Outstanding Alumni

The Outstanding Alumni Award honors alumni who have typified the Missouri Valley College tradition of excellence and brought credit to the College by their personal accomplishment, professional achievement or humanitarian service. The Missouri Valley College Alumni Association presents awards to our Outstanding Alumni and Young Alumni at the Alumni Banquet held during Homecoming weekend.

Nominate Outstanding Alumni

Nominate a Viking

John Gault 1958

John D. Gault has a B.S. in chemistry and mathematics from Missouri Valley College, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri. He taught in the Belton Public schools, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil) (1971-1987) and had two stints on the faculty at MVC.

Dr. Gault is an active member of the Lutheran Church and lectured and wrote about the interaction of science and religion.

Gault is also a member of American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. His awards include: National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship to the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Reactor and MIT Research Reactor, 1970–71 (15-month appointment); and CNPq (Brazilian National Research Council) Senior Research Fellowship to Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent, Ohio.

Jana Champion-Caudle 1996

Her teaching career has spanned 27 years. She was honored as Blue Ridge Elementary Teacher of the Year in the 2011-2012 school year and again in the 2021-2022 school year, and she earned the prestigious Raytown School District Teacher of the Year honor in the 2021-2022 school year.

Jana was a basketball star at Valley, playing on a team that went undefeated at home and won the conference in 1994-95. She is also in the Elite 1,000-point club. She was part of the 1995 basketball team who was inducted into the MVC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.

She serves on the MVC Greek Life Advisory Board and continues to support women’s basketball. She supports her community by collecting for REAP as part of the Kindness Challenge, participated in Earth Day trash pickups, and has fundraised for the American Cancer Society, Girls on the Run, and the Blue Ridge Elementary Read-a-Thon.

Eric Sappington 1995

Eric Sappington graduated from Missouri Valley College in 1995 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in Marketing. After graduation, Eric worked for Chrysler Financial Corporation in Leawood, KS until returning to work for his college alma mater in 2005. Eric and his wife, Heather, a 1996 Valley graduate and an accomplished elementary teacher, raised their three children in Marshall until their graduations from MHS in 2021 and 2023.

After 19 years as an administrator at Missouri Valley, Eric joined the Community Foundation of Central Missouri based in Columbia as its Executive Director in April of 2024. Eric leads a team at the foundation that brings donors and non-profit organizations together to positively impact all of Central Missouri.

Eric and Heather are avid sports fans and enjoy spending time with Ethan, Evan and Faith as well as friends and family.

Alex Aubrecht 2018

Alex Aubrecht has a B.S. in biology from Missouri Valley College, and he earned his Doctorate in veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota in 2022. He did an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the University of Wisconsin, and is doing his small animal surgery residency at the UC-Davis School of Medicine.

Alex was an NAIA scholar-athlete from 2015-18 and an all-American in Lacrosse. He spent eight semesters on the dean’s list, and five semesters on the President’s list.

Alex remains an active participant when it comes to teaching and mentoring students at Missouri Valley. He played a key role in Valley’s recent biology alumni reunion.

Past Outstanding Alumni

# Denotes Outstanding Young Alumni

* Deceased