Published Dec. 30, 2021
Two new recruits have joined the ranks of the Springfield Daily Citizen — one from the media world and one from the arts.
Shannon Cay Bowers, the former executive director of a Springfield documentary production company, is joining as a news assistant. And Marty Walker, a longtime art professional, is serving as operations manager.
The one building our community calendar
Bowers will be in charge of the public calendar for the Daily Citizen, helping to design, engineer and populate it with local events, along with handling other newsroom responsibilities.
Bowers comes to the Daily Citizen from Carbon Trace Productions, a local nonprofit that produces documentaries. Carbon Trace was founded by Dr. Andrew Cline, a professor of media and journalism at Missouri State University. Bowers led strategy, planning, and management of staff, interns, board members and volunteers at Carbon Trace.
Before that, Bowers worked as the news director at Earl’s Family Broadcasting in Branson, creating news for television, radio, and the web. She has extensive experience in multimedia storytelling.
Bowers earned a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism from Missouri State University in 2014.
Bowers said she was excited by the Springfield Daily Citizen’s digital-focused direction, and she looks forward to embracing multimedia and internet-focused storytelling. She hopes the Daily Citizen’s community calendar, her first task, will be a one-stop shop for locals looking for things to do.
“I believe the world would be a better place if more people would brush up against others who are different than themselves,” Bowers said. “I want this calendar to serve as a tool for people to learn about unique events in the community and to learn more about the world around them.”
The one organizing our operations
Walker, who is joining as operations manager, has a long history in the business of fine arts and more recently, real estate.
The daughter of a sculptor, Walker has been immersed in art for most of her life. She earned an undergraduate degree in fine arts from Missouri State University and a master’s in fine arts from the University of North Texas. Her longest stint was as owner and director of an art gallery in Dallas called the Marty Walker Gallery. She showcased artists whose work felt “relevant” to the current day and focused on the inventive use of video, photography, sculpture and paintings.
Walker recently moved from Texas back to Springfield, citing a readiness to buy a home as her reasoning for leaving Dallas. Here, she’s worked as an art consultant and real estate agent with Jim Garland Real Estate.
When she met the Daily Citizen’s CEO, David Stoeffler, she wanted to be involved in the nonprofit’s founding.
“During the last few years, like everyone, I’ve paid a lot of attention to the news,” Walker said. “I got worried about what was happening to newspapers, with hedge funds buying them up and gutting them.”
Walker said she wanted to be involved in the local news startup when she learned it would be a reader-supported nonprofit. Although Walker has been a professional artist herself, she said most of her career has been the business of art. Operations management is one of her skills.
Coincidentally, Walker is the second recruit at the Daily Citizen who comes from the fine arts world. Chief Development Officer Judi Kamien worked in museums for much of her career, and later consulted for arts nonprofits.