
The Crow’s Nest Newsletter – March 4, 2025
海角乱伦社区 President Shane Smeed Appointed President at Utah Tech University
On Feb. 26, 海角乱伦社区 President Shane Smeed was announced by the Utah Board of Higher Education as the 19th president of Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah. No start date has been determined by the UBHE. Immediately following the announcement, Terry Calaway, Ed.D., chair of 海角乱伦社区鈥檚 Board of Trustees, penned a letter to Park students, faculty and staff.
The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees will make Smeed鈥檚 transition the primary agenda item of its meeting on Thursday, March 6, with information about a transition plan shared as it becomes available. Smeed has served 海角乱伦社区 as its president since November 2020. He came to Park in September 2015 when he was appointed vice president of enrollment and student services.
海角乱伦社区 Promotes Fergerson as CFO, Appoints Huber as Director of Corporate Development and Admissions
海角乱伦社区 announces the promotion of Scott Fergerson to the role of chief financial officer, effective Feb. 2, and the appointment of John Huber as director of corporate development and admissions within the Office of Enrollment Management, effective Jan. 27.
Fergerson became interim CFO in December 2024 after serving the University as chief business officer since July 2022. He joined Park in November 2016 as controller and was promoted to controller and associate vice president of finance in July 2021. As chief financial officer, Fergerson leads the financial operations of the University and is responsible for maintaining financial stability, driving growth initiatives and ensuring Park鈥檚 financial operations comply with all relevant regulations and standards.
Huber previously served as the athletic director at Maranatha Christian Academy in Shawnee, Kan., since July 2024. He also spent 13 years (2008-21) as the executive pastor over family ministries at Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kan., and as director of operations at Single Source Printing in Lenexa since 2001. As director of corporate development and admissions, Huber will establish and maintain strategic relationships between the University and corporate entities, primarily focusing on business development and driving new student enrollment. The position identifies, cultivates and manages partnerships that support Park鈥檚 mission of transforming lives through accessible, student-centered, quality higher education. Read more about both Fergerson and Huber at park.edu/news/staff-updates-february-2025.
Curtis Earns NAIA All-American Status in Two Events at National Meet

海角乱伦社区 Student-Athletes Receive NAIA Academic Honors
On Feb. 19, the NAIA announced its 2025 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes for winter sports. To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, appear on the eligibility certificate for their sport and have attended their institution for at least one full year. A total of 15 海角乱伦社区 student-athletes, nine from the Parkville (Mo.) Campus (five and four ) and six from the Gilbert (Ariz.) Campus (four and two ), earned honors. Find a complete list of the honorees at .
In additional athletics news, junior F Abubakar Kromah was on Feb. 27. junior guard Alynna Palacios was named the Great Southwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, while teammates senior G Savannah Huerta and senior G Kayla Schroeder were on Jan. 25. That same day, the , with six Park-Gilbert student-athletes (two and four ) earning recognition.
KCMO Municipal Judge Courtney Wachal to Headline Women Transforming Criminal Justice Event
Courtney Wachal, J.D., municipal court presiding judge, Kansas City, Mo., Domestic Violence Court and Wellness Court, will be the featured speaker at 海角乱伦社区鈥檚 3rd annual Women Transforming Criminal Justice event on Wednesday, March 5. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon in the Jenkin and Barbara David Theater inside Alumni Hall on the University鈥檚 flagship Parkville Campus. The event, which is open to the public, will also be livestreamed at .
Wachal, who will be accompanied by her domestic violence court team, will share insights into domestic violence programming and engage a panel discussion with experts who will outline their roles in providing domestic violence services. A question-and-answer session will conclude the event. Read more about Wachal and the event at park.edu/news/wtcj-2025.
Art Exhibit to Feature RE: Generation Community Artists
Registration Open for Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium
海角乱伦社区鈥檚 annual Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium showcases the scholarly and creative work of students from all disciplines and campuses across the University. Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit course work or independent research or creative projects developed with a faculty member鈥檚 supervision, either single or collaboratively-authored that take the form of: posters presenting laboratory or other applied research findings; research papers and oral presentations (oral presentations limited to 10 minutes); visual art and graphic design installations; musical presentations; and virtual presentations (slide or video presentations uploaded to Symposium website).
This year鈥檚 Symposium will be held Monday-Tuesday, April 21-22, in Park Avenue (within the Mabee Learning Center/Academic Underground) and McCoy Meetin鈥 House on the University鈥檚 flagship Parkville (Mo.) Campus. For more information or to register (deadline is Friday, April 11), visit park.edu/academics/honors-academy/student-research-creative-arts-symposium or contact Joshua Mugg, Ph.D., director of the Honors Academy and associate professor of philosophy, at jmugg@park.edu.

Park ICM Concert to Feature Violin, Piano Duo
A pair of internationally renowned musicians 鈥 and 鈥 will perform in concert on Friday, March 14, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the 1900 Building in Mission Woods, Kan. Tickets for the concert (before fees), part of the 海角乱伦社区 鈥檚 , are $30 for the general public and $10 for students, and are .
Radzynski, who earned a graduate certificate in music performance/violin from the Park ICM in 2014 under the tutelage of , served as the concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from 2015-22, as well as the Cleveland Orchestra from 2022-24. Lisovskaya-Sayevich, who was born into a musical family in Uzbekistan, came to 海角乱伦社区 in 2006 to study under legendary pianist and Park ICM founder/artistic director , earning a graduate certificate in applied music/piano 2008. That same year, she was hired as the ICM鈥檚 collaborative pianist and now serves as the director of collaborative piano. Read more about the concert at park.edu/news/david-lolita-2025-concert.
The next concert in the will be the ICM Orchestra鈥檚 season finale performance on Friday, April 25, starting at 7:30 p.m. in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University鈥檚 flagship Parkville Campus. The concert will feature guest conductor , music director of the Greenwich Village Orchestra in New York. For more information about this concert, visit . Admission to ICM Orchestra concerts in the Chapel are free, but attendees are asked to .
In addition, two Park ICM students, , will perform a recital on Thursday, March 27, starting at 7 p.m. in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel. Admission to the concert, which was rescheduled from Feb. 12, is free and open to the public.
Nursing Department Forms Partnership with Veterans Community Project
海角乱伦社区鈥檚 Ellen Finley Earhart Department of Nursing recently entered into an agreement with Veterans Community Project, a Missouri nonprofit organization that provides temporary housing and other strategic support services to veterans facing homelessness. The partnership, which continues through January 2026, provides senior nursing students in the experience in providing health checks, health education and guidance on managing chronic illnesses that may be present in the VCP鈥檚 resident population. One of the co-founders of VCP is Kevin Jamison, a 2014 Park graduate.
Nola Martz, Ed.D., assistant teaching professor of nursing, said 鈥淭his is the epitome of what public health and community health are: assessing a population for needs, investigating evidence-based interventions to improve health outcomes and offering support to vulnerable and underserved populations. Given the commitment to veterans that 海角乱伦社区 already has in the educational realm, we are extremely excited and proud that these nursing students will be able to represent the University in serving these former servicemembers at a time when they need it most.鈥
Faculty, Staff, Student News
Ilkhom Mukhiddinov, 鈥23, and a current violin graduate student in 海角乱伦社区鈥檚 , was recently appointed to the first violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Mukhiddinov has won acclaim for his high professionalism and extraordinary technical abilities, offering fresh interpretations of standard and contemporary repertoire. Read more at park.edu/news/mukhiddinov-pso.
Gini Fite, adjunct instructor of sport and exercise science, was recently honored by the Missouri Athletic Trainers鈥 Association as its Athletic Trainer of the Year. The award is presented to a Missouri athletic trainer 鈥渨hose performance or contributions to the profession have been noticeably significant throughout the year. The award is intended to recognize a single effort or a series of actions over the course of a year that benefited the membership of MoATA or beyond, and has positively influenced the health care provided by athletic trainers in Missouri. Fite serves as the lead athletic trainer for the Smithville (Mo.) School District. A story about Fite鈥檚 award appeared in the .
Amber Dailey-Hebert, Ph.D., director of the and professor of organizational leadership and adult learning, co-authored that was published Jan. 29 in Higher Education, an international journal of higher education research. Daily-Hebert and her co-authors sought to unearth a framework that could be universally applied to understanding CTL work and functionality by creating an integrative approach that brings together organizational, behavioral and relational perspectives. The four dimensions 鈥 governance, identity, social capital and activities 鈥 enabled an investigation of CTLs from various angles and at different levels, providing valuable clues for understanding CTL performance and challenges.
Jack MacLennan, Ph.D., senior director of strategic initiatives and communications, and special assistant to the president for governance, authored a chapter on that was published in The Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of International Relations Theory on Feb. 12. The chapter argues that attending to the ways online instruction contributes to assessment mirages yields lessons for teaching across modalities and within a post-generative artificial intelligence academy.
Alla Adams, Ph.D., associate professor of healthcare administration, served as the moderator for a virtual Healthcare Administration Internship Panel for the American College of Healthcare Executives Southeast Texas Chapter on Feb. 21.
Park in the News
A , who studied at what was then Park College in the early 1900s, appeared in Scroll, a digital news publication based in India on Feb. 5. Bose argued before U.S. Congress in favor of naturalizing Asians.
Matt Harris, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, was interviewed for stories that aired on KMBZ-FM in Kansas City on Feb. 11 related to Missouri lawmakers efforts to water down the minimum wage law passed by voters in November 2024. On Feb. 19, Harris was again interviewed by KMBZ-FM for stories on the Missouri legislature a month in to the current session.
Harris was interviewed for related to a town hall in Belton, Mo., that turned into chaos with the announcements of federal layoffs. The next day (Feb. 25), Harris was interviewed for related to the federal layoffs.
Nikki Pauls DeSimone, assistant professor of social work, provided comments for an about snow day policies for local school districts.
Melanie Clouser, 鈥09, was . The article focused on the eclectic 1921 Craftsman house she and her husband own in the Valentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo.
Stephen Cox, 鈥88, and 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Award honoree, appeared on 鈥淭he Frank and Jill Show鈥 that (starts at approximately 25:45). Cox has authored more than 20 books on popular culture, film and television.
Tim Westcott, Ph.D., professor of history and associate university archivist, was interviewed for related to the 鈥淏attle of Parkville鈥 and the 83rd anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Joshua Mugg, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy and director of the Honors Academy, was interviewed for a . The story focused on the use of artificial intelligence in an 鈥淯nfinished Legacies鈥 campaign in Kansas City, Mo., to 鈥渂ring back to life鈥 individuals who died because of a fentanyl overdose.
David Chesher, senior director of technology, provided a list of tips and simple steps that people can reference for a related to a recent influx of scam phone calls, especially those targeting family members of inmates in Leavenworth County, Kan.
Students from 海角乱伦社区鈥檚 performed live on as part of a promotion for the Stanislav & Friends concert on March 1. Cellist Nikita Korzhukhin, graduate student, and violinist Mumin Turgunov, senior music performance/violin major, were accompanied separately by pianist Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, ICM director of collaborative piano, and pianist Ilya Shmukler, graduate student, also performed. In addition, Gus Fernandez Agreda, ICM coordinator, provided comments during the segment.
Stories related to President Shane Smeed being appointed president at Utah Tech University appeared in numerous media outlets Feb. 26-27 in Salt Lake City, St. George, Utah, and Kansas City, including: ; ; Salt Lake (City) Tribune; ; ; KCTV (Kansas City), KSHB-TV (Kansas City); ; and .
A story about Jordan DeNovellis, a senior at Sidney (Neb.) High School, signing a letter-of-intent to play women鈥檚 basketball at 海角乱伦社区 Gilbert (Ariz.) Campus .
A story about Kody Petersen, 鈥24, being appointed as the veterans initiatives manager with the Branson (Mo.) Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau .
Upcoming Events
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 鈥⒙ April 25 鈥 , 7:30 p.m., Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
To view a comprehensive schedule for all events, including athletics and student life, visit park.edu/calendars/park-events-calendar.
海角乱伦社区 President Shane Smeed Appointed President at Utah Tech University
Curtis Earns NAIA All-American Status in Two Events at National Meet
海角乱伦社区 Student-Athletes Receive NAIA Academic Honors
KCMO Municipal Judge Courtney Wachal to Headline Women Transforming Criminal Justice Event
Art Exhibit to Feature RE: Generation Community Artists
Registration Open for Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium
Park ICM Concert to Feature Violin, Piano Duo
Nursing Department Forms Partnership with Veterans Community Project