Eight Missouri Western graduates currently serve as directors of nonprofit organizations in St. Joseph. They have devoted their careers to making a difference in the community: Jean Brown ’73, YWCA; Teresa Fankhauser ’79, Allied Arts Council; Robin Hammond ’93, St. Joseph Youth Alliance; Linda Judah ’82/’94, Social Welfare Board; Brandy Meeks ’07, St. Joseph Pregnancy Resource Clinic; Angie Springs ’02, American Red Cross of Northwest Missouri; Kylee Strough ’03, United Way of Greater St. Joseph; and Shannen White ’06, Hillcrest Transitional Housing.
Jean Brown ’73
A high school social studies teacher suggested to Jean Brown that she consider the social work field for a career, but at the time, Brown says, she didn’t even know what social workers did.
The first in her family to go to college, she was offered several scholarships at many universities, but the St. Joseph native decided to stay close to home and attend Missouri Western.
“The best part of Missouri Western for me was that I was part of a community.”
Brown took her high school teacher’s advice and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Missouri Western in just three years and a master’s in social work from West Virginia University. She has served in the social work field ever since, working for Family Guidance Center in St. Joseph for 22 years and as executive director of the YWCA in St. Joseph since 1995.
“It’s challenging with lots of variety,” Brown says of her job. “If you’re in a leadership position in a nonprofit, you do what has to be done.”
Under Brown’s leadership, the YWCA began the JUMP program for pregnant teens and expanded its victim services, opening Bliss Manor Transitional Housing in 2011. She also began the Women of Excellence luncheons, which host more than 1,000 guests each year.
She earned the Distinguished Alumni Award from Missouri Western in 1989.
Her childhood may have been a foreshadowing of a nonprofit career as an adult; for several years she organized a neighborhood carnival to raise money for muscular dystrophy research.
“I would promote it with a parade through Hyde Park to attract people to the carnival. I was raising money, promoting activities and organizing people, and I do a lot of that today,” she says with a laugh.
Brown says she has thoroughly enjoyed her long career in the nonprofit sector and the social work field.
“We really have an opportunity to make an impact, not only on individual lives, but in the entire community.”
Teresa Fankhauser ’79
It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that Teresa Fankhauser loves her job as director of the umbrella organization for 14 arts agencies in St. Joseph, the Allied Arts Council. She started taking dance lessons at age 3 and piano lessons at age 5, and she was involved in theatre throughout high school and college.
“Arts were always a part of my life, and I fell in love with it at an early age. Now I get to live the dream and support the arts every day,” Fankhauser says.
She said she enjoyed her college experience at Missouri Western, where she earned a degree in speech/communication. “My college education taught me how to be a teacher and so much more. It gave me the confidence to open my own business and gave me the background to succeed.”
After graduating, the St. Joseph native taught high school for eight years, was a financial planner, and owned the Ice House Theater in St. Joseph for 11 years with her husband, Erich Uhlhorn. She was executive director of St. Joseph’s Performing Arts Association for two years, and became executive director of the Allied Arts Council in 2005.
The Council, founded in 1963, has as its mission organizing, fund-raising, advocating, educating and servicing the local arts community. It provides educational programs, art exhibits and summer youth arts programs and operates the annual Trails West!® arts festival. The Council also coordinated the inaugural sculpture walk that was in downtown St. Joseph last year.
“I enjoy seeing the arts reach so many people,” Fankhauser says. “The arts make a community, and it’s very exciting to be a part of it.”
Robin Hammond ’93
When Robin Hammond was in high school, she took an aptitude test that said she wasn’t really college material. Today, Hammond, who earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree, is the executive director of the St. Joseph Youth Alliance.
Her nonprofit career path began while she was in college, when she started working part-time for Progressive Community Services. She worked full-time for the organization for four years after she graduated before joining Youth Alliance.
“I was offered the position (at Youth Alliance) and I turned it down. They called me back and said, ‘Are you sure?’ I thought that was a sign from God that I was supposed to take it. Nobody calls you back after you turn them down,” she said with a laugh.
That was in 1996. In 2001, Hammond took on the lead role.
The organization works with community partners to prevent teen substance abuse, help create quality early childhood education opportunities and help teens find ways to serve their community while learning new job skills.
“It’s not about the money,” she says of her career choice. “It’s about being given the opportunity to impact the life of someone in a big way. It’s a great way to give someone a chance.”
When she started college, she had planned to get an associate’s degree so she would only have to go two years. One of her professors, Sharon Downey, convinced her to earn a bachelor’s degree, and the student who wasn’t supposed to be college material kept on going.
“I am very appreciative. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for Missouri Western,” said Hammond, who served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors. “Missouri Western gives every student a chance to succeed, and that is the Youth Alliance’s guiding principle.”
Linda Judah ’82/’94
Linda Judah has been executive director of the Social Welfare Board in St. Joseph since 2006.
“It’s my mission, it doesn’t feel like a job to me,” she says. “It’s a cause that drives me to do more.”
Judah earned a criminal justice degree in 1982 and worked in that field for several years before returning to Missouri Western to earn a nursing degree. After graduating with that degree in 1994, she spent several years as a school nurse in the St. Joseph School District before taking over the helm of the Social Welfare Board.
After she earned a Master of Science in Nursing in 2004, Judah served as an adjunct nursing professor for Missouri Western, and in 2007, accompanied nursing students on a medical mission trip to Honduras. She received the Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010.
The Social Welfare Board, established in St. Joseph in 1913, provides medical and dental care to residents of Buchanan County, and a recent brochure noted that it averaged 106 patients per day. The Social Welfare Board recently completed a remodel of their offices and clinic facilities, including an expansion of the dental clinic.
“Working in the social service sector enables a person to see the real needs of people. It is more of a social justice calling for me,” Judah says. “At the end of the day, I know we’ve helped a lot of people.”
Brandy Meeks ’07
Brandy Meeks said when she graduated from Missouri Western with a psychology degree in 2007, her challenge wasn’t finding a job, it was trying to decide which job offer to accept.
“I had three offers before I even crossed the stage at graduation, and I was nine months pregnant,” she said. “It was because my resumé was loaded with experience from the class projects and practicum requirements.”
As a college student, she had the opportunity to work closely with United Cerebral Palsy and United Way’s Success by Six. “That made me decide that I wanted to invest my talent into making a difference in the lives of others every day.”
In 2013, she was hired to lead the St. Joseph Pregnancy Resource Clinic, which specializes in helping women with unplanned pregnancies, serving 13 counties in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.
“I love the faith-based principles of this organization, and I enjoy bringing hope to mothers, fathers and their babies,” Meeks said. “I like that I am making a real, measurable difference.”
Meeks currently serves on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and co-founded with Angie Springs ’02 the Mama Griffs network for alumni and their families.
“I stay involved with Missouri Western because their vision for their students’ futures is a priority. I want to give back to the university that gave me so much.”
Angie Springs ’02
Angie Springs started her career working at a couple for-profit companies before deciding that her heart was in nonprofit work. She went to work for the American Red Cross of Northwest Missouri in St. Joseph, then United Way of Greater St. Joseph, and then back to the Red Cross in the top position in June 2013.
“I was raised to help others, and now I get paid to do that,” she says. “In nonprofits, everyone has a passion. You are impacting people’s lives and making their lives better.”
The Doniphan County, Kansas native completed her associate degree at Highland Community College before transferring to Missouri Western to earn a degree in speech communication. “Dr. (Marilyn) Hunt was wonderful. She is one of my go-to people for advice.”
Springs has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2008, and is currently serving as its president. She was the co-founder of the Mama Griffs network with Brandy Meeks ’07.
Like her colleagues in other nonprofits, she says there is “no typical day. All it takes is one call from the Fire Department to change your day. You have to be flexible.”
As executive director, she oversees seven employees, and, in any given year, 500 to 700 volunteers.
Last year, she was one of three Red Cross employees who received the 2014 President’s Challenge Award in Washington, D.C. because her office came in second in the nation in establishing new blood drives.
“People always tell us, ‘Now I know things will be okay; the Red Cross is here.’ Everyone has a story of how we helped them and it keeps you going.”
Kylee Strough ’03
“It’s good to go to bed every night knowing we played a role in connecting people who care with people who need help.”
That is how Kylee Strough sums up her position as president of United Way of St. Joseph, a position she has held since 2010. She joined United Way in 2005. “I feel blessed to be chosen as an employee.”
Before deciding on attending Missouri Western, she visited a larger school and saw a lecture hall with more students in it than were in her entire high school, and she decided that wasn’t for her.
After she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in marketing, she went to work for her uncle’s business. In 2004, he encouraged her to volunteer to coordinate a benefit dinner for United Way. When there was an opening the next year for a campaign director, the United Way asked Strough to apply.
“It’s a challenge every day, but an invigorating challenge,” she says of the job. The only consistency day to day is emails and meetings, with the topics changing daily.”
In 2014, the United Way surpassed its campaign goal and raised more than $3.1 million for its 19 partner agencies.
Strough said she became involved again at Missouri Western when she served on the Board of Governors, including serving three one-year terms as chair. She received the GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) Award from the Alumni Association in 2011. Also, this past spring, she was selected as one of the Kansas City Ingram’s Magazine 40 under Forty, which recognizes accomplished young business leaders in the region.
“In the beginning, I didn’t really know that I wanted to work for a nonprofit organization,” Strough says. “I just knew that I wanted to be in a position to help people and make lives easier.”
Shannen White ’06
Although she was always an active community volunteer, Shannen White had never planned on a career in the nonprofit field. She worked for the St. Joseph Association of Realtors and then at American Family Insurance’s corporate office in St. Joseph after she graduated with a criminal justice degree in 2006.
But participating in the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership St. Joseph class in 2013 made her question her career path, because the program included visiting local social services agencies.
“I remember going home and saying I wanted to be involved in an agency that gets people out of a situation and gets them self-sufficient,” she says. “I felt that God was leading me.”
Later, she remembers asking God where He was leading her: “Lord, I don’t know what you are doing. Tell me what I need to do,” she prayed.
The next day, a friend from her church called and asked her to consider applying for the local director position at Hillcrest Transitional Housing. The organization, which began in 1976 and has locations in the Kansas City metro area, expanded into St. Joseph in 2011 and had decided that they needed a local director.
“My friend said she couldn’t stop thinking about me,” White says. “I had never heard of Hillcrest, but when she described it, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I knew this was where the Lord wanted me to be.”
White became the director in April 2014.
Hillcrest offers homeless families, singles and youth a disciplined educational program within a caring, supportive environment. Its primary objective is to move clients from homelessness to self-sufficiency within 90 days by addressing the total life situation of the homeless families they serve.
“Looking back, I can see how my life was orchestrated to lead me to this,” White says. When she had been married a short time, she and her husband lost their home and moved in with her parents for more than a year. “I understand what our clients go through. My parents were our ‘Hillcrest.’”
“I have a true calling for this. I like to do as much as I can to help others.”