Sistersville High School Alumni Association to Induct Two into Hall of Fame

The Sistersville High School Alumni Association is pleased to announce two candidates have been selected for induction into the Sistersville High School Hall of Fame for 2022. Ms. Jennifer Forester and Ms. Jaime Howard-Hissam were nominated by their peers and will be honored as Distinguished Alumni during the Chapel proceedings on May 27, 2022.
Jennifer Forester is a graduate of the SHS Class of 1975 and was class salutatorian. She obtained her Associates Degree in Accounting from Parkersburg Community College. She would later graduate from West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in social work. She had a thirty-year career as an employee of the State of West Virginia. She began with the state as a Child Protective Service Worker in Monongahela County for two years. Anyone who knows anything about this job realizes it is the most interesting and at times heartbreaking work. Three years after obtaining her master’s degree she began her career with WVU School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Klingberg Childhood Development Center. Jeni was one of only two social workers in the clinic able to work with children with developmental delays and assist with diagnosis of Autism. She was responsible in part in writing a grant for Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRAN) which provides training to parents of children with special needs in the Mountain State about their rights and resources available. Jeni also helped in the development of the Attention Deficit Disorders Clinic in conjunction with Dr. Margaret Jaynes of WVU Medicine. Since 1996, children have been diagnosed and treated for ADHD, Tourette’s Syndrome, and other neurological disorders. Families are provided guidance on how to navigate through the processes of special education in the school system and federal guaranteed assistance from IDEA and ADA 504.
In addition to her clinic work, Jeni has served as Adjunct Professor to WVU since 2003. She has developed two teaching courses that are required coursework for a degree in Disability Studies. Jeni is also the Clinical Coordinator on the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Grant designed to help educate graduate level students to improve the health of infants, children, and adolescents with disabilities. She is the Social Work Faculty Member on the Feeding and Swallowing Team at the Center of Excellence in Disabilities.
In Jeni’s latest effort, she has taken on the role of Peer Mentor Supervisor on the newly developed Country Roads Program at WVU. This program is an on-campus non-degree certificate program through the Center for Excellence in Disabilities which is designed for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Personally, Jeni has two daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom reside in Morgantown. She and her husband, John, are Board Members of Empty Bowls, a local organization in Morgantown that provides supports to local community kitchens to eliminate food insecurity. She and her sister, Betsy, own the “Cow House” which has been featured in the Dominion Post Newspaper and the West Virginia Living Magazine. Their house, painted in bovine motif, is an attraction in the Monongahela County and can be found on Google.
Jeni is looking forward to retirement in the coming year but has plans to volunteer in areas supporting the people of West Virginia.
Ms. Jaime Howard-Hissam, Class of 1987, was nominated in recognition of her 28-year career with the Bayer Heritage Federal Employee Credit Union. She began her career at Bayer as a Member Service Representative quickly advancing to Teller Supervisor. She continued her rise in that organization to the title of Member Service Manager and yet another advancement to Human Resources Administrator. She is currently the Vice President of Operations, including lending, member services, and marketing. Jaime’s duties include planning, recommending and implementing programs and policies, and providing general administrative direction. She participates with the CEO, CFO and Bayer Board of Directors in the strategic planning, organization, direction, coordination and control of the credit union’s corporate and operational business affairs in multiple states across the country. Over the course of her career, Jaime has played a key role in the development of member services, an employee swap program for cross training and networking throughout various branch locations, employee appreciation recognitions to increase job satisfaction and workplace morale, and creation of human resource department, creation of member contact center for quick resolution to consumer problems. She has been instrumental in the evaluation and selection of new digital services. She has worked closely with the executive team to develop remote working policy for the organization during the recent pandemic.
During her tenure with Bayer, she has obtained not only her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Organizational Leadership and Development from Wheeling Jesuit but has continued her educational pursuit in earning her MBA in Business Administration in 2018. She has utilized these attributes as President of the Alumni Association, a position she has maintained for an additional two years due to the COVID issues that forced the cancellations of weekend festivities in 2020 and 2021. Faced with the daunting task of weighing the safety concerns of our alumni membership, and keeping our association going, she handled the situation with ease. It was during these years that the Annual SHS Golf Chili Open was started. Under her leadership, and with the help and support of all our alumni officers and members, proceeds from these events have enabled the SHS Alumni Association the opportunity to build up our funds and assures we can continue our alumni weekend festivities for years to come.
Jaime and her husband, Emel, are life-long residents of Sistersville.
Congratulations to both these remarkable women on their outstanding merits, accomplishments and inclusion into the SHS Hall of Fame.