Winter 2025 SOAR Magazine

ALUM NOTES Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri

Dawn Kotva, 7 years in Girl Scouts Dawn, the Chief Operating Officer at MTM, Inc., also serves as the Board Chair for Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri Board of Directors. She

is passionate about supporting all Girl Scouts and is excited to have participated in the National CEO/Board Chair conference in October. She enjoys meeting leadership from other councils and learning more about what is going on around the movement.

Kelli Risse, 3 years in Girl Scouts Kelli Risse is the CEO of Rise Up and Live Wellness, as well as a speaker, consultant and executive coach. She is in the process of writing a four-book series that helps high achievers transform into high performers by providing practical, easy-to-implement tips across four key areas: Mindset Mastery, Time Management & Flow, Self-Care and Stress Management, and Leadership & Relationship Building. The Succeed with Ease series is scheduled to be released in December 2024. Kelli also recently celebrated the release of the 100th episode of her Winning in Business podcast. Kelli is a member of GSEM’s Women’s Leadership Network and a mentor for the International Mentoring Program (IMP), Programming Co-Chair of Professional Women’s Alliance (PWA) and President-Elect of St. Louis National Speakers Association.

Ashley Ellis, 11 years in Girl Scouts Ashley currently serves as a Dropout Prevention Specialist and dedicates many hours each week as a Girl Scout volunteer in her role as co-leader for

Amy Feese, 5 years in Girl Scouts Amy has spent over a decade teaching local culinary students at The Culinary Institute of St. Louis at Hickey College, East Central College, St. Charles Community College, and Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. She joined the Schnucks Cooking School in 2018 and later received her MBA from Webster University in 2019. Amy has a true love of teaching, learning, and service. Her focus is on creating a life she is proud of, full of love, learning, and amazing food. Troop 992. Recently, Ashley graduated with her Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Lindenwood University. In addition to GSEM, Ashley also volunteers with the organization Black Girls Do STEM.

Let us know what you are up to! Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri alums who want to be featured in an upcoming edition of SOAR Magazine should send alum notes and life updates to communications@girlscoutsem.org . Always a Girl Scout

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