Community Engagement Award 2023 Recipients

Faculty

Dr. Ashlea Cardin

Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy, McQueary College of Health and Human Services

By combining personal and professional passions, Dr. Ashlea Cardin has had a lasting impact in the lives of children and families. For nearly twenty years, Ashlea has traveled almost weekly to the Old Order Amish community in Seymour to provide pro bono pediatric occupational therapy services.  

Be it their shared agrarian values or beliefs in family-centered medicine, she has gained a trusted role in the community. Building this trust allows Ashlea to provide direct intervention with highly customized solutions that address medical and psychosocial supports to meet critical milestones. Many of the infants and children served would otherwise go without the costly, value-added services that Ashlea is able to provide. In exchange, Ashlea is most often rewarded with eggs, baked goods, livestock and flowers, to just name a few.

Beyond providing direct intervention, Dr. Cardin advocates at the state level for Amish families and serves on the Board of a Seymour-based non-profit called Amish Outreach.

Dr. Becky Swearingen

Associate Professor, School of Teaching, Learning and Developmental Sciences, College of Education

A passion for animals, ecology and nature, Dr. Becky Swearingen creates lasting impacts for the environment and community. For 20 years, Becky was an active member of Pet Therapy of the Ozarks, with six registered therapy pets. She contributed to the Pets as Listeners program, where therapy animals work with young readers, visited special needs classrooms, pediatric units at Cox and Mercy hospitals as well as served on the board and as president of the organization. 

Currently, Becky is active with the Springfield Plateau Master Naturalists and has served as President of the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society. As a Master Naturalist, she monitors three area streams up to four times a year for water quality through the Missouri Stream Team Program, conducts bird watching projects to assist with counts and bird migration and takes part in the Christmas Bird Counts for Springfield and Taney counties.

Beyond birds, Becky serves on the steering committee for the Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems or GLADE where area high school students are able to focus on the ecosystems and conservation issues in the Ozarks. In her “spare time,” Becky always finds time to volunteer at the Springfield Regional Arts Council for ArtsFest and Cider Days. 

Karen Scott

Administrative Assistant II, School of Teaching, Learning and Developmental Sciences, College of Education

Karen’s motto has long been “where there is a need to fill, all should be available and ready.” Her desire to extend a helping hand, has created lasting impacts in the care and education of children, food and housing issues, and in the support of our military veterans. Just this holiday season, Karen adopted and cared for a veteran in hospice and recently finished creating over 200 ‘forever’ bags, which help children maintain dignity and self-esteem when entering the foster care system. 

As a 10-year member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she is continually assessing and finding solutions for area needs. A few of those activities include raising funds for the Veterans Tiny Homes, organizing collections for adopted school programs, and providing holiday packages for overseas service personnel.   

Nikki Yost

Administrative Specialist III, Office of Dual Credit

Spanning 3 decades, Nikki has used her passion for service to see an unmet need, and develop a plan to fill it. A passion for youth education, she is, and has been for many years, involved in children’s ministry, school activities and youth leadership development organizations. 

In 2017, her volunteerism took a new focus to fight poverty and homelessness. Serving both the sheltered and unsheltered homeless in Springfield and in Branson, Nikki began assisting with organizations such as Hearts for the Homeless, Homeless to Home Ozarks and Elevate Branson. She has spent numerous hours on a weekly basis advocating for individuals and families, collecting donations and delivering daily meals to extended stay motel residents.