Ozarks Profile

Media specialist, Missouri Department of Conservation, southwest region. The Missouri Department of Conservation's southwest region covers 14 counties in the southwest corner of the state. The mission of the Department of Conservation, which was formed in 1937, is to manage the fish, forest and wildlife resources of the state. Skalicky, who has been employed with the Department of Conservation since 1996, works out of the regional office at 2630 N. Mayfair and belongs to the Environmental Collaborative of Springfield and its Choose Environmental Excellence subcommittee.

Age: 38

No. of years in Springfield/area: Skalicky grew up in Bolivar, moved away from the area in 1984 and returned in 1989.

Education: Skalicky graduated from Bolivar High School in 1980 and went on to receive a bachelor of science in electronic media communications from Southwest Missouri State University in 1984.

Early career: Skalicky began his career in the summer of 1982 with the Bolivar Herald-Free Press as a part-time sportswriter. That winter, he began working part-time in the sports department of the Springfield News-Leader and stayed through May 1984. After college, he moved to Fremont, Neb., and worked as a sports reporter for the Fremont Tribune until he took a job with the Jackson Sun newspaper in Jackson, Tenn., in 1988. While at the Sun, he was a sports reporter and later an assistant sports editor. Skalicky moved back to the Springfield area in 1989 and began working for the News-Leader again, becoming an assistant sports editor. He also served as interim sports editor, small-college reporter and outdoors and recreation reporter. Skalicky made the connections with the Department of Conservation that led to his current position when he was the outdoors and recreation reporter at the News-Leader.

Current projects: Skalicky writes a weekly column for seven area newspapers and coordinates a live television segment that appears on KOLR on alternating Friday mornings. "I am currently coordinating a statewide media contest for Department of Conservation employees. In addition to selecting judges, collecting entries and determining awards, I am developing judging criteria which could be used for future contests."

Management philosophy: Skalicky said his work philosophy is something along the lines of the old clich?: Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Spare-time pursuits: "We have a 4 1/2- month-old daughter, so I don't have a lot of spare time, but in the idle moments I do have, I enjoy reading and bowling."

Family data: Skalicky and his wife, Michele, a reporter for KSMU, recently had their first child, Anna.