Columbia College Board of Trustees

Rev. Dr. Brad Stagg is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has served as the senior minister of Columbia's First Christian Church since July 2012. Previously, he worked at Bethany Christian Church in Houston, Texas.

Stagg earned a bachelor's in Humanities at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1987. In 1993, he received his Master of Divinity from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas and earned his Doctor of Ministry from Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 2019.

Dr. Stagg delivered Columbia College’s 2019 Schiffman Lectures on Religious Studies entitled "Jesus, Adam Smith, and Modern Capitalism."

Dale Simons earned an associate degree from Christian College in 1965 and later attended the University of Texas, where she earned a political science degree in 1967. At Christian College, she served as junior class president and president of Campus Community Government. She has continued to support Columbia College in the years since, both as a donor and as a member of the Alumni Association, where she served as the board president from 2009 to 2011. She is currently serving on the Columbia College Capital Campaign Steering Committee.

Simons has extensive experience in non-profit management and governance and has worked with organizations including the Foundation for Women's Resources, the Marbridge Foundation, Communities in Schools of Central Texas, the Governor's Committee on Volunteerism, and the Texas Department for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities. She has served on the national boards of the Association of Junior Leagues International and Children's Research Triangle.  She is a board member of Leadership Women, Collaborative Care for Kids, and she chairs the Grants Committee for the Kappa Alpha Theta National Foundation.  She is currently volunteering at the George W. Bush Institute where she assists with the International Women's Initiative chaired by former First Lady Laura Bush. 

Simons is married to Dr. James K. Simons, DDS. The couple has three children and eight grandchildren. Simons' mother, Helen (Boo) Cates Neary, attended Christian College in 1937 and is a member of the Ivy and Oak Circle of the President's Society.

Simons is a member of the Trustees Circle of the President's Society. She and Neary are the first mother and daughter to be inducted together into the President's Society.

Carol Winkler ’93 has served on the Columbia College Board of Trustees since 2004 and became Treasurer for the college’s governing body in July 2020. She has played a key role in several committees during her tenure that have been focused on Athletics, Enrollment, Finance and Investment, and Student Affairs.

Winkler has also served as a volunteer on multiple planning committees across campus and was a member of the Columbia College Alumni Association Advisory Board from 1995-2020. She held multiple positions on the CCAA board including president, president elect and vice president from 1997-2003.

Originally from Grandview, Missouri, Winkler graduated from Columbia College summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Business in 1993. She is a Certified Professional Secretary, a designation which is granted after a rigorous two-day, six-part exam. Winkler is also past President of the Columbia Professional Secretaries International group and has served as Vice President and Treasurer for that organization as well.

Winkler retired from MFA Retirement Plans in 2018 after a 45-year career with the company where she administered pension and 401k plans for more than 8,000 employees. Winkler and her husband, Darrell, are members of the Ivy and Oak Circle of the President's Society. They reside in Columbia, Missouri and have two children, Kelly and Shannon.

Local philanthropist and dedicated Columbia community advocate Genie Rogers became a member of the Columbia College Board of Trustees in July 2018 and became the Secretary of the board in 2020. Rogers has been an active member of numerous boards and organizations, including the Downtown Rotary Club, Boone County History and Culture Center, Central Missouri Humane Society and Lenoir Retirement Center. She also recently retired from a 28-year appointment on the Columbia Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

Rogers has received several awards during her career that has been deeply focused on public service. She was recognized with the Howard B. Lang Award for outstanding volunteer service to the city of Columbia in 2015 and was also named to Inside Columbia Magazine’s COMO 100 top citizens in 2017 among others.

Rogers and her family have been tightly connected to Columbia College nearly since the founding of the school. Her great-great-uncle, Joseph Kirtley Rogers, served as the third president of Christian College from 1858-1877, and shepherded the college through declining economic solvency and the Civil War. He is credited with keeping both the college and First Christian Church, of which he was the minister, open without interruption during the war in a deeply divided Boone County. A sixth-generation Columbian, Rogers is a lifelong member of the same church. She was presented with the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2007 after chairing First Christian’s 175th Anniversary Celebration and then penned a history of the church in 2008 titled From the Frontier to the Future.

Rogers’ great-grandmother, Mary Rogers Banks, served as headmistress of Christian College after the Civil War, and her grandmother, Rose Allison, graduated from CC in the early 1880’s. Rose’s husband, Hartley Hopson Banks, and their son Hartley Garrard Banks, both served on the Board of Trustees. The latter – Rogers’ father – served as president of the board from 1947-71, and presided over several critical transitions at the end of his tenure including the name change to Columbia College, the admission of men to the main campus, and the implementation of the four-year degree program offering. Banks Hall is dedicated in his honor. Also, her late husband, David, served on the board of trustees from 1972-82, including the final three years of his tenure as president and two of their five children are Columbia College alumni.

A graduate of the University of Missouri in 1967, Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and is a member of Phi Lamda Theta Educational Honorary.

Dr. Ken Akers began his term as faculty representative to the Columbia College Board of Trustees on July 1, 2020. He is an assistant professor in the Robert W. Plaster School of Business and has been a faculty member for nine years. Akers holds a master’s degree in Corporate and Professional Communication from Radford University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the University of Missouri.

Akers is a veteran of the US Army, where he served as a non-commissioned and commission officer for 13 years and was mobilized for two years during Operation Enduring Freedom. He has worked in several industries including restaurant management, technology, HR, and education and has taught university level courses in both the Communication and Business disciplines for 14 years.

Aker’s areas of expertise include Business Analytics and Information Systems, Socialization in the Workplace, Organizational Behavior and Communication, Ethics, Organizational and Communication Theory and Gender in the Workplace.

Lynne B. (Stuver) Baker earned her associate of arts from Columbia College in 1964, followed by her bachelor's degree in education from the University of Missouri in 1966 and master’s degree in counseling and guidance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1973. She also earned a bachelor's degree in social work at the University of Central Missouri in 1996 before finishing an additional master’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas in 1998.

Baker has served on the Columbia College Alumni Association Board of Directors since 1991, acting as the board's first vice president from 1993 to 1995 before serving as president from 1995 to 1997. She also has served on several committees and currently is the chair of the nominating committee. Baker also served on the Columbia College Board of Trustees as an Alumni Trustee from 1997 to 2006.

Baker will soon retire from a career in counseling and education in the Independence, Mo., public school district. She now operates a part-time life counseling service, Heart to Heart Counseling and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in both Missouri and Kansas.

Lex Cavanah, general manager of Walsworth Pre-Press and Donning Company Publishers, is a 1980 graduate of Truman State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics. After college, Cavanah joined Walsworth Pre-Press (which is located in Marceline, Missouri) and worked his way up through the ranks of the company. In his role, Cavanah oversees operations at one the nation’s 50 largest printing companies, which has offices in Brookfield, Missouri, Overland Park, Kansas and Saint Joseph, Michigan.

Cavanah is very active in his community, is involved with his church, the Marceline Public Schools and the Marceline Chamber of Commerce. Cavanah’s daughters, Kensie ‘11 and Kaitlyn ‘13, are graduates of Columbia College.

Jerry Daugherty, president and owner of Reinhardt Construction, is a 1970 graduate of the University of Missouri, where he was a member of the golf team. Daugherty earned a bachelor's degree in wood products and construction and became a full-time project manager for Reinhardt after graduating. He and his wife, Mary, became sole owners of the company in 1995. Daugherty's professional achievements are scattered throughout mid-Missouri – schools, banks, health care centers, government centers, churches, restaurants, grocery stores and exclusive residential projects.

Daugherty is a member of the Rotary Club, a director of U.S. Bank and a board member and elder of First Christian Church, where his family has attended for more than 40 years. Daugherty serves on the college's Board of Trustees Finance Committee. He is a member of the Charter Circle of the President's Society.

The son of a U.S. Air Force officer and grandson of a naval officer, Lt. Gen. Richard C. Harding, USAF, Retired is a 1975 graduate of the University of Arkansas J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and a 1979 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Harding was awarded a direct commission in the U.S. Air Force as a first lieutenant in 1980. He rose through the ranks of the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) over the next few decades and served as the staff judge advocate to six separate commands.

From 2007 to 2010, he served as the commander of the Air Force Legal Operations Agency, where he implemented changes that improved legal services in environmental, contract, labor, criminal and medical law.  

In 2009, his Legal Information Services team won the W. Edwards Deming Award for an impressive workforce development and training initiative, the first time an Air Force team received this prestigious government award.

In 2010, he was promoted to lieutenant general and became The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) of the Air Force. Harding created the Special-Service-Award-winning Special Victims' Counsel Program, which provides victims of sexual assault with independent attorneys. In 2013, the Secretary of Defense directed other military services to follow this program and to provide Special Victims' Counsel assistance to service members who are survivors of military sexual assault.
 
During his tenure as TJAG, Harding led the charge for writing the Air Force Directive, as well as the Air Force Instruction on standards of conduct.

In addition to his other firsts, Harding created the premier Training and Readiness Office for the Air Force JAG Corps. The inspection process created under his leadership is credited with a worldwide improvement in Air Force legal services and serves as a model for other services to adopt.

Harding's retirement from the U.S. Air Force was effective April 1, 2014. He currently assists universities and interest groups in eradicating campus sexual assaults by utilizing his military experience. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the National Crime Victims' Legal Institute.

Mitchell R. Humphreys, MD, earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Missouri, where he also attended medical school. He completed his internship and residency as an instructor of urology at the Mayo Clinic, followed by a fellowship in advanced laparoscopy and endourology at Indiana University School of Medicine.

As a full faculty member and associate professor at the Mayo Clinic and Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz., Dr. Humphreys is involved in a number of innovative research initiatives, including a multi-institutional, NIH-funded group study, designed to detect and treat a variety of kidney stone diseases. He is a founding member of a new international research consortium that pools resources to address pressing clinical research questions and he founded a non-for-profit group to deliver advanced medical care globally to places in need, such as Haiti. He has won several awards, including the Outstanding Young Physician Award and the Patients' Choice and Compassionate Doctor Recognition Awards for 2011 and 2012.

June Hurdle is a native of West Liberty, Iowa. She attended Columbia College and earned a bachelor’s degree in fashion design in 1983. While a traditional Day Campus student, she participated in the Jane Froman Singers and Double Sextet vocal music groups and served as a student Admissions officer and Campus Ambassador. A few years later, she returned to work at the college, first as an Admissions officer and then as assistant dean of Admissions. She continued her studies in business administration as a student at the Columbia College Evening Campus. Her professional career has included work in real estate, development, business management, marketing, accounting and interior design in California and Missouri. She resides in Dallas, Texas.

Hurdle previously volunteered at the state and local levels of PTSA and currently enjoys volunteering with Highland Park United Methodist Church groups. She is an active volunteer and supporter of Columbia College. She has participated in the Columbia College Alumni Association’s Visioning Committee and served as the vice chair for the National Campaign Steering Committee for the Traditions Meets Tomorrow Campaign. She has served as a committee member on the Student Affairs, the Plant and Facilities, the Enrollment/Adult Higher Education and the Audit and Compliance committees. She is a member of the Ivy and Oak Circle of the President’s Society.

Bill Johnston graduated from Columbia College in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and currently is an account executive for Shelter Mutual Insurance Co. in Columbia, Mo., where he has worked since 1983. Bill earned his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation in 1999 and also holds the Associate in Reinsurance and Associate in Information Technology designations.

Johnston has served on the Columbia College Alumni Association Board of Directors extensively for more than 22 years, serving as the association's secretary/treasurer from 1997 to 1999, and as president from 2005 to 2007. He also has sat on several committees and is the current co-chair of the bylaws committee. Johnston is a member of the Ivy and Oak giving circle at Columbia College.

He enjoys assisting with Knights of Columbus events in his spare time, as well as traveling, playing golf, attending Columbia College men's and women's basketball games, and spending time with his wife, Janice, and two children, Kim and Brad.

H. Jane Blackman Lossing joined the Columbia College Board of Trustees in July 2019. She graduated from Christian (now Columbia) College with honors in 1964, and then earned both a bachelor’s degree and an M.D. from Indiana University. She interned at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco in 1970 and completed her residency in ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin in 1973.

Dr. Blackman was a fellow in uveitis (swelling and irritation of the uvea, the middle layer of the eye) and external diseases at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California-San Francisco, from 1974-76; and a senior fellow at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1976-78. She was chair of the ophthalmology department at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., from 1994-2004.

Dr. Blackman has served as a volunteer at the Naval Academy’s eye clinic in Annapolis, Maryland, and made three trips to work in a cataract clinic for the indigent in San Fabian, the Philippines. She also worked 25 years in the Uveitis Clinic at the Washington National Eye Institute and taught a basic science course at the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Blackman had a private ophthalmology practice in Washington, D.C., from 1978-2004 and she received a teaching award for her work at the Washington Hospital Center, and a Prevention of Blindness Service Award.

Both her aunt, Catherine Lybrook Yoke ’49 and sister, Judy Ann Blackman Harvell ’62, also attended Christian College. She is married to John H. Lossing, M.D. and the couple have two children and reside in Key West, Florida. She established the Dr. H. Jane Blackman Lossing ’64 Scholarship in 2015, supporting academically gifted females majoring in a science-related field and was the 2010 recipient of the Columbia College Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award

Jolene Schulz earned an associate degree from Christian College in 1961, followed by a bachelor’s and Master of Education from the University of Missouri. She has taught kindergartners and college students alike, including some at Columbia College, where she was an adjunct professor from 1998 to 2001.

Schulz served 34 years as an administrator for Columbia Public Schools and has held board positions with many organizations, including the National Association of Partners in Education, the Central Missouri Leadership Board of Directors, the Missouri Community Service Commission (appointed by the governor), the National Association of States Service Association (as a representative for the state of Missouri), Columbia Junior Achievement Board, the University of Missouri College of Education Advisory Board and Achievement Board, the University of Missouri Jefferson Club Board of Trustees, the Ronald McDonald House Charities Board, the Columbia Community Foundation Board,  the Voluntary Action Center Board and the Mid-Missouri Tourism Council Board.  She is also a Columbia Chamber of Commerce Ambassador.

Schulz has won numerous awards, such as the Columbia College Alumni Association’s Community Service Award, the University of Missouri College of Education’s Citation of Merit for Outstanding Achievement and Meritorious Service in Education, the University of Missouri Faculty-Alumni Award, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Outstanding Community Educator Award, the Hazel Riback Volunteer Director of the Year Award for the State of Missouri, the National Association of Partners in Education Director of the Year Award, the Columbia Public Schools Fund for Academic Excellence Outstanding Community Education Award, the Voluntary Action Community Leader Award, the Outstanding Young Women of America Award and Who’s Who in American Education. She is a member of the Columbia College Founder’s Circle of the President’s Society and was inducted into the Columbia Public Schools Foundation Hall of Leaders.

Schulz presently is a co-owner of Tiger Trolley Tours, which offers “A New and Fun Way to See and Explore Columbia.” She was named secretary of the Columbia College Board of Trustees in July 2016. 

Kevin Sprouse ’04 is a native of Columbia, Missouri, and currently serves as the President and CEO of Endovac Animal Health, formerly IMMVAC Animal Health. The business has been a staple in the mid-Missouri community since 1983.

Previously, he was the chief of operations and vice president of Immvac, Inc. and was also an adjunct instructor at Columbia College. Sprouse has experience in biotechnology and life sciences, real estate, banking and finance, international business and licensing, sales and marketing, advertising, training and education. He has also been very successful in many international markets.

From April 2004-December 2009, he served as a member of the Missouri Life Science Research Board. He was then the director of development for the Center for Food Integrity from July 2009-January 2010 and the director of development for CMA Consulting.

Sprouse holds a bachelor's degree from Columbia College in management, marketing and finance, and a Masters of Business Administration in management from Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis, Missouri. Sprouse also studied in China and London.

Spouse is a member of the Columbia College President’s Society and also served on the “Tradition Meets Tomorrow” campaign steering committee that benefited the construction of the Gerald T. and Bonnie M. Brouder Science Center. He is very active in his church and community and values his family and friends. His wife, Amy, and three children Abe, Eve and Mae reside in Columbia, Missouri.

He joined the Columbia College Board of Trustees in July, 2019.  

Kent Strodtman, Ph.D., was appointed to the Columbia College Board of Trustees in July 2019 as a faculty representative.

Strodtman joined the Columbia College faculty in 2012 as an assistant professor of biology before being promoted to associate professor of biology in 2018. Prior to coming to Columbia College, he was a visiting professor of biology and environmental science at Westminster College during the 2010-11 academic year after serving as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Missouri from 2004-11.

A passionate, innovative educator, Strodtman teaches classes in biology, genetics, biochemistry and molecular biotechnology is also active in supporting student research projects and various club activities.

Strodtman has received multiple awards during his career including the prestigious Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence in 2017. He has also been recognized by the Columbia College Department of Student Affairs and the Mid-Missouri Co-Op of Home Educators.

Strodtman earned his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Benedictine College in 2003 before securing his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Missouri in 2012.

Strodtman and his wife, Erin, reside in Salisbury, Missouri and are the parents of Leslie, Sophia, Andrew and Regina.

Gary Tatlow, retired law firm partner at Tatlow, Gump, Faiella and Wheelan, is a 1961 graduate of the University of Missouri, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Juris Doctor. Tatlow enjoyed a long and distinguished career in trial practice and received the Missouri Attorney General’s Outstanding Citizen Award.  He was also named an ‘advocate’ by the National College of Advocacy and the America Trial Lawyers Association.

Tatlow also has been active at his alma mater, serving on the University of Missouri College of Arts and Sciences development board and the university’s national campaign steering committee. In 2002, his service to the university was recognized when he received the Alumni of the Year Award from the University of Missouri Alumni Association.

Over the years, Tatlow forged a deep connection to Columbia College through his wife, Marilyn (Silvey) Tatlow, a 1960 alumna of Christian College, who passed away in 2005.

Matt Williams, a native of Shelbina, Missouri, and a 26-year veteran in the banking industry, began his tenure on the Columbia College Board of Trustees on July 1, 2017.

Williams has served as the regional president of Landmark Bank since October 2014, a role in which he oversees the bank’s Columbia market while also managing its Columbia commercial lending department. Before coming to Landmark Bank, Williams served as the president of the Columbia market for the Jefferson City-based Hawthorn Bank (2007-2014), chief credit officer at Boone National Savings and Loan (2002-2007) and vice president and senior lender for the Columbia market for Mercantile Bank (1993-2002).

Throughout his time in mid-Missouri, Williams has been an active member of community organizations. He currently serves on the boards of Regional Economic Development Inc. (REDI), the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the City of Columbia New Century Fund, the Country Club of Missouri and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and he is a tri-chair of the United Way campaign major firms division. Williams is also a past board member of the Community Foundation of Central Missouri and Russell Boulevard Elementary School PTA.

Williams earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in finance, from Truman State University in 1990. He and his wife, Carla, have been married for 26 years and have three children: Annie, Katie and Tommy.

Janet Carter Wright, a native of Hannibal, Mo. graduated from Christian College in 1958 with an associate's degree. She received the Columbia College Service Award in 1992 for outstanding service to the college.  She has served on the Education Policy and Student Life committees of the Columbia College Community. 

A life-long equestrian, Wright competed on the Christian College riding team. She has also been a board member of the First Baptist Church, King's Daughters, United Way and the Country Club of Missouri.