This month’s Hero Awards recipients are (from left) Andy McEwen, the budget and financial planning lead in Finance and Operations; Pamela Stuerke, an associate professor in the Department of Accounting in the Ed G. Smith College of Business; and Jackie Wilmes, office manager and executive assistant in UMSL Global. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)
University of Missouri–St. Louis Chancellor Kristin Sobolik and her cabinet continue to recognize the exemplary efforts of staff and faculty members from across campus by bestowing the UMSL Hero Award on up to three individuals each month.
This month’s honorees are Andy McEwen, the budget and financial planning lead in Finance and Operations; Pamela Stuerke, an associate professor in the Department of Accounting in the Ed G. Smith College of Business; and Jackie Wilmes, office manager and executive assistant in UMSL Global.
Andy McEwen
McEwen’s path to working at UMSL took some unexpected twists and turns, but he’s happy to now be back at his alma mater, making a difference in the lives of students.
McEwen graduated from UMSL with his bachelor’s degree in public policy administration in 2020 and had the rug pulled out from under him when his initial job offer was rescinded due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Things just kind of went sideways,” McEwen said. “During COVID, it was very difficult to find public sector jobs. Budgets kind of froze up, and they froze hiring. They didn’t know what things were going to look like three years from then, so it was tough to find a job out of college.”
Instead, McEwen went out west to live in the mountains and work a couple odd jobs until things improved. In 2021, he moved back home and started working at the Illinois Center for Autism, where he was promoted to quality assurance director within five months. He spent two years in that role before spotting an opening for a business manager position at UMSL and couldn’t resist the opportunity to return to his alma mater. McEwen started at UMSL in April 2024 as the business manager supporting the Office of University Advancement; University Marketing and Communications; the Office of Research, Economic and Community Development; and the Chancellor’s Office.
He worked in that role for two years before being promoted to the budget and financial planning lead in Finance and Operations this March. In this role, McEwen evaluates budgeting across campus, working closely with vice chancellors, deans, department chairs and faculty members to ensure that they are spending in line with University of Missouri System policy and being good stewards of public funds. He makes recommendations for new budgets, ensures that payroll is processed correctly and, overall, supports faculty and staff members across campus to ensure that the university is in a fiscally sustainable place.
While he doesn’t work directly with students on a day-to-day basis, he enjoys being able to see how the dollars he helps manage are directly impacting and transforming students’ lives.
“When I transitioned to UMSL and I got through my first budget season as a business manager, and I really got a good look at how those units operated fiscally – what their spending habits were like, what their patterns were like, and seeing the impact it had – it really put into perspective the level of work that we do here,” McEwen said. “We’re managing millions of dollars in public funds. When you’re doing that, you need to be a good steward of those dollars and understand that those dollars are there to be able to benefit students. And I think keeping that in mind and knowing that at the end of the day, everything we do is to try to make the students’ lives better, really helped solidify that this is the place I wanted to be.”
The impact of McEwen’s work is felt throughout campus, and Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications Justin Roberts said that McEwen has been an amazing partner in supporting the Office of University Advancement; University Marketing and Communications; the Office of Research, Economic and Community Development; and the Chancellor’s Office, where he carefully manages resources in support of university priorities.
“He is responsive to any financial inquiry, provides careful review and counsel to unit leaders and has a deep understanding of how decisions at the account level or unit level impact our overall sustainability,” Roberts wrote in his nomination of McEwen for the Hero Award.
For McEwen, that work has a tangible impact that inspires and motivates him each and every day.
“You see your impact in the community every day, even when you’re sitting in an office in the administrative building,” McEwen said. “I can still see that impact when I open my computer. I’m not worried about making a profit for a private company. Every day I’m seeing lives of students being transformed, and that’s what I like. That’s what I like to go home to at night.”
Pamela Stuerke
Many of Stuerke’s students come into her classes thinking they’re going to learn how to account for one particular type of transaction or another. Her goal, however, is always to teach them to think like an accountant, which she knows will serve them better in the long run than knowing the mechanics of a particular transaction.
Stuerke, who originally studied music and is a trained classical pianist and organist, has now taught accounting at UMSL for 20 years. She said the relationships she’s built along the way have kept her firmly rooted here.
Angela Truesdale, who earned her master’s degree in accounting in 2025, is one such relationship. After Truesdale suffered a severe concussion during the school year, she said that Stuerke demonstrated the utmost kindness and consideration for her. While she was initially afraid she would have to drop out of school altogether to recover, Stuerke met with her one-on-one every week to break her course down in a way that was digestible for Truesdale given the circumstances.
“Dr. Stuerke cares about her students’ success with a ferocious passion,” Truesdale wrote in her nomination of Stuerke for the Hero Award. “Having Dr. Stuerke as a professor means that you have a cheerleader for the rest of your career, both as a student and a professional, and I am incredibly lucky to have had her class when my world turned upside down. She motivated me to keep going and never gave up on me.”
Stuerke has spent her time at UMSL building relationships both inside and outside of the accounting department. She’s been actively involved in shared governance for the majority of her career at UMSL, and in 2019 she won the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service. She’s served on the Faculty Senate (including a term as chair), chaired committees such as the Budget and Planning Committee and served as a member of the Intercampus Faculty Cabinet. Her involvement across campus has helped her build bridges both between different colleges and at different levels of the university, including faculty, staff and administration.
“We are a university, not a bunch of independent departments or colleges,” Stuerke said. “If we treat roles in colleges as a zero-sum game, everybody loses. If we build connections and support each other, the university is stronger. In my world, that’s more important than individual success.”
Stuerke’s work across the university hasn’t gone unnoticed by her colleagues. Associate Teaching Professor Johnna Murray said she is personally indebted to Stuerke for her service on her dissertation committee, noting that her guidance on grammar and logical thinking will stay with her forever.
“Pamela Stuerke has been a valued professor in the Accounting Department for 20 years,” Murray wrote in her nomination of Stuerke for the Hero Award. “During that time, she has served our campus in many ways. Currently, she is working very hard to share all her materials with our department before her retirement. In addition, she is creating an online course that can be used by anybody. I really admire her careful attention and duty to our department and our campus.”
Whether with colleagues across the university or her accounting students, Stuerke is most proud of the relationships she’s been able to build at UMSL. She believes that the best measure of her teaching success is her students’ success, so she finds it incredibly rewarding to see former students become CFOs, partners at CPA firms or even go on to do something entirely different with their lives. She still remembers one summer a few years back when she heard from five former students over the course of three days who had passed the CPA exam. The news made her week.
Stuerke, who is also an Episcopal priest, is committed to making a positive impact in both her personal and professional life. At UMSL, she sees that objective play out routinely through the university’s mission.
“When the chancellor says, ‘We transform lives,’ we do,” she said. “I see the difference that an accounting education makes for first-generation college students, for people who are geographically or financially constrained, for people who are coming back having done something else with the first part of their life and now are seeking to become an accountant. I see the difference in their lives and their families’ lives that an accounting degree and an accounting career will make, and fostering that is more important than individual success. I see that not just in accounting but across the university overall.”
Jackie Wilmes
From “everyone’s hero” to “the glue that holds UMSL Global together” to “behind-the-scenes organizational powerhouse,” Wilmes’ colleagues don’t mince words when describing her. As UMSL Global’s office manager and executive assistant, Wilmes wears a lot of hats – on a given day, she might be rearranging tables for a meeting, creating and managing mail merges, coordinating student workers, supporting orientation programs or organizing a trip to Walmart so international students can purchase essential items. No matter what the day brings, she enjoys helping to make things easier for others.
“There are a lot of different things that it seems people have different understandings of, so helping to bring clarity is definitely one of the things that I enjoy trying to assist with,” she said. “Helping make things natural is definitely something that makes all of that special for me. I also want to be able to make it long-term, something that would outlast me. I want to help somebody jump in, figure it out and get acclimated with everything, so that once they’re in the role, they can do what they want to do instead of feeling overwhelmed, like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but now I need to meet this deadline.’ Helping support fellow university workers is definitely something that I appreciate and enjoy being able to do with the things that I can put in place.”
To that end, Wilmes finds it rewarding to simplify complex systems, such as when she started using Kuali forms to streamline processes for Globalpalooza vendor payments and the Global Faculty Ambassador Network‘s fellowship applications. She started at UMSL in April 2022 after working as an assistant registrar at the MERS Goodwill Excel Center, where she helped process incoming credits for adults pursuing their high school diplomas.
Now pursuing her master’s in accounting at UMSL, Wilmes has also been heavily involved as vice chair of the university’s Staff Council. She sees the role as another way to serve others by sharing knowledge and awareness among staff members with the goal of enhancing the overall work environment and community.
“I feel like Staff Council gives you an opportunity to learn what makes up everything,” Wilmes said. “Helping spread knowledge and awareness is really what it would boil down to. There are a lot of different organizational policies, and it’s kind of like the idea of the informed citizen – how can I help people be informed staff members to help life at work be a positive experience? What does that look like and how can I help?”
Wilmes was nominated for the Hero Award by no less than five of her colleagues in UMSL Global and in different departments across the university, who recognized her organizational skills, reliability and willingness to step in and help – often before she’s asked.
“What truly sets Jackie apart is her unwavering willingness to help,” wrote International Admissions Program Manager Jillian Bockhorst. “She never turns anyone away, regardless of how busy she may be. When a question arises or a problem needs to be solved, Jackie is the person everyone turns to because we know she will find a solution or guide us in the right direction. Her reliability, patience, and positive attitude make even the most stressful situations manageable.”
“She is constantly going above and beyond to ensure our department is running smoothly and is always dedicating her time to helping other people,” added Global Student Programs Coordinator Ellie Reiser. “She cares so deeply for the people she works for, and I can see that when she consistently stays after work hours to finish projects. She is always giving her all to not just her job, but this university as well.”
