What History Majors Are Doing Now
What do our history graduates do after leaving Truman? Here is a partial listing. Please send additions, corrections, and updates to history@truman.edu.
1981-1990
Dan Burke (BS, Education, 1990). I am writing in response to the letter I received recently from the new Department of History. Thanks for the updates and formation of the new Department. I graduated from Northeast Missouri State in 1990 with a BSE in History. I was a member of the Historical Society while in college as well as four year letter winner for the Bulldog football team as a defensive back. I was also a member of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity as well. Presently, I am in my nineteenth year as a secondary Social Studies teacher. I work at Center Point-Urbana High School as an American History and Psychology teacher. I am also the Head Football Coach at our school as well as boys track. I am married to Julie Burke (Miller) a Northeast graduate, class of 1989. We have two children, Alec 12, and Maggie, 8.
Marc Jackson (BA 1988) I am a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State and am currently Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition to my current posting, during my 20 year career in the Foreign Service I have had the following assignments: Regional Coordinator for Counterterrorism for the Horn of Africa at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya from 2018 to 2022; Political-Military and External Affairs Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines from 2014 to 2018; Political-Military Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq from 2013 to 2014; Outreach Unit Chief at the Consulate General in Guangzhou, China from 2010 to 2013; Chinese Language Student in Taipei, Taiwan from 2009 to 2010; Political Officer in the Office of Japan Affairs at the Department of State in Washington, DC from 2007 to 2009; Management Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo from 2005 to 2007; Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2003 to 2004; and Vice-Consul in Beijing from 2002 to 2003. Before joining the Foreign Service I worked for Sharp Corporation in Nara, Japan for several years. After graduating in 1988, I went to Taiwan to study Mandarin for a year, attended graduate school at Temple University from 1989 to 1991, taught English in Japan on the JET Programme from 1991 to 1994, and studied at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies from 1995 to 1996, graduating with an MA in Modern Japanese History. I’ve been married to my wife, Naoko Ishibashi, since 1994. We have two children, Tai and Hana.
L. Andrew McDonald (BS, 1986). He has worked in Banking since graduation. He was Senior Vice President in charge of Operations at Whitney National Bank of New Orleans Louisiana. After Katrina he moved to Minneapolis Minnesota to work as Vice President of Operations for Wells Fargo bank. He currently only studies history as a hobby and past time endeavor, and spends his free time reading American Civil War history and visiting Civil War battlefields around the country.
Tim A. Scherrer (BA, 1987; MA 2000). I worked at Truman for 12 years in the Physical Plant as a supervisor while I pursued my Masters. Upon graduating, I moved to University of Missouri-Columbia where I was an Assistant Professor of Military Science for 8 years. While there, I taught freshman and sophomore Military Science, and created the Military History course for MU, which is still being taught. I also took graduate hours at Mizzou. In 2008, I accepted a position at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, MO as Director of College Placement and Counseling, and I also get to teach a section of US History. I also still serve as an intelligence officer in the Army Reserve, and am a Lieutenant Colonel. I teach through the Army Reserve Command and General Staff College program as my duty assignment.
Truman prepared me well for graduate school at Mizzou, as well as everything else life has thrown at me. During the year after September 11 2001, I supervised an intelligence analysis shop with a world wide overview that included terrorism, information warfare, and intelligence production of briefings and on-line products. Having the critical thinking skills developed in my history courses at Truman ensured my success there.
Jill Stover (BSE/BA, 1982) I entered NMSU as a Pershing Scholar in 1978, and enjoyed the time I spent at Truman/NMSU immensely! I have such fond memories of those times. During that time, I married my first husband and had a son, Danny. [Danny was born right before finals week in 1980, is almost 30 now, and lives in Florida with my two grandchildren.]
Despite starting a family as a student, I graduated in 1982 with a BSE in History and a BA in Latin American Studies and went on into the graduate program at Truman, teaching then as a graduate assistant in Pro-Lab. After leaving Truman in 1984, I taught at Pacific Jr High for a year in Missouri, then in 1986, moved to Dallas, Texas with Danny for a teaching job. I taught in Carrollton TX for 4 years, then obtained a post-baccalaureate paralegal certificate. I used my anthropology/social studies background and Spanish skills as an Immigration Paralegal for the next several years, serving in law firms and corporations in Dallas and Houston and meeting all kinds of interesting people from around the world. I also spent a lot of time doing community service project management, ultimately serving as the 75th President of the Dallas Jaycees in the early 90’s.
In 1997, I had two momentous events happen to me. I was chosen to go to the Philippines as a Rotary Group Study Exchange team member, traveling around the southern part of that country for a month and staying with Rotarian families. The other momentous occasion was meeting my current husband, Stephen Stover, that year. Stephen is a Geoscientist now working for Pioneer Natural Resources in Irving, TX. We have a teenage son, Cameron, who is a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Due to my son’s issues, I started learning about special education issues and lay advocacy. This has lead me back into the education field as a part-time special education advocacy consultant (www.ardassist.com) assisting families to obtain services for their disabled children within the public school system, and I am also a full time employee of Texas Woman’s University as the Administrative Assistant for the university’s Faculty Senate.
Thanks for trying to keep us connected with Truman!
Kevin Walden (BS, Education, 1984). Immediately after graduation I taught high school social studies at Lakeland HS in Deepwater, Missouri (84-85), attended the University of Iowa College of Law (87-89), engaged in private practice of law (89-04), served as Carroll County (MO) Prosecuting Attorney (97-04), and served as Associate Circuit Judge of Carroll County (MO), 8th Judicial Circuit (05-present).
