"Jeff Church" is the cofounder of NIKA Water Company, a unique social entrepreneurial model that donates its profits in hopes of alleviating global poverty. The combination of seeing the impact of the Water crisis/global clean water crisis first-hand during a 2008 visit to Kenya combined with the ideas of his children and the inspiration of Craig Kielburger of Free The Children, led Church to form NIKA with business school classmate Mike Stone in March 2009. NIKA translates from Zulu as “to give.”

Church graduated from [http://www.msu.edu Michigan State University] in 1983 with a B.A. in accounting and was named one of the top twenty-five graduating seniors out of 8,000 students. He later attended [http://www.hbs.edu Harvard Business School] and graduated with a Masters in Business Administration in 1988.

Between graduating from Michigan State and attending Harvard, Church worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young.

After business school Church bought, built and sold multiple businesses.

An avid runner, Church also climbed five of the Seven Summits including mountains Mount Kosciuszko/Kosciuszko (Australia), Mount Kilimanjaro/Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Kilimanjaro/Elbrus (Europe), Aconcagua (South America) and Vinson Massif (Antarctica).

More Jeff Church on Wikipedia.

This is so important to us because it gives these students such a great opportunity. It also allows us to have an expanded cast size, especially a cast that has been trained classically. This is the students' 'professional debut' and gives Kansas City a chance to see them onstage outside of UMKC, which sometimes has greater exposure.

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The early results, I think, are very encouraging.

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In a time where we look at religion involved in church and state, I believe that this piece has contemporary relevance and provides much to think about when you see the play. I'm very excited about it.

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The Witch of Blackbird Pond examines society's intolerance about those who differ, using a witch hunt as the main action of the play. This book stands out as a children's literature classic and we're proud to be able to present it. This material is powerful to young adults the way Arthur Miller's The Crucible is for adults.

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In 1992, the Coterie formed a partnership with the graduate acting program at UMKC to have the third year graduating class make their Coterie debut each January-February. Because the program emphasizes the acting of classical material, the Coterie is able to produce plays that utilize the students' skills.

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