Rising Star Recipients 2026

Born and raised in rural Western Kansas, Wyatt received a bachelor’s degree in health science from Truman State University in 2017. After earning a master’s degree in public health from Indiana University, he moved back to Kansas and began working at the Kansas Health Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Topeka, Kansas.

Wyatt currently serves as a Senior Analyst & Portfolio Strategist at KHI. He leads activities and projects focused on rural health and rural communities, including hosting the rural health focused Health on the Plains Podcast and organizing the Annual Health on the Plains Summit.

Wyatt has contributed to KHI studies on social isolation, e-cigarettes, suicide prevention, telehealth, prescription drugs, and the response of local governments to COVID-19. He also provided research support to the Center for Sharing Public Health Services, a national initiative formerly managed by KHI and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which focuses on resource sharing arrangements as a strategy to improve public health effectiveness and efficiency.

Wyatt lives in the Kansas City area with his wife, Susan, a fellow Truman grad, and his dog, Biscuit.

Dylan Gelbach serves as a judge advocate and captain in the Missouri Army National Guard. His work includes advising commanders on legal issues, providing legal assistance to soldiers, and training with his unit for disaster response and other missions.

Prior to joining the Missouri National Guard, Dylan wrote legislation as a drafting attorney for the Missouri House of Representatives. Multiple instances of his work have become law or appeared on state-wide ballots.

Dylan graduated from Truman in 2012 with a degree in Business Administration and minor in Justice Systems. He was active in Delta Sigma Pi, the Pre-Law Club, and Truman Student Success Center. He graduated from the University of Missouri – School of Law in 2015.

Theo Greer is a composer and music theorist from St. Louis, Missouri, who holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and music composition (’21), along with an MA in music composition (’23) from Truman State University. He recently completed an MM in music theory at Michigan State University (’26) where he taught undergraduate aural skills and music theory classes.

While at Truman, he was awarded a grant to compose and record a collaborative work for string quartet and rap, bringing together musicians across genres with vastly different performance practices and seeking to break down institutional barriers to accessing the concert hall, a venue historically exclusive to classical music. Since then, he has continued to advocate through his compositions, most recently with Our Truth (co-written with Dr. Nick Schumacher), a choral piece about mitigating the generational cycle of shame and stigma surrounding LGBTQ+ identities. Selected as the winning composition for the category of “truth” in OurSong Atlanta’s composition competition, this choral work will be premiered in spring 2027 as part of a multi-movement song cycle at the ensemble’s 25th-anniversary concert.

His recent research explores text-music relationships and narrative in rap music, the effects of exogenous testosterone on the aural imagery and aural skills of AFAB trans musicians, and music theory and aural skills pedagogy more broadly. He has presented his research at Theorizing African American Music, the Symposium of Research in Music at Indiana University, and Music Theory Midwest, and has co-presented work with Dr. Michael Callahan at MSU TALKS and Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Conference. In 2024, he was named an emerging scholar of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. In 2026, he was selected for the Society for Music Perception and Cognition’s empirical research retreat in memory of David Huron at Northwestern University.

Theo is passionate about teaching music theory and composition to musicians of all backgrounds, and he believes that music practice, research, and pedagogy should inform one another. His students and the process of teaching motivate him to engage with the content more deeply, and he is always looking for ways to create tools to help students learn music theory. His interest in combining his computer science and music backgrounds to create these tools began at Truman’s 2017 hackathon, when he teamed up with Jessica Jordan to code “Color Chordination,” a website that connects user-selected chords to a color wheel and visualizes structural relationships between those chords. His current project in this vein is an interactive Takadimi Rhythm Practice Generator (available at theogreermusic.com/takadimi), inspired by a student’s request for practice resources to build fluency with different rhythmic patterns using the Takadimi system.

Jenna Homeyer graduated from Truman State University in 2012, where she was an active member of Delta Zeta. She went on to the University of Missouri School of Law, earning the Order of the Barristers distinction, competing on the Mizzou negotiation team, and serving as an editor of the Journal of Dispute Resolution. Jenna began her legal career at the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office, trying cases involving traffic fatalities, DWI offenses, domestic violence, and child sex crimes, before joining Dr. Bradshaw’s Law Firm in Springfield, where she is a partner representing injured people in car accident, trucking accident, and premises liability cases. She is an active member of the Missouri Bar, the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, and the Southern Missouri Women Lawyers Association, and she is a graduate of the Missouri Bar Leadership Academy and Leadership Springfield. Outside the courtroom, she enjoys exploring the Ozarks with her husband and their two dogs.

Matt Kennedy is a social studies teacher at Kirksville High School, a 2025 Missouri Teacher of the Year finalist, and the president elect of the Missouri Council of Social Studies. He has developed award-winning interdisciplinary lesson materials on data science and gerrymandering, is active in supporting early-career social studies teachers in Northeast Missouri and has a passion for helping students use history as a lens for understanding the world around them.

Matt lives in Kirksville with his wife Kristin, a Truman alumna, and their daughter.

Matthew Matheney is a passionate educator dedicated to building a school community where students can find the intersection of their talents and the needs of the world. Matthew currently teaches and serves as an instructional mentor at Hickman High School in Columbia, MO, where he strives each day to make progress toward this educational vision.

Matthew graduated from Truman State University in 2017 with a double B.A. in Math and Physics and again in 2019 with his M.A.E. in Secondary Math & Science Education. He remains actively connected to the Truman State University community while serving as faculty for the Joseph Baldwin Academy (JBA) summer program.

Outside of educational endeavors, Matthew enjoys practicing Taekwondo, designing board games, and going on adventures with his wife, Anna (Alumna, 2016), and his daughter, Mira.

Casey Millburg serves as the Chief of Staff for the Mayor’s Office. Previously, she served as the Policy Director for Mayor Cara Spencer and Mayor Tishaura Jones and General Counsel and Budget Director of the Missouri House Minority Caucus. There, she handled a variety of legal and ethical matters, including the caucus’ amicus brief for the Medicaid Expansion litigation. She guided the caucus’ budget program through the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery and helped it work across aisles and branches of government to secure more than $2.5 billion for priorities. Her committee portfolio included those on fiscal and financial topics, economic development, ethics, judiciary, and government accountability. Casey also managed the caucus’ oversight efforts, including on the bipartisan investigations into Missouri’s rollout of medical marijuana licenses, child abuse at religious boarding schools, and concerns with the Department of Social Services.

She attended Penn State Law on full academic scholarship, where she was a member of the Public Interest Law Fund, magister of the Phi Delta Phi legal honor society, editor-in-chief of the Arbitration Law Review, and helped launch the Faculty Research Assistance Program. She clerked both summers for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Washington, D.C., watchdog, supporting its legal efforts on matters ranging from state campaign finance to federal emoluments. Prior to law school, she managed nonprofits, supported advocacy clients at a Missouri lobbying firm, and interned for State Senator Joan Bray (D-University City) while getting her B.A. in Political Science from Truman State University.

Casey is an active member of the Missouri Bar and has served as the volunteer legal advisor for an organization of active and retired military members working to help Afghan military partners evacuate and immigrate to the United States. She is also a volunteer severe weather spotter.

David Pagel (’13) serves as General Counsel for Sourcewell, a Minnesota-based public agency that supports government, education, and nonprofit organizations across North America. In this role, he advises on legal, procurement, contracting, and compliance matters that support public sector programs, strategic initiatives, and government partnerships.

In addition to his legal career, David is a 16-year veteran of the Army National Guard, having served in Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. He currently holds the rank of Major.

David earned a Bachelor of Science in Justice Systems from Truman State University in 2013, with a minor in Military Science. He later earned his Juris Doctor from Mitchell Hamline School of Law, where he served as both Associate Editor then Managing Editor of the Mitchell Hamline Law Review.

His professional achievements have been recognized through honors including Minnesota Attorney of the Year (2026), membership in the Million and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum (2025), recognition as a Top 40 Under 40 professional (2024), and induction into the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara (2024).

David lives in Bloomington, Minnesota, with his wife, Anna, a fellow Truman State University graduate, and their two children.

As a wife and mother to 3 sweet souls, Courtney lives with her husband (another Truman alum) in rural Douglas County, Kansas amongst their chickens and alpacas. She graduated from Truman in 2009 with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2012 with an MS in Global Management. After settling in Kansas, Courtney got involved in local politics following COVID and volunteered for several state and local campaigns. She was elected in 2025 to fill a vacancy in Kansas House District 5 and served on Judiciary, Local Government, Welfare Reform, and Foster Care Reform Committees in her inaugural session. Courtney was successful in a three-way primary this year to earn her party’s nomination for the November General Election to continue serving as the Representative in her state House District, which stretches across four counties southwest of Kansas City.

Avery Whitsell is the Head of Business Development & Operations for UBS in Canada, where he leads strategic growth initiatives and cross-divisional coordination across the region’s wealth, asset management, and investment banking divisions. Avery joined UBS in 2023 as a Business Strategist on the GWM Americas strategy team, where he worked closely with leadership to define and execute strategic priorities across the Americas.

Prior to joining UBS, Avery spent 6+ years at Wells Fargo in various roles, including as a Strategy Consultant in the Corporate & Investment Bank and as a Data Scientist in Wealth & Investment Management.

Avery holds degrees in Finance and Economics from Truman State University. Outside of work, he is an avid runner and community advocate, currently Chairing the Executive Committee for the ZERO Prostate Cancer Run/Walk in NYC. Originally from Kansas City, he now resides in Manhattan.