Leadership

Rev. D. Allen Calkins is the Northeast Missouri Regional Representative for MBCH. Prior to coming to work for MBCH, Allen served as pastor of four Southern Baptist Churches in his 25 years of full-time ministry, all on the eastern side of Missouri. His most recent pastorate was First Baptist Church of Gray Summit. Allen has held many Associational leadership positions. At present time, Allen serves as a member of the MBC Christian Life Commission.

In 1989, Allen graduated with a Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX. Prior to entering the ministry he worked as a data processing professional for two Fortune 500 companies in Tulsa, OK. During that time he also earned his MBA from the University of Tulsa. In April 2019 Allen became a Certified Gift Planning Associate through Crescendo's Gift College.

Allen has been married to his wife Gerri for more than 40 years. He has two grown children and ten grandchildren.

Jeffrey (Jeff) Hicks and wife Darla have lived in Springfield for the past 17 years.  They are members of Second Baptist Church of Springfield where they are active in a number of different ministries.  Since 2008 they have served as Foster Parents for MBCH and have adopted one son, Bradley during this time.  They have one daughter and son-in-law, Katelyn and Grant Youngsma who are both graduates of Southwest Baptist University and teach in the Marionville MO Schools.
 
Jeff comes to MBCH with many years of business experiences as a former business owner, corporate executive and financial advisor.  He is a graduate of Evangel University (BS) and The University of the Southwest (MBA).

Joe Nogalski is a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather.  He has been married to his wife, Joyce, for 35 years. He has two children who are both married and serving the Lord. He also has two amazing grandchildren. 

Joe Nogalski has over 34 years of ministry experience. He has been a senior pastor for 25 years. Joe is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity in church growth. He has started the humanitarian outreach, Care4Ghana, and has helped launch Crossing for Mercy which is now Mission3:18. Joe was instrumental in opening the door through which hundreds of medical exams and surgeries in the Northern region of Ghana has been accomplished.  Joe resigned from Memorial Baptist Church (MBC) in New Haven, Missouri, where he saw the average attendance go from 80 to over 250. While senior pastor of MBC, the church ministered to over 200 kids a year through Upward Basketball, started Lighthouse Academy Preschool, and revitalized a small country church seeing weekly attendance go from 7 to over 50. He is looking forward with excitement to be able to use his experience to connect with pastors and churches for Missouri Baptist Children’s Home.

Kenny was born in St. Louis and raised in Hardy, Arkansas. He has a strong history in business management and sales.

He has spent his entire life in the Baptist Church. He and his wife are active members of Temple Baptist Church in Sullivan. Kenny has filled many ministry positions in churches including nursery worker, teacher, music leader and deacon. He most enjoys working in children’s church. “It is very important to reach children for Christ,” Vawter said.

Kenny is happily married with six children and sixteen grandchildren.

Trisha Crow joined the staff of MBCH Foundation in 2012. Trisha lives in Kirkwood, MO and serves as the Grant Writer for all of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home affiliates. Her responsibilities include finding and developing funding sources, communicating with staff regarding needs and programs, writing and submitting applications, and managing any grants that are received. You will also find her helping at most of the MBCH events.

Trisha has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Truman State University and a Master of Arts in public administration from Saint Louis University. She worked as a housing consultant for many years. Her assignments varied widely from working with people displaced from their homes to working on applications for funding for low-income housing developments. The diversity of tasks has prepared her well for grant writing at MBCH.

Trisha is married to Terry, and they have two rapidly growing children and one very shy cat.

Cindy joined the Foundation staff in January of 2008 as the Assistant to the Director of Advancement and is presently the Administrative Assistant to the Foundation Staff. She has also taken on some of the responsibilities of the former Director of Advancement. Cindy is responsible for tracking all of the paper work for our various tax credits as well as help track projects that are tied to some of the tax credits. Cindy also has special events management responsibilities.

Before joining the Foundation staff, Cindy was the Public Relations Assistant for 9 years for the Children's Home. As PR Assistant, Cindy produced the staff newsletter and had significant responsibility in the management of our donor data base, our special event data base, our memorial/tribute gift data base and our development production data base.

Prior to coming to MBCH, Cindy was the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Development for Freeway Foundation (formerly the Christian Civic Foundation). Cindy also spent some time in the banking industry -- both as a domestic teller and an international teller.

Cindy has been married to Keith since 1975 and they have three grown sons, Corey, Kyle and Kevin; one daughter-in-law, Nicole; one granddaughter, Cadence and one grandson, Eli.