We at MHC are very happy to have Jo Sapp and Patricia Reublin as members of the Council, where the perspectives they bring as educators and administrators  will be of immense value as we move forward in carrying out our mission.

Jo Sapp
Columbia, elected 2010

 

In her early childhood, Jo spent more than a decade on the move with her family, living in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland, California, Washington, and New Mexico, before settling in Springfield, Missouri, where she attended high school. Her writing career did not begin until much later, after she had left college, married, and had a child. Deciding that “there had to be something more to life than canning tomatoes and watching the grass grow,” and following suggestions from her husband, she enrolled in a course in creative writing. There and then she became “irrevocably hooked.”

With her new board position with the Council and love of literature, Jo is excited to share her passion with the rest of Missouri.

“A lifetime in books, both as a reader and a writer, has convinced me that we are defined and enriched by the stories we tell about our world and our history,” Sapp said. “I want to do whatever I can to see our collective story preserved and shared in ways that make it available to everyone.”

Jo has a bachelor and Master degree in English with a creative writing emphasis, both from the University of Missouri. While obtaining her Masters, she joined the staff of the Missouri Review, where she worked for a number of years as an editor. She also taught creative writing at the University of Missouri.

Jo also completed coursework for a Ph.D. and wrote a successful proposal for a creative dissertation, the first ever at University of Missouri- Columbia, opening doors for others. As she was preparing for the comprehensive exam, Jo received funding from the Missouri Arts Council to complete a novel, which she accepted and completed. Jo is currently working on a novel about the New Madrid fault.

After leaving the university, Jo spent four years in Malaysia, helping the International Islamic University to create a literary magazine and conducting a course in creative writing for Malaysian women. She returned to the states and developed and taught creative writing courses for UCLA Online. Her fiction has appeared in a number of literary magazines and anthologies including the North American Review, New Straits Times, Denver Quarterly, Washington Review, Kansas Quarterly and Epoch, as well as the Malaysian national newspaper. She has also published a number of book reviews and articles and literary interviews, both in the U.S. and in Malaysia.

On the civic side, Jo is past chair of the Columbia Arts Commission and served as president of both the Columbia and Daniel Boone Regional Library boards. She served on the board of Community Access Television as well as the city-appointed Cable Television Task Force.

She is active in the League of Women Voters and is immediate past president of the state organization and past president of the local league. The statewide study of public libraries, which she chaired, resulted in an advocacy position for the League. She chaired the legislative committee of the American Library Trustees Association and served on the legislative committee of the Missouri Library Association. She is a founding member and past co-chair of the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition and is vice-president of the Missouri Sunshine Coalition (an offshoot of the National Freedom Of Information Coalition). She also serves on the Comprehensive Plan Task Force appointed by the Columbia City Council in 2010.

Patricia Reublin
Malden, elected 2010

 

From 1999 to the present, Patricia Reublin has served as Director of the Bootheel Youth Museum in Malden Missouri. There, she provides leadership for a remarkable institution: a museum with 22,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits that explore the worlds of math, science, human relations, natural resources and the arts, located in a community with just under 5,000 residents. The audience that the museum serves, however, is drawn from a much larger area that extends into the surrounding counties of southeast Missouri, and even into Arkansas. Patricia oversees an operation that engages thousands of school children and families each year, with exhibits such as “This Island Mars” which features over 20 interactive elements about the “Red Planet,” the “construction zone” which encourages creative building skills, and a hands-on presentation about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The museum also features a 200-seat theater that is used for a variety of public programs; it hosts field trips and birthday parties, and offers a “traveling museum” that can be set up at schools and events within a 100-mile radius of Malden.

Holding a Masters of Visual Arts, from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Fine Art from Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver, Colorado, Patricia has also worked as an instructor at the University of Northern Colorado, Three Rivers community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and at Southeast Missouri State University, where at present she teaches “Perspectives in Art.” Patricia has also served as Director at the University of Northern Colorado John Mariani Gallery. Her involvement with museums and other cultural and arts organizations includes participation in the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry SMRC (Small Museum Resource Collaborative), the American Association of State and Local History Small Museums Committee, the River Heritage Board, the Missouri Citizens for the Arts Board. In addition to community service with a variety of educational and civic groups, Patricia has worked as a museum consultant for the Missouri Humanities Council, assisting other small museum organizations.

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