A three-year grant awarded to the University of Missouri by the USDA will help train health and social workers on adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.

Paige Spears has been incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections for nearly 35 years. At the age of 26, he was given a life sentence plus 30 years for an armed robbery he committed in 1988 – where no one was physically injured. He’s now 62.Betty Cummings is his mother, and still lives in Ferguson, Missouri. She’s now 87-years-old and spoke about how the many years of Paige’s incarceration have impacted her.

Jamie Morton is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Iowa and a former nurse. She led a study that found stigma can impact health outcomes of opioid-dependent moms.

Kari Utterback is a senior planner at Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services – focusing on coordinated entry and homelessness. She spoke about some of the resources unsheltered and unhoused Columbians have this winter, as well as about some of the roots causes of homelessness in our community.

Sam Vosburg is a retired veteran and three-time cancer survivor who lives in Aurora – in southwest Missouri. He was recently selected for one of state’s first cannabis microbusiness licenses. He spoke about how marijuana helped him with his own health – and about his plans to expand his hobby into a full-fledged business.

Paige Spears has been incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections for nearly 35 years. He was given a life sentence plus 30 years for an armed robbery he committed in 1988 – where no one was physically injured. He spoke a little about how he’s changed while being incarcerated and what he hopes to accomplish if he’s released.

Dr. Stephanie Logan is the CEO of DeafLEAD – a Columbia-based group that supports the Deaf and hard of hearing community and recently launched a new ASL crisis line through 988.

Lonnie Lockhart Bey, Mataka Askari and Supreme Allah all previously served time in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Since being released, they have all chosen to work with at-risk youth in Columbia.

Carlos Wade is an inmate at the southeast Missouri Correctional Center in the Bootheel. He's been in prison for 28 years – since he was 17 years old, and he maintains his innocence.

Kerry Karaffa is a University of Missouri Counseling Center psychologist that is embedded within the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and works directly with vet students.