced seven-part series, which started in September 2024, sheds light on what needs to change to sustain thriving agriculture. Schleis reports as well.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

HHNathaniel Kinsey, BS EE ’11, MS ’12, of Richmond, Va., received the 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Derek Klein, BJ ’12, of Dallas is vice president of marketing at The Dallas Foundation.

Rachel Jonas, BS BA ’12, BS Acc, M Acc ’14, of Austin, Texas, is chief financial officer at Nova Women’s Health Partners.

Paul Orscheln, Ed D ’12, of St. Joseph, Mo., is vice president of enrollment and student services at Park University.

Samantha Bireley, BJ ’13, of St. Petersburg, Fla., received the 2024 Katy Feeney Leadership Award from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Charles Stoltze, BS BA ’14, of New York is head of investor relations and marketing at Isometry Capital.

Jazmin Burrell, BJ ’15, of Chicago is VP, group strategy director, at Cramer-Krasselt.

Emily Henderson, BJ ’15, of Dallas is director, corporate communications at Cambridge Associates.

Joseph McLean, BJ ’15, of Jefferson City, Mo., is director of communications for the Democratic Caucus in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Morgan Beach, BS ’16, of St. Louis is government affairs lead at Nestle Purina North America.

Mac Cornwell, BS BA ’16, of St. Louis is a vice president at Parkside Financial Bank & Trust.

Kyle Friedman, BS CiE ’16, MS ’18, of Denver

was awarded the Ralston Young Trenchless Achievement Award by the North American Society for Trenchless Technology.

HHMariah Mathews, BS BA ’16, of Kansas City, Mo., is key account manager at Altria.

Matt Maupin, BS ’17, of San Diego is a revenue manager for Marriott International.

Brandon Lee, BS HES ’18, MBA ’20, of Indianapolis is general manager for Purdue Football.

Zach Waymer, MPA ’18, of Chicago is executive director of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors.

Maria Briceño, BA ’19, of St. Louis is individual gifts officer at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Kinzie Frey, BJ ’19, MA ’20, of Denver is communications and content manager for the Colorado Rapids.

Aaron Kushner, PhD ’19, of Tempe, Ariz., wrote Cherokee Nation Citizenship: A Political History (University of Oklahoma Press, 2025).

Connor McAteer, BS BA ’19, JD ’23, of Kansas City, Mo., received the 30 Under 30 NextGen Award.

2020

Tatyana Presley, BJ ’20, of Chicago is a news producer for ABC 7 Chicago.

Matthew Furrer, BS IE ’20, of Kansas City, Mo., is a data analyst at Hallmark Cards.

Jaclyn Dolan, BS BA ’21, of Chicago is Gatorade commercial finance associate manager at PepsiCo.

REMEMBERING

Homecoming’s Pulse Began with Him

Remembering Jaime Chailland, whose idea became the nation’s largest collegiate blood drive — and a lasting Mizzou tradition.

When Jaime Chailland — who died December 29, 2024, at age 63 — helped organize the first Red Cross blood drive on the University of Missouri campus more than 40 years ago, he had no idea it would become a national model.

What began as a modest idea hatched during his senior year, with help from a few friends and campus organizations, has since grown into the largest collegiate blood drive in the country. It remains a centerpiece of Mizzou’s Homecoming and a life-saving tradition embraced by students, alumni and the Columbia community.

“I had received blood back then, and it’s something I wanted to do to give back to the community… and it beat picking up trash on the Quad,” Chailland, BJ ’84, MBA ’86, recalled to the Red Cross during the drive’s 40th anniversary in 2023. “To me, it’s all about giving back to the community.” Surrounded by student donors at the Hearnes Center fieldhouse, he added, “You know, it’s not every day you can start a tradition like this. This is really incredible.”

Born November 9, 1961, Chailland most recently lived in Marthasville, Mo. Known formally as James Hassell Chailland III, at Mizzou he was a Beta Theta Pi member and elected Homecoming King.

Beyond the university, he helped launch the Best Buddies Missouri Jobs Program, which creates employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The initiative reflected his lifelong commitment to inclusion and public service.

According to the official obituary, Chailland is survived by his husband, S. Marshall McClure; his mother, Connie Jo Chailland; his brother Tony Chailland and wife Michelle, along with their family; and his sister-in-law Melody Manker and husband Bob, together with their family.

CONNECTIONS THAT CLICK.

The MizzouMade Business Network helps entrepreneurs connect, partner and grow. Join for free at mizzou.us/MMBN. Our thanks to these MizzouMade businesses, whose premium memberships Make Mizzou Stronger.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Madelyn Warren, BS ’21, of Jefferson City, Mo., is communications manager for the State of Missouri.

Paul Eisenstein, GR CT ’23, of Columbia, Mo., is economic development director and president of Regional Economic Development Inc. for the City of Columbia.

Weddings

HNatalie Shatro, MBA ’24, and Kyle Bouman of St. Louis, Sep. 21, 2024.

Anniversaries

HGerald “Jerry” Shnay, BJ ’57, and HPenny Shnay, BJ ’60, of Park Forest, Ill., celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary April 1, 2025.

Births

HHConnor Voss, BJ ’16, MA ’21, and HHSean McLafferty, BA ’14, MPA ’17, of Ashland, Mo., announce the birth of

Cathleen Ryan McLafferty March 8, 2025.

Faculty Deaths

HH Marilyn Sanford Hargrove, BHS ’65, M Ed ’78, PhD ’87, of Columbia, Mo., Jan. 22, 2025, at 81. She was a professor and chairwoman in the Department of Physical Therapy at Mizzou.

Deaths

Ruth B. Early, BJ ’49, M Ed ’75, of Marthasville, Mo., Jan. 2, 2025, at 97.

HC. Ross Adams, BJ ’51, MA ’52, of Glendale, Calif., Sept. 10, 2024, at 96. He served in the U.S. Army.

Lloyd Cunningham, BS Ag ’51, of Columbia, Mo., Jan. 29, 2025, at 97. He was a member of Farmhouse and served in the U.S. Navy.

David Faust, BS CiE ’51, of St. Joseph, Mo., Dec.

19, 2024, at 95. He was a member of Sigma Chi and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Harry Morris, BS BA ’51, of Prairie Village, Kan., Feb. 5, 2025, at 96. He served in the U.S. Navy.

HHGlen Buell, BS ’53, MA ’55, of Beavercreek, Ohio, Jan. 24, 2025, at 94.

A. Overton Durrett, BS BA ’54, of Kansas City, Mo., April 1, 2024, at 91. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta and served in the U.S. Air Force.

HDorothy Wagonlander, BS Ed ’54, of Ypsilanti, Mich., Jan. 9, 2025, at 92. She was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha.

Frank Nelson Akers, BS Ag ’55, of Albany, Mo., Nov. 26, 2024, at 91. He was a member of Farm-

house and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Jerry Hoover, BS Ag ’55, of Princeton, Ill., Feb. 10, 2025, at 92. He served in the U.S. Army.

John Gleason, Jr., BS BA ’56, of Greenwood, Ind., Feb. 16, 2025, at 87.

HHDorothy Kreh, BS Ed ’58, of Creve Coeur, Mo., Dec. 19, 2024, at 88. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.

HH William “Bill” McNeary, BS AgE ’58, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Dec. 6, 2024, at 88. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta and served in the U.S. Navy.

HHJack W. Miles, BS Ed ’58, M Ed ’60, of Columbia, Mo., Jan. 10, 2025, at 87. He served in the U.S. Army.

HRobert M. Snider, BA ’58, MD ’61, of Tallahassee, Fla., Dec. 28, 2024, at 88. He served in the U.S. Air Force and was a practicing physician for over 50 years.

HHMargaret Boyce, BSN ’59, MS PA ’80, of Columbia, Mo., Dec. 15, 2024, at 90.

HHClemens E. Haggerty, BA ’60, of Lake Ozark, Mo., Nov. 6, 2024, at 87.

HHDoris Harryman, BSN ’61, of Bethany, Mo., Dec. 2, 2024, at 85.

HHobart Jacobs, BS ME ’61, of Garden City, Mo., Oct. 10, 2024, at 88. He served in the U.S. Army.

HHRonald Kunzelman, BS BA ’61, of Colorado Springs, Colo., Jan. 4, 2025, at 86. He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Whether you’re on the road or at the tailgate, there’s no better way to show off your Tiger pride than with a Mizzou license plate. Add one to your ride for just $25 a year — all proceeds support the Mizzou Alumni Association’s programs and services, including student scholarships.

‘Tall Tiger’ Todd McCubbin, M Ed ’95, has been a proud Mizzou license plate holder since 1995.

Income for life. Impact forever.

“We want to be a part of offering students superior opportunities for growth and change.” For more than 30 years Mizzou has been home for Chuck and Lori Franz, impacting students’ lives as educators and administrators.

Chuck and Lori have found a way to give back while securing a lifetime income for themselves. By creating a charitable gift annuity, they both receive income and ensure future Tigers will receive scholarships to help them attain their dream of a degree from Mizzou.

A life income gift offers a reliable income to you while empowering students to achieve.

Explore how you can give with confidence. Contact a gift advisor at 573-882-0272 or giftplanning@missouri.edu.

“We have the flexibility to share our estate with others, but like many retirees, we also want enough for a rainy day. A charitable gift annuity gives us that security.”

More choice. More savings.SM

HHJulia Marsden, BA ’61, of Austin, Texas, Aug. 29, 2024, at 84. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

William McCartney,

BS Ed ’63, of Broomfield, Colo., Jan. 10, 2025, at 84. He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, as well as the winningest coach in University of Colorado Football history

and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Lynn Kuluva, BS BA ’64, of Leawood, Kan., Feb. 23, 2025, at 82. He was a mem-

ber of Alpha Epsilon Pi and served in the U.S. Army.

H William Worley, BS Ag ’64, DVM ’66, of Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 7, 2024, at 82. He was a member of Kappa Sigma.

HAlberta Dobry, M Ed ’65, of Fargo, N.D., Nov. 8, 2024, at 87.

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Chasing Millard

Every bucket list has idiosyncrasies. For Nell and Paul Redhage, it’s a quest for Millard Fillmore, the 13th U.S. president and the only chief executive to have eluded them so far.

As part of their travels to every state in the union, Nell, BS Ed ’73, and Paul, BS Ag ’73, have visited at least one presidential library, monument, homestead or other memorial dedicated to every other commander in chief.

They weren’t always so worldly. When Nell (née Geisert) and Paul first noticed each other as 10-year-olds at a 4-H dance, the demands of farm life in Franklin County, Mo., generally kept them close to home. They weren’t dancing partners that day and claimed no spark between them. Six decades later, though, each still recalls the other’s dance partner. As teenagers, they’d notice one another at weddings or at sporting events between their competing high schools.

Their paths crossed again at Mizzou. This time the dance was at Memorial Union during freshman orientation. Nell was there by herself. “I didn’t know a soul on campus except Paul and a couple of acquaintances,” she says. Among Paul’s missions at the dance was finding a date for a party at the Beta Sigma Psi fraternity.

“If I didn’t, the upperclassmen would set me up with a blind date, and I didn’t want that,” Paul says.

“I was saving him from a fate worse than death,” Nell quips.

Nell and Paul Redhage stand near the gravesite of Zachary Taylor, the 12th U.S. president, at the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Ky. They continue their quest to visit every presidential memorial.

The rest, as they say, is history — though not just theirs. Nell majored in music education and Paul in agricultural journalism, but they shared a keen interest in America’s past. After graduation, Paul built a career in agricultural sales, communication and advertising, a career that led the family through moves across Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Nell taught elementary school music, directed choirs and eventually earned a master’s degree in library science.

Along the way, they logged vacation miles visiting historic sites while raising a pair of daughters, journalist Jill Redhage Patton and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber. Complaints came from the back seat about the number of cemeteries on those itineraries, but both girls grew into world travelers, nonetheless.

Nell and Paul, now 73, live in Labadie, Mo. They’re less mobile than they used to be and are taking more river cruises than road trips. But they’ve still got their eye on a certain presidential site in East Aurora, N.Y. Millard Fillmore can’t elude them forever. — Dale Smith, BJ ’88

May

9 The Music of Studio Ghibli,  Missouri Theatre, Columbia

10 St. Louis Black & Gold Gala, Saint Louis Club, Clayton, Mo.

17 Stronger Than Fiction Festival 2025,  Missouri Theatre, Columbia

24–25 Pedaler’s Jamboree, Flat Branch Park, Columbia

28, Wiz Khalifa,  The Rose Music Hall, Columbia

June

2 St. Louis Tiger Club Golf Tournament,  Bogey Hills Country Club, St. Charles, Mo.

7–8 Mareck Dance:  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Missouri Theatre, Columbia

25 Mizzou Night: Cardinals vs. Cubs,  Busch Stadium, St. Louis

July

14 Indigo De Souza,  The Blue Note, Columbia

19 Built to Spill with Playdead, The Blue Note, Columbia

21–26 Mizzou International Composers Festival, University of Missouri School of Music, Columbia

*Discount

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***Discount is only applicable to new residents of a Brookdale assisted

Discount applies to the

EVERY dream NEEDS A team

Discover how soybeans support the Mizzou Tigers through biodiesel at MOSOY.ORG.

HHKenneth Goodsell, BA ’65, of Merrimack, N.H., Feb. 24, 2025, at 81. He was a member of Phi Kappa Theta and served in the U.S. Navy.

Michael Barkon, BS Ed ’66, of Affton, Mo., Jan. 22, 2025, at 83. He was a member of Zeta Beta Tau and was a teacher for 30 years.

HHJerry Hosmer, BS Ed ’66, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Oct. 27, 2024, at 80. He served in the U.S. Army.

HHRon Bloom, BS Ag, BS BA ’67, of Alpharetta, Ga., Oct. 17, 2024, at 80. He served in the U.S. Army.

HHMarsha Hohlfeld Puckett, BJ ’67, of Grain Valley, Mo., Jan. 1, 2025, at 79.

Paul Wickens, BA ’68, JD ’71, Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 31, 2025, at 78. He was a member of Sigma Nu and served in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Eileen Tolstoi-Koniarsky, BS Ed ’69, of Corona, Calif., Jan. 4, 2025, at 77.

HHRobert C. Bohley, BS ChE ’70, of Jackson, Texas, Nov. 24, 2024, at 77.

HHSamuel M. Hunter, DVM ’70, of Sikeston, Mo., Jan. 11, 2025, at 78.

HJay Schukai, BS HE ’70, of Springfield, Ill., Nov. 4, 2024, at 78. He served in the U.S. Navy.

Gary T. Soule, BS BA ’70, of St. Louis, April 16, 2024, at 76. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu.

HHPatsy Watt, BS Ed ’70, of Columbia, Mo., Feb. 1, 2025, at 76. She was a fifth grade teacher for 25 years.

John David Darwent, BS F ’71, of Columbia, Mo., Jan. 15, 2025, at 75. He served in the U.S. Army.

H Bhabani P. Dey, MS ’71, MS ’72, PhD ’76, of Beltsville, Md., Nov. 12, 2024, at 88.

Scott W. Ross, BA ’71, JD ’73, of Maryville, Mo., Feb. 24, 2025, at 76. He was a member of Farmhouse.

HHSamuel Sivewright, BS EE ’71, of Highland, Ill., Dec. 27, 2025, at 78. He served in the U.S. Air Force.

DEGREE DESIGNATIONS 101

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

M Acc, accounting

MS Ag Ed, agricultural

MA, arts

M Ed, education MS, science

MSW, social work

MPA, public affairs

MIZZOU ALUMNI NEWS

Nancy Cochran, BS HE ’72, of Jefferson City, Mo., Dec. 24, 2024, at 74.

HHPeter Mackercher II, MD ’72, of Mountain Home, Ark., Nov. 11, 2024, at 78. He served in the U.S. Navy and practiced medicine for 40 years.

HHDavid Stubbs, MD ’72, of West Des Moines, Iowa, Feb. 13, 2024, at 78.

HAnthony S. Marshall, PhD ’74, of Columbia, Mo., Nov. 18, 2024, at 87. He served in the U.S. Army.

HHTimothy J. Logan, BS EE ’75, of Creve Coeur, Mo., Dec. 3, 2024, at 71.

Donna Medlin, BS HE ’77, of Springfield, Mo., Dec. 13, 2024, at 69.

HWarren O. Mills, BJ ’77, of Indianapolis, Jan. 8, 2025, at 69.

HHJill Hansen, BA ’78, of Ashland, Mo., Dec. 28, 2024, at 68. She was a histotechnologist and worked for Mizzou’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

HHSusan Wiedmier-

GIVING DAY 2025

$5,401,604

In just 24 hours, Tigers gave 2,366 gifts totaling that amount to support scholarships, research, outreach and more, making 2025 one of the most successful Mizzou days of giving yet with record participation across 32 colleges and units. Donors from 45 states, Canada and Singapore joined the effort.

Bridges, BS BA ’78, of Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 19, 2025, at 68. She was a member of Alpha Delta Pi.

Paul Fraser, BGS ’80, of Edwardsville, Ill., Dec. 31, 2024, at 67.

Jeffrey “Rex” Byergo, DVM ’83, of Bronaugh, Mo., Feb. 17, 2025, at 67.

Gretchen Reising Cornell, PhD ’84, of Herriman, Utah, Feb. 13, 2025, at 78.

HHDana Brown Haynes,

BS Ag ’85, of Wentzville, Mo., Oct. 27, 2024, at 61.

Pamela Parry, BJ ’85, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., Feb. 4, 2024, at 62.

HTeresa Wheeler, ED SP ’89, of St. Louis, Nov. 10, 2024, at 71.

Paul Andrew “Andy” Lock, CAFNR ’94, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., April 3, 2025, at 57. He was a member of the Mizzou football and track and field teams and a prominent Kansas City-area business owner.

philosophy

education JD, law

MD, medicine

DVM, veterinary medicine

Did not graduate:

Arts, arts and science

business

Engr, engineering

Journ,

Perfect 10, Perfect Return

Mizzou’s season was full of milestones, but Helen Hu’s artistry on the beam shaped its rhythm. Her routine was more than a performance. It defined the year in Tiger gymnastics.

In January, Mizzou gymnast Helen Hu stepped onto the balance beam at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., for the Tigers’ Southeastern Conference opener against the topranked Sooners. Amid the anticipated fanfare for the home team, Hu moved with an unhurried calm. Without hesitation, she launched into a handstand and continued her routine with a fluidity and precision that made her performance appear effortless.

A minute later, after she stuck her dismount without so much as a tremor, the scoreboard flashed a perfect 10. It was the first such score of the 2025 season and the first time in more than two decades that a Mizzou gymnast had achieved the mark on the beam. It was also a portent of what was to come: a historic season that culminated in the program’s firstever appearance in the NCAA’s Four on the Floor national championship final.

This moment, dazzling as it was, almost never took place.

After retiring in 2023, uncertain about her future in gymnastics, Hu spent a year traveling. It wasn’t until a return visit to Columbia, a brief stop by the gym and some encouragement from coach Shannon Welker that Hu found herself reconsidering. Her decision to return fueled a Tigers season in which the team consistently surpassing 197.000 — a benchmark in NCAA gymnastics, where the record is 198.925 out of a possible 200.

In mid-February, sophomore Kennedy Griffin earned her first career 10 in the floor exercise. Hu added two more 10s on beam later in the season, and graduate student Mara Titarsolej scored a 10 on uneven bars at the SEC Championships — bringing the team’s season total to five.

Such brilliance was confirmed on April 19 with their NCAA finals debut, where the Tigers finished third in the nation behind Oklahoma and UCLA — the best result in program history. — Randall Roberts, BA ’88

M I ZZOU

Brains, Hearts and Hands

The Science of Helping Others

GAME CHANGER

Jessica Lamb, a post-professional occupational therapy doctorate student at the University of Missouri, is merging her passions for occupational therapy and soccer to create a groundbreaking initiative with U.S. Soccer.

Through her doctoral capstone project, Lamb has developed a training module that equips coaches with the skills they need to better support athletes with hidden disabilities, including autism, ADHD and other learning differences.

Lamb, an occupational therapist for more than a decade, always has been drawn to working with children, particularly those with special needs. Her son, Oliver, is autistic, and navigating the world of youth sports with him illuminated gaps in accessibility and understanding. She saw efforts to be inclusive, but programs lacked the tools to fully support kids like Oliver.

“My husband and I are soccer people,” Lamb says. “He’s a coach from England, and I grew up playing the sport. I wanted to marry my OT skills and with his soccer skills and create a program that is empowering for our athletes.”

That realization led to Success Through Adaptive Recreational Soccer (STARS), a program with Union KC Soccer Club, where her husband coaches. STARS pairs licensed soccer coaches with occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists to help children with disabilities succeed on the field.

Lamb saw an opportunity to expand on this idea and fold the entire experience into her doctoral capstone project through the Mizzou Department of Occupational Therapy. The result was an online learning module that serves as a continuing

education course for U.S. Soccer coaches. They learn how to identify and accommodate children with disabilities and ensure they feel included and can thrive in the sport.

“Right now, coaches assume that kids with disabilities aren’t going to play, and families assume that coaches don’t want to help them,” she says. “But then who gets lost? The actual child. If a coach knew more, maybe they wouldn’t write a kid off.”

A Dose of Knowledge To

reduce future opioid overdoses in five of Missouri’s high-risk rural counties, Julie Kapp is making a powerful online tool available to childcare providers, social workers, emergency medical services, law enforcement and other community professionals.

Kapp, chair of the Department of Public Health in the College of Health Sciences, has created a tutorial that explores how childhood trauma — such as neglect, domestic violence and parental separation — can contribute to future substance use disorders and other harmful consequences.

Through a three-year U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, Kapp provides virtual training about the impact of adverse childhood experiences on young people. Kapp seeks to prevent these consequences by closing the knowledge gap that separates the world of academic researchers from community service professionals.

Meaningful Gestures

When listening to someone speak, it can be difficult to understand every subtle meaning or suss out the most important parts. These challenges grow more acute for children with autism working on their language skills or people learning a second language, says Laura Morett, assistant professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She and postdoctoral associate Bashar Farran tackle such barriers with their research on how gestures accompanying speech can help listeners understand. Unlike sign language, which is a fully fledged tongue of its own, gestures are an added layer of communication that performs various functions. Categories of gestures include iconic (pretending to peel a banana), deictic (pointing where an owl flew past), beat (motioning to emphasize a key word) and metaphorical (closing a hand to illustrate grasping an idea).

Morett and Farran currently are using infrared light to

look directly into the brains of children with autism, who are less likely to gesture as early, often or effectively as typically developing children. Discovering how their brains react to gestures either matched or mismatched to speech is an early step toward testing the success of current therapies and developing better ones.

In other research, Morett wanted to find out whether metaphorical gestures could help learners of a second language that employs pitch to convey meaning. Take the Mandarin word ma, which means mother, flax or horse depending on whether the pitch is high, rising or dipping. In a study of how well English speakers could distinguish such words, Morett saw learning increase when teachers’ hand gestures rose and fell with the pitches.

Stay tuned: Morett recently earned a Fulbright scholarship to examine how gestures are used to convey pitch in Turkey.

The University of Missouri’s College of Health Sciences houses a range of departments and programs designed to train students to meet the health needs of individuals and communities.

* Center for Health Policy

* Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences

* Clinical Laboratory Science

* Criminal and Justice Studies

* Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound

* Fitness Programming and Management

* Health Psychology

* Health Sciences

* Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center

* Nuclear Medicine

* Occupational Therapy

* Physical Therapy

* Public Health

* Radiography

* Respiratory Therapy

* School of Social Work

* Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

The Gift of Passion In the largest-ever gift to the University of Missouri’s College of Health Sciences, Leonard and Barbara Bush pledged $4.4 million from their estate to provide scholarships for students with financial need, an endowed professorship for the college and an unrestricted support fund for the dean.

Leonard Bush, BHS ’82, says the estate gift represents the couple’s shared passion for health care and quality education. “This is our way to give back and provide an opportunity for advancement to students and for the college,” he says.

HEALTH SCIENCES

Calming Chronic Disease

Managing type 2 diabetes often means making significant lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthier diet, exercising regularly and adhering to a medication regimen. Chronic disease management can be stressful, and when you add that to other life stressors such as finances or family issues, sticking to a treatment plan becomes a challenge.

One Mizzou faculty member is working to develop an intervention program to combat this problem after seeing her family and friends struggle to manage their diabetes while experiencing stress.

Idethia Shevon Harvey, associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences, is collaborating with Maude Harris, a University of Missouri Extension field specialist in nutrition and health, on an NIH-funded grant to study the relationship between stress and diabetes management for African Americans in the Missouri Bootheel. Research shows that people living in rural areas, particularly Black Americans, have a higher prevalence of diabetes and a higher rate of morbidity and mortality related to the disease.

“We’re currently interviewing people with diabetes to ask about the types of stressors they’re experiencing and how their health is affected,” Harvey says. “Partnering with [MU Extension] has been instrumental in identify ing people to talk to for this project. Maude has lived in the Bootheel for over 40 years and has the vital community connections we need.”

The people being interviewed aren’t just research subjects — they’re considered coresearchers.

“They are helping us design the questions, implement the study, analyze the data and write the manuscript,” Harvey says. “We want to develop interventions that will work well for the population we serve. For example, it’s hard to tell people with diabetes to exercise when they live in a community without sidewalks or a gym. We need their input to create sustainable ways for them to better manage their disease.”

Harvey hopes to secure funding later this year to adapt one of MU Extension’s educational diabetes nutrition programs, Dining with Diabetes, for Bootheel residents based on community input.

MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS

Throughout his tenure at Mizzou, Aaron Thompson, director of the School of Social Work, has created programs that start on campus, ripple through the surrounding Mid-Missouri community and then influence social workers nationwide. For instance, Thompson — a steadfast advocate for children’s mental health services — and several faculty partners developed the Family Access Center of Excellence (FACE), a suite of programs that connect children and families in need of services in Boone County to case management services.

“We are reducing the number of children who get caught up in the juvenile justice system by ensuring collaboration among law enforcement officials, school administrators, mental health professionals and families,” Thompson says. The program has become a model for the nation and has been recognized as one of the National Association of Counties’ “100 Brilliant Ideas at Work.”

Thompson’s impact on students and practicing social workers earned him one of the Mizzou Alumni Association’s 2024 Faculty Awards. In addition to leading the School of Social Work, Thompson serves as associate director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute and helped found the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition.

Aging with Strength

Stephen Ball is exercising his influence over an army of older adults. In the 20 years since the professor in the Department of Physical Therapy introduced his Stay Strong, Stay Healthy program, about 25,000 people have gotten off their couches and enjoyed the program’s twice-weekly exercise sessions in cities throughout Missouri and the Midwest.

The program consists of an eight-week course in which trained instructors lead older adults through group exercises designed to help them build muscles, increase their bone density and decrease their risk of falls. Attendees who complete the introductory course can move on to more challenging exercises at different levels. The program, developed at Mizzou, links academic research with MU Extension to serve older adults who meet at community centers, churches, public schools and senior centers.

“As we get older, we tend to lose muscle mass and strength,” Ball says. Some of the Stay Strong, Stay Healthy exercises require light dumbbells or ankle weights, while other exercises, such as squats, need no special equipment. “We’ve got to get rid of that misconception that strength training is just for athletes,” he adds. “Strength training is more important for older adults than cardiovascular exercises.”

Also critical for older adults is the socialization that takes place during and after exercise sessions. Social isolation not only lowers the quality of life, but it also can lead to mental health problems, such as depression and cognitive decline. Marta Oliveira, BHS ’21, MS ’22, a program coordinator and health and rehabilitation science PhD student,

is enthusiastic about the program’s impact on participants. “It’s super rewarding to see these adults come together and build a community that encourages everyone who attends to live a healthier lifestyle,” she says.

Students not only gain valuable experience as they lead sessions, but they also enjoy forming intergenerational friendships with program attendees. One such relationship involved Ball’s parents, who have progressed through several levels of the program. Most recently, their instructor was a Mizzou student with a special connection to them: their grandson.

An App for Adolescent Obesity

As a Stay Strong, Stay Healthy intern, health science major Zach Ball teaches his grandparents, Dan and Marge Ball, who are in the class. The program was founded by Steve Ball, who is Zach’s uncle and Dan and Marge’s son.

While developing the forthcoming CommitFit smartphone app, Health Psychology department chair Crystal Lim and colleagues decided to take advantage of the adolescent tendency to be immersed in one’s phone. To tackle adolescent obesity, the app gamifies healthy living — and even rewards it financially.

Lim’s interim study looked at whether adolescent-parent pairs would use the app together in a buddy system to improve their health by getting more sleep, exercise, fruits, vegetables and water, or by imbibing fewer sugary drinks. Study participants chose one or more health goals, received reminders and logged their behavior for three months. In one of two experimental groups, the adolescents also could earn up to $52.50 by accumulating successes. Results were promising: Both groups improved, but the compensation group was 60% more likely to reach health goals. Their parents also were more likely to achieve goals.

Lim says CommitFit promises widespread access to high-quality weight-loss help. That goes for people in food deserts, where access to grocery stores and healthy restaurants is limited, or food swamps, where high-fat and high-calorie offerings such as fast-food restaurants and convenience stores dominate the market.

The Future of Health Sciences

Why

we need to take a comprehensive and integrated approach to wellness.

By Dean Kristofer Hagglund, as told to Tony Rehagen, BA, BJ ’01

when people think about the future of health sciences, they generally think small. Technology today, in general, is all about smaller, faster, better. Medical technology is no different. We have laser-focused innovations such as precision medicine to personalize care based on genetic markers, bioinformatics that help us predict and diagnose disease based on molecular factors, and nanotechnology that enables us to assess and treat patients at the cellular level.

Faculty and students at the College of Health Sciences are well-versed in these exciting advancements, but we also strive to look at the panorama of health and well-being. At Mizzou, we’re always thinking bigger.

Humans are complex, and so is their health. Precision medicine is beneficial: There are some diseases that are caused by one type of bacteria that we can fix with a single antibiotic and some ailments we can fix with one targeted surgery. But usually, the challenges we struggle with come from multiple sources. There are also intricate social and spiritual networks at play. There’s plenty of indication among youths and adults that we, as a society, are experiencing an increase in emotional distress as well as physical ailments.

As a health care provider, you can’t just home in and treat the physical concerns of a person. You must consider each element of their wellness: physical, emotional, social, behavioral and spiritual. We now understand that health care isn’t just about mending injuries and ridding the body of viruses and chronic disease; it’s also about addressing the mind, the spirit, and looking at the social and environmental factors that affect the way in which we live our lives.

In other words, we don’t simply want to keep you alive. We also want to enhance your life, keep you happy and productive, and empower you to live it to the fullest.

There’s no better setting for this interdisciplinary approach than the College of Health Sciences at the University of Missouri. Under this one roof, we teach 23 degree programs, and our faculty represent more than 25 different disciplines, covering every angle of human wellness, from public health policy and social work to health psychology and diagnostic sciences to epidemiology and beyond. And with MU Extension, MU Health Care, and partners such as the Brightli health system, we are ideally situated to explore and advance this holistic approach to wellness and touch the lives of people throughout Missouri, the U.S. and across the globe.

program breaks down the traditional silos of education and encourages students in different disciplines to work side-by-side with each other and with professionals out in the community. Increasingly, health care is a team effort comprised of doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists, case workers and policy experts, among others. This initiative encourages communication and collaboration among the departments, while also teaching valuable skills such as conflict resolution and leadership. The central idea is to create educational experiences for students that meet the requirements of accreditation in each program while also fostering an appreciation for each member of the health care team and what they bring to each patient. This creates a sense of community and respect for each role, and, perhaps more important, will result in integrated, higher quality care for our patients both now and in the future.

We teach 23 different programs, and our faculty represent more than 25 different disciplines, covering every angle of human wellness, from public health policy and social work to health psychology and diagnostic sciences to epidemiology and beyond.

One example of this effort is our Interprofessional Education Initiative. (For more information, see Page 72.) This

Technology is certainly the future of health sciences, not only in terms of personalized medicine, precision diagnostics and nanotechnology, but also the pervasive use of Big Data and artificial intelligence. AI algorithms can process vast amounts of genomic information, health records and lifestyle factors to help pinpoint the risk of everything from diabetes to heart disease to cancer. Machine learning models are being trained to analyze X-rays and CT scans with exponentially increased speed and efficiency. Neural networks offer real-time recommendations for diagnosis and treatment and establish predictive models for the potential outbreaks of infectious diseases — helping us prepare for and hopefully prevent the next pandemic. We are moving quickly in that area to ensure our faculty and students are fundamentally well-trained in the use of the technology and the science behind the latest AI applications. But here again, the College of Health Sciences emphasizes the importance of the human element when using AI. We understand that these models are trained by humans on the selective data that we provide, all reflecting our own human errors and biases. Although AI is a tremendous tool to help locate, process and evaluate information quickly, we still need to train providers to view each patient as more than a mere data point. To look at each individual with our own set of eyes and those of our colleagues in other health sciences. To develop the right diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures for that person’s physical, mental and social circumstances. To treat the whole person — mind, body and spirit — and help them live their best life. M

CLINIC

IN SESSION

For College of Health Sciences students, there’s no learning experience quite like being face to face with patients.

BY CHRIS BLOSE, MA ’04

Kelsie lensing is still discovering the full range of what practitioners in her chosen profession do to serve patients. The second-year graduate student in speech, language and hearing sciences has already packed a world of perspective into a career that’s just beginning.

She has worked with a variety of clients, including schoolage children who have difficulty with articulation, language and reading challenges. She’s helped non-native English speakers improve their confidence and conversational skills. She’s aided adults who have cognition and swallowing disorders to retrain their muscles and learn new techniques for this critical life skill that most of us take for granted. “Our scope of practice is so much bigger than what most people think,” Lensing says.

Lensing knows this because she actually gets to train in that scope of practice at Mizzou, through the College of Health Sciences’ numerous hands-on clinics and other educational experiences. In these settings, students in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, social work and other disciplines get something no textbook or theory can properly prepare them for: face time with real humans, each of whom comes with their own needs and idiosyncrasies.

“I think building rapport is the biggest challenge once you actually have a patient sitting in front of you,” Lensing says. “But that is the thing I love.”

Such experience comes by design, says Lea Ann Lowery, BHS ’88, M Ed ’03, OTD, clinical professor and faculty fellow for interprofessional education. Lowery, who graduated from the college and has been on faculty for 21 years, creates interprofessional events for students to gain practice. She started the college’s first occupational therapy clinic, based on her own experience and understanding of what students need to learn beyond the classroom.

“Classwork is important, of course,” Lowery says. “But we can’t just study paper cases. Paper cases, they get well all the time. They do so well. They’re always cooperative and do everything you ask them to do. But real people are complex. I can’t teach the complexity of people. You have to work with people to wrap your head around it.”

THE MISSOURI METHOD FOR HEALTH

lowery recalls her time as an occupational therapy student at Mizzou. The program was in transition at the time and had lost some of its full-time faculty, so the college brought in practicing clinicians to teach.

Instead of feeling like a temporary solution, it felt like a gift. “These were people who came in and said, ‘This is what practice is really like,’” Lowery says.

As a practicing clinician above all else, Lowery carried that experience with her when she joined the faculty as an educator. Lowery and colleagues have made clinical experience a cornerstone of a College of Health Sciences education, with practical knowledge intricately tied to classroom learning.

Since 2000, those clinical experiences have expanded greatly. For instance, students in occupational therapy work with patients in both an outpatient clinical setting and out in the surrounding community. Through Tiger OT, students gain experience interacting with patients and solving clinical problems for both children and adults who come in with a range of issues, from neurological and musculoskeletal conditions to developmental issues.

Similarly, aspiring physical therapists gain practical experience through PhysZOU, a pro bono clinic that not only gives these students face-to-face time with patients but also serves a distinct community role by providing therapy to the underinsured and uninsured. Speech, language and hearing

sciences students like Lensing often get their first experience with adult and pediatric patients via the on-campus MU Speech and Hearing Clinic, or at the Combs Language Preschool, which serves young children with language difficulties. School of Social Work students practice real and often life-changing therapy at the Integrative Behavioral Health Clinic. Under faculty supervision, psychology interns and post-doctoral fellows provide assessment and consultation services to address concerns ranging from traumatic brain injury to neurodevelopmental disorders through Department of Health Psychology adult and pediatric neuropsychology clinics. Students get the benefit of real-world practice, and in turn,

Clockwise from top: Speech-language pathology students including Kelsie Lensing, center, help children at the Combs Language Preschool at the College of Health Sciences.

Lensing, second from right, works with a community member participating in the Accent Expansion Program. Created by the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, the program helps up to 30 community participants each semester improve their American English accents.

Physical therapy students help a patient, center, at the PhysZou clinic in Clark Hall.

Top: A student volunteer works with a child on swimming skills in the SWIM program.

Right: College of Health Sciences students assess a patient during the school’s interdisciplinary pilot program at Columbia’s Woodhaven Clinic.

Above: SLP students work with clients at the LEAP Clinic in Lewis Hall.

patients get the benefit of professional services, many conveniently located directly on campus in Lewis and Clark Hall or nearby. For instance, a client at the MU Speech and Hearing Clinic may also get referred to Tiger OT or PhysZou, with a social work student acting as case manager and care coordinator.

The model has evolved to the point where each subset of College of Health Sciences students has a chance to do the work before they graduate — and to connect that practical learning to coursework. What’s even more important to Lowery, though, is when those different types of clinicians have a chance to do the work together.

There are plenty of evolving examples of this, such as Mizzou’s Child Development Lab, housed under the College of Education and Human Development. The lab offers burgeoning PTs, OTs and SLPs the opportunity to practice pediatric services in a multidisciplinary environment.

But the prime interprofessional model is a program that’s close to Lowery’s heart, TIPS for Kids in the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment. TIPS stands for Training in Interdisciplinary Partnerships and Services, and that’s exactly what the program provides, both in didactic and clinical programming. TIPS training lasts a year and offers complete immersion for postdoctoral and advanced graduate students specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism. It includes a range of clinician and nonclinician types: OTs, PTs, SLPs, psychologists, social workers, family advocates, you name it.

Visits with TIPS patients and their families are often revealing. “After our clients come in, then we do some debriefing as a group,” Lowery says. “Let’s talk about the family that came today. What were some initial ideas or thoughts that you had based on the information that you received? What did you discover that surprised you? What are some new ways that you can appreciate this family’s situation?”

Early in the program, visits are a way for students to uncover their own assumptions and behavioral biases, then work on them to improve patient interaction and care. As the program progresses, the next valuable lesson often comes from interaction with other professionals. After all, in the real world, clinicians don’t work in isolation. They interact with orders and notes from various other caregivers, from doctors and nurses to pharmacists.

“It can be pretty overwhelming whenever you’re first in a clinical situation,” Lowery says. “It’s a new language, and each discipline has their own language. Immersing yourself in that and interacting with people who are speaking different languages helps you put together the whole picture for patients.”

THE CARE TEAM

on a december day in 2024, all the College of Health Sciences’ clinical education philosophies came to life in one place at the Woodhaven community.

In a carefully organized flow designed by students, Woodhaven’s residents — adults with developmental disabilities — moved from clinical station to station. Here, physical therapy students assessed their mobility, balance and flexibility. Over there, speech, language and hearing sciences students conversed with them to analyze any challenges with articulation, language, swallowing or other needs. At another station, occupational therapy students performed diagnostics on everything from motor skills to sensory processing.

Lowery, who serves on the board at Woodhaven, and fellow faculty Cody Higgins and Kelly Stephens launched this pilot not only to increase the interprofessional opportunities for students but also to aid a population that tends to fall through the cracks. Such pilots are common at the college.

“We try things,” Lowery says. “We assess the results. And if it works, we do more of it.”

From the perspective of Lensing, who took part in the Woodhaven pilot, these programs certainly do work. “I think they do an amazing job of getting us exposed to clients right away,” Lensing says.

Most recently, Lensing has been working an internship in an adult rehabilitation clinic in Florida. She says her experience in past clinical settings helped prepare her for what it’s really like to work as part of a care team.

“We have PTs and OTs in the clinic,” she says. “Many of my speech patients see one of them right after their session with me. I can then share the communication strategies I used with the patient and their effectiveness. I think it’s important to be able to track a patient’s progress across their entire therapy journey.”

She also has learned how to tackle that first challenge of building rapport — and how the approach varies depending on the type of patient. Children often want to play, so a playful, gamelike approach can help a clinician hook them into therapy. Many adults, on the other hand, react best to someone who has a deep and meaningful conversation with them.

Ultimately, it’s about learning to recognize, analyze and treat each patient as an individual. “Using my educational background to make those clinical decisions,” Lensing says, “it’s not as easy as following a set of steps and expecting results. You really have to analyze that person. And I think that’s something that really develops throughout our clinical experience.” M

“ We try things. We assess the results. And if it works, we do more of it.”

NEW ERA: REVITALIZED SPACE

Clark Hall gets a $6 million upgrade, and students get a training space as forward-thinking as the field they’ll enter.

Clark Hall’s $6 million renovation isn’t just about aesthetics; it marks a new era for the College of Health Sciences. In 2023, the former School of Health Professions rebranded to reflect its expanding mission, and now its newly overhauled building reinforces that growth. With new classrooms, labs and study spaces, the once-unassuming structure now asserts its evolving identity, complete with a proper front door facing Providence Road.

These photos showcase some of the changes, from sleek interiors to students engaging with the revitalized space. The upgrades cultivate collaboration, fuel innovation and strengthen connections. They also ensure Mizzou’s health sciences education stays ahead of the field. You can see it firsthand at the annual CHS alumni tailgate outside Clark Hall on Oct. 11, just hours before Mizzou takes on Alabama.

Far left, the front of the revitalized Clark Hall. Left, the Dr. Barbara Carr and Mr. Michael Carr Classroom. Above and below, interior gathering spaces for students. Below left, college Dean Kristofer Hagglund addresses the crowd at the Clark Hall grand opening on Sept. 20, 2024.

MANY PATHS, ONE MISSION

Social Work Superhero

Freddie Avant | Associate Dean and Director | School of Social Work

Stephen F. Austin State University

As an undergraduate, Freddie Avant, MSW ’82, mentored disadvantaged kids and realized social work was his calling. “I wanted to be a superhero,” Avant says. “Whenever I saw kids being bullied, I wanted to fly in and help them.”

Now, as associate dean and director of the School of Social Work at Stephen F. Austin State University, he prepares students for the challenges they will face as social workers.

“It’s not possible to fix all social problems, but I show students how they can change lives in so many ways,” Avant says. He also participates in alumni panels at Mizzou, where he tells health sciences students how they can make a difference.

“Mizzou helped me turn my passion for helping others into reality,” Avant says. “The foundation of who I am is Mizzou — it’s shaped my life.”

Health, leadership, innovation — meet six alumni who are shaping the world.

Transforming Health Care Through Teamwork

Natalie Caine | Chief Administrative Officer | Mayo Clinic

When it comes to better patient care, it really does take a village to succeed.

“When a team of experts works together to develop comprehensive, customized care plans, it leads to better outcomes for patients,” says Natalie Caine, MHA ’05, chief administrative officer at Mayo Clinic. “We’re the first and largest integrated group medical practice, which enables us to work on the most difficult to diagnose cases.”

Mayo Clinic’s commitment to teamwork is evident in its dyad leadership model, where Caine provides administrative leadership and oversight alongside Amy W. Williams, MD, the executive dean of the practice. This multidisciplinary approach is present throughout the health system, ensuring that each physician is paired with an administrative leader.

“As part of our leadership model, administrators rotate through different areas of the organization over time, allowing us to see how the different parts of Mayo Clinic work together,” Caine says. “I love being able to work with a team on challenging projects, where we have an opportunity to advance new innovation to support our patients and our staff, to ultimately bring more hope and healing.”

During her 20-year career at Mayo, Caine has remained connected to Mizzou’s College of Health Sciences. She served on the college’s MHA alumni board, mentors health administration students and even works with several fellow Mizzou alumni at Mayo.

“Mizzou has made a lasting impact on my life,” Caine says. “I’ve received so much from the MHA program and formed so many meaningful connections over the years.”

Language Links

Kennedi Keyes | Speech-Language Pathologist | Wentzville Public Schools

As a speech-language pathologist, Kennedi Keyes, BHS ’19, MHS ’21, enjoys helping patients of all ages improve their communication abilities. But shortly after entering the workforce, she discovered a special passion for working with children.

“You really get to build relationships with the kids,” says Keyes, who works for Wentzville Public Schools. “And through those relationships, you help them build their language, communication and social skills.” Keyes tries to create a safe space where students feel comfortable enough to tell her about their days, lives and interests — even if they don’t quite know how to express themselves. Keyes says once, a student even sang her Christmas wish list to her instead of speaking. “Building that trust makes it so much easier to find things they want to talk about,” she says. “From there, I can support their needs.”

Type A (and B, AB, and O) Personality

Chris Hrouda | President, Biomedical Services | American Red Cross Mizzou grads have held just about every type of leadership imaginable, from CEOs of multinational corporations to university administrators to heads of state. But Chris Hrouda, BHS ’87, might oversee the most vital resource of any Tiger leader: America’s blood supply.

As president of American Red Cross Biomedical Services, Hrouda oversees blood collection, testing, manufacturing and distribution for the iconic nonprofit. Since being promoted to the top spot in 2017, he has led through hurricanes, floods and wildfires — not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic. He has made sure the Red Cross kept critical supplies of blood flowing to millions in need.

Hrouda has been with the Red Cross since 1988, when he was a medical technologist at University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics for the Missouri-Illinois region. Since then, he has served within the organization, including as CEO of the Southern region, division vice president of the Southeast division and executive vice president.

Tackling the Taboo

Sarah Miller | Founder & Physical Therapist | Revive Rehab

Sarah Miller has learned to embrace awkward conversations. As founder of Columbia’s Revive Rehab and Wellness, when she talks to patients about pelvic floor health, there’s no such thing as TMI. “I want them to feel comfortable advocating for themselves and having an open conversation so we can figure out solutions,” Miller says.

Miller, DPT ’21, helps patients deal with everything from discomfort during sex and bowel issues to painful periods and urinary leakage. She also treats chronic lower back pain and hip pain that hasn’t been resolved with traditional stretches and exercises.

Miller worked as a pelvic floor physical therapist through MU Health Care before launching Revive in April 2024. Growing a practice can be stressful, but Miller has created relationships with women that she hopes to maintain from first children to late life.

Adjust, Adapt, Achieve

Ramone Hankle | Manager & Scrum Master | CIBC

As a former Division II athlete at Tuskegee University, Ramone Hankle, BHS ’15, had to learn how to pivot when he hung up his football cleats after his freshman year. Now, he reacts and adapts to find the best career path. As a student, he thought he’d go into nursing. Then he developed a different interest, resulting in an IT career in industries ranging from health insurance to aviation and now finance as a manager and scrum master at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).

Hankle credits his parents and his professors at Mizzou’s College of Health Sciences for teaching him how to adjust, adapt and achieve. He passes along that same message to students. “At alumni panels, I tell students it’s OK to rewrite their career plan,” he says. “The College of Health Sciences is giving them the skill set to be successful no matter how they pivot.”

Hankle continues to evolve today by moonlighting as a real estate agent. His goal? To build affordable housing as a community developer.

YOU MAKE MIRACLES HAPPEN

Thanks to our incredible community, this year’s Children’s Miracle Network radiothon raised more than $456,000.

Every dollar delivers lifesaving care at Children’s Hospital, bringing hope and healing to families from every county in Missouri.

Scan to give or visit mizzou.us/cmn