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Dee says life is unpredictable, and that was no more true than in February 2020 when her husband, Todd, was diagnosed with cancer. He died six months later. Countless doctors’ appointments and long hospital stays marked those months, with Dee becoming a full-time caretaker. She says it was an honor to have the role for her husband – and to have the business community rally alongside her in that fight. Dee recently left her role at Guaranty Bank and took a leap into the nonprofit world, a dream she’s long held. This month she was named chief of staff at Burrell Behavioral Health. It’s a cause close to her heart, as therapy has been a lifeline on her own grieving journey.

Francine wears many hats. She’s the outgoing director of Prosper Springfield, the executive director of the Missouri College Access Network and the co-owner of Queen City Soul Kitchen. Francine says her love of cooking sparked the concept, along with the opportunity to bring the community together through soul food. Francine says in recent years she’s gone through an identity crisis of sorts, analyzing her childhood and how the themes of race and class impacted her. She says that it wasn’t until she moved to Springfield that she discovered biases within herself, and how coming to terms with those and understanding her identity has shifted her perspective.

Christie Snelson is an artist and the gallery director at Obelisk Home. She says her work evolves as she does. At one point, it was as a self-employed artist taking commissions for people and pet portraits. She’s since taken on landscapes and paintings depicting scenes of life on social media, but her most recent work is abstract art. She completed a show in May with over 70 pieces. We’ll talk about how painting is her therapy and what it feels like to put herself on display through her work.

Debbie Shantz Hart has had a trailblazing career. The first female lawyer at Husch Blackwell, and attorney to iconic developer John Q. Hammons. She was the fourth woman to chair the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce board, and the first woman outside of the Turner family to serve on the Great Southern Bank Board of Directors. Her career took an unexpected shift after her work with John Q. ended. She got into affordable housing development. But with a long history of nonprofit volunteer leadership building up communities, it’s no wonder the job stuck.

Angie Mullings is the broker/owner of Century 21 Integrity Group. Real estate wasn’t Angie’s first choice for a profession, but it’s one she made a career out of. She bought the business just before the Great Recession hit and took the legs out from the industry. The years that followed tested her professionally and personally, but the lessons learned stuck and sharpened her skills. Today, Angie is focused on giving back to her profession, and creating paths of success for new realtors. 

Krista Peryer is the president and co-founder of The Geek Foundation, a revamped idea on school that’s accelerating graduates into the technology workforce in just 6 months. Krista was inspired to start the nonprofit, which provides its education at no cost, after running into barriers to get into the industry herself. She was a single mom who’d struggled with poverty and the thought of years in college seemed out of reach. Today she’s partnered with companies like O’Reilly Automotive, Jack Henry and Pitt Technology Group, and she has a vision for taking The Geek Foundation nationwide.

Joselyn Baldner is the new president and CEO of Central Bank of the Ozarks. Joselyn started her career in banking as a teller, but earned her first manager role at just 22 years old. Joselyn says leadership is a trait she and others identified in herself early on. When she was tapped as a possibility to take on leading local bank operations, she said she took time to discover if it was what she really wanted and leaned into what it would look like for her to lead as her authentic self. 

Heather Hardinger is one of the newest members of Springfield City Council after winning 41% of votes for General Seat A during the April 2021 election. Heather has devoted her career to workforce and economic development, while also pursuing passion projects by volunteering with equity commissions and national hunger relief initiatives. As a child growing up in Alaska, there were times when her family didn’t have stable housing and her mom applied for public assistance. Heather says those experiences give her the understanding and empathy to be a leader for all people in the community.

Saehee Duran is the lead pastor of Life360 Intercultural, a church on a mission to celebrate cultural diversity of its members by making everyone feel at home. Saehee didn’t grow up religious, but she says an introduction to Christianity by an former stepfather led to her life’s calling. As a young female minister, she’s says she’s intentional about creating space and opportunity for others who feel a similar pull to ministry. We’ll also talk about her work to reach the community outside of the walls of the church as a police chaplain.

Katie Towns is acting director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. As part of the leadership team, she’s spent the past year educating the community on staying healthy and safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The path to this role is one she didn’t expect, but now she says it’s her calling. As she vies for the director position, Katie says she’s learning to embrace her own style of leadership while also raising two young kids as a single parent. She says taking care of herself is one way she’s made it through the past year.

You won't want to miss the 10 episodes of No Ceiling Season 2! Local women share their journey to the top of their professions and the challenges and triumphs they faced along the way. They’re rewriting the script on success and there’s no ceiling.  Season 2 is coming April 28, with episodes released weekly. 

Stephanie Ireland is the owner of 20-year-old Springfield architecture firm Ireland Architects. Stephanie says its no wonder she ended up in this field – her dad was a woodshop teacher and her mom an interior design and architectural history professor. But the road to gaining her license was not easy. She took a non-traditional education path and she experienced a set back early in her career when she was laid off. But Stephanie says she’s drawn to a challenge. We’ll talk about how that desire has led her to spend much of her career designing health care clinics and psychiatric hospitals.

Restaurateur Anne Baker is the co-owner of downtown’s Finnegan’s Wake, Civil Kitchen and Tinga Tacos. Her work in the hospitality industry started just as she became a teenager, bussing tables at a family friend’s restaurant. She grew up poor, the daughter of immigrants from Korea. Her parents taught her the value of the dollar and hard work. Anne says those values are peppered throughout her life, and were crucial as she had the unexpected opportunity to became a bar owner in her early 20s. We talk about what it was like growing up a first generation American and how she sees her parents and her childhood in a new light after becoming a mother herself. 

Carol Taylor has served as the president of Evangel University since 2013. She announced her plans, officially this time, to retire in November 2020 after 45 years in education. That date was postponed so she could stay on to lead the school through the COVID-19 pandemic. That move was in Carol’s nature, she’s not one to back down from a challenge. We’ll talk about her abrupt appointment to lead Vanguard in California, as the university was threatened with losing its accreditation. And stepping into her role at Evangel and succeeding Robert Spence, the second longest serving college president, ever. She says she found purpose and power in being her own kind of leader. And those challenges? She says her life has been marked by giving an unqualified yes to anything God has in store.

Shurita Thomas-Tate is a speech pathologist who teaches about language and literacy development and disorders at Missouri State University. It’s her deep passion for equity and understanding that drives her work, and it’s also what led her to run for the Springfield Public Schools’ board. Compared to the rest of Springfield, the school district is very diverse. She says those kids needed a voice, and that decision makers should be as diverse as the population they serve. We’ll also talk about her nonprofit to boost literacy among underserved kids.

On April 30, 2019, a devastating series of tornadoes ripped through the Ozarks. About 100 homes were damaged, and several were destroyed. One home that was leveled was owned by Susan Haralson. She’s the co-owner of Premier Home Heath Care and a local leader of networking and service organization, Rotary. Her and her husband survived the EF2 tornado, and in the days and weeks that followed, Susan says the friends from Rotary, the community and her neighbors helped her put her life back together. In 2020, Susan faced another storm when COVID-19 hit, but this time the impact was to her business Her home health care agency’s revenue was cut in half. We also talk about her decade-long career in broadcast journalism, and how that laid the foundation for her work as a spokesperson for Rotary.

Jennifer Charleston has worked at the Springfield Police Department for two decades and is one of the department’s leaders, holding the title of lieutenant. Policing is not a profession full of women, and that’s a part of Jennifer’s career she’s proud of, helping make opportunities for female officers that will come after her. We’ll talk about the new role she took on this year, serving as a liaison between the department and the LGBTQ+ community. She says she’s committed to building trust between the communities. That’s what she’s built her entire career on.

As a young girl living in Haiti, Darline Mabins’ mother and brother died in a tragic car accident. She says repercussions from that loss were felt throughout her life. The accident was shortly followed by another pivotal moment—a move to the United States. We’ll talk about growing up in a country where she didn’t speak the language and finding success and joy in a career path she never expected. She’s a regional branch sales manager at Arvest Bank.

Jordan McAdoo is a software engineer who works at StitchFix, a national company that uses technology to help match customers with clothing that fits their style. She focuses on the company’s app and the user experience. She’s taken her skill set into the community, helping connect other women with her industry. She says a diverse workforce makes a better product.

Jennifer Jackson is the publisher of Springfield Business Journal. Her mother founded the company in 1980, and Jennifer’s first job at the journal was in high school, helping typeset copy. But assuming ownership of the paper was not in her long-range plan. She was working toward a career in higher education administration when her mother asked if she’d like to learn the business. It was a move that challenged Jennifer, leaving the structure of higher education for the uncertainly of running a small business, but she hit her stride and today calls her employees her family, a feeling she fully understood after the death of her husband in 2019.