In 2008, a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome made homemade truffles for an event at Waverly House Gifts & Gallery in Springfield.

It was the beginning of his future business: Truffles E Truffles. The venture became so successful, it helped him pay for a chunk of his college tuition. Today, that young man, Adam DeBacker, 27, still makes confections and is an alumnus of Missouri State.

He graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in theatre.

“That was a big accomplishment,” said Eunice Wallar, his grandma. “It was tough at times for him.”

As far as the family knows, and our research can find, he’s the first person with Down syndrome to graduate from Missouri State.

But he didn’t stop there. DeBacker earned a certificate in recording arts from MSU in December 2024, and continues to take classes.

He is now a part-time recording engineer in the music department, recording and editing live performances at Ellis Hall and Hammons Hall. DeBacker also works at First Unitarian Church of Springfield as an audio visual coordinator and is still a chocolatier.

DeBacker credits his parents and grandparents for his love of the arts. His mother Kara is a fused-glass artist. His dad Mike is a Bear who received his master’s degree in biology from MSU in 1996.

His grandmother owns Waverly House gallery. It was there that a young DeBacker got his career start. After that event, customers wanted to know where they could score those delicious truffles.

His mom Kara, who homeschooled him, helped him put together a business plan. Truffles E Truffles was launched. DeBacker doesn’t know exactly how many truffles he’s crafted, but guesses it’s more than 65,000.

The chocolates are made to order. While most customers are local, he has shipped nationwide and as far as Puerto Rico. They are available for order online. Why does he love making candy?

“Seeing everyone enjoy it,” DeBacker said. “It makes people happy.”

Wallar still serves the chocolates at all her art openings.

As a teenager, DeBacker joined the American Culinary Federation, or ACF. He says the local chapter trained him, and its members served as his mentors. The Springfield/Branson ACF chapter nominated him for 2018 Chef of the Year.

He was a scholarship recipient for the 2014 National ACF Conference and an invited presenter at the 2016 Regional ACF Conference in Chicago.

His passion for food inspired him to enroll at Ozarks Technical Community College to obtain a culinary degree. But two credits shy of earning it, he decided to pursue his other passion — theater.

“101 Dalmatians” was the first play DeBacker ever saw. He was hooked. He doesn’t know how old he was when he saw the classic tale featuring adorable puppies, but he has loved the theater ever since.

Growing up, his family took him to plays and symphony performances. His mother and grandmother nurtured his passion and made trips to New York City to see productions.

DeBacker participated in Springfield Little Theatre summer classes and various youth programs, which he loved.

As he got older, he began to work as a stagehand around town.

“I like lights, sound and props,” he said. “I like building relationships and having fun while doing it.”

After he graduated from OTC with an associate degree, he transferred to Missouri State.

Some classes were challenging, but he found resources on campus.

“He’s always had a love of learning. His mom instilled that in him,” Wallar said.

DeBacker has worked in crews for productions on campus including “Cats,” “SubUrbia” and “Much Ado About Nothing.”

He’s worked shows at Great Southern Bank Arena and Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

DeBacker had to stop doing some stage work because he was diagnosed with severe arthritis in his feet and ankles, which makes some duties too challenging.

DeBacker has won awards, and has given back.

In 2021, he earned a $10,000 grant from Voya Cares as their Entrepreneur of the Year. Voya advocates for employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

He traveled to the Big Apple with his mom and grandma to receive the award, and also visited the New York Stock Exchange.

Over the years, DeBacker has given in-kind gifts of his truffles to charity auctions and other nonprofits. He’s helped support the Springfield Little Theatre Education Fund and National Down Syndrome Society, to name a few.

Despite his accomplishments, it has not been easy. The biggest challenge, he said, has been “proving my abilities and being accepted.”

Even though he’s graduated, DeBacker continues to take classes at Missouri State. Mom Kara says she suspects he will always take classes.

Darcy Stevens, recording arts educator for MSU’s music department, met DeBacker in Stevens’ introduction to audio techniques class.

“That is where his journey began in audio. He found his passion. He lit up about it,” Stevens said.

Although DeBacker is very quiet, he’s always listening and absorbing information. After class, Stevens would receive emails from DeBacker expressing interest in digging deeper into a topic.

During one of his classes, Stevens said the department was hiring people to record the recitals that take place in C Minor Hall. DeBacker showed an interest, and has been working there for more than a year now. Stevens is impressed with his work ethic and dedication.

“He is going to show up an hour early to be sure he has it dialed in rather than risking missing something,” Stevens said. “He is exceptionally good under pressure, which is rare. He is a total joy.”

His mom Kara said DeBacker has dedication and passion for learning.

“He doesn’t like to emphasize his disability, but at the same time, I know from observation that his outsized curiosity, perseverance and independence have enabled him to achieve what others take for granted,” she said.

So what’s next for DeBacker? “I have a ton of goals,” he said, including travel with family. His favorite trips have been to New Orleans and Munich, Germany.

“I am super proud of him,” said Wallar. “He’s a pretty amazing young man.”

As a child, Diane Adams Whitmarsh ’72 would visit her grandma in Springfield and play on the swings at Greenwood Laboratory School.

She peeked in the windows of the school and told her mom she wanted to go there some day. Her mother said she could — for college.

As Whitmarsh grew, she still wanted to be a Bear.

She enrolled at what was then called Southwest Missouri State University to pursue a degree in education: “They had such a great reputation.”

Whitmarsh was inspired by her grandmother Jessie Montgomery Hammar, who received her teaching certificate in 1912 from the Normal School.

Whitmarsh spent 38 years in education, and gave back what she could to her alma mater. When Whitmarsh neared 73, she had to take required minimum distributions, called RMDs, from her annuities. She realized this was a path to make a bigger difference through a scholarship.

She established the Jessie Montgomery Hammar Scholarship in honor of her grandmother. The scholarship is earmarked for juniors or seniors in the College of Education.

“I went to school on grants and scholarships, and I worked,” Whitmarsh said. “My senior year, when I had to do my student teaching, was the hardest time to work because student teaching was a full-time job. This will provide financial support for someone who is in that situation. I don’t know if people realize they can use RMD to fund a scholarship or to just make a one-time donation.”

Hammar had a sense of adventure and liked to travel, a trait passed to her granddaughter.

She grew up in Hermitage, Missouri, and came to Springfield to earn a teaching certificate.

After graduating, Hammar made the trek to Idaho to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. She lived with a family in town, and part of her pay was a horse she could ride to school. It was a long ride. In winter, she had to arrive in the dark to start a fire to heat the school. Her students ranged in age from 6 to 16.

Hammar met her future husband in Idaho. Sometime after they married, they moved to Springfield. They lived near campus and were house flippers before that was a thing. That’s one reason Whitmarsh was around campus on summer visits: Her grandparents owned what is now the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house.

Hammar was a pillar in her community and her church. She volunteered at what is now Cox North hospital and was honored for 3,000 hours of service. She was also a nurturing grandma.

“She encouraged me to do well in school and reach for my dream of being a teacher,” Whitmarsh said. “I remember her telling me, ‘Don’t give it up. You’re just like me; you’re going to push forward. You’re going to be a career woman.’”

Whitmarsh’s dad was a pilot, commercial and military, so she moved around as a child. The family settled in Florida.

Whitmarsh was the third generation of her family to be a student at MSU, but the only one with a degree. Her mother also attended with dreams of teaching, but her education was interrupted by World War II.

Whitmarsh taught elementary and junior high, then special education. The Texas resident went into diagnostic testing from early childhood to high school.

She was department head for special education services for a district near Houston, Texas, for 10 years, then did supervising and contract work while teaching at Houston Christian University. She shepherded undergraduates going into special education and graduate students training in diagnostic testing.

Now retired, she teaches art and photography at a senior center, saying it is just in her blood.

Whitmarsh said helping the next generation of teachers graduating from Missouri State is a good feeling.

She has talked to some of the scholarship recipients and they have been so appreciative.

“Almost every one of them say, ‘This was a lifesaver for me in terms of having enough money to not worry while I was trying to student-teach,’” she said.

Hammar passed away when Whitmarsh was a freshman in college.

But if grandma learned a scholarship was established in her honor more than 100 years after she obtained her certificate, this is what she’d feel: “First, she’d be embarrassed because she wasn’t

“But I think she would be very happy that I was able to do this in her name.”

Hawkins played both sports, among others, from a very young age. By the time he was in high school, he felt there was more long-term potential for him down the baseball path.

“I remember one day after hockey, right before baseball season was going to start, I was like, ‘I think it’s time I just go baseball,’” Hawkins said.

Since then, it’s been a journey. From getting recruited in a traveling high school league to playing in the minor leagues as a Springfield Cardinal, he has seen baseball from every angle.

Now, he’s using those experiences to lead the future of Missouri State baseball as the team’s head coach.

At a preseason batting practice in February, the facility was filled with the metallic clinks of bats, excited chatter and occasional instruction from coaches. Players stretched, swung and threw.

As practice wound down, Hawkins talked to reporters before his first season as the Bears’ head coach, and the team’s last season in the Missouri Valley Conference: “I feel like we have a target on our back. For a long time, we’ve won this league, have a ton of draft picks, regionals, all that.”

People want to beat us, he said, and they know MSU wants to go out on top. “People are going to be gunning for us, but I hope we can send Missouri State University out on a high note and win our last Valley competition.”

By May, Hawkins and the Bears had indeed won a share of the program’s seventh MVC regular season championship. MSU then advanced to the conference tournament title game before falling one win shy of sweeping both Valley crowns. Hawkins’ first season ended with a 30-25 record and one of the top offenses in the nation.

Still, the “target on his back” feeling is not unknown to Hawkins.

“What I found about the culture of Canadian baseball is you have a chip on your shoulder as a player, because you’re choosing to take a different path than other athletes in the country,” Hawkins

He did just that on a traveling baseball team. They would make three separate 10-day trips to the U.S. each fall to play unofficial games against colleges all over the country.

His teams played against Missouri State when he was ages 15, 16 and 17. He quickly caught the attention of former MSU Head Coach Keith Guttin and staff and was recruited to play at Missouri State.

Hawkins had to choose between two schools. He decided to make Springfield his new home away from home.

“I made the choice because of the people here. That was my big thing,” Hawkins said. “For my parents, they’re sending a kid 17 hours away from home. They really cared about the people and who’s going to be taking care of their kid.”

He played shortstop for the team from 2012-15. He served as a team captain for two years.

“You could quickly tell his feel for the game, his ability to connect with teammates,” Guttin said. “Just watching him continue to grow, he was very respected by his coaches and teammates. He was a leader.”

At the time, Hawkins was only the second player from Canada to play baseball at Missouri State. Now, there are six Canadian players on the 2025 roster.

That’s one change to the team Hawkins is passionate about.

“Talk about an experience for me now as head coach. Now when I talk to families, I can tell these kids, ‘I know what it’s like’ and to the parents, ‘I know what it’s like to give your kid up to us and the responsibility of that.’ That’s what led me here.”

Hawkins’ last season playing for Missouri State ended with the team playing in the Super Regionals, a tournament that decides who will move on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

At the time, the team was seeded 8th overall in the 64-team field. MSU hosted the Regional round at Hammons Field and won all three games to advance to the Super Regional. They played in front of a sold-out home audience for every game.

“You want to talk about the high of all highs. It was crazy to be at Hammons Field with that many fans,” Hawkins said.

MSU then went to the Super Regionals (round of 16, eight different best-of-three series) at Arkansas, but lost the third game, 3-2.

Though that was a heartbreaking loss, there was one thing for him to look forward to after that game: the Major League Baseball draft. At the time, the draft was 40 rounds, and Hawkins had caught the attention of five MLB teams.

“I think it was round 33, the Cardinals are picking, and I knew the Cardinals were one of the teams that I could go to,” Hawkins said. “So we start listening up, and they say, ‘Cardinals select Hawkins.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh,’ and then… ‘Chandler.’”

The pick was Chandler Hawkins, a pitcher from Arkansas State.

“So, I thought it was me, and it wasn’t me. I was thinking, ‘Oh no, this might not happen.’”

Finally, Hawkins (Joey, this time) was drafted by the Cardinals in the 40th round.

He spent most of his two years in the minor leagues playing for Cardinals affiliate teams in Johnson City, Tennessee; Palm Beach County, Florida; and State College, Pennsylvania. He also returned to Hammons Field as a Springfield Cardinal during the 2016 season.

In Johnson City, Hawkins played under Chris Swauger. He’s a player-turned-manager in the Cardinals system who is now the minor league field coordinator for the Atlanta Braves. Hawkins and Swauger both see themselves somewhat as “old souls.”

“From the first time (Hawkins) stepped foot in the clubhouse, I think he was recognized as a veteran presence,” Swauger said. “I don’t know how you say that about somebody who’s 21, 22, stepping into a professional locker room for the first time.”

Hawkins faced some ups and downs during this point in his career. He was a sharp defensive infielder but started to struggle when he was up to bat.

As his playing time decreased, Hawkins started to fill in as a first base coach as a way to stay engaged with the games.

“It became very apparent that this guy had it up top in his head — the mental and emotional side of the game locked down,” Swauger said. “It was obvious early on that if he wanted to be a coach, he had the right perspective for it.”

By the next season, Hawkins was released by the Cardinals. He was faced with the question of ‘what next?’

“You get released and, man, it hits you in the gut. So right away it’s like, ‘What am I going to do?’” Hawkins said. “I thought about maybe trying to keep playing, but decided I wanted to coach. Who’s the first person I call? Keith Guttin.”

Guttin helped Hawkins get a summer position recruiting for a community college. To make some extra money, Hawkins coached a team of 16-year-olds at the same time. He credits coaching these players for a better understanding of younger MSU recruits.

As that summer ended, St. Louis University needed a new assistant coach.

Hawkins likes to say many things in life are just right time, right place. He and his wife were already based in St. Louis. It was a natural fit.

Three months after being released from the minor leagues, he was hired as a full-time Division I assistant coach. The SLU team won their league and went to regionals that season (they lost to Missouri State, ironically).

“We make jokes about all of this. He couldn’t hit, and then his path intocoaching was as a hitting coach,” Swauger said. “Some of the best coaches were the guys who were not the best hitters themselves, but they were forced to figure out things that worked for them because it didn’t come easily to them.”

Truly good coaches can be revealed when a team or individual struggles, Swauger said: “Being able to get them through that, that’s where the rubber meets the road in coaching.”

After that successful season with SLU, Hawkins was recruited by the Cardinals again — this time, as a coach. He joined the rookie-level team in Jupiter, Florida, in 2019.

The next year, when there was no season due to COVID-19, Hawkins was asked to manage a Cardinals pickup league in St. Louis and Springfield. The team included former baseball Bears

A few seasons in to coaching for the Cardinals, Hawkins got a call from Guttin.

The team needed a hitting coach and recruiting coordinator, and he was Guttin’s pick. It was a big decision, but the move back to Missouri State felt like the best option for Hawkins’ young family.

A year into the role, Hawkins was promoted to associate head coach. When Guttin started planning to retire, Hawkins’ name once again came to mind as the next person to fill the role.

“I always felt like Joey was the best person … after I got to know him and watch him work,” Guttin said. “I just knew he was a great fit because of his leadership skills, his people skills and the fact he loved Missouri State.”

Hawkins said this is his dream job.

“I am Missouri State. Some of the best times of my life were here. When you have so much passion behind a place because you played here and you developed here, it makes your job easier. That’s what is so special about this position.”

Missouri State University has joined Conference USA! Get ready to roar with the Missouri State Bears as we gear up for an epic 2025 season.

The move to Conference USA is an exciting change for Missouri State. It starts the transition to a national brand and platform that will raise the profile of Missouri State University and the city of Springfield. For Bears fans, this is the start of something special. Get ready to show up and show out in full force as Missouri State makes its Conference USA debut. Let’s fill the stands, rally behind our teams and make the 2025 season one for the books!

The official Missouri State campus celebration will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 26 in the heart of the Missouri State campus with our “Party In the CUSA” event. The party is free and open to the public, starting at 6 p.m. in the traditional “BearFest Village” part of campus, just north of the stadium, and adjacent to McDonald Arena and the Trottier Plaza. The evening will include music, fun, games, food and beverages, in addition to a free movie screening on the field at Plaster Stadium. Fans can also interact with coaches, players and teams throughout the night.

Get ready for an unforgettable 2025 season with Missouri State in Conference USA. It is time to roar louder than ever!

VIEW PHOTOS FROM DALLAS & HOUSTON

UPDATE:

Grab your paddles and bring your Bear spirit to the MSU Alumni Pickleball Tournament !

This high-energy event will raise funds for the Springfield Alumni Chapter as they work toward establishing an new chapter scholarship.

Join us on June 7 for an action-packed day of pickleball at Meador Park, as we rally together to support future Bears from the Springfield area.

This event is set for success thanks to generous supporters like Presenting Sponsor, OMB Bank and Roberto Camara, owner of Hexa Pickleball. Roberto, known locally for Pickleball Blast in Branson, and his wife Alessandra, a proud Missouri State alumna, hosted a popular clinic in 2023 that paved the way for this tournament.

Committee members include Springfield Chapter leaders: President Stacy Coiner, Vice President Chloe Shauck, Sharon Harter, Catherine Barrett, Charleen Fields, and Mark West. As this is a brand-new event, chapter leaders leaned on the leadership of community members with deep connections to the pickleball world to help with planning.

Sophie Pierpoint, an OMB Bank employee and longtime supporter, brings her passion for pickleball and her experience with the Missouri State Foundation.

Dan Piddington, president of DJRS Holdings and a CASA advocate, played a pivotal role in bringing the tournament to life last fall. As a pickleball player and the father of the chapter’s social chair, Amber Kirbey, he brings both community and family spirit to the event.

Trish McAdams offers her expertise from years of planning the Girls on the Run 5k races on campus.

And of course, Roberto Camara’s expertise and enthusiasm helped make this tournament possible.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor, OMB Bank, and Maroon & White sponsor, Hexa Pickleball, the tournament promises to be a day filled with sportsmanship, Bear pride, and community connection.

At Missouri State University, our faculty and staff go beyond shaping the lives of students—they also shape the future of our university through their generosity. Their commitment to giving back helps provide scholarships, enhance programs and create opportunities that make a collective impact.

To show our appreciation, we invite all faculty and staff donors and faculty and staff who are Missouri State alumni to a special Faculty and Staff Giving Celebration 3:00-5:00 p.m. on May 1 at the John Goodman Amphitheatre. Enjoy a sweet treat with ice cream and punch, hear from guest speakers, and enter to win exciting prizes as we celebrate the collective generosity of our campus community.

Your support makes a difference, and this event is our way of saying thank you! If you haven’t yet joined the faculty and staff giving community, it’s never too late to make an impact. We hope to see you there!

In 36 hours, more than 2,250 members of the Missouri State community came together to raise over $670,000 during the university’s fourth annual Giving Day! From March 25 to 26, Bear and Grizzly alumni, students, faculty, staff, family, corporate partners, and friends showed their pride and generosity in record-breaking numbers.

Giving Day gifts fuel scholarships, student organizations, academic programs, athletic teams, and other transformational initiatives, ensuring every student has the tools to thrive both in the classroom and beyond. This year’s success was driven by a united campus-wide effort and the passion of individual ambassadors who inspired others to give.

Students supported Giving Day at Missouri State’s 120th Birthday party on campus.

“Giving Day illustrates the strength and longevity of the Missouri State community each year,” said Greg Fansler, executive director of engagement and alumni relations. “A donor from every class year, from 1958 to 2024, was represented. I am proud of what that statistic symbolizes: eight decades of alumni representing their era and giving back to honor the university’s impact on their lives. It’s inspiring to see what our community can do in just 36 hours. Thank you to everyone who participated and made a difference.”

Gifts from generous donors give students access to life-changing opportunities and experiences, support research, and help the university create a better future for all. Thank you to all who gave and shared. Your support is shaping a stronger future for Missouri State students!

He also maintains relationships with the St. Louis Cardinals and other sports teams.

At work, Jason Muchow frequently poses the question: OK, what’s next? It’s a common mindset in the athletic training field, he said: “None of us are really ever truly satisfied. How can we make something better than what it is today?”

As the executive director of operations at Mercy St. Louis, this frame of mind has resulted in some breakthrough projects for Muchow.

Muchow does not treat patients in his role. Instead, he develops, implements and manages details related to the hospital system’s sports medicine and orthopedics program. He was recently involved in the design of the Mercy Center for Performance Medicine & Specialty Care in St. Louis, a regional hub for sports medicine. The five-story building provides services including an ambulatory surgery center, an orthopedic and sports medicine clinic, bariatric care and more.

Muchow said technology and convenience for patients were at the forefront of the planning process.

Patients are now benefiting from same-day advanced imaging access, better treatment availability and even complementary valet parking. But even with the success of the new facility, his “what’s next?” persists.

“Once you build something and you’re there, you’re like, ‘Oh, we should have done something different,’” Muchow said.

“As we build new buildings in the future, we’re asking, ‘What are the components we have to take into consideration?’”

Not only is he involved in coordinating care for regular patients, he is also heavily involved in the care provided to some of this area’s favorite athletes.

Muchow helped form, and now maintains, relationships between Mercy and the St. Louis Cardinals organization, the St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club and area high schools.

As part of the long-term alliance with the Cardinals, Muchow works closely with the team’s primary physician, fellow Missouri State alum Dr. Brian Mahaffey. The pair met when Muchow was a freshman at Missouri State, and Mahaffey has seen Muchow grow through his professional career.

“He has a great business mind. He can take my crazy ideas and make them work,” Mahaffey said. “The things we’ve been able to accomplish not just in St. Louis, but throughout the organization, are directly tied to Jason’s ability. He is clearly a leader in orthopedics and sports medicine throughout all of Mercy.”

Muchow earned a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine and athletic training from Missouri State in 2006.

After that, he was offered a graduate assistantship as an athletic trainer for Missouri State’s men’s soccer. That helped him decide to stay at MSU for further education.

While in the master’s program, Muchow started an internship that launched his career at Mercy. It was initially meant to last for eight weeks, but turned into a semester-long position.

“It was quite the final semester for me: taking classes, teaching classes, doing the internship and working as an athletic trainer,” Muchow said.

Those busy months paid off. After completing his degree, Muchow accepted two part-time positions at Mercy — one as an administrative intern, and the other as an athletic trainer in the sports medicine department.

About a year later, he transitioned into a full-time position as an operations manager, and later took on a director role. His first assignment was in St. Louis.

“The initial thought was I’d be in one location for three to six months and then go to another as needs arise,” Muchow said. “Well, the needs just kept coming.”

He has continued to find ways to advance Mercy St. Louis.

“Mercy sports medicine would not be what it is today as a regional power if it wasn’t for Jason Muchow. Period,” his friend Mahaffey said.

Muchow oversees three programs: orthopedics and sports medicine, eye services and occupational medicine.

Each day is different. That can mean long hours, sometimes starting as early as 6:30 in the morning and going until 8 p.m.

“My priority outside of work is just having family time,” Muchow said.

Muchow’s wife, Kristin (née Brueckmann) is a fellow MSU alum. She earned a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology in 2002. They crossed paths on campus, but never knew that until they met after college. They have two daughters, Taylor, 4, and Hannah, 2.

He and Kristin love to travel, whether it’s a couple’s trip or to stay in touch with friends from college. The pair also exercise together every morning.

Muchow’s commitment to fitness extends beyond his daily routine. He serves on the board for Athletic Trainers in the Physician Practice Society and advocates for the field.

“We’re trying to create resources and advance the profession to leverage the knowledge, skills and abilities of athletic trainers,” Muchow said. “That’s a passion of mine.”

He found his calling early in his college career.

“I’m one of the few people who is doing exactly what I went to school for. I had four strong years of field experience in the athletic training program, and I felt incredibly prepared coming out of the master’s in health administration program. Still to this day, it’s all about the application of what I learned at Missouri State.”

Dr. Ashlea Cardin came into the world as an infant with many bone and joint abnormalities.

This meant surgeries, therapies and rehab in her childhood.

While she received high-quality care, it was not geared toward kids or families.

“My therapy looked very much like a younger version of adult therapy,” said Cardin, associate professor of occupational therapy. “I loved my therapists, but my therapy wasn’t fun.”

Her parents also lacked information to help her at home. This caused them to see her as fragile, afraid of what she could and could not do.

“They didn’t have that person or coach who said, ‘It’s OK she does cartwheels or push-ups or goes across the monkey bars. Her movements are going to look a little bit different. Here’s how we protect her body. Here’s how we adapt,’” Cardin said.

Those experiences — both positive and negative — led her to pursue a career in health care, as a pediatric occupational therapist.

For more than two decades, Cardin worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.

She is a board-certified pediatric OT and a certified neonatal therapist.

“I knew I wanted to be in a position where I could help parents be less anxious,” Cardin said. “And in the NICU, parents are so fearful. It’s an alien world.”

In 2013, while working at Mercy and pursuing a Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree from St. Catherine University in Minnesota, she got a call that would lead her to academia. A friend told her MSU was starting an occupational therapy program and asked if she had interest in a faculty position.

She applied, and the rest is history. She has been a faculty member since 2014, helping get the program off the ground and growing it.

Her research helps improve people’s quality of life

In her role as professor, Cardin’s research explores how people’s daily occupations influence their health and well-being.

In occupational therapy, “occupations” are the daily activities people need to do, want to do or must do. When they cannot engage in these activities, it affects their health and quality of life.

“I study those extraordinarily ordinary moments people may not think about on a day-to-day basis — until they can’t do them, or they’re kept from doing them due to a barrier,” Cardin said.

Barriers may be caused by things like traumatic accidents, diseases and developmental delays.

Cardin dives deeper into two areas that affect different populations:

Cardin has published papers in several peer-reviewed health-related journals.

The main populations she works with are babies in the NICU and their families. This is a complex environment, where “parenting is so disrupted and parents share responsibilities with strangers,” Cardin said.

Two of her most recent studies focused on feeding.

“Feeding is huge,” Cardin said. “A baby’s ability to eat what he or she needs and grow in an appropriate way is the ticket to get out of the NICU.”

Cardin and her team, which included her occupational therapy students, have conducted research for more than five years.

Two studies were published in the Journal of Neonatal Nursing in 2023.

About 18 years ago, Cardin’s work in the NICU connected her with the local Old Order Amish community.

“The NICU’s a very difficult place to be for any non-Amish family, but for the Amish, that chasm is huge,” she said. “They live like it’s the 1850s and the NICU operates like it’s 2050. How do you find the middle ground between 200 years of differences? My heart broke for them, and I wanted to be a voice if they needed that.”

Over the years, Cardin has built trust with the Amish community in Seymour, Missouri. She provides pro bono therapy services in homes and through the Amish Outreach Medical Clinic.

She and her students have also worked on research projects that revolve around the Amish.

“We want to ensure these Amish children are meeting their developmental milestones,” Cardin said. “We also want to give their families the knowledge they need to maximize their children’s development.”

In working with Amish and NICU families who face occupational deprivation or injustice, Cardin’s goal is simple. She wants to help them advocate for their children.

“As an OT, I can better contribute to my client’s healing and wellness if I can set families up to be their own agents of change,” Cardin said. “When medical professionals partner with families versus prescribing or dictating to them a plan of care, the impact is immeasurable.”

The Missouri State University Board of Governors elected new officers during its regular meeting Oct. 18.

Tim Francka, Bolivar, was elected chair. Dr. Melissa Gourley, Mountain Grove, was elected vice chair.

Francka is the administrative director of long-term care for Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation. He has been with the foundation since 1989. He also serves as a member of the Missouri Health Care Association board of directors and currently serves as the Missouri delegate to the American Health Care Association.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and general business from Missouri State.

Gourley is a veterinarian at Whetstone Veterinary Service in Mountain Grove. She previously owned Whetstone Veterinary Service. She is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association. She has served as a member of the Missouri State University’s West Plains Development Board and the Federal Appropriations Committee for Mountain Grove High School.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Missouri State and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Missouri – Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine.

The terms for the new officers will begin Jan. 1, 2025.