BOG Public Affairs Award Current Recipients

2022-2023 Awardees

Faculty

Jeff Grevillius

Mr. Grevillius's varied responsibilities provide key opportunities to represent the highest qualities of service to students, campus and community.  With over 40 years of campus involvement, he provides leadership and mentorship to student workers and through fraternity and sorority advisement.  Outside the campus, Jeff is involved with younger students at the Jr. High and High School levels through coaching, officiating and fundraising.  Recently he successfully mentored Glendale High School’s DECA students whose goal is to prepare them for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.  Jeff states, “teaching youth is a tough challenge, but adding ethical decision making is the core principle for empathy” – a core skill for us all.    

Kathleen Hains

Ms. Hains is the first point of contact for the department and serves as an active advisor and mentor for students and she routinely volunteers at the Bear Pantry and The Counseling Center on campus.  As a Stage Manager volunteer for both Springfield Little Theatre and the Springfield Contemporary Theatre, she is able to help provide skills and networking opportunties for current MSU Theatre students.  Her endeavor to become more culturally competent has led her to educate herself on challenging cultural and social topics, while looking for ways to educate others in the process. Senior Theatre student, Mallory Koenigseder, writes “I am endlessly thankful for all Kathleen has taught me and my peers through living and breathing the Public Affairs Mission. She is an inspiring leader that is always working towards educating herself and others.” 

Dr. Diana Piccolo

Dr. Piccolo researches elementary mathematics education and has published on teacher professional development, the impact of Covid-19 on elementary student teachers, and how teachers have transitioned to online teaching. She has been involved in numerous grants and is currently co-PI on a $4 million grant that supports grades 3-8 career outcomes in STEM.  She also a proponet and leader in supporting LGBTQ+ students working in public schools and has developed best practices to mentor and support students in the field.

Dr. Stephen Spates

While at Missouri State, Dr. Spates has provided leadership for his college on the university’s Council on General Education and Intercollegiate Programs, and led the Ad Team, located within the College of Business, toward a $645,000 grant funded by the Department of Homeland Security for a Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Program.  He has also been VP of the communication theory interest group twice, and the chair of the Cooper Award committee identifying excellence in MA/PhD students in the Communication discipline. In addition to being recognized as the Pearson and Nelson Outstanding New Teacher, Dr. Spates advises and mentors the students of the Phi Beta Sigma Rho Chi and Zeta Phi Beta Theta Pi chapters. 

Dr. Shurita Thomas-Tate

Dr. Thomas-Tate's scholarship is focused on how language varies based on social, cultural, and regional differences and exploring ways to support language and literacy development from students of diverse backgrounds. Her teaching focuses on helping students develop cultural consciousness to provide services that minimize biases and are responsive to individual and group differences. With this framework, she created Ujima, a literacy community program.  Through summer camps and family literacy nights, Dr. Thomas-Tate has helped community members and students become citizen scholars—connecting their discipline to active citizenship and deep academic learning in their discipline.