Shari Lockhart McKinney is a woman whose influence is felt on many levels.
An attorney and partner in the Springfield office of Evans & Dixon LLC, McKinney manages the local office and mentors and develops associates and clerks, while also carrying a full caseload.
Based in St. Louis, Evans & Dixon is a civil and workers' compensation defense firm.
McKinney helped establish the firm's Springfield office in 2001, starting out with two attorneys and one staff member.
Today the office has five attorneys and five support staff members.
An alumna of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and president of the Springfield Alumnae Association, McKinney has served as adviser to the Gamma Mu Chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at Missouri State University for 11 years. She works with sorority officers in planning social events, fundraising and volunteer projects, recruitment and scholarships.
She also advises young women and recommends them for scholarships, employment opportunities and honors.
"One of the best rewards is when they thank me, refer to me as a role model or tell me the impact I have had on their lives," McKinney says.
McKinney is one of two southwest Missouri representatives serving on the board of Kids Chance, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for children of workers who have been seriously or fatally injured in a compensable Missouri work accident, she says.
Kids Chance scholarships are largely financed through fundraising activities, including a workers' compensation seminar that McKinney coordinates, bringing doctors, judges and other experts together to address workers' compensation topics.
"Our primary fundraiser in the Springfield area is a workers' compensation seminar, for which I secure expert speakers including doctors (and) judges," she says.
McKinney also serves as a member of the advisory council of the Ozarks Regional Economic Partnership, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce program that unites 10 southwest Missouri counties in promoting sustainable economic development opportunities for the region.
And through it all, she has retained balance between family, work and volunteer activities.
"I am a firm believer in taking action," she says. "We must all work to guarantee that those people, communities, organizations (and) causes about which we care survive and prosper."
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