Missouri – Five names, five different corners of Missouri public life, and one clear message from Jefferson City: state boards are being stocked with people who know their communities from the ground up.
Governor Mike Kehoe on Friday announced four appointments to Missouri boards and commissions, along with one county vacancy appointment, placing arts leaders, a court official, and a state labor administrator into roles that touch culture, justice and workplace standards across the state.
Three of the appointments went to the Missouri State Council on the Arts, giving the panel a mix of rural, educational, tourism and theater experience. Karie Black of Chillicothe was appointed to the council after a career that has stretched from special education to youth services and local arts work. Black currently serves as a special education facilitator for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She previously led the North Missouri Center for Youth and Families and has also been involved with the Cultural Corner Art Guild and Gallery, Livingston County 4-H and the Missouri State Fair Foundation.
Lois Brace of Mexico was reappointed as chair of the council, keeping an experienced arts administrator in the leadership seat. Brace serves as executive director of Presser Arts Center and remains active in several arts and civic organizations, including Americans for the Arts, the American Association of Community Theatres, Missouri Citizens for the Arts, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Philanthropic Educational Organization. Her background includes studies in theatre, speech communication and English at Southwest Baptist University, followed by a Master of Arts in Theatre from Texas State University.
Also joining the arts council is Trish Erzfeld of Perryville, executive director of Perry County Heritage Tourism. Her résumé brings together tourism, local heritage and creative-sector work through organizations such as the Missouri Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau, Perry County Creative Arts, Missouri Travel Alliance and the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. Erzfeld is a Perryville High School alumna and completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Authentic Leadership Institute.
Outside the arts world, Jennifer Hoppenthaler of Winston was appointed Circuit Clerk of Daviess County. She already works in the 43rd Judicial Circuit of Daviess County, where she has served since 2011, and is active in school and church events in her community.
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Kehoe also reappointed Logan Hobbs of Jefferson City as chair of the State Board of Mediation. Hobbs is director of labor standards for the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, overseeing more than 30 state employees responsible for enforcing labor standards across Missouri. His path has included work as the department’s legislative liaison, teaching-related leadership in South Korea, and experience with his family’s cow-calf operation in McDonald County.
