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Leigh Nutter

Leigh Nutter

By Sara Muri, AgJ '07

As a college sophomore, Leigh (Burkhalter) Nutter worked on an assembly line with the monotonous task of making electrical circuit breakers at Square D north of Columbia.

"It was just a part-time job; I worked second shift so I could work in the evenings," Nutter recalls. It didn't hurt that she also was making good money.

While the job was short-lived, she learned one important lesson from the assembly line world.

"That job made me realize I wanted to get my degree and find a job where I am not making breaker boxes," she says. And, since her year at Square D, she has not made another breaker box.

She instead graduated with an agricultural education degree in 1994 and earned her master's in agricultural education in 2000 from the University of Missouri. Growing up on a farm in Wellsville and being active in FFA led Nutter to MU's agriculture path.

"I knew I wanted to be involved in agriculture, so it just made sense to come to MU," she says. But, her path wasn't always straight and narrow. She began her years at MU as an agricultural journalism major before finding a perfect fit in agriculture education. "Some of my job experiences during college, such as serving as the leadership director at FFA camp and with Farmland Industries, made me see maybe I had some strengths to go into Ag Ed."

She says being a CAFNR student was a perfect fit for her. "Being from a small town, I never felt uncomfortable there," she says. "The people that are there, students and faculty, are really tight-knit and very much a family."

Nutter was one of the first students of Bryan Garton, associate professor and chair of the MU agricultural education department. Garton says Nutter's involvement and dedication as a student greatly impressed him. "She was very successful in extracurricular activities in high school, and she continued that success in her academic career at Mizzou."

While in college, Nutter was president of the Mizzou FFA Alumni and a co-chair for the Ag Week steering committee.

In addition, Nutter worked for the Ag Alumni Association. "She was one of the first interns that the Ag Alumni Board funded," says Dana Brown-Haynes, CAFNR alumni relations director. "She did everything from planning golf tournaments to helping facilitate alumni making scholarship presentations at more than 100 high schools across the state."

Another trait Brown-Haynes admired of Nutter was her commitment and organization. "She is tremendously dependable, organized and has that strong attention to detail," she says. "These qualities make her an immediate asset to any employer."

Over the years, Nutter's skills and abilities have been applied to several positions. She was the director of public relations for the Missouri Soybean Association and director of member services for the Missouri Pork Producers Association. Instead of pursuing jobs, Nutter says most of her positions have come from people identifying her as the person who had the abilities and strengths needed for a particular position.

Nutter currently wears the City of Columbia's volunteer coordinator nametag. Located just behind a glass door adorned with a City of Columbia logo, her office on North Eighth Street almost goes unnoticed. However, behind this plain office front, Nutter helps organize hundreds of volunteers who make a difference in and surrounding Columbia.

"My primary duty is to work with departments who need volunteers and help them in some way," Nutter says. "I also work with citizens who want to volunteer." The volunteers she locates and assists share their time at various festivals and special events throughout the year.

Although it is unusual for a city to have an entire department dedicated to volunteering, Nutter says Columbia has many people who want to give back to their community. "People don't come here because they are disgruntled or unhappy," she says. "They are generally really happy and positive people to work with."

It is working with those positive people that makes Nutter enjoy her job the most. She recalls attending a school presentation with a firefighter who mentioned how she only sees people on their worst days, because of a health problem or accident. Nutter says with a bright smile, "I thought, ‘oh gosh, we get to do some really good things here.' Obviously, people can always be a challenge to work with, but generally our experiences are positive."

Out of the many events Nutter helps coordinate, her favorite is the Mayor's Challenge Bike, Walk and Wheel Week. The event was founded during Nutter's six years with the City of Columbia. "Mayor Hindman really wanted to promote people walking and biking to work, to get people to not just drive to work, but to be physically active," she says. "You really can see the city in a whole different way than when you are in your car."

Nutter says the event has gained more and more momentum each year. "Anytime you start something new, you just take a risk. But, it's just been fantastic because so many people have supported it."

Beyond organizing and delegating work for the volunteers, Nutter also has another important duty. "One of our biggest roles is making sure the volunteers are taken care of," Nutter says. "We also make sure we properly thank them and get feedback from them about their experiences."

Nutter's participation in the CAFNR Connections program was an easy decision. "I am not currently working in the ag field, so I really enjoy activities that keep me linked to CAFNR," she says. "I have a lot of loyalties to the agriculture community, so this is a way I can stay involved even though my job is not directly related to agriculture."

Nutter says she is excited to have the opportunity to help current students because she clearly remembers the college headaches. She recalls the constant pressures on students to know exactly what they want to do the minute they graduate college. "I think part of the pressure is that if you haven't done something before, you don't know if you like it or not," she says. "And, then to say that you need a plan, well, that's not being realistic."

Nutter advises students to work hard and make contacts. "I would say to really go out and seek opportunities, go out of your way to find experiences that will help you," Nutter says. "I think that people who go above and beyond are always going to be rewarded in some way."

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