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Advancing Northwest
GREEN APPOINTED INTERIM PRESIDENT
Northwest’s Board of Regents selected Dr. Clarence Green ’94, ’10, to serve as the institution’s interim president, effective July 1. Green has been employed at Northwest since 1996 and has served as its vice president of culture since 2019, having oversight of the Office of Human Resources, the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, and the University Police Department. While leading Northwest teams responsible for strategic planning and crisis management, he also has served on implementation teams for student success, inclusive excellence and behavioral intervention, in addition to leading efforts to establish a multidisciplinary team focused on intervention strategies for students in crisis. He previously served at Northwest as interim vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, and as the interim vice president of human resources. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in higher education leadership, both from Northwest, as well as a doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Missouri-Columbia. “I look forward to serving Northwest as its interim president during this time of transition,” Green said. “Northwest is in a position of strength to continue its successful path due to its great students, faculty, staff and alumni.” The Board plans to work with the Northwest community to launch its search for Northwest’s next president when the fall semester begins. ALUMNA ESTABLISHES SCHOLARSHIP TO HONOR LONGTIME EDUCATOR, FORMER BOARD OF REGENTS CHAIR
A Northwest alumna has created an annual scholarship as a tribute to the leadership exhibited by another alumna as a woman in education, business and service roles traditionally held by males. Hayley Hanson ’97, who serves as outside general counsel for the University as an attorney with Husch Dr. Marilou Joyner Blackwell, established the endowed Marilou Joyner Women in Leadership Scholarship. “I had the privilege to work with her and see that she is a leader in every sense of the word,” Hanson said. “She has the unique ability to make sure that everyone feels supported and, specifically, to promote women and persons of color who are looking at going into fields where they have been underrepresented.” In addition to her volunteer service and gifts to Northwest, Joyner ’75, ’78, ’82, is a longtime educator in northwest Missouri public schools and a former assistant commissioner with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She also owned Cameron Group Care Inc., which included an intermediate care facility for developmentally disabled adults, individualized supported living units and vocational supported employment services.
IOWA COUPLE’S INTEREST IN AGRICULTURE INSPIRES SUPPORT OF AG LEARNING CENTER
With a shared love of agriculture and appreciation for the education they received at Northwest, Jim ’62 and Miriam Wood ’64 Meadows joined the University’s Homesteader society in support of the Agricultural Learning Center (ALC). Opened last year, the 29,500-squarefoot ALC enhances the School of Agricultural Sciences and its curriculum. While more than 60 public and private donors have joined the Homesteaders by providing leading support of $25,000 or greater toward the Agricultural Learning Center, the Meadowses say their contribution is a tribute to their farming heritage as well as a demonstration of appreciation for Northwest. “We feel very grateful for Northwest,” Jim said. “We feel that the education that we got was very good. It’s been a big contributor to our success in life.” The couple, who met at Northwest and have been married for 19 years, maintain two farms – one in Kellerton and another in Gravity that Miriam operates with her son. After completing his degree, Jim worked in the insurance field for a couple years in southwest Iowa. He also learned to fly airplanes and eventually joined the Air National Guard. He joined United Airlines as a pilot and flew passengers around the world for 32 years until retiring in 1996. Miriam taught at Ar-We-Va Community School in northern Iowa before moving to Missouri. She then worked as a
Jim and Miriam Meadows
bookkeeper for 20 years with the American Chianina Association, a cattle organization in Platte City, and eventually returned to Iowa, joining Barker Implement in Indianola as a bookkeeper.
Students studying education-related majors at Northwest have a new opportunity to receive financial support toward their degree program through the generosity of a University alumna. Cindy Wolfe ’88, recently established an endowed scholarship, the Cindy Wolfe Education Scholarship, which is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors who are enrolled full-time at Northwest and have declared a major in education. Recipients also must be from Iowa, Kansas or Nebraska and have a GPA between 2.75 and 3.5. “This scholarship is so vital because it provides much-needed support for students nearing graduation while they likely have numerous important clinical field experiences to practice their craft,” Dr. Tim Wall ’01, the dean of Northwest’s School of Education, said. “Teaching, while a well-respected profession, is not the most lucrative field. The Wolfe scholarship will offset costs and possibly reduce loan debt for many students. We are so grateful for this generous gift.” Wolfe said she hopes the scholarship assists students who have a passion for entering the education field and may not benefit from the financial assistance awarded to first-year students, particularly those who come from surrounding states. “I wanted to give back to Northwest because I felt like I got an excellent education there and, being from a small town in Kansas, I wanted to find something for students in states around Missouri to encourage them,” Wolfe said. A native of Hiawatha, Kansas, Wolfe was attracted to Northwest for its education programming. In addition to playing with the Bearcat softball team for three years, she focused on preparing herself to become a secondary education teacher with specializations in physical education and mathematics. During a career of nearly 20 years in Missouri and Texas, Wolfe taught a variety of ages from elementary physical education to senior citizens while coordinating a college intramural program.
Northwest alumna Cindy Wolfe resides in Arizona and enjoys traveling the country.
THREE STUDENTS NAMED INAUGURAL SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS THROUGH KAREN L. DANIEL LEGACY FUND
Karen Daniel ’80, in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities at Northwest in January, announced the inaugural recipients of three scholarships she established, each valued at $250,000, to support Black students in the pursuit of their college degrees. The Karen L. Daniel Legacy Fund, established by Daniel in 2020 through the Northwest Foundation, awarded the Alyce L. Cummins Future Educator Scholarship to Carlyn Carpenter, a junior early childhood education major from Kansas City, Missouri; the Dr. Leslie K Doyle Leadership Scholarship to Mayowa Omolade, a junior international business major from Lagos, Nigeria; and the Claudean V. Daniel Trailblazer Scholarship to Darren Ross, a sophomore computer science major from St. Louis. The scholarships are named for Daniel’s grandmother, niece and mother, respectively. “If I do nothing else in this life, the ability to honor the three people who these scholarships are named after will be my greatest honor, because my journey has always been about honor, opportunity and giving back,” Daniel said as she presented a keynote address at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Peace Lunch. During her address, Daniel reflected on her motivation to assist students with their higher education journeys and encouraged them to be intentional in leading changes that align with King’s dream. Daniel recounted King’s assassination and the inspiration she gathered from her mother’s words on that fateful day. “She said this man gave his very life for you, and when opportunities come your way, you must seize those opportunities from an educational perspective, from community involvement perspective, and ultimately create opportunities for those who follow,” Daniel said. “I’ve always been committed to try to fulfill that dream.” Daniel retired in 2018 as the chief financial officer at Black & Veatch, a global engineering and construction company based in Overland Park, Kansas. She was named to the role in 1999, joined the company’s Board of Directors in 2006 and served as president of the company’s Global Finance
Left to right are Karen Daniel and scholarship recipients, Darren Ross, Carlyn Carpenter and Mayowa Omolade. and Technology Solutions Division. Additionally, she serves on numerous public and philanthropic boards in Kansas
City, Missouri, and beyond. In 2016, she was unanimously elected the first African-
American chairwoman of the Greater
Kansas City Chamber of Commerce by its
Board of Directors. She also is a member of the Board of Directors of Snap-on Tools,
Teladoc Health, Giant Eagle and Commerce
Bancshares and the Kansas City Royals ownership group, and she was vice chair of former President Barack Obama’s Advisory
Council on Doing Business in Africa. She also served on Northwest’s Board of Regents and the Northwest Foundation Board of
Directors.
Minnie Huffman “The farm was dear to him, so he wanted to do something that was a memory to the farm, his grandparents, his mom, his dad and himself when he passed. He was perpetual about education, and his passion was to help others.”
– Roger Durant, cousin of Bob Durant
Bob Durant with his mother, Marjorie
LASTING
LEGACIES
The education Dr. Robert “Bob” Durant received at Northwest left a lasting impact on him so that when he died in 2016 his estate plans included a provision that his farm near Savannah, Missouri, be sold and the proceeds be distributed to the Northwest Foundation for the establishment of the HuffmanDurant Scholarship. As a result of his wishes, the non-renewable scholarship – named for Bob as well as his mother, Marjorie Durant, and maternal grandmother, Minnie Huffman – will benefit deserving students attending Northwest from Andrew or Buchanan counties in Missouri, based on criteria of the Office of Financial Assistance. After completing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Bob furthered his education at Northwest and later obtained a doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville before returning to Northwest in the early 1970s to teach graduate-level psychology courses. Bob established a private practice in the mountain region of Frisco, Colorado, where he worked as a clinical psychologist and served on the Colorado State Board of Psychologist Examiners. While living in Colorado, he also enjoyed snow skiing and mountain biking, and he formed the Summit County Water Rescue Team, which remains active today. Eventually, Bob moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he worked for several years with at-risk high school students and set up grants to support their schooling. After retiring, he spent a few years traveling the country with a private car racing team and then returned to his deep roots in Savannah, where he cared for his grandmother and mother at the family farm purchased in 1919 and passed on to Marjorie.
One of easiest planned gifts to create and implement is a bequest in your will or living trust. It allows you to give any percentage of your estate as a charitable gift when a current gift of real estate or cash might not otherwise be feasible. CONSIDER THESE ADVANTAGES:
n It’s simple to set up. n You maintain control of your assets. n It provides a gift to Northwest in an amount you believe is appropriate, and you can still provide for your loved ones. n It provides an estate tax deduction. n It provides for a cause you deem worthy at Northwest. n It includes membership in the Northwest Foundation’s
James H. Lemon Heritage Society. n It leaves a lasting legacy at Northwest.
Contact the Office of University Advancement at 660.562.1248 or advance@nwmissouri.edu to learn about the many advantages of providing an estate provision.
Seon and Soo Ahn have established a scholarship at Northwest in honor of their twin children, Sole and Hui.
INTERNATIONAL ALUMNUS ESTABLISHES SCHOLARSHIP FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS Seon M. Ahn ’05 is fulfi lling his wish to give back to Northwest through a monetary gift to establish the Sole and Hui Ahn Scholarship in support of international students studying businessrelated subjects at the University. Seon and his wife, Soo, established the scholarship, which is named for their twin children born in 2014, Sole and Hui. A native of the Republic of Korea, Seon began attending Northwest during the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis. Despite fi nancial diffi culties, he found a home at Northwest and developed appreciation for the campus culture while working in the Offi ce of Human Resources and the Offi ce of Students Aff airs. “I really enjoyed the school life in Missouri, not only from the educational aspect but various other factors,” he said. “I built my fi nance and accounting backbone so that I can apply the framework of the business in the fi nancial institutions. Moreover, President Dr. Dean L. Hubbard was one of my mentors, and I really enjoyed the interaction with the president.” By receiving his Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2018, Seon expanded his banking knowledge to the insurance industry, focusing on digital capability based in Hong Kong. Today, he is employed with FWD Group in Hong Kong where he works on the life insurance company’s digital platforms.
JOIN THE DREAM TEAM!
SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT
By donating $15,000 or more, you become part of the
NORTHWEST SCHOLARSHIP DREAM TEAM and help students like Hailie achieve academic success.
DOUBLE THE IMPACT!
For a limited time, the Northwest Foundation is
providing a $15,000 match for the fi rst 35 gifts
to support the Dream Team Endowment. COUPLE’S DESIRE TO PROMOTE AGRICULTURE, EDUCATION LEADS TO SUPPORT OF ALC
Growing up on farms in northwest Missouri, Terry and Susan Ecker have long had an affi nity for agriculture. Their connections inspired them to further support Northwest and its future ag programming by contributing to the University’s Agricultural Learning Center (ALC). The Eckers joined the University’s Homesteaders society of alumni and friends providing leading support with gifts of $25,000 or greater toward the ALC.
Terry, a fi fth-generation farmer, and Susan operate Ecker Farms Inc., raising row crops, including grass and hay, for their Salercrossed cattle operation. “I’ve been very familiar with Northwest and always thought it was a good school,” Terry said. “Since I came back to the farm, I’ve tried to stay involved with what was going on with the ag department.” In addition to serving with state and national soybean boards, Terry is a member of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission and past-president of the Nodaway County Farm Bureau, for which he coordinated its centennial celebration in 2018. Susan, a licensed clinical social worker and mental health counselor, serves on the St. Francis Hospital Foundation board in Maryville. As proponents for ag advocacy and education, they believe the ALC will advance Northwest’s ag sciences programming for youth while assisting Nodaway County, regional and national producers. With that in mind, Terry was quick to help ensure the Nodaway County Farm Bureau had its annual meeting at the ALC soon after the facility opened in 2021. “There’s nothing like that in the area,” Terry said. “I have high hopes for it to really promote the area, whether it’s through livestock shows or ag events. Having the classrooms and the facilities that the students can use right on the farm, I just think it’s fantastic.”
“No one in my family has ever graduated from a four-year university. When I got to Northwest, I made it my mission to make the most of my time there and pursue every opportunity possible. Thanks to the help of scholarships, that’s just what I got to do!”
-Hailie Mentz,
Maysville, Missouri, International business and marketing major
For more information about the Dream Team Scholarship Endowment, contact 660.562.1248 or visit www.nwmissouri.edu/DreamTeam.
