K-State College of Business students select difference-makers in five categories
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Entrepreneurship and community service are the hallmarks of those honored Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year for 2020.
“We commend these Kansans for their hard work and service to the communities they serve,” said Shawna Moyer of Emporia, chair of the board of directors of Kansas State University’s Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development.
This year’s award categories and winners are:
• Business Development – Todd Steinbach, Aero-Mod, Manhattan.
• Community Service – Martha Hadsall, Patterson Health Center, Anthony.
• Entrepreneurship – Darin Miller, Iron Clad Coworking, Wamego/Manhattan.
• Food & Agribusiness – Adam and Maggie Pounds, Simple Abundance Farm, South Hutchinson.
• Tourism – Jan Leonard, Stevens County Economic Development, Hugoton.
Todd Steinbach is co-owner and CEO of Aero-Mod, Incorporated, which specializes in cutting-edge technologies for wastewater treatment. The company was founded by K-State civil engineering professor Larry Schmid in 1981. Today, Aero-Mod has developed and installed municipal wastewater treatment systems from California to Vermont, and as far away as Algeria, Costa Rica and Chile.
Martha Hadsall is chair of the board of directors of the Patterson Health Center in Harper County. This facility replaced two smaller, financially struggling hospitals in the competing towns of Harper and Anthony. Thanks to a major grant from the Patterson Family Foundation, the two towns came together in 2019 to build a new state-of-the-art health center, located between the two towns.
While working in the corporate world, Darin Miller noticed that many employees were working out of their offices. He learned about the concept of coworking and founded Iron Clad Coworking & Events with locations in downtown Wamego and downtown Manhattan. These are coworking spaces where entrepreneurs or other business owners can share facilities such as a conference room and maintain a mailing address with minimum cost.
After college, marriage and travel, Adam and Maggie Pounds returned to their home area of Kansas and founded Simple Abundance Farm, an urban farm of less than one acre in South Hutchinson. The farm produced various kinds of microgreens using natural and sustainable methods to produce high yields on a minimal amount of land while protecting the environment. As of fall 2020, they are transitioning their space to an incubator farm for young and beginning farmers in the area.
Stevens County economic development director Jan Leonard made a remarkable find in a tunnel under a building in downtown Hugoton: Hundreds of vials of old medicines created by a local doctor nearly a century ago. These were located in the basement of a building next door to a café that was supposedly frequented by the infamous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde during the 1920s and ’30s. Such history has generated interest from community visitors.
The 2020 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year winners were selected by entrepreneurship students in K-State’s College of Business. Each year the Huck Boyd Institute selects its leaders of the year from among those featured on its weekly Kansas Profile radio program and column during the previous year. Kansas Profile is distributed by the K-State Radio Network and K-State Research and Extension News Media Services to radio stations and newspapers statewide.
The Huck Boyd Institute is a public-private partnership between K-State Research and Extension and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The Foundation office is at the Huck Boyd Community Center in Phillipsburg. The Institute office is at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
FOR PRINT PUBLICATIONS: Links used in this story
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development, https://www.huckboydinstitute.org
K State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Story by:
Ron Wilson
532-7690
[email protected]
For more information:
Ron Wilson
532-7690
[email protected]
