Aug. 1, 2019

Northwest Foundation welcomes 5 new members

Dell Epperson

Kelly Ferguson

Daniel Peterson

Dr. Joyce Piveral

Dustin Wasson

The Northwest Foundation Inc. has appointed four new members to its Board of Directors to help guide the University’s advancement and grow private support.

The new members are Dell Epperson, Kelly Ferguson, Daniel Peterson, Dr. Joyce Piveral and Dustin Wasson.

The Northwest Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, is responsible for receiving, investing, stewarding and disbursing private support on behalf of the donors of Northwest Missouri State University for the benefit of the institution, its students, faculty, staff and alumni.

The 2019-20 Foundation Board is led by President Jennifer Dawson Nicholson, a 1977 graduate from Kansas City, Missouri; Vice President Dr. Robert Burrell, a 1970 graduate from Denver, Colorado; and Immediate Past President Arnold Johnson, a 1977 graduate from Houston, Texas.

The Foundation, governed by a 40-member volunteer board, is staffed by members of Northwest’s Office of University Advancement. Board members may serve up to two three-year terms.

Additional information about the new Board members is provided below. For more information about the Northwest Foundation, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/foundation/.

Dell Epperson retired in 2012 as a U.S. Navy captain in the Surface Warfare Office after a 30-year career that included assignments in San Francisco; San Diego; Washington, D.C.; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and London. He served as commanding officer of the USS Fletcher (DD-992), the Afloat Training Group Middle Pacific and the Auburn University-Tuskegee University Consortium, for which he also was a professor of naval science. He began his professional career in radio, working as an announcer at KWIX-KRES in Moberly, Missouri, and then as a program director and morning announcer at KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa. He graduated from Northwest in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in speech with a broadcasting emphasis. He also has master’s degrees in strategic intelligence from National Intelligence University in Washington, D.C., and in diplomacy and military studies from Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, Hawaii. He resides in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife Janet Kelley Epperson, a 1975 Northwest graduate.

Kelly Ferguson is a senior vice president with Meyocks, a Des Moines, Iowa, branding and marketing agency focusing on food, agriculture, health and mentor brands. In addition to his nearly 15 years of employment with Meyocks, he was with North Carolina-based AGDATA, LP, where he oversaw analytical projects and database marketing activities. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from Northwest in 1998 and has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He resides in Urbandale, Iowa.

Daniel Peterson is a farmer and partner with Peterson Angus Farms Inc. and Peterson Angus Pioneer Seed Inc., a multi-generational family business in Neola, Iowa, since 1961. He graduated from Northwest in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business. He and his wife, Martha, have four children, including Anna, who graduated from Northwest last spring, and Aiden, who will be a freshman at Northwest this fall.

Dr. Joyce Piveral retired from Northwest in 2016 as dean of its College of Education and Human Services. She began her employment at Northwest in 2000 as director of teacher education services and served as chair of the Department of Educational Leadership prior to becoming dean in 2010. She began her career in 1970 as a teacher and then a high school principal in the Fillmore (Missouri) C-I School District before serving for 20 years as assistant principal of Central High School in the St. Joseph (Missouri) School District. She also served as interim dean of the School of Education at Lindenwood University during the 2017-18 academic year. She has a bachelor’s degree in vocational home economics, a master’s degree in secondary administration and a specialist degree in administration, all from Northwest. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She and her husband, Don Piveral, a 1978 Northwest graduate, reside on a farm in northwest Missouri.

Dustin Wasson is owner of South Lake Designs, a screen printing and graphic design business in his hometown of Perry, Missouri, and creative director at Avery’s Floor Mats, a custom automotive floor mat manufacturer. He also has served the city of Perry, including three terms as its mayor between 2012 and 2017. Having received a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from Northwest in 2003, Wasson joined the Alumni Association Board in 2015 and became president July 1.