Dec.
10, 2004
Dec.
10, 2004
Welcome to Denise Schmitz, Judith Soper and Melissa Bess. The nutrition and health education specialists joined University of Missouri Extension Dec. 6.
Schmitz, who is located in Kansas City, also is co-coordinator of the Family Nutrition Education Program in the WC Region.
A registered dietician, Schmitz was the nutrition and breastfeeding coordinator for the Crescent Clinic WIC office in Kansas City in 2003-04. While working at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, she counseled high-risk pregnant women and parents on nutrition, assessed new clients and developed classes in food safety, heart health and children’s fitness.
She graduated from Webster University with an M.A. in human resource development in 2001 and received a B.S. in dietetics from the University of Nebraska in 1999. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association and a certified breastfeeding counselor.
Soper, who is in Memphis, is working with residents of Adair, Clark, Knox, Linn, Putnam, Scotland and Schuyler counties. She also will work with the FNEP, which includes the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
During the past eight years, she worked as a nutrition educator and program director for WIC clinics in Missouri and Nebraska. While in Nebraska, she served on a statewide nutrition education task force. Soper was an adjunct faculty member at Central Missouri State University and Northwest Community College, and has taught secondary family and consumer sciences.
Soper, a registered dietician, received a master’s in education in 1986 from Central Missouri State University and a bachelor’s in food science and nutrition from Colorado State University in 1963. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association and the Society for Nutrition Education.
Located in Camdenton, Bess serves Camden, Miller, Pulaski and Laclede counties, and is co-coordinator for the SC Region’s Family Nutrition Education Program.
A 2003 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, Bess received a master’s in exercise science and health promotion. She received a bachelor’s degree in fitness and sports medicine from Southeast Missouri State University in 2002.
Her thesis research examined changes in fitness test results and classifications among schoolchildren. As a graduate student, she participated in a variety of research projects, including exercise habits, childhood lead poisoning prevention and tobacco use among high school students. She also taught health and physical education courses.
A certified health and fitness instructor, Bess is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Bill Elder has been named director of the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, a University of Missouri Extension unit that he helped found in 1980 with Daryl Hobbs, MU professor emeritus.
Elder, who has served as interim director since 2003, has been instrumental in developing relationships with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Missouri State Census Data Center and other projects, such as the annual KidsCount Missouri Data Book.
OSEDA uses census data to identify demographic changes and trends in Missouri. “Our work as part of the Missouri Census Data Center will be particularly interesting over the next few years as the American Community Survey begins to make Census data much more available,” Elder said.
The American Community Survey will collect and publish detailed social and economic data annually, rather than follow the 10-year census cycle. “Information on states and large metro areas have already been released,” Elder said. “For smaller areas, three years of data will be combined, so in a few years we will have more detailed and timely demographic estimates.”
For the past 15 years, OSEDA has provided data analysis for the Missouri School Improvement Program, which is used to measure school performance and accredit the state’s K-12 schools.
Elder received a doctoral degree in rural sociology from MU in 2003. His research examined social change and communities. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from MU. In 1978-79, he was a National Library of Medicine fellow in the health informatics program.
A new brochure about University of Missouri Extension is available for free of charge through Extension Publications. The brochure, designed for general audiences, contains cooperative extension and continuing education program descriptions, along with FY04 budget and expenditure information.
County and regional offices and TeleCenters each will receive 100 copies in an upcoming mailing, said Dolores Shearon, extension marketing manager. Additional copies of MUEXT200 may be ordered via the Extension Publications Web site, which is now available to campus offices. Click on the Marketing Items Order Form on Staff Resources.
Note cards and envelopes with the new logo also have arrived and may be ordered online. Two-color adhesive name badges will be available for purchase soon, Shearon said.
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Eileen Yager,
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