Persons of Interest

The Wentzville School District has a fantastic technology team that includes a group of Instructional technology coaches. These individuals play a unique role in connecting technology with education. Amanda Moody is one of those tech coaches and she is my guest in this episode of Persons of Interest. We had a great conversation about how she found her career, her interests in education, technology, social media and more.

Follow Amanda on Twitter: @TechMoody

Springfield News-Leader sports reporter Wyatt Wheeler joins for a deep discussion of Missouri State Basketball including the potential of the 2019-2020 team, the schedule, a look at some of the national attention, the Missouri Valley Conference and some over/under predictions. 

Follow Wyatt on Twitter: @WyattWheeler_NL

Stephen Herzog is part of the Springfield News-Leader leadership team, serving as a content/storytelling coach. He's reported on crime, courts and many other things for the News-Leader since 2013. Herzog is a Missouri State graduate, husband, and father and a "recovering sports reporter." We discussed what he does for a living, the current state of journalism, and touched on some sports...including how and why he’s a fan of the Cleveland Browns. 

Follow Stephen on Twitter: @SHerzogNL

Follow the Springfield News-Leader on Twitter: @SpringfieldNL

Michelle Van Dorn earned her bachelor's degree in print and electronic media from Wartburg College in 1998. After graduation, she started at The Courier in Waterloo, Iowa, as a copy editor. Eventually, she took over as the newspaper's first online editor. Van Dorn was part of the team that helped The Courier win national and state awards. Her help in covering the trial of Mark Becker earned the Associated Press Managing Editors Association Online Convergence Award and the Iowa Newspapers Award for online coverage. Lee Enterprises also awarded the team a corporate-wide award for excellence in news.

In March 2010, she was hired as the executive editor of SFO Magazine, an online financial publication. She has continued to coach middle school track since 1999. She is also a member of the Hawkeye Community College's Digital Mass Media Education Advisory Committee.

Michelle also received the Panther of the Year award in 2017-18, which goes to an outstanding staff member in the department.

Follow Michelle on Twitter: @MichelleVanDorn

The Lawn Guardian, Ben Hicks is my guest in this episode. He’s one of the lawn care DIY-ers with a YouTube channel, sharing useful tips and tricks. Ben discusses his interest in lawn care, learning from the others in the online lawn care community and a way to give back by being involved in Raising Men Lawn Care.

The Lawn Guardian on Twitter - @LawnGuardian

Lawn Guardian on YouTube

Other Lawn Care Enthusiasts YouTube Channels:

Connor Ward YouTube

Ryan Knorr YouTube

Jake The Lawn Kid YouTube

Wyatt Wheeler currently serves as the sports reporter for the Springfield News-Leader (Springfield, MO). He covers sports all over southwest Missouri including Missouri State, high school, Springfield Cardinals, and more. Wyatt and I discussed his work at the Springfield News-Leader, how he first took interest in journalism and of course, we spent a little time talking about Missouri State sports.

Follow Wyatt on Twitter: @WyattWheelerNL

Check out his Podcast: https://anchor.fm/wyatt-wheeler/

Read Wyatt's work at the Springfield-News Leader

Kevin DeShazo wrote a best-selling book on leadership. He founded Fieldhouse Media to help college athletes, coaches and administrators be better on social media. He’s helping leaders and teams create a championship culture with his project Culture Wins, He’s presented and spoken on more than 180 college campuses and national conventions over the past 8 years. Kevin has been quoted by places like ESPN, The New York Times and USA Today. He drinks a lot of coffee, reads a lot of books and runs a lot of miles. 

Kevin discusses social media education, leadership, publishing books, his travel across the country, running and more.

Check out his new project at Giant.tv and if you sign up with his link -- https://www.giant.tv/kevindeshazo, you can get a free trial period.

Follow Kevin DeShazo on Twitter - @KevinDeShazo

Kevin Agee is part of the university communications team at Missouri State University. One of his specific responsibilities includes managing the Twitter account for the second largest university in the state of Missouri. He's passionate about many things including Missouri State, the Kansas City Royals and more. Kevin discusses how he landed in his current role, his time working in athletic communications, the Royals winning the World Series and a whole lot more in this episode.

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @Kevin_Agee 

Katie Cavender enters her 17th year in intercollegiate athletics and first on staff at the College Football Playoff. Cavender comes to the CFP after 11 years with the Mountain West Conference, where she served as its Assistant Commissioner of Advanced Media and Digital Strategy.

At the Mountain West, Cavender was responsible for the strategic vision, execution and analysis of the MW brand presence across its digital platforms, including social, web and mobile channels. She led the league to a spot on the 2015 Cynopsis Sports Leaderboard, which showcases brands, organizations, leagues and networks and recognizes the best of the best sports social media campaigns throughout the calendar year. Cavender also played an integral role in the implementation of the three-time Emmy award-winning Mountain West Network that was recognized for technical achievement in 2014, 2015 and 2016. 

Cavender graduated with honors from the University of Nevada in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. Following graduation, she spent a year as a public relations intern with the Pacific-10 Conference and went on to a role with Boise State, where she was the assistant media coordinator for the 2006 MPC Computers Bowl and provided day-to-day support in facilities, game operations and travel planning.

In June 2008, Cavender received her Master's of Education degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership from the University of Washington, and she continues to assist the program as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer.

Follow Katie on Twitter: @KatieCavender

In 2018, Ethan Bryan played catch every day of the year? Along the way, he met people from different walks of life and share a little story from each interaction he had. Why did he do it? How did it begin? He answers all of those questions and more during our discussion.

Ethan's Website: https://whisperedwriting.wordpress.com/

Follow Ethan on Twitter: @Ethan_Bryan