Central Graduates, Missouri Legends

BROWN PRESENTS CHOTT WITH INAUGURAL AWARD

BY EMILY KESEL

CMU alumnus John Brown, ’94, (left) and Bill Chott, ’91, pose on stage at the Missouri Book Festival event in which Brown presented Chott with the inaugural Missouri Legends Award.

Two of Central Methodist University’s most widely-known alumni may live 2,500 miles away from each other on separate coasts, but every once in a while, Bill Chott, ’91, and John Brown, ’94, get to meet in the middle.

Every once in a while, they come home to Missouri at the same time.

The most recent of these occasions was a special one. In August, Chott was honored at the Missouri Book Festival in Washington, Mo. for being named the inaugural recipient of the Missouri Legends Award. The man who presented him with the award, and whose books inspired it in the first place, was Brown, a fellow Central alumnus and longtime friend.

“I thought it was so cool that for the very first one I would get to actually give the award to someone I knew and who had the same college experience that I did,” said Brown, author of several books on Missouri history and nightly news anchor for FOX 35 Orlando. “It was really cool, especially having seen all the stuff that Bill’s doing right now.”

The actor and comedian is indeed doing a lot right now, having been featured in the Netflix miniseries Dahmer as the head of the Milwaukee police commission, as well as a thriller titled Midcentury Modern and a well-reviewed production of The Secret World of Archy and Mehitabel. In his early career, after graduating from Central, Chott lived in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York, working in comedy with household names like Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and Dana Carvey. He held a recurring role in the Disney series The Wizards of Waverly Place, and his first “big” movie role in Galaxy Quest was part of the late Alan Rickman’s in memoriam reel, which Chott calls “a bittersweet honor.”

But the Missouri Legends award isn’t an acting award, and it isn’t given to just anyone. It’s meant to recognize “a native Missourian whose impact has been seen and felt around the country.” And Chott’s work certainly fits the bill. Since his work on the Johnny Knoxville film The Ringer, Chott has worked with the Special Olympics and the “Spread the Word to End the R-Word” campaign, in what he calls “one of the most rewarding” things he’s ever done.

“That movie had a major influence and a major impact on my life, and I was able to bring back some of that to Missouri, so I’m always proud of that,” said Chott, who adds this award to his honors as a member of the Ritenour High School Hall of Fame, a CMU Hero Award winner, and a recipient of the A-List Award and Mastermind Award in the St. Louis area.

Despite all those achievements, Chott says the Missouri Legends Award was especially humbling to receive.

“Those are all wonderful blessings, and it’s always great to be recognized from a local standpoint,” he added, “but the fact that I was recognized for what I had done as a representative of the state and for the impact it’s had across the country was incredibly touching.”

Chott said it was also “overwhelming” to be honored at the Book Festival alongside former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and outfielder Rick Ankiel, who was presented with the Missouri Perseverance Award.

And of course, it was special to have been introduced and honored by Brown. The two have been friends for “more than a decade,” after finally meeting at a Homecoming weekend years after they had both graduated from Central.

“It’s funny because Bill and I missed each other by one year at Central Methodist, but we had so many mutual friends not only from Central but also in St. Louis and in the acting industry and with agents. Somehow, we just eventually connected,” said Brown, whose career has seen him anchoring in both Orlando and St. Louis over the years. “Even though we didn’t cross over directly at Central Methodist, it felt like we’d known each other for years. So when we got together there in Washington, it was just like old times, hanging out.”

“I’m sure my relationship with him is part of the reason I was the inaugural recipient of the award,” Chott admitted with a laugh. “It just goes to show, another example of how connections made at Central can stretch across the country, all the way from Florida to California.”

John Brown, ’94, and brother Mike with former St. Louis Cardinals player Rick Ankiel, recipient of the Missouri Perseverance Award, presented by Brown at the Missouri Book Festival in August. Brown has written four books about Missouri and its history and will be releasing another in 2023. He was also recently nominated for a pair of Emmy Awards for his work as a news anchor in Orlando, Fla.

The 2022 Gaddis lecturer Shamika Renee Pegue, ‘13, explains her work in behavior analysis.

Pegue Lectures on Behavior Analysis, Cultural Control

BY EMILY KESEL

Held for the first time since 2019, this year’s Merrill E. Gaddis Lecture at Central Methodist University was presented on October 10 by 2013 graduate Shamika Renee Pegue, who spoke on the topic of “Socially Significant Problem Behavior: A Behavior Analytic Examination of Cultural Control.”

Speaking from the standpoint of a behavior analyst, Pegue addressed the role of social institutions as controlling agencies in the United States, specifically institutional racism as a method of cultural control. She stressed that institutions like schools and the criminal justice system have worked to structure the behavior of individuals by regulating behavior to remove children considered “undesirable.”

“A lot of teachers, a lot of school administrators don’t realize. . . that they’re putting these kids in harsher positions than what they came from,” Pegue said.

Pegue underlined the need to be aware of how “problem behaviors” like criminalizing and stereotyping black children can become cultural practice over time.

“We keep doing the same things with the same associations, over and over again, reinforcing those associations until they become a practice,” she said. “And that becomes problematic if we are looking at institutional racism as a problem behavior.”

In addressing how to combat these problems, Pegue explained habit reversal training. Usually applied to individual habits, she believes this practice can be implemented system-wide to create awareness and reverse some of the reinforced problem behaviors.

Following her talk, she took questions from a lively audience. Pegue’s Gaddis Lecture, appropriately, was held on World Mental Health Day.

Pegue graduated summa cum laude from Central in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in psychology and sociology. It was during her time at CMU that she found her love for people and helping others through human service work while interning at Endless Options in Fayette and working as a medical detox attendant at Heartland Center for Behavior Health and Change in Kansas City.

In 2020, Pegue graduated with her Master of Science in Applied

Behavior Analysis from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Prior to graduating, she conducted behavioral research with an emphasis in utilizing group contingency interventions in urban educational environments. While working on her thesis, she realized a growing need for behavior analysis to help solve real-world problems within the institution of education. Currently, Pegue works as a behavior analyst at a long-term healthcare agency with adults diagnosed with either a developmental or intellectual disability. As a behavior analyst, she provides client and family support through staff training, conducting functional behavior assessments, and behavior support planning. It is Pegue’s ongoing work in mental and behavioral healthcare that continues to fuel her passion for underserved minority communities and is one of the many reasons she partnered with several Central Methodist alumni to create the non-profit organization Stand Up for Equity, of which she is the acting board Shamika Renee Pegue ’13 president and vice president of operations. As a first-generation college graduate, and one of only a few African-American women working in the field of behavior analysis in the state of Missouri, she has firsthand insight as to how cultural practices operating within social institutions can alter opportunities for minority groups. It is this knowledge she brings to the arena of social and cultural reform. Pegue aims to share this knowledge with others in hopes of inspiring the next generation of behavior analysts to join the call of social justice work. Sponsored by CMU’s Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu, an international society for social sciences, the lecture is named in honor of Dr. Merrill Gaddis (1891-1958). Gaddis was a professor of history and later chair of the history and political science department. He served at the college for nearly 30 years. The full 2022 Gaddis Lecture can be viewed at https://vimeo. com/759153558.