One of the many very disappointing outcomes associated with COVID-19 was the cancelling of the 2020 Rising Professionals Celebration. It makes us even more proud of our award winners and their willingness to accept the award without the pomp and circumstance.
Clara Valadares Kientz serves as assistant director in the Center for Advocacy, Response, and Education, CARE, office Kansas State University overseeing all prevention education and confidential advocacy services. The CARE office offers a variety of interactive trainings for students, faculty and staff as well as presentations designed to engage audiences and offer insight about best-practices. Clara has received four federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants which provide direct advocacy services to survivors of crime. Kientz received her bachelor’s degree in family studies and human services with a minor in leadership studies and master’s degree in college student development from K-State.
Staci Gann graduated from Kansas State University in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in family studies and human services and a minor in conflict analysis and trauma studies. Since graduation, she has pursued a master’s degree in counseling from Midwestern Seminary. Gann has remained in Manhattan where she is the executive director for Stand Up For Your Sister, SUFYS, a non-profit focusing on mental health in college-aged women. She travels across the country presenting workshops to sorority chapters. Since launching SUFYS, over 13,000 women have been impacted throughout the country. SUFYS has launched leadership teams at K-State, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri with plans to soon launch at Wichita State University, Truman State University, and Emporia State University. Gann’s work is driven by the desire to instill hope in young women who are in the most developmental years of their life, often searching for their identity.
Lacey Boven serves as Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL), Region VII. ACL’s Regional Support Centers serve as the focal point for the development, coordination, and administration of ACL programs and activities within designated HHS regions. ACL includes the Administration on Aging (AoA), the Federal focal point and advocate agency for older persons and their caregivers. Within the role of being an ambassador for all ACL programs and supporting partnerships in Region VII, Boven works to identify needs of rural program participants and providers and provide input on publications and recommendations as the ACL representative for the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. Boven received her bachelor’s degree in family studies and human services in 2008. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and home projects with her family.
Klaire Brumbaugh is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist. She graduated from Kansas State University with her bachelor’s and master’s degree in family studies and human services, with an emphasis in communication sciences and disorders. During her time at K-State, she served as a research assistant in Dr. Ann Smit’s lab studying preschool phonological development. Upon graduation, Brumbaugh was employed by Early Intervention Programs in Waco, Texas and Austin, Texas where she worked with children with complex communication needs in their home environment. This clinical experience led Brumbaugh to pursue a Doctorate of Clinical Science in speech-language pathology from Rocky Mountain University in Provo, Utah. The main driving force was to explore research from a practicing SLPs perspective and assist in bridging the theory-to-practice gap. Brumbaugh is an assistant professor and the director of clinical services at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri. She continues the line of research that began at K-State with the intention to create practical tools for preschool SLPs to use in the field. Along with phonological interventions, Brumbaugh is passionate about ensuring student success through the application and development of evidence-based methods used in clinical instruction.
Janet Holden is a 2012 graduate of the family and consumer sciences education program at Kansas State University. Since then, she has received her master’s degree from Pittsburg State University in career and technical education and is currently a student in the doctoral program for family and consumer sciences education at Texas Tech University. Holden has been teaching high school family and consumer sciences for eight years and currently teaches at Southeast High School in Cherokee, Kansas, in rural southeast Kansas. In addition to teaching and sponsoring Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, FCCLA, she is actively involved locally and nationally in the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, currently serving as the state president. Holden’s most recent honor includes being selected as the Kansas Teacher of the Year on behalf of the state association, and has received national honors as a top recruiter for encouraging families to dine-in together to celebrate National Family & Consumer Sciences Day. Holden and her husband Micah, a 2011 K-State grad, reside in Weir, Kansas with their three young sons – Jacob, Luke, and Andrew.