Author Ryan Heinz
UMSL’s first poet laureate: Jennifer Tappenden

UMSL’s first poet laureate: Jennifer Tappenden

Jennifer Tappenden works by day making small databases for researchers to track study data. By night, the 42-year-old New York native hones her poetry skills while in pursuit of her master’s of fine arts in creative writing at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. She’s scheduled to graduate in December, but before then she’s spending her final year at UMSL as the university’s first poet laureate.

The Challenge

The Challenge

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people … They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” –Thomas Jefferson

Nonprofit scholar to discuss human service deserts

Nonprofit scholar to discuss human service deserts

Drawing on the concept of food deserts, popularized by first lady Michelle Obama, scholar Brent Never will discuss the implications of human service deserts for communities of need. He will present his lecture “Service Deserts and Nonprofits: ‘Lumpiness’ in the Fabric of Human Service Provision” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. April 27 at the chapel in Bellerive Hall on South Campus at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Baseball coach Brady notches win 700 … and counting

Baseball coach Brady notches win 700 … and counting

Jim Brady, head coach of the University of Missouri–St. Louis baseball team, joined an exclusive club this weekend. The UMSL Tritons 14-2 defeat of Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent University of Illinois Springfield Sunday (April 22) gave Brady his 700th career victory. He became only the 37th coach in NCAA Division II history to accomplish the feat.

The Challenge

Raising awareness of domestic homicide in Missouri

Two people meet, fall in love and then live happily ever after. The ideal ending, right? Or wrong? Since the beginning of 2012, at least five Missouri women have had their happily-ever-afters cut tragically short by violence. These women have been killed, not by strangers, but allegedly by men they once loved. The deaths of Jamie L. Fields-Arrington, 33; Sarah Billingsley-Walker, 18; Kristie Steed, 43; Gwendolyn E. Pahmeyer, 51; and Alyshia Alexander, 24 are startling reminders of the seriousness of domestic homicide in our own community.