The UMSL Alumni Association and the Business Alumni Chapter honored alumni (from left) Jeff Heveroh, Steven Harris, Stacey Massa and Mike Seals with the 2026 Salute to Business Achievement Awards during a ceremony on Wednesday at the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
The University of Missouri–St. Louis made a significant impact on Steven Harris long before he had officially enrolled. A few decades later, UMSL’s Ed G. Smith College of Business honored Harris as one of its distinguished graduates.
While a student at Normandy High School in the early-to-mid 1990s, Harris participated in UMSL’s Bridge Program, which provides year-round college preparation and academic enrichment opportunities for local students. Boosted by that experience, Harris would graduate from UMSL in the spring of 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, launching a career that has seen him climb from intern to managing partner with RubinBrown LLP, a top accounting and professional consulting firm in the United States. Harris credits UMSL with putting him on that path to success.
“UMSL has a very rich place in my heart,” Harris said. “I look at it as the foundation of everything that I have and I’ve been able to earn in my career. It all started here at UMSL.”
Last Wednesday, UMSL celebrated Harris for making the most of his academic accomplishments. In a ceremony at the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater, Harris was one of four alumni honored during the Salute to Business Achievement Awards. Co-sponsored by the UMSL Alumni Association and the Business Alumni Chapter, the annual event recognizes graduates of the College of Business for their personal success and their impact on UMSL.
Since arriving at RubinBrown in 1999, Harris has advanced through a series of leadership roles and emerged as a key figure within the firm. He was named a partner in the Entrepreneurial and Assurance Services groups in 2010, and six years later took on an additional leadership role as chairman of the board for the National Association of Black Accountants. In May 2022, RubinBrown appointed Harris as managing partner, making him the fourth person to serve in the role in the firm’s 70-year history and its first Black managing partner.
Throughout his professional journey, Harris has never wavered in his support for UMSL. He has spent a lot of time recruiting UMSL students for his firm, and Harris said he has also had the pleasure of serving on a variety of councils and committees for his alma mater, including his current role on the Chancellor’s Council.
“I was very fortunate to come to UMSL,” Harris said. “I got a lot of great resources and was able to focus on my education, but all the professors, everybody here, really invested in me as an individual, and I’m standing on their shoulders today.”
Mike Seals, another honoree at Wednesday’s event, voiced similar sentiments about his experience at UMSL. Seals received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance while minoring in mathematics in 1986. He went on to earn an MBA at Saint Louis University in 1992, but he returned to UMSL to earn a Doctor of Business Administration with an emphasis in digital transformation, digital leadership and governance in 2022.
“UMSL is a unique place, and until you get ingrained with the faculty and staff, as much as I did with my doctoral program, you don’t realize how smart and talented they are,” Seals said. “There are very few people in this world that devote their lives to helping others be better, and the faculty and the staff here do that.”
Over the course of a career spanning more than three decades, Seals has helped organizations navigate major shifts in technology and business strategy while leading large-scale transformation efforts. Most recently, he served as chief digital officer and senior vice president of strategy at Hussmann, following leadership positions with Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo. Seals also remained actively involved with UMSL through Dean Shu Schiller’s Executive Advisory Council, currently serving as the vice chair, and he has held national leadership roles with the Society for Information Management.
“Once you realize all the good that’s going on here at UMSL, you want to be part of it,” Seals said.
Stacey Massa earned a BSBA in 1996 and began her professional career at UHY Advisors, where she has worked for nearly 30 years in the audit department. Massa is now a partner for the company, serving as UHY’s Midwest Attest Leader, and in 2024, the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants touted her as a “Woman to Watch.”
“UMSL gave me the foundation that I needed to start my career,” Massa said. “It gave me everything I needed to be successful.”
Massa has given back to her alma mater. She has served on the Accounting Advisory Board and is active in workshops and recruitment initiatives that help UMSL students prepare for a career in the accounting industry.
“I feel like the best part of my career has been the ability to change lives by working with the UMSL students,” Massa said. “Recruiting is very important to me, and I want to be involved, I want to come here, I want to share knowledge. The accounting profession can be very challenging, but UMSL students are always my best candidates.”
Jeff Heveroh graduated from UMSL in 1993 with a BSBA with an emphasis in marketing. He worked for six years as an advisor at Sagemark Consulting, then became a founding partner of Stonebridge Financial Group, where he has spent the past 23 years building a reputation for putting clients at the center of his work while cultivating enduring relationships.
“UMSL provided me a high-quality education that was both accessible and impactful for my family,” he said. “When you look at the graduates of this university, they are every bit as prepared and competitive as anyone, and UMSL makes that opportunity attainable for students like me who otherwise may not have had the chance.”
A standout swimmer, Heveroh established himself as one of the most accomplished student-athletes in UMSL history, earning NCAA Nationals appearances in three seasons, from 1991 to 1993, while collecting nine All-American honors, the most ever achieved by a Triton. Heveroh was inducted into the UMSL Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and he has been an active supporter of the Tritons swimming program since its reinstatement in 2014-15 after an 18-year absence, helping to raise funds and establish the Linda Vogel/UMSL Swimming Scholarship.
“After Stan and Terry Freerks helped revive the program, many alumni came together to support its continued growth,” Heveroh said. “Since then, I’ve remained actively involved in fundraising and providing resources to help the student-athletes and coaching staff continue building a strong, competitive program.”
The Salute to Business Achievement Awards were part of an overall Business Celebration Program, which also involved recognition of RISE Academy graduates in the second cohort of the professional development program, as well as the awarding of a newly branded Business Star Award to selected students, staff and faculty members in the College of Business. Shlynda Hudson was named the Advisor of the Year, and Yuan Chen earned the Dean’s Staff Excellence Award. Kailash Joshi received the Dean’s Faculty Service Excellence Star Award, and Ekin Pellegrini was awarded the Dean’s Outstanding Faculty Advisor Star Award.
The Star Students representing the different degree programs included: Anna Kohmetscher (BS-Accounting), Taofeeqat Shittu (MS-Accounting), Mike Clark (BSBA-Finance), Bree Mitchell (MS-FinTech), Enna Durakovic (BSBA-Management), Khanh Le (BS-Cybersecurity, IST), Yongru (Victor) Chiu (BSBA-IST), Cameron Womack (BSBA-IST), Suzan Mustafa (BS-IST), Darryl Page (MS-IST), Ernest Bobmanuel (MS-Cybersecurity, IST), Madison Tillman (BSBA-Entrepreneurship), Ahmad Houston (BSBA-Marketing), Lara Kareem (BSBA-SCM), Prakash Dadi (MS-SCA), Pardis Bahmani (PhD-BA, SCA), Katie Linnig (BSBA, general), Ah’Reishia Stanley (BSBA-International Business) and Cristina Fernandez Bermejo (MBA).
The 2026 RISE Academy graduates were Ini Abejide, Dana Alrifai, Clayton Bruce, Rylie Bunning, Sandra Cao, Rocky Champagne Jr., Cristina Fernandez Bermejo, Bivisha Karki, Z Kaya, Will Moore, Mercedes Neal, Thu Pham, Celimar Rentas, Taofeeqat Shittu, Catherine Veron, Clarissa West, Cameron Womack, Yang Wu and Jalen Walker-Wright.
