Meet your Board Member

Maudie Kelly (MO), Vice President of Awards & Recognition

Maude KellyI am beginning my second year as NEAFCS VP of Awards & Recognition.  What a learning experience this last year has been!  I have met so many wonderful, caring board members and other members of this great organization.  I joined NEAFCS in  February 1998,  attended my first annual conference in North Carolina that fall and have only missed one since then (due to knee surgery).

Although I was born in Oregon, I moved to Missouri at the age of 7 after the death of my father.  My mother married my step-father when I was 11 and we moved to his farm.  I became very active in 4-H and stayed involved until I graduated from high school.  After graduating with my Masters in Home Economics in 1973 from the University of Missouri, I took a position with MU Extension as a Child and Family Development Specialist.  After 15 months, I married the love of my life and moved to the other side of the state.  Because there were no Extension openings at the time, I worked as caseworker at a mental health hospital, took 8 years off to be a stay-a-home mom, then worked as a parent educator for a program called Parents as Teachers. In late 1997, I received a notice about a couple openings with MU Extension as a Human Development Specialist.  I applied, was hired and have been with Extension since February 1998. It felt like I was finally home!

I live in a mid-sized town about an hour south of St. Louis.  My husband, Jim, was an Associate Circuit Judge who retired at the end of 2010.  We have 3 beautiful daughters and 2 wonderful sons-in-law. Our oldest daughter, Sarah, is a social worker for BJC Behavioral Health in Farmington (where we live) and her husband, Kevin, is a hotel manager for a Drury Inn in St. Louis.  Our middle daughter, Kate, is a speech pathologist who is out seeing the world. She moved to Saudi Arabia in August to work in a school, and spent 4 years prior to that working and living in Bangkok, Thailand, and before that worked for a year in Vienna, Austria. Our youngest daughter, Laura, is an accountant currently working for Emerson Company in St. Louis.  Her husband, James, is an engineer for Boeing.

I became active in NEAFCS from the beginning of my current employment.  I have held several affiliate leadership positions—President, Awards VP, Secretary, committees—as well as participation in University of Missouri Extension Association and Epsilon Sigma Phi.  My involvement on the national level, aside from attending annual conferences, started in 2007 when I signed up to be on Awards & Sponsorship sub-committee that handles the Silent Auction.  I worked my way up the ladder from Apprentice to Chair and enjoyed almost all of the time I spent on the committee.  I guess it felt like a somewhat natural progression when I was asked to run for the national VP of Awards & Recognition.  Although I don’t have time to read every award application that is submitted to me, I have flipped through enough of them as I package them up to be sent to reviewers to see the depth and breadth of quality programs that are being presented by our members throughout the United States!  I hope everyone will continue to submit awards applications to showcase you programming and get some well-deserved recognition!   You deserve it!



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