Anita Manion, Steve Moehrle, Kimberly Welch tapped as Presidential Engagement Fellows

UMSL faculty members (from left) Anita Manion, Steve Moehrle and Kimberly Welch are among the latest class of University of Missouri System President Engagement Fellows. They will will serve as ambassadors throughout the region, speaking to local organizations and communities about their areas of research and expertise throughout the 2021-22 academic year.

Three University of Missouri–St. Louis faculty members have been named to the fourth class of University of Missouri System Presidential Engagement Fellows.

Anita Manion, an assistant professor of political science; Steve Moehrle, a professor of accounting; and Kimberly Welch, an assistant professor of English; will serve as ambassadors throughout the region, speaking to local organizations and communities about their areas of research and expertise throughout the 2021-22 academic year.

The initiative, launched by President Mun Choi in 2018, is intended to fulfill the system’s land-grant mission by sharing the research of the university’s faculty with citizens throughout the state. It aims to improve lives throughout Missouri with the dissemination of knowledge.

Manion teaches courses in American politics, public policy, poverty and welfare and gender and politics and also serves as the political analyst for KSDK (Channel 5). Her research focuses on the impact of policy on issues of equity, particularly in areas of education and elections. She has examined the impact of 4-day weeks on Missouri school districts, perceptions of voter fraud and election reform, factors influencing support for public funding of higher education, disparate impacts of merit and need-based aid, and other policy matters.

Moehrle, currently serving as the chair of the Department of Accounting, has published articles in academic journals including The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Research in Accounting Regulation, the Journal of Accounting and the Public Interest, the Journal of Accountancy, the CPA Journal, and the Financial Analysts’ Journal. He co-authored “The CPA Profession: Opportunities, Responsibilities, and Services,” which is published by the American Institute of CPAs, and he currently serves as associate editor of Accounting Horizons. He has spoken at high schools across Missouri about financial literacy, career planning and personal finance.

Welch is active member of UMSL’s Service-Learning Community of Practice and teaches courses that focus on sociopolitical issues affecting communities of color across the United States and abroad. With an emphasis on the African diaspora, her research focuses on 20th and 21st century performances and diverse iterations of homelessness and incarceration. She questions the ways in which constructions of gender, sexuality and race mediate how people navigate spatial dispossession – being deprived of land or property. Located at the intersections of theater and performance, cultural, Black, and gender studies, her work explores the role media plays in gendered dispossession narratives, particularly ones around and about Black female subjects.

Members of the 2021-22 Presidential Engagement Fellows class are:

Hadara Bar-Nadav, English, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Thomas Bennett, law, University of Missouri–Columbia
Devin Burns, psychological science, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Anand Chandrasekhar, biological sciences, University of Missouri–Columbia
Rabia Gregory, religious studies, University of Missouri–Columbia
Amanda Grimes, health sciences, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Yotam Haber, music composition, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Brett Johnson, journalism studies, University of Missouri–Columbia
Beth Kania-Gosche, teacher education and certification, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Anita Manion, political science, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Steve Moehrle, accounting, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Daniel Oerther, environmental health engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Erin Robinson, social work, University of Missouri–Columbia
Kimberly Welch, English, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Nan West, English, University of Missouri–Columbia