Nothing brings the IWU community together quite like All In for Wesleyan. From wing eating competitions to Kona Ice on the quad, balloon drops, and alumni socials, there’s no shortage of ways to Go All Out and show that you’re All In!
Join us on April 8th where for 24 hours, the IWU community will go all out and be all in to support students’ most urgent needs, scholarships, and the programs and initiatives that continue to transform future generations of Titans.
#ALLINFORWESLEYAN
20 30 Years of Shirk
In 2024, the Shirk Athletic Center reached a new milestone with its 30th anniversary. The Center still serves as an essential community hub for campus and Bloomington-Normal.
24 A Hearth for Haiti
Kevin Hineline ‘88 is working with IWU physics students to develop a new cooking stove for use in the most impoverished and disaster-stricken regions of the world.
28 Setting A Standard
Jeff Becker ‘01 and Matt Glavin ‘01 are the minds behind Illinois' new AI regulation that's setting a standard for states across the country.
OUR COVER: The Shirk Center has been a cherished University landmark for 30 years.
Even before I moved into Holmes Hall last July, my heart was All in for Wesleyan. I've marveled at the unique character of Titans and the special draw of your alma mater since I first set foot in Bloomington-Normal 20 years ago, and increasingly so as I've gotten to know more of you.
This is why I'm excited to be part of my first "All in for Wesleyan" day of giving and the celebrated outpouring of alumni support that warms the homefires here year-around. Crucially, your generous support for our Wesleyan Fund makes it possible to continue the classic IWU experience for every student on campus today. As a University committed to academic excellence, providing formative opportunities to talented students on an unforgettable campus, it's our incredible alumni who keep this mission alive.
This April will also bring the much-anticipated groundbreaking for The Petrick Idea Center and its adjoining expansion of the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art. I love this vision for amplifying our creative hub while supporting ideas and innovation sparked by students from any corner of campus. With this entirely donorfunded endeavor, we are on our way to becoming the leading entrepreneurial private liberal arts college.
Far beyond a buzzword, entrepreneurship is the spirit that moves our students with creative passions to turn that passion into a livelihood. As we know, their broad education in the liberal arts gives students the ideal competitive edge, regardless of their career future. Many will draw from their liberal arts training to create their own job or meet evolving demands to excel at jobs that aren't even envisioned today.
"Brilliant, driven, principled — Titans impress me every day. "
We continue to seek new avenues to support the creativity and scholarship of our excellent faculty and students. Our faculty consistently win accolades for themselves while dreaming up new ways to craft transformative experiences for their students. Our students keep reaching new heights, even before they graduate. Brilliant, driven, principled — Titans impress me every day.
I'm grateful for this community. I've experienced the strength we gain from our shared devotion to Illinois Wesleyan, and how we're made even stronger together by our differences in personal views and backgrounds. Anyone who observes news headlines will be aware of recent threats to higher education funding and our operations, which we are carefully monitoring. We remain steadfast in our long-held values as an institution, committed to supporting the success and access to opportunities for all students.
Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine (ISSN 1071-7757) is published quarterly by: Illinois Wesleyan University, P.O. Box 2900, Bloomington, Illinois 61702-2900. Periodical postage paid at Bloomington, Illinois, Post Office, and at additional mailing office.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine P.O. Box 2900 Bloomington, Illinois 61702-2900
FEATURED NEWS, EVENTS AND VIEWS FROM THE IWU CAMPUS
Petrick Idea Center Groundbreaking Scheduled for April 15
OnApril 15, Illinois Wesleyan University will break ground on the much-anticipated Petrick Idea Center, a space designed to foster collaboration and creativity across disciplines.
The event will begin at 11 a.m. outdoors, west of the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art and Design with remarks from President Sheahon Zenger and faculty members.
The Petrick Idea Center will be constructed on the south-west corner of campus as an expansion of the Ames School of Art and Design. Entirely funded by donors, including foundational donors — the late David Petrick ‘67, his wife Ellen (Reid) Petrick ‘68 and their family, and Marc Talluto ‘94 — the 14,850-square-foot design will serve as a creative hub with state-of-the-art resources for all of campus to use. The University expects the facility to be ready for use by fall 2026.
“We are thrilled to break ground on a project that will unite the creative
and innovative minds across diverse fields on our campus. The Petrick Idea Center will undoubtedly give Illinois Wesleyan a competitive edge, enabling us to become one of the top entrepreneurial liberal arts universities in the nation,” said Zenger.
With amenities like makerspaces and prototyping facilities, an amphitheater, meeting and teaching spaces, a test kitchen, 3D printers, power tools, and audio/video recording equipment, the center will serve as a launchpad for students and faculty to transform concepts into reality. Some spaces in the Ames School of Art and Design will also be remodeled and enhanced as part of the project. Immediately following the groundbreaking ceremony, the University will hold an event to honor David Petrick posthumously as the 2025 IWU Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year.
(Below) The new Petrick Idea Center will be a facility for innovation and entrepreneurship connected to the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art Building.
Printed by Taylor, Bloomington, Ill.
Four IWU Students Receive Funding to Develop Ideas Through Titan New Venture Challenge
FourIllinois Wesleyan University students were awarded grants by showcasing their ideas through the Titan New Venture Challenge on Nov. 13, 2024.
Sponsored by the School of Business and Economics and Marc Talluto '94, the Titan New Venture Challenge is a milestone seed grant program where students identify problems and apply creative problem solving and critical thinking, while communicating the solutions effectively. Responsibility for organization of the program transferred this semester from The Petrick Idea Center to the School of Business and Economics.
Dean of the School of Business and Economics Bryan McCannon ‘98 worked with IWU staff to bring professionals with experience in the world of startups and venture capital to evaluate the pitches of students, ask questions and provide feedback.
The judges for the event were Chris Bisaillon '93, co-owner of Bottleneck Management and chief marketing officer of Riverwalk Capital; Troy Frerichs, vice president of investments at Country Financial, and Molly Koehler '12, vice president of innovation and economy for JP Morgan Chase.
“The creativity and problem-solving skills on display were amazing,” said McCannon. "It was interesting to see the variety of educational backgrounds of the students. We had a science student
working with an entrepreneurship major. We had student entrepreneurs from such diverse fields as art, biology and finance. The presentations were professional and of the highest quality.”
Nine students participated in the event, with four grant recipients selected: Elliott Notrica '26, Justin Doucette '25, Javokhir Rajabov '25 and Caleb Martinez '27. These winners received between $1,000 to $2,000 in grants, funded by Talluto , to continue developing their ideas.
Doucette and Notrica presented the business Symbio Bioculinary, founded by Notrica, a biology major. This is the company’s third win with the New Venture Challenge since 2022. Symbio Bioculinary is a fermentation waste consultation venture where microbiology is used to transform organic matter from agricultural and food manufacturing sectors. This yields a return for companies on their waste in the form of products they can sell, or additives they can put back into their processes.
With seven business partners so far, Symbio Bioculinary has undercut traditional waste disposal pricing of food industries and created a sustainable practice overall. In the future, the duo hopes to find a permanent lab space nearby for training and operations.
The two students participated in the Titan New Venture Challenge this year to practice vocalizing and cementing the language surrounding
Symbio, with hopes to earn additional capital to contribute to business costs.
“It’s also an incredible way to network with other student businesses and industry partners that are available at the event,” said Doucette, an entrepreneurship major. He added that the goal of the competition is for each participant “to polish their skills, rather than be the best.”
“A key to success is having fun. If you believe in your concept, pride will shine through in your presentation because the business is an authentic belief,” said Doucette.
Martinez was encouraged to participate in the Titan New Venture Challenge in a class taught by Assistant Professor of Business Tamara Paul Reeff. His winning venture, Bear SEO, is an agency that helps small business owners increase their online visibility and attract more leads through Google.
“I focus on creating personalized strategies to improve search engine rankings, drive targeted traffic and deliver measurable results. My mission is to help businesses grow by establishing a strong and lasting digital presence,” said Martinez, a business major.
Martinez said one of his keys to success in the challenge was narrowing down and clearly defining the core purpose of his business.
“It’s not just about profitability,” he said. “It’s about demonstrating how your business can create real value and solve problems for others. Having a solid plan coupled with a passion for making an impact really helped me stand out.”
(Left) Nine students competed in the Titan New Venture Challenge, pitching new and emerging business concepts for the chance to win grants.
The funding he received through the Titan New Venture Challenge will cover operational expenses and kickstart an investment in additional tools and resources to assist clients. Martinez hopes to continue making connections by partnering with local businesses.
Rajabov, a senior finance major, was awarded funding for his startup called StudySphere.uz. The business connects students in Uzbekistan to college opportunities in the United States and Canada, providing language training and application consulting services.
McCannon said IWU Design Research Consultant Abby Zenger played a key role in planning and promoting the New Venture Challenge, engaging with student clubs and classes to encourage participation.
“We’re grateful for the support of faculty and club advisors,” said McCannon, acknowledging John Quarton’s contributions as director of The Petrick Idea Center in developing the Titan New Venture Challenge template used in previous years.
After the success of this semester’s challenge, McCannon said he intends to continue to partner with The Petrick Idea Center to grow a vibrant “entrepreneurial ecosystem” on campus by launching workshopping programs and seed funding competitions, with the goal of introducing students from all fields to the possibility of starting an entrepreneurial venture.
Noyce Scholars Present at National Science Foundation Conference
FourIllinois Wesleyan University students were among few undergraduates given the opportunity to present at the National Science Foundation Conference in Washington, D.C.
The students, Emma McGrath ‘25, Samantha Perez ‘25, Paul Zunkel ‘25 and Angel Macias ‘25, are all Titan athletes, majoring in both secondary education and STEM fields and recipients of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship.
The Noyce Program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, provides students with scholarships of up to $25,000 per year, paid undergraduate research opportunities and mentorship while teaching in high-needs classrooms. The grant funding the Noyce Program at IWU will continue through 2027.
IWU Noyce Scholars Macias,
Zunkel, Perez and McGrath explored Washington, D.C., during a visit to present at the National Science Foundation Conference.
(Above) IWU Noyce Scholars Angel Macias ‘25, Paul Zunkel ‘25, Samantha Perez ‘25 and Emma McGrath ‘25 explored Washington, D.C., during a visit to present at the National Science Foundation Conference.
The students were selected to present at the event in July on ways to utilize responsive instructional strategies in STEM education. Responsive teaching is a student-centered teaching method that connects students' experiences to the curriculum. The group explained how this method can be utilized in high school biology and math classes, such as completing a math project about local poverty rates or food shortages.
Associate Professor of Educational Studies Maggie Evans supported students in crafting the conference submission and the research talk. Evans said she was honored to work with this accomplished group of future educators.
“Samantha, Emma, Paul and Angel were four of the only undergraduates to present at a conference filled with accomplished STEM faculty from universities across the nation. During their research talk, I was proud to see these four students recognized for their intellect and talent as teachers at a National Science Foundation conference,” said Evans.
Macias, a secondary education and mathematics major, said he was
able to gain useful perspective by meeting with students and professors at the conference.
“Not only do you get a scholarship (through the Noyce Program), but you also get research opportunities and mentoring from a Noyce mentor once you’re a teacher,” Macias said. “While student teaching, I was at Normal Community High School where I taught algebra, finite mathematics and AP statistics.”
Macias plans on teaching at a high-needs school in the suburbs of Chicago after graduation and hopes to coach as well.
Zunkel, majoring in mathematics and secondary education, recognized that the need for teachers is ever growing and chose his path of study with intentions to foster positive learning environments.
“We learned a lot about different teaching styles, cultures and technological advancements,” Zunkel said of the conference.
Zunkel completed his student teaching at Bloomington High School and Bloomington Junior High School where he had the chance to work with students oneon-one.
“My plans after graduation are to work in a needs-based school district teaching high school math,” Zunkel said. “In addition, I would like to coach football for whichever school I have the pleasure to teach at.”
IWU Noyce Scholars are all on track to become future STEM educators.
(Below) IWU Noyce Scholars are all on track to become future STEM educators.
McGrath, who is majoring in mathematics and secondary education, said the Noyce trip allowed her to connect and learn from other current and future STEM educators from around the country while exploring the nation’s capital with her Titan peers.
McGrath chose to enter the teaching field because she said she is passionate about helping students find confidence in and out of the math classroom.
“I want to create a classroom environment that is fun, safe and engaging while also encouraging students to challenge themselves,” she said.
There is no better feeling, according to Samantha Perez, than being in the classroom and contributing to a student’s journey.
“You see them grow and blossom in many different ways, which is such an enriching experience,” said Perez, who was stationed at Normal Community West High School where she co-taught honors biology classes.
Having the chance to collaborate with other future educators was a highlight of the conference for Perez, as she plans on teaching middle school science and pursuing her master’s degree, hoping to become a mentor teacher or head of a science department in the future.
“The Noyce Program is a great opportunity for students who will become future STEM teachers,” Perez said. “Not only does this program provide scholarships, but mentorship along the way towards becoming a teacher.”
A Passion for Piano Unites Wells '27, Killey '99 During
Concerto-Aria Performance
WhenBenjamin Killey '99
learned that Matt Wells '27 had been selected to perform a piano solo at Illinois Wesleyan’s annual Henry Charles Memorial Concerto-Aria event, he booked a plane ticket.
“That sort of performance needs to be seen,” said Killey, who lives in Seattle, Washington.
Wells, a piano performance and physics major, was one of three students who earned a solo spotlight in the concerto on Feb. 13 at Westbrook Auditorium. Wells is also a two-time recipient of the Benjamin J Killey, M.D. '99 Annual Scholarship.
Killey, a doctor who studied biology and piano performance at IWU, established the scholarship in 2021 for students studying music performance.
“I created the scholarship because I feel strongly about the value of pursuing a degree in music, whether it be the primary area of study or combined with a second degree in a different field. One of the great benefits I experienced at IWU was the quality of the other students around me. I wanted to help recruit the best music students to IWU and felt that providing a scholarship would be the most effective way to achieve that,” said Killey.
The Concerto Aria is an annual event held by the School of Music. Students audition to perform, preparing a 20-minute music concerto. Matt Wells played Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Dimitri Shostakovich.
Also selected were instrumental performance and physics major Benjamin Heinz ‘27, who played euphonium, and instrumental performance major Connie Kim ‘25, who played flute. Each of the three students were accompanied by the IWU Symphony Orchestra, led by Director of Large Ensembles Logan Campbell.
Killey had the honor of being selected as a Concerto Aria performer during his time at IWU as well.
“Nobody sees the slow, deliberate, tedious hours of daily practice that are necessary to play the piano well, let alone to play the monstrously difficult Shostakovich piano concerto,” said Killey. “The very least I can do as an audience member is sit back and enjoy the show and marvel at the effort that went into it. It was worth the flight from Seattle to hear the three winners that night. There is so much talent in the School of Music.”
Matt Wells '27 performs a solo piece by Dimitri Shostakovich during the Illinois Wesleyan’s annual Henry Charles Memorial Concerto-Aria on Feb. 13
Wells said after putting so much time and effort into learning his piece, it was rewarding to be selected as a Concerto Aria performer and to “share the stage with some wonderful musicians.”
“It was very kind of Ben to travel all the way from Seattle to witness the performance. That really meant a lot to me,” said Wells.
He added that receiving Killey’s annual scholarship for the second year in a row gave him a stronger sense of connection to the decades of musicians that studied at IWU before him.
“It is very encouraging to receive this scholarship from someone who had the same major as me and who I was able to connect with,” said Wells, who hopes to continue improving his piano skills and study piano performance in graduate school.
Killey said Wells was awarded the scholarship because of his hard work ethic.
“Just watching him play those crashing octaves in the Shostakovich piece, there was no doubt why he won a place in the Concerto Aria,” said Killey. “I do feel strongly about supporting students like Matt who are taking advantage of the opportunities that IWU provides. Everybody benefits from our students making the most of their education and lives.”
After graduating from Illinois
(Above) Matt Wells '27 and Ben Killey '99 after Wells performed in the Feb. 13 Concerto-Aria at Westbrook Auditorium
Wesleyan, Killey completed his residency at Cook County Hospital in emergency medicine and later served as a volunteer ER doctor in high-need areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His lifelong love of music has not waned, thanks to the interdisciplinary education he received at IWU. Now that his career in medicine has become more routine, Killey said he has extra time to devote to those black and white keys. Most recently, he took up the role of principal accompanist with the Seattle Men’s Chorus which he said has satisfied the need to make music again.
“Although I went into medicine after IWU, the skills you learn practicing music definitely translate well to any other field. Music requires repetitive practice and digging deep mentally to make something sound good over time. You can apply that to any field of choice and be successful,” said Killey. “You can't succeed at IWU without learning how to learn, and that's helped me in my career over and over.”
Female Students Highlight Representation in Physics at Fermilab Conference
Inwhat physics faculty are labeling a rare case, nine female physics students from Illinois Wesleyan University attended a January 2025 conference at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, a national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics.
The CU*iP (Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics) supports undergraduate women and gender minorities in their pursuit of physics by providing opportunities to attend professional conferences, access valuable information about graduate school and career paths in physics, and connect with peers across various stages of their academic journeys.
The IWU students who attended the conference are chemistry and philosophy major Fabi Rangel '28, physics and art major Ahnnika Hess
'27, physics and mathematics major Wanda Lindquist '26, business, physics and quantitative finance major Selina Dai '27, computer science major Tiyala Holton '28, chemistry and physics major Nisha Ajana '28, physics and mathematics major Gianna Malabanan '27, physics and computer science major Dulcinea Cabreda '28 and physics major Anna Beckman '26
“[The conference] allows our physics students to see other women and gender minorities in physics in leading roles, up on stage, as keynote speakers, as respected professionals, as mentors and as guides,” said Professor and Chair of Physics Narendra Jaggi. “As a result, it reinforces their own identity as a physicist. In terms of retention, that matters a lot.”
The conference consisted of lab tours, various talks, a poster presentation, career and graduate school fair and parallel sessions about topics in physics. The lab tours were of the Muon Campus, the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, and the Neutrino Campus, which also included a 2x2 prototype of DUNE (Deep Under-
(Below) Wells performs a solo piece by Dimitri Shostakovich during Illinois Wesleyan’s annual Henry Charles Memorial Concerto-Aria on Feb. 13
(Above) A group of female physics students attended a conference at a national laboratory in January.
INSIDE IWU
ground Neutrino Experiment).
The talks given by Andrea Ghez, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2020, and Young-Kee Kim — who is a professor at the University of Chicago, scientist at Fermilab, and 2024 President of the American Physical Society — were a highlight for Lindquist.
“We also attended smaller lectures in various areas of quantum and particle physics, and got to talk one-on-one with Fermilab scientists,” she said. “It's inspiring to see scientists who love their work, and interesting to see so many labs with cutting-edge technology.”
Maintaining a strong and diverse cohort of physics students beyond the first year of college can be challenging, especially with female physics students, said Lindquist.
“My hope is to get students involved with interesting and exciting things early on. I'm especially happy that four first-year physics students came along (this year),” she said.
Students Visit Boston for Political Science Conference, Alumni Networking
Illinois
Wesleyan political science students organized a trip to the Northeastern Political Science Association's annual conference on Nov. 14-16 in Boston, Massachusetts, through the national political science honorary society Pi Sigma Alpha.
Students traveling to Boston for a political science conference had the chance to network with alumni in the area, including Myla Green '07.
(Above) A group of female physics students attended a conference at a national laboratory in January.
The IWU chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha (PSA) is a registered student organization on campus with the intent to stimulate scholarship and intelligent interest in political science. Melinda Burgin '25, president of PSA, said the group identified the conference in Boston as an opportunity “to show political science majors the possibilities for research and other careers available in the field, as well as to learn from those currently engaged in scholarly work.”
Through funding from IWU Student Senate, travel expenses to Boston were covered for Burgin and five other political science students and members of PSA — Vân Lê '26, Valeria Suarez '26, Julia McMahon '25, Victoria Ballesteros-Gonzales '25 and Franchesca Smith '25. Lê, who manages public relations for PSA, said the group was thankful for support and guidance from faculty advisor Jim Simeone, who is the Sally A. Firestone Professor in Peace and Social Justice, Professor of Political Science. The group also worked with the Hart Career Center to identify alumni in the Boston area to meet up with students, including Emily Shankar '16, Jim Dorsey '68, Frances Taheri '13 and Myla Green '07. “Patrick Zajac and Warren Kistner from the Hart Career Cen-
ter served as invaluable resources in establishing connections with Boston alumni, helping us to arrange two networking dinners with alumni working in diverse industries including consulting, the nonprofit sector and journalism, with educational backgrounds including business, international relations and women's/gender studies,” said Burgin. “As many participants in the trip expressed, it was both reassuring and inspiring to see the success and hear the many different paths taken by IWU alums.”
Ballesteros-Gonzales said she experienced enlightening conversations with alumni.
“They shared how their experiences during and after college helped them develop the skills necessary to transition into their careers. Hearing about the challenges they faced and how they navigated them—such as building a professional network and establishing themselves in competitive fields—offered me actionable ideas to refine my own approach to career planning. Their insights were both practical and motivating, providing valuable guidance as I consider my next steps,” she said.
At the conference, students attended sessions ranging from state environmental policy to trade relations in China, with scholars
from the field presenting work for feedback and discussion.
“Each presentation gave insight not only in their subject matter, but also the research process itself. That was especially helpful to the many of us currently working on our own research projects in our senior seminar class,” said Burgin.
Several speakers gave remarks that stuck with the students. Suarez was particularly moved by a discussion by Harvard University Professor of Government Eric Beerbohm, which focused on the intersection of politics and friendship during political turmoil.
“As a Venezuelan, I also found the discussions on authoritarianism and court packing particularly impactful, as they resonated deeply with my country’s struggles against the erosion of democratic institutions,” said Suarez.
Lê said the students left the conference feeling inspired by the scholarly panels and eager to report their learnings to professors and peers at IWU.
“I now have a better understanding of the academia side of political science through listening to the presentations, asking questions and noting the discussants’ comments/ criticisms. The varied topics of the panels proved to me how interconnected politics is to the world,” said Lê. “I hope that everyone in Pi Sigma Alpha will get a chance to attend and experience it before they graduate.”
For Ballesteros-Gonzales, the trip underscored the importance of staying adaptable in a competitive job market while emphasizing the power of networking and mentorship.
“The combination of learning about industry practices and receiving firsthand advice from alumni has been incredibly motivating, giving
me clear steps to move forward in my career journey,” said Ballesteros-Gonzales.
Mohan to Lead Green Chemistry Workshop in India as Fulbright Specialist
Afterbeing honored with three previous Fulbright awards, Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Chemistry Ram Mohan has been chosen to serve as a Fulbright Specialist through a workshop in India. Managed through the U.S. Department of State and World Learning, the Fulbright Specialist Program allows previous Fulbright grantees to apply to be added to a specialist roster. Any college or university in the world can then apply to request a specialist from the list to conduct a workshop on their area of expertise. Mohan, center second row,
during a visit to Patan, Gujarat, India in March 2024.
Mohan was appointed to the Fulbright roster in November 2024 as a green chemistry expert for a threeyear period. Green chemistry, an essential component of sustainable chemistry, is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances.
This is Mohan's second assignment as a Fulbright Specialist, a recognition he said left him “deeply honored and humbled.”
For his first university pairing, Mohan will travel to Sacred Heart College in the seaside town of Kochi in India. Past Fulbright awards have also taken him to India, including a trip in spring of 2024 to St. Joseph’s University in Bangalore as well as many other colleges in rural areas across India.
“Being able to see big and small universities in India was insightful and gave me better insight into the booming growth of higher education in India. I typically travel to rural areas in India as they do not always
(Above) Ram Mohan, center second row, during a visit to Patan, Gujarat, India in March 2024.
INSIDE IWU
get access to speakers and workshops. It is always humbling to see the desire to learn and grow among students there, and the care for the environment, especially amongst the younger generation,” he said.
Projects through regular Fulbright grants can last 6-12 months, said Mohan, while a Fulbright Specialist workshop typically lasts 20-40 days. Each Fulbright trip supplies Mohan with new experiences to bring back to Illinois Wesleyan students.
“While I am invited as an expert, with each trip I realize how much more there is to know, and I end up learning as much knowledge as I impart. At IWU, I teach an upper level green chemistry course. Based on these new experiences, I am continuously revising that class,” he said.
McCannon ‘98 Wins Regional Competition, Joins Top Law and Economics Scholars at Manne Madness Championship
Dean
of the School of Business and Economics Bryan McCannon ‘98 was named one of eight finalists with the nation’s top law and economics scholars at the inaugural Manne Madness Tournament.
The tournament was organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School — which was established in 1974 by one of the founding scholars of law and economics as a discipline, Henry G. Manne. State and federal judges were gathered to moderate the competitive program, identifying and rewarding 32 top lecturers in the field.
“It was absolutely fun. I love getting up in front of a room and teaching economics. The judges were truly interested in learning how economic principles apply to their careers,” said McCannon. “In addition, I made sure to incorporate some of my research findings into each lecture. What was unique was the uncertainty. I have never competed in a lecturing competition and was not sure what topics, depth or case studies would be most impactful.”
McCannon’s research explores the economics of legal institutions, focusing on the incentives driving judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and even criminals. Through his lectures, he connected economic theories to real-world legal contexts, such as how judicial salaries influence decision-making quality, how elections affect prosecutorial behavior and how bargaining theory applies to plea deals.
“My goal is to show how the structures and incentives within legal institutions influence outcomes, often in unexpected ways,” he said.
Leading up to the final tournament, McCannon competed in a regional competition in Chicago over the summer. He said his goal was to win at least one round, but he quickly advanced through the bracket and was named regional champion.
“I would hear from judges during the breaks and breakfasts about how much they liked my lectures and presentation style. I was honestly quite shocked that I was able to beat scholars who were so accomplished in the field and who taught at elite law schools,” he said.
(Below) Mohan, far right of back row, with a current group of IWU chemistry research students.
During the national competition Dec. 8-13 in Miami, McCannon continued to rise through the ranks, surpassing professors from Boston University, Northwestern and Texas A&M. He ultimately fell to University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Jonathan Klick.
“[The other competing scholars] are incredibly bright people who are able to articulate their ideas well, connect with the audience, and challenge others to think critically about the law and the consequences to the decisions made,” said McCannon. “I knew about their scholarship, but being able to watch them give their presentations, it was obvious why they had made the finals.”
McCannon said he enjoyed networking with other lecturers in the field, as well as the federal judges, and he is eager to incorporate some of the topics discussed into his curriculum and research.
“Being able to enjoy the beach and temperatures in the 80s in mid-December was a nice bonus,” he added.
McCannon is the Robert S. Eckley Endowed Chair in Economics at IWU. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Illinois Wesleyan in 1998 and his PhD in economics from Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Previously, he was a professor at Wake Forest University, the chair of the Department of Finance at Saint Bonaventure University, and director of the Center for Free Enterprise while a faculty member at West Virginia University. McCannon has mentored undergraduate, master’s and PhD students for over 20 years and serves on the executive board of multiple professional, academic societies.
(Above) McCannon gave a lecture during the Manne Madness Championship Tournament in Miami where he was a finalist.
Women’s Basketball Runs Through CCIW
IWU women’s basketball claimed the CCIW regular season championship and tournament titles, while putting a league-record five individuals on the All-CCIW teams. The Titans posted a 28-2 record and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, including a 15-1 mark in CCIW play. Lauren Huber ‘25, Mallory Powers ‘25, and Ava Bardic ‘26 garnered First Team All-CCIW honors, while Kate Palmer ‘25 and Sawyer White ‘26 were second team selections as IWU set a conference record with five All-CCIW performers. Mia Smith was voted the CCIW Coach of the Year., D3hoops. com Region 8 Coacho of the Year, and was named a final-
ist for the WBCA National Coach of the Year. The Titans opened the year with a 20-game win streak and later saw Huber break the program’s all-time scoring record that had stood for nearly 30 years. Huber went on to earn All-America status from both D3hoops.com and the WBCA, while also being named a finalist for the Jostens Award for the second straight year.
Men’s Basketball Wins CCIW Tournament Title
Four Titans were recognized as part of the CCIW’s postseason awards, while Illinois Wesleyan won the CCIW Tournament and earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Nick Roper ‘25 and Hakim Williams ‘25 were tabbed First Team AllCCIW, while Harrison Wilmsen ‘25 reeled in Second Team All-CCIW status. Josh Fridman ‘28 was voted the CCIW Newcomer of the Year before earning D3hoops.com Region 8 Rookie of the Year status. Fridman was later named Division III's Rookie of the Year, the first Titan to earn the honor in program history. IWU advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2022 and finished the season with a 24-6 overall record.
Women's Basketball 2025
Men's Basketball 2025
Nick Roper ‘25
Hakim Williams ‘25
Lauren Huber ‘25
Ava Bardic ‘26
Mallory Powers ‘25
Mia Smith
Track and Field Shines at CCIW Championships
The Illinois Wesleyan men’s track and field team scored its highest-ever point total (118) at the CCIW Championships on their way to a second-place finish while the women placed third as a team (77), their highest finish at an indoor championship since the 2020 season. The Titans claimed six CCIW individual titles, with each program winning three events, and totaled 34 all-conference performances across the two-day meet. Nick Walker ‘28 was named the CCIW Men’s Field Newcomer of the Meet after earning CCIW Champion
titles in the men’s high jump and the 4-by-400m relay, in addition to All-CCIW honors with a sixth-place finish in the long jump. Other Titan event champions were Annalese Chudy ‘25 (5k), Adriana Crabtree ‘26 (3k and DMR), Jordynn Griffin ‘26 (DMR), Emma McGrath ‘25 (DMR), Alex Reinhart ‘28 (DMR), Reece Dusek ‘27 (4x4), Alex Harvey ‘25 (4x4)., and Evan Lowder ‘26 (4x4 and 400m). IWU saw four Titans earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors in Lowder, Walker, Imani Ogunribido ‘27, and Matt Lindberg ‘27. Additionally, four Titans represented the Green and White at the Division III Championships as Lowder claimed First Team All-American honors with an eighth-place podium finish in the 400m while Walker and Ogunribido brought home second team All-American honors in the men’s high jump and women’s triple jump, respectively. Carlyssa King ‘25 also represented IWU in the women’s weight throw.
Wrestling Closes Historic Seasons
With a new face leading the Titan wrestling teams in interim head coach Adam Richards, both programs saw historic moments in the 2025 season. The women’s wrestling team completed its first year of competition with freshman Sifa Feruzi ‘28 becoming Illinois
Sifa Feruzi ‘28
Nick Walker ‘28
Adriana Crabtree ‘26
Annalese Chudy ‘25
Evan Lowder ‘26
Natalie Porter ‘26
Isabella Cano ‘28
Carter Dilger ‘25
Kannyn Boyd ‘26
Kayleigh Kuschewski ‘26
INSIDE IWU
Wesleyan’s first-ever All-CCIW honoree in women’s wrestling after a third-place finish at the CCIW Championships in February. The IWU men won their first dual since the program was reinstated a season ago, as the Titans defeated Concordia Wisconsin 43-12 at the CCIW Duals in January. Vanessa Gray ‘28 and Ameer Alamawi ‘28 were named IWU’s women’s and men’s CCIW RESPECT Award recipients, respectively.
Swimming and Diving Sees Four Garner AllCCIW Status
Natalie Porter ‘26 turned in two top-three finishes in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Swim Championships this season. Porter finished first in the 1650-yard freestyle, posting a time of 17:40.66, and earned second in the 500-yard freestyle 5:12.64. Carter Dilger ‘25 was the sole All-CCIW representative on the men's side, taking second place in the 200-yard butterfly finishing with a time of 1:54.31. Two more women received All-CCIW honors in Kayleigh Kuschewski ‘26 and Isabella Cano ‘28. Kuschewski snagged second place in the 100-yard backstroke (59.29), while Cano reached the wall in third place in the 100-yard butterfly (59.72).
Men’s Volleyball Off to Record Start
The Illinois Wesleyan University men’s volleyball team is off to its best start in the program’s five-year
(Below) Inspiration Field
collegiate existence. The Titans finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 10-4 record, and won the first four matches of the season. Illinois Wesleyan defeated 19th-ranked Dominican Feb. 6, marking the first win against a ranked opponent in program history. Brenden Reutter ‘27 recorded a triple-double in the match, the first in program history, and followed with another triple-double performance against Benedictine the next match. His stellar week led him to be named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week, the first national award for the program. On a team filled with 10 freshmen, Gavin Rohlwing ‘28 has made an immediate impact, as it took him only 13 matches to break the single-season program record for blocks. He notched his 52nd rejection against Arcadia (Feb. 14) to rewrite the record book, and has twice been named the CCIW Defensive Player of the Week three times.
Kannyn Boyd ‘26 became the first Illinois Wesleyan women’s volleyball player since 1998 to be named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America team, as she earned third team honors. It is the sixth Academic All-America honor for the women's volleyball program, and Boyd becomes just the fourth player to earn the distinction. She became the 161st selection in Illinois Wesleyan history.
Illinois Wesleyan, Inspiration Field to Host 2025 NCAA Division III Softball Championship
The top-eight teams will convene in Bloomington towards the end of May as Illinois Wesleyan’s Inspiration Field at Carol Willis Park plays host to the NCAA Division III Softball National Championship. The tournament will take place May 29-June 4 and will see the final eight teams travel to Bloomington in pursuit of a national title. The three-game final series is scheduled for June 3-4.
Williamson Returns to Lead IWU Football
Jared Williamson will return to the place where his coaching career began as he has been selected as the next Illinois Wesleyan University head football coach, IWU Athletic Director Mike Wagner announced Thursday, Jan. 2. Williamson comes to Bloomington after 15 seasons at the helm of the Roosevelt University
football program. He is the 17th head football coach in IWU history and just the third since 1954.
No stranger to Titan football, Williamson served on staff at Illinois Wesleyan under legendary head coach Norm Eash from 2006 until 2010. After two years as a graduate assistant coach, Williamson was IWU's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for his final two seasons. During that time, he helped guide the Titans to the 2007 and 2009 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship. The 2009 season was a special one for the Green and White, as Illinois Wesleyan posted 10 wins and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III playoff before finishing the year ranked ninth nationally.
On the field, his players have accumulated a number of postseason accolades, including more than 152 All-League selections, eight All-American honorees, six NAIA National Player of the Week awards, 47 MidStates Football Association Conference Player of the Week awards, and two MSFA Conference Player of the Year selections. Williamson has been named Conference Coach of the Year twice (2012 & 2016).
Away from on-field competition, Williamson's teams have excelled in the classroom. He has coached more than 150 academic all-conference selections, 71 NAIA Scholar-Athlete honorees, and 11 Academic All-America award recipients. In 2013, Williamson coached running back Lamont Wims to Capital One College Division Academic All-America of the Year honors. Two years later, his 2015 squad was recognized as an NAIA Scholar Team after posting a team cumulative grade point average of 3.04.
Valenzuela Named Inaugural Flag Football Coach
Illinois Wesleyan University Athletic Director Mike Wagner announced the hiring of Melissa Valenzuela as IWU's inaugural flag football coach Monday, Dec. 23. Valenzuela makes the move from Portland, Ore. and will begin the work of building Illinois Wesleyan's 27th sport after the new year. Valenzuela comes to IWU with more than 10 years of experience in both flag and tackle football. Most recently, Valenzuela coached girls flag football at Riverdale High School in Portland and was the wide receiver and defensive backs coach with the Oregon Ravens of the Women's National Football Conference. She has coached women's semi-contact, co-ed adult, and youth flag football teams in the Pacific Northwest since 2011.
Jared Williamson
Melissa Valenzuela (Below) Mens Basketball
Authors and the Arts INSIDE IWU
Books
Dawn (Guettler) LaBuy-Brockett '73 is the author of Choppy Waters. This 60-page novella turns Dawn’s experiences with childhood drug abuse as a substitute teacher into a cautionary tale for parents and educators.
Thomas Patterson ‘75 is the author of American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana, published by the Louisiana State University Press. Thomas’s book reevaluates the complicated legacy of Louisiana Governor Huey “Kingfish” Long. It covers Long’s economically and socially progressive positions, advocacy and legislative action in the light of his notorious larger-than-life personality as a populist demagogue accused of corruption and authoritarian rule over the state. A review by a fellow historian describes the book as showing “Long to be less of a manipulative, power-hungry, end-justify-the-means demagogue and more of a politician driven by a real concern for those who lacked power and the creator of a viable alternative politics for his time.”
Greg Novak ‘89 is the author of A Kind of Pantheism: Escape from Cosmic Pessimism and the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic published by Academica Press. This book reexamines the philosophy of the nineteenth-century transcendentalists and introduces readers to lesser-known philosophers of the early twentieth century who, together, provide a way for secular thinkers to adopt a pantheistic view of humanity and the natural world.
Adam Hott ‘05 is the author of Codey the Toad's Computer Game Adventure, a children’s book about a toad who discovers the joys of computer games and is inspired to learn how to make one from his own imagination. Adam is a software engineer and computer programming instructor.
Meridith Beird ‘15 is the co-author of Cannabis Banking: Legal Frameworks and Practical Solutions for Cultivating Compliance published by Wiley Publishing. As the legal cannabis industry grows, businesses still find it difficult to secure financing in a world of new regulations. This book provides guidance for those looking to understand the opportunities available to businesses and financial institutions seeking to expand the market.
Mark Yakich ‘92 is the author of The Poetry Reader: An Anthology — a somewhat unconventional anthology that places old, sometimes ancient, poems from around the world side-by-side with modern poetry. These carefully selected poems speak to each other over time as well as to today's readers
All submitted content received by Feb. 22, 2025. The submitted content deadline for the Winter 2024/2025 issue of IWU Magazine is June 20, 2025. Submissions may be edited, directed to other communications and/or preserved in IWU archives.
Podcasts
Diego Báez ‘07 had his poem, “Inheritance,” featured in the Poetry Unbound podcast. The episode discusses the poem as a description of how being a parent changes one’s perception of time as people observe their children grow up. Diego teaches English at the City Colleges of Chicago.
Articles
Natalie Cummings ‘10 is the author of “Singing Teacher Perception of Breathiness in Vibrato and Non-Vibrato Tones” published in the Jan./ Feb. 2025 issue of The Journal of Singing. Natalie is a professor of voice at the University of Wisconsin Stephens Point who is a recipient of the Joan Frey Boytim Award for Independent Teachers from the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Art
Bob Riseling ‘59 had 12 of his original paintings displayed at the St. Thomas Art Guild Art Show in March. In addition to being a painter, Bob is a performing musician who began teaching music around the world after retiring in his 80s. He also recently patronized the creation of a pair of clarinet-playing, junk-art sculptures, one of which serves as a doorbell with its head being an antique schoolhouse bell.
Stew Salowitz '76 had his watercolor "A Quiet Pond" among the 149 accepted pieces displayed in the 98th Annual Amateur Exhibition at Bloomington's McLean County Arts Center in March 2025. This is the fifth year in a row that one of Stew’s paintings was featured at the exhibition. He had previously won first place in the Adult Amateur Painting category with an original watercolor in 2021.
Music and Performance
Matt Mason ‘16 was commissioned by the Illinois State Music Teachers Association, in partnership with the Music Teachers National Association, to compose a new work for solo piano titled "The Pianist's Guide to Illinois,” published by Just A Theory Press.
Ben Weber ‘04 with his string ensemble, Kontras Quartet, released their new album "All Made of Stories" in Dec. 2024. The band describes the album as a “musical heritage quilt” that collects customs and histories from a variety of cultures, distributed by MSR Classics.
John Dozier ‘78, Beth Izzo ‘11, Adrienne Fisk ‘13 and Trey Ehrhart ‘21 performed together in the Quincy Community Theatre (QCT) productions of Shakespeare in Love and the Cinderella musical in 2024. All four have been performing at QCT since their graduations from IWU.
30 YEARS OF SHIRK
Story by STEW SALOWITZ '76
In 2024, the Shirk Athletic Center reached a new milestone with its 30th anniversary. The Center still serves as an essential community hub for campus and BloomingtonNormal.
Jim Shirk was at a Jewel-Osco store in Bloomington, collecting Christmas entertaining groceries at the request of his wife, Linda
It was a pretty simple task for Jim, the chairman of Bloomington-based Beer Nuts, the nationwide purveyor of snack products. Simple task, that is, right up to the time that his credit card chip was refused by the store’s machine.
Certain that there was no problem with the transaction, he handed the card over to the cashier. As she was inspecting it, she noticed the name, looked up and asked, “Shirk … Do you have anything to do with the Shirk Center?”
Modestly, Jim answered, “Well, sort of. In a way, yes.”
The cashier successfully processed his answer — along with his card — handed it back and said, “Well, my granddaughter was just
there for a camp last week, and it is such a great building. Really, just a wonderful place to go.”
Jim said quietly, “Yes … I know.”
Jim admits that when he left the store and walked outside to his car, his perception was that the sun was a little bit brighter, the air smelled a little bit cleaner, and there was a little more pep in his step, all based on the unsolicited compliment given to the building that bears his last name, located on the Illinois Wesleyan campus but, for so many people, a community asset as well. Those similar proud feelings have been exuding from the Illinois Wesleyan family since 1994 as the school recognizes the Shirk Center’s 30th anniversary.
After years in the planning and dreaming phase, the building became reality thanks in large part to an initial $5 million gift from
the Russell and Betty Shirk Family Foundation. Russell Shirk ‘43 was a founder of the family-owned company that became Beer Nuts with its signature product being the sweetand-salty glazed redskin peanuts.
“The Shirk Family Foundation had been planning to do something substantial for Illinois Wesleyan and for Jack Horenberger ‘36, my father’s close friend,” recalls Jim. “We had been setting money aside for an IWU-Horenberger project for almost 20 years but with no clear vision, while across town Dennie Bridges ‘61 and others at the school were trying to determine how to best upgrade their athletic facilities.”
In addition to being the baseball and basketball coach, Jack was IWU athletic director from 1942 until 1981, succeeded by Dennie , who held the position until 2015. “The opportunity to honor Jack would come later with the Shirk Foundation support and IWU’s 1997 commitment to
Jack Horenberger Field,” said Jim. “When ‘all the stars aligned’ and it was known that the project was going to happen, an aim in the planning stages was to make the final product large enough to have the performance arena in one part and the activity center or track in another. That was a clear break from facilities we had visited around the country,” said Dennie. “Throughout the process, all the constituencies united to agree on a building not just for the present but for future and not exclusively for University use. Very few compromises needed to be made – we never sacrificed any space for money. And the financial asks we made of Russ, Betty, Jim and the Shirk Foundation staked IWU to fulfill those plans.”
To that end, Dennie also cites the full support he received from then-
IWU President Minor Myers jr.
In 2016, another major gift from the Shirk Family Foundation was used for expansion to the building, adding fitness facilities and locker rooms and addressing classroom and storage needs.
Construction of the Shirk Center, connected to the already-built Fort Natatorium, set off a domino effect that profoundly impacted IWU athletics. It allowed for the razing of Fred Young Fieldhouse, which made way for new configurations of the outdoor track and football field, which also initiated development of the baseball, soccer and softball venues.
Appropriately, the performance arena court was named in 2015 for Dennie, whose men’s basketball teams won 93 of 98 games played at
remarks at the dedication ceremony for an expansion to the
Athletic Center in 2016. (Opposite Page) The Shirk Athletic Center recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
(Left) Jim Shirk delivers
Shirk
(Right) Dan LaRocca ‘13 soars in the pole vault within the Shirk Center’s indoor track.
30 YEARS OF SHIRK
Shirk in his final seven seasons as head coach.
The investments and renovations have allowed Illinois Wesleyan to put the Shirk Center to outstanding use.In the 2024-25 school year, 630 student-athletes were competing in 27 varsity sports, nearly double the total of 322 student-athletes in 18 sports in 1994.
“The Shirk Center has not only elevated our overall numbers but has also impacted the level of talent we are able to recruit,” said Mike Wagner, who has been the Titans’ athletic director since 2015 and has worked at the school since 1992.
“When top high schoolers who may be looking at Division II or mid-major programs visit our campus, they definitely get a sense of what the Shirk Center can do for their development and experiences as a student-athlete at a D-III institution."
The facility hosts roughly 310 basketball games per year, including Titan games, the McLean County/ Heart of Illinois Tournament, the 64-team State Farm Holiday Classic, and numerous youth clinics and tournaments including the Illinois Special Olympics state tourney. Additionally, about 16 college and high school track meets per year are centered around the 200-meter track.
There have also been events that have shined national attention on IWU with Shirk hosting six NCAA Division III championships — women’s volleyball (2007, 2008), women’s basketball (2010, 2011) and indoor track and field (2000, 2005). Shirk will be the site of the Division III women’s volleyball national championships in December 2025.
Illinois Wesleyan President Sheahon Zenger was the athletic director at neighboring Illinois State University from 2005 to 2011 and
vividly recalls the admiration he gained for the Shirk Center when he would attend events and bring his own children to camps.
“My first exposure to Illinois Wesleyan was through the Shirk Center,” said Zenger, “so I guess you could say that me being here is a direct result of the Shirk family vision for the center being used as a front porch to the community. The memories my family and I have from that time period, coupled with games and events I now attend as the president, make my heart swell with pride every time I walk through the Shirk Center doors.”
A senior All-American on the women’s basketball team, Lauren Huber ‘25 senses a similar pride. “It’s where many of my favorite college memories have been made,” said Lauren, a four-year first team all-conference player. Huber sees “The Shirk” (or just “Shirk” in common parlance) as more than merely
a building. “It’s really a resource that supports growth, learning, and connection for students, athletes, and the broader community.”
Titan student-athletes realize that not everything at Shirk is competition-based as it is also a place for classes and professional development.
“Through on-campus jobs, students get real-world experience and build their resumes,” said Lauren, a biology major who has worked in the training room, dealing with everything from football injuries to rehab sessions. “Those experiences have given me hands-on skills like taping techniques, which have strengthened my path toward physician assistant school after graduation.”
Currently the athletic director at Ripon College, Chris Schumacher was Illinois Wesleyan’s head track coach from 1997 to 2023.
“Coach Horenberger greeted me in the Shirk athletic suite on
(Below) The parking lot of the Shirk Center has been the site of the University’s Homecoming tailgate party for years.
the morning of my first interview,” remembers Schumacher. “I had no idea how much the words he said to me, ‘Be at your best,’ would resonate over the next 25 years with the track and field programs and the countless shared memories behind the banners in the building.” Schumacher vividly recalls hosting IWU’s first indoor championship. “That 2000 class saw six seniors qualify for those NCAA championships with every one of them earning All-American honors. Then, when we hosted in 2005 we had two more All-Americans, propelling the women’s program to national prominence.”
A tangible display of that national prominence are the 30 ban-
ners hanging at Shirk with 27 green ones representing top-four national finishes and three grey banners for teams ranked in the top-four before the COVID-19 pandemic ended their seasons prematurely.
While Shirk is bustling for so much of the year with competition and fans, women’s basketball coach Mia Smith finds a sort of Zen-like calmness in the building after the crowds are gone. “After games, I love walking through the arena. The lights are dimmed, sometimes the scoreboard is still on. The peace and tranquility of being in that space is very comforting to me.”
Wagner says the Shirk Center is shown respect by how it is cared for
by students, faculty and staff. “At our fall student-athlete meeting, associate athletic director Tony Bankston reminds our students that, ‘This is our house’, and we need to treat it like home and encourage others to do the same.”
And just like the Jewel-Osco grocery cashier conveyed to Jim Shirk, Huber echoes how the Shirk Center’s positive impact extends beyond IWU. “Through the many youth meets, camps, and tournaments, it inspires the next generation of athletes and those moments spark a lifelong love of sports and community. It has been a cornerstone of our campus and the community for 30 years and it means so much to us.”
(Above) The Titan women’s basketball team were recently the champions of the CCIW Tournament, claiming the title on the Dennie Bridges Court.
A HEARTH FOR HAITI
Story by CHRIS FRANCIS '13
Kevin Hineline ‘88 is working with IWU physics students to develop a new cooking stove for use in the most impoverished and disaster-stricken regions of the world.
Kevin Hineline ‘88 described to CBS news, “It sounded like someone dropped a steel bowl of nails on the floor of the plane.” He continued, "There was an “understanding that the airport was secured by the UN, so I thought we were going to be safe… but I wasn’t able to even land.”
He was recounting his experience aboard a Spirit Airlines flight that was fired on during its descent toward Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. It isn’t known who carried out the attack, which caused minor injuries to a flight attendant. The plane was able to land in the Dominican Republic after the Port-au-Prince airport was shut down following the attack.
Even as Haiti’s government struggles to maintain control of a country that has, in the last four years, suffered the assassination of
its president and a violent takeover by a coalition of gangs, Kevin and his organization, El Fuego del Sol, are working with IWU physics students to address one of Haiti’s most basic problems: safe cooking with sustainable fuel.
Kevin co-founded El Fuego del Sol (FdS, Spanish for “the Fire of the Sun”, named for its creation as a solar power initiative) in the Dominican Republic in 2005, with Haitian social entrepreneur Frantz Fanfan, as an organization dedicated to solving social, economic and ecological challenges. Since then, the Dominican Republic has become a modern developmental success story, rising to become economically comparable to the other nations of the Caribbean.
In that same time, Haiti, a former French colony that shares the
island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, has remained among the most impoverished nations in the world. Wracked by natural disasters, corruption, gang warfare and a legacy of abandonment by the world as a successfully rebellious slave colony, Haiti became the focus of FdS’s efforts in 2012 at the invitation of the World Food Program.
As for Kevin’s education and training, he’s a circus performer, and a systems psychologist.
“I still book shows with my son,” he said, while referring to a video of himself and his son, Lucas, practicing a stunt in which they do flips off of a kind of see-saw contraption known as a teeter-board. “We can still perform around the country with lots of planning in advance.” He was introduced to the profession while studying theater at IWU.
took him to IWU’s campus to meet the faculty. Lucas eventually decided to attend ISU, where he could both study physics and advance his career as a circus performer, but Kevin’s meeting with Spalding sparked a promising new partnership between FdS and IWU’s physics department to help address a longstanding social and environmental issue in Haitians' daily life.
from an ideal fuel in the modern world. It is inefficient and ecologically damaging to make, taking 10 pounds of wood to produce one pound of charcoal, which also makes it more expensive than other fuel sources. And it is unhealthy, filling the air with smoke particles to which consistent exposure can cause respiratory illness, including lung cancer, and carrying the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
(Above) Kevin Hineline ‘88 showcases one of the hand-operated recycled briquette presses used by Fuego del Sol in Haiti. (Opposite Page) Kevin is working with IWU’s physics students to develop a new design of high-efficiency stove for use in impoverished and disaster-stricken regions.
He’s also a performing hypnotist, which ties more closely to his second major in psychology. Now, having spent two decades in international development, he also has a master’s degree in behavioral economics from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where he received special Academic Honors. But the academics he finds himself working with most today are physicists, after connecting with IWU Professor of Physics Gabe Spalding
When Kevin’s son was thinking about where to study physics, Kevin
Haiti has spent most of its existence as an independent nation, since the Haitian Revolution’s conclusion in 1804, cut off from the world economy. The legacy of that exclusion persists today as Haitians, especially in rural areas, are unable to use fuel like natural gas or propane for cooking. Instead, Haiti has an internal cottage industry of charcoal production.
Charcoal, while a useful means of creating a concentrated, controllable heat source for cooking, is far
Kevin, when explaining his work in Haiti, first turns to a satellite map of Hispaniola to illustrate the effect of these problems.
“Look here,” he says while pointing to the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. “On the DR’s side, you can see where the forest is dark green, then that same forest on the Haitian side is lighter colored, because of all the deforestation.”
At the same time, Haiti has a significant problem with garbage management, as most waste is either dumped in ecologically unsafe landfills, or not properly disposed of to begin with.
To combine these problems into a single solution, Kevin first worked with the World Food Program to develop a new fuel source: briquettes made from recycled paper, cardboard, sawdust, sugarcane waste, coconut shells, corn husks, rice husks, wood chips, and anything else that can safely burn. Through
A HEARTH FOR HAITI
FdS, local Haitians are employed to collect waste to then process with a small-scale, hand-operated factory line into compacted clumps with dimensions of about 4” x 4” x 1.5”.
“Lots of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) focus on just giving people things,” Kevin said, “like giving people food even though there’s already farmers there who could be growing the food if they weren’t being driven out of business by the handouts. It creates a dependence on aid that’s bad for communities in the long run. We want to focus on what they need to become self-sufficient.”
Beyond sparing the degraded forests of Haiti, these briquettes are less labor-intensive to create than charcoal, and, with the greater efficiency comes greater ability for Haitians to focus on improving their lives.
“After we introduced the briquettes in one area, we saw a big increase in kids going to school there,” Kevin explained. “Before, families would usually only send ‘the smart boy’ to school while the others would help at home, including with collecting wood. Now most of the kids go to school.”
But their increased school attendance isn’t just a matter of having more time available. The school’s use of the briquettes also decreased their cooking fuel costs, allowing them to provide more meals, which drew more students.
Meanwhile, physics students at IWU are currently working on the next steps of the project with guidance from Spalding. “Environmental projects like Kevin’s give our students the opportunity to see what they can accomplish on a human scale, providing a clear path for making a positive difference,” he said.
The briquettes are only part of the solution, and they hardly require the help of IWU physics students. The stoves that burn them are another matter.
Most cooking in rural Haiti is done with a metallic grill over a fire pit. Much, if not most, of the heat from the fuel is lost as the charcoal burns to produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and smoke particles. But, after speaking with Spalding, Kevin formed a partnership with the IWU physics department to improve upon the stove designs that FdS has been building in Haiti — one that is efficient when cooking with the recycled briquettes, but, just as important, usable without an external power source and affordable at scale.
Designing this new stove would be a far more complicated task than creating a commercial grill. The typical charcoal grills used in backyards across America are designed for the social traditions of 4th of July weekends, not to maximize the efficient use of recycled fuel in both industrial and home cooking. And
social, economic and environmental solutions on the island of Hispaniola since 2005.
they certainly aren’t designed to do so with no power source and a shoestring budget.
“We implement our household stove program together with our school cooking program because the school is then the distribution location for both the stoves and the fuel briquettes,” Kevin explained, referring to one of FdS’s earlier industrial stove designs meant to be 30 to 40 percent the cost of a similarly sized propane burning stove. Their current household stove model is sold at-cost to families for $50. “Our main stove production is for institu-
(Above) Kevin has been involved in
(Rigth) Kevin shows one of the old stove designs used by Fuego del Sol to IWU physics students working on creating a new design.
tional use, such as schools, community centers and crisis implementations globally.”
Spalding explained, “In order to be appropriate to the Haitian community, the stoves need to be technologically simple, operating without any electric fans or sensors, but the challenges our students grapple with are actually quite advanced, requiring some of them to develop competency in computational fluid dynamics, for example, to solve the problem of how to feed oxygen into a larger version of the stove that might allow a school to reopen, or a local economy to restart. It's by really working through the details that our students learn how to have significant impacts.”
The IWU-improved stove design is still in its earliest stages, but, where the current FdS stoves are based on pre-existing designs, the science and engineering that IWU
students bring to bear may be able to significantly increase the efficiency and safety of cooking both in Haiti and other regions where powerless cooking with recycled fuel is a necessity, such as refugee camps.
Kevin and Spalding’s partnership reinforces entrepreneurship, both commercial and social, as a headline feature of education at IWU, with many parties on campus eager to see how far Kevin and our students might go with this important project.
“Kevin's work with FdS embodies the kind of innovative, collaborative, and globally-minded projects we envision at Petrick,” said John Quarton, director of the Petrick Idea Center at IWU.
Fuego del Sol has won and been nominated for many awards for social entrepreneurship in climate solutions, thanks to its work with solar energy. The new hope is that, by
helping impoverished communities in Haiti, as well as the environment as a whole, Kevin and IWU’s student innovators may earn more deserved accolades yet to come.
In the coming months the FdS team is expanding operations into the south of Haiti, in the community of Anse-a-Pitres, which due to its remote location has been spared from the political violence seen in much of Haiti. FdS is collaborating with several other NGOs including Surge for Water to implement a new drinking-water system under a recent grant from the Simmons Center for Global Chicago. Kevin sees his collaboration with the students, staff, and faculty of IWU as a major step toward the goal that Haitian FdS collaborators have shared: for the improved cooking concepts initiated in Haiti to be replicated and improve people’s lives around the world.
(Rigth) Kevin poses with members of the United States Embassy and USAID visiting Fuego del Sol’s recycled briquette operation in 2021.
SETTING A STANDARD
Story by CHRIS FRANCIS '13
Jeff Becker ‘01 and Matt Glavin ‘01 are the minds behind Illinois' new AI regulation that's setting a standard for states across the country.
The world felt like it had entered a new era of technology after the public release of ChatGPT, the large-language-model artificial intelligence (AI), in November 2022. Spurred by the uncannily human-like chatbot that's as capable of writing poetry as boilerplate legal contracts, entire industries immediately began imagining how this technology could be used—an important concern for Jeff Becker ‘01, a member of the board of governors for the Recording Academy, and Matt Glavin ‘01, managing director of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies in Chicago.
But ChatGPT was only the starting gun in an information technology arms race that dozens of companies had already spent years preparing for. Billions of dollars of international investment are accelerating AI’s development into a technology
that may one day remake the economy as we know it. And where many industries have seen in ChatGPT the potential for automating communication, customer service and data analysis — potentially displacing countless workers before regulation has a chance to consider the effects — others are seeing the present threats to artistic creators posed by ChatGPT’s cousins.
“A.I.-based image generators like DALL-E 2, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have made it possible for anyone to create unique, hyper-realistic images just by typing a few words into a text box,” wrote New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose just a month before ChatGTP’s public release.
The threat these technologies pose to the jobs of sales reps, graphic artists and photographers has been limited, so far. Generative AI, a term
referring to AI that creates varieties of content from a prompt provided by a human user, appeared as a technological wonder but has since revealed its shortcomings.
Chatbots will “hallucinate” falsehoods and devolve into madness as a conversation stretches on, and image generators will miscount the number of fingers or teeth a person should have, speaking of uncanny.
As of today, this technology has mostly fallen short of what the companies who might employ it would need them to do to truly automate or improve productivity, though its brief history has shown how quickly that might change.
But, for now, it’s more than good enough for a scammer.
Even though “there are differences between text-generating (generative AI) models and many common media-generating models just below the surface,” IWU Professor of Computer Science Mark Liffiton explained, “at the highest level, they're all trained on large amounts of existing data with a goal of generating new outputs that look just like the data used in training.”
That data includes billions of words, images, sounds and videos that have been collected on the internet for decades. YouTube alone serves as perhaps the most valuable source of AI training data in the world, available for Google’s internal development of generative AI, but many sources of data are currently contested by lawsuits that claim their unauthorized use amounts to
intellectual property theft.
Meanwhile, the generative AI products themselves may enable other forms of creative fraud.
“Once we started seeing how musical artists were being ripped off, a lot of conversation began in the music industry about, ‘What in the world could we actually do to stop this? What laws exist?” said Jeff, partner and founder/chair of the Entertainment and Media Law Practice Group at Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP.
Music-generating AI presented an entirely new challenge for the industry. Copyright law had long protected a musician’s right to reproduce and sell their music without being undercut by counterfeit copies, but it wasn’t prepared for truly original songs that fraudulently claimed to be the newest tracks from the world’s most popular musicians.
“There’s a famous case involving Bette Midler where a car manufacturer wanted her to sing a song for
their commercial, but she didn’t want to do it,” Jeff recalled. “So the company found someone who could sing just like her and had the impersonator do the commercial instead.”
With new generative AI technology, products like AVIA and Udio can do something similar with simple inputs, creating tracks that sound comparable to studio-produced songs by artists like Taylor Swift or Beyonce, requiring as little as the text of the new song’s lyrics (which might in turn be written by ChatGPT) and a musical sample from the artist being impersonated. Then the song can be made available for sale online, claiming to be a surprise release from an international superstar.
Before these generative AI products, attempting something like that would take a full-blown studio product that would be exposed as fake long before it could recoup its costs. But now, even if the imitation is subpar, it only needs to fool a handful of
(Opposite Page) Jeff Becker ‘01 provides testimony in support of the AI regulation bill before Illinois House Judiciary Committee. (Above) (Left to right) Jeff, Mary Edly-Allen and Dani Deahl provide testimony together. Dani Deahl is a DJ/Producer who testified in support of the Bill. Mary Edly-Allen is a member of the Illinois Senate and was the Senate sponsor of the bill.
SETTING A STANDARD
buyers to be worth the effort, which could be easily repeated a dozen times over a weekend.
“In Midler’s case, she was able to take the company to court because her ‘likeness’ was being used to promote a product. But it was immediately clear that the existing law wasn’t adequate for AI,” Jeff said. Indeed, “if the same song was being created using AI and uploaded to Spotify or Apple Music, there would be no such violation of Illinois law.”
Already on the books in the state of Illinois were “right of publicity” laws, which protect people from having their name, image and likeness used for promotional and commercial purposes, but the laws don’t similarly prohibit the use of someone’s likeness for artistic purposes. AI-generated music falsely claiming to be created by an artist fell in an uncomfortable gray area.
“I started having talks with folks at the Recording Academy about, ‘What can we do here?’” Jeff said.
“Eventually I got in touch with state representative Jen Gong-Gershowitz,” of Illinois’ 17th district in the state General Assembly, which covers suburban Glenview and Wilmette.
Gong-Gershowitz emerged as an obvious legislative partner after sponsoring HB4623, a bill protecting children and adults from having their likeness used in AI-generated pornography. Similar principles could apply to the right to have one’s artistic expression and business protected from generative AI.
“Jeff and Matt have been indispensable partners in making sure Illinois' artists are protected from the abuse of generative AI — an issue my office is working on every day,” said Representative Gong-Gershowitz. “Smart legislation on complex, cutting-edge issues like AI requires thinking ahead and seeing several steps in advance to ensure this technology best serves everyone. Jeff’s technical knowledge and expertise
combined with Matt’s deep understanding of the legislative process have played a critical role in establishing Illinois as a leader in sensible AI regulations.”
A second obvious partner was Matt, a floor-mate of Jeff’s during their first year in Dolan Hall. They both started their careers in policy as Student Senate representatives with Matt rising to become president in his junior and senior year.
“Matt had a lot of brothers in the TKE house that I was friends with, so I would see him there too a lot,” Jeff recalled.
Both Jeff and Matt credit their liberal arts education at IWU for turning them into creators of Illinois policy.
“Illinois Wesleyan is entirely responsible for where I am,” Matt said. It was an internship with Senator Dick Durbin during his time at IWU that started Matt’s career. “The senator offered me a job in Chicago after graduation. And now I’ve hired two IWU alumni for my team,” Gabby Manzanares ‘21 and Sofia Papoutsis ‘22
Jeff began at IWU as a pre-med psychology student until he took a class on business law.
“I came to love the idea of being a lawyer,” Jeff said, especially relishing the challenge he saw in a general attitude that “law students don’t get jobs—good, smart, hard-working law students get jobs.” Since joining Swanson, Martin & Bell LLP, Jeff has had a fellow alumnus mentor in Joe Kincaid ‘84
After graduating and continuing to work in policy and law, the two regularly crossed paths between Chicago and Springfield, so, when it came time to enlist the help of someone who could navigate state policy negotiations, Matt was the
Jeff Becker ‘01
Matt Glavin ‘01
PHOTO/SWANSON, MARTIN & BELL.
PHOTO/COZEN O'CONNOR
first person to come to mind.
“I told (representatives from the Recording Academy), ‘You know, I went to college with a guy who’s really respected down in Springfield, it might be a good idea to call him,’” Jeff said. “So Matt and I got together with Representative Gong-Gershowitz and members of the Recording Academy—and we coalesced a plan for the law we have today.”
From beginning to end, the
whole process was remarkably quick in terms of state legislation, which was a clear necessity in a world where AI technology seems to advance every few months.
“The great thing was that no one was opposed to this law,” Matt said. “There’s no ‘Association of People Who Steal Artist’s Voices,’ but there were a lot of people with legitimate questions. We talked to the Motion Picture Association, Apple, Google,
Amazon about where the liability should fall.” The companies that create the most advanced AI models capable of music creation seemed to steer clear of the discussions. “We didn’t talk to them,” Matt said.
In the end, the answer was an amendment to the Illinois Right to Publicity Act that carved back and limited some of the exemptions that
"Jeff
and Matt agree that this new Illinois law is going to be a model for other states."
had existed in prior editions of the statute.
The new law now makes it illegal to utilize AI and other forms of technology to digitally replicate a person's voice or image without permission and to use it in any publicly available sound recording or audio-visual, even if those works did not previously qualify as "commercial purpose" under the law.
For example, no longer could someone use AI to make a song sound like Chance the Rapper without subjecting themselves to potential litigation. Jeff and Matt also made sure there were various protections in place for service providers who host the possibly violative content by utilizing concepts of Fair Use and Safe Harbor protections found in the Digital Millenni-
um Copyright Act (DMCA).
With their bill, HB4975, Illinois has become only the second state in the nation to grant these protections to musical artists, only one year after Tennessee (home of the Nashville music scene) passed the first law to address this issue.
Jeff and Matt agree that this new Illinois law is going to be a model for other states.
Alumni Update
NEWS, WORKS AND CELEBRATIONS OF IWU ALUMNI & FRIENDS
1963
James Parker was recently elected chairman of the Board of Directors of The Bronzenville Black Historical Society whose conference room is now named for him. While at IWU, James played football with Coach Don Larson and Dennie Bridges ‘61 as quarterback.
1968
Ruth Monsell, as the most recent biographer of labor rights advocate and secretary of labor under president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, was invited by the White House to attend the ceremony at which then-President Biden signed a proclamation making the Frances Perkins Homestead the newest national monument. Ruth's biography of Perkins, Frances Perkins, Champion of American
Workers, features on its cover an oil portrait of Perkins painted by Ruth. The painting was gifted to the Frances Perkins Center three years ago, and is now part of the national monument.
1982
Michael Greenberg was named president of the Sigma Chi Foundation Board. Previously he had been grand consul of the national fraternity and chairman of the Governing Council of the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC). He was awarded the NIC Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honor, for lifelong service to the interfraternal community.
1984
Mike Murray has returned to the Illinois Wesleyan University football team sidelines as the Titans' assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Murray brings more than 40 years of coaching experience, including head coaching positions at Elmhurst University, University of Dubuque, and Benedictine University (Ill.). Most recently, he spent two seasons at Elmhurst University, where he reinvigorated the Bluejay football program. Inheriting a program that had won just two games over a 30-game span, Murray guided Elmhurst to its most wins since 2016 this past fall.
1989
Eric Gardner has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library and community of learners dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past. Gardner joins a distinguished roster of members including scholars, artists, writers and librarians elected for their achievements in academic and public life. Eric is the chair of the English Department at Saginaw Valley State University.
1993
Mark Denzler was included in "The Book 2025" from Crain's Chicago Business as one of "Who's Who in Chicago Business."
Mark is president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, an Edgar Fellow and a board
member of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Illinois. He received the IWU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2024. Mark recently became a member of the IWU Board of Trustees.
1994
Justin Ahrens has returned to the marketing agency he co-founded, Rule29, as CEO. After stepping away in early 2024 to establish O’N Creative with long-time client O’Neil Printing, the collaboration recently culminated in O’Neil Printing and Ahrens acquiring Rule29 and integrating O’N Creative into its operations. In returning as CEO, Justin combines his leadership in purpose-driven design with O’Neil’s century-long production expertise.
Dana Starkey was featured in an article published by WGLT Radio covering his career as a sports announcer and his new position as the announcer for Illinois
Andrew Nelson ‘08, formerly director of the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), was appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) of the U.S. federal government in January. This appointment recognizes Andrew’s exceptional leadership and technical expertise, as well as his commitment to advancing innovative research in areas critical to national defense. As an SES member, Andrew will continue his leadership at CERL, where he oversees a team of approximately 350 staff members focused on cutting-edge research in energy, materials, structures and engineering. Andrew has received numerous honors, including the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the ERDC Research and Development Achievement Award. CERL in Champaign, Illinois, where Andrew received his advanced degrees from the University of Illinois, is one of seven unique research facilities under the ERDC. ERDC-CERL is dedicated to discovering, developing, delivering and sustaining innovative engineering and scientific solutions to address the toughest challenges faced by the soldier and the nation.
Eric Gardner '89
Ruth Monsell '68 (Right)
Dana Starkey '94
Sarah Edwards '96 and Taylor Plantan '20 were awarded with a Mid-America Emmy for their documentary production of Prairie Fire on WILL-TV. The show was nominated for seven regional Emmys for different episodes that aired in 2024. Sarah was a producer for two of the episodes and Taylor was a producer for four. The win is a triumphant return for the show, which was revived in 2024 as a documentary series about culture in Central Illinois. The 2024 season was inaugurated by a performance by Bloomington-Normal music star Leah Marlene, who competed in a previous season of American Idol.
State University football. Dana was approached during summer 2024 for the position after being discovered through his work at high school football games. His day job is as an accounting teacher with Unit 5 in Bloomington-Normal.
1998
Jeff Mavros created BounceNet, selling a backyard family game similar to a combination of volleyball and the popular university quad game Spikeball. In BounceNet, players bounce a ball among each other using elastic nets stretched between their arms. Jeff is the executive director of admissions and recruitment marketing at Illinois State University.
1999
Jake Burkhart was featured in the online, Champaign-Urbana-based magazine Smile Politely as the founder of Castle Danger Records. As a lifelong lover of music and a music producer and DJ, Jake created the record label to bring more bands into the vinyl format and advance his career in music. He first DJed for WESN at IWU.
2004
Jordan Ault was named office managing partner of the Jefferson City, Missouri, office of Husch Blackwell. Jordan splits his time as a litigator and chair of the law
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firm's Nonprofit Organizations & Religious Institutions team, where he counsels a wide variety of tax-exempt and religious clients. He serves as chancellor to the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and is president of the denomination's Conference Chancellors Association. He lives in Jefferson City with his spouse Chelsey Hillyer '05 and daughter Jo.
2005
Jon Mladic completed his term as President of the College Reading and Learning Association by presiding over the organization’s annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and sharing his President’s Address with membership. Jon was professional development director from 2018 to 2022, then elected for a three-year presidential term. During his time in leadership, he has helped navigate conference planning around the pandemic, planned and launched a new website, helped establish a Jap -
Jon Mladic '05
anes chapter and selected and standardized terms of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with partner vendors.
Kristin Tvrdik has officially joined DuPage County’s Animal Services team as the deputy administrator veterinarian. Following graduation from IWU, Kristin obtained her veterinary medicine degree from Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. Formerly, “Dr. K” practiced in the Quad Cities, South Bend, Indiana, and Hinsdale, Illinois, as a high volume spay/neuter surgeon and medical director. Kristin fondly remembers competing with Illinois Wesleyan’s equestrian team while at IWU.
2010
Natalie Cummings started a new position as assistant professor of voice at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Natalie earned her master’s degree and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and, in December, she published “Singing Teacher Perception of Breathiness in Vibrato and Non-Vibrato Tones” in the January/February 2025 issue of The Journal of Singing.
Brad Tietz joined international law firm Faegre Drinker as director of the Illinois Government and Regulatory Affairs practice. Brad’s career has been dedicated to legislative affairs,
your news to IWU Magazine, P.O. Box 2900, Bloomington, IL 61702, iwumag@iwu.edu, or via our website, at iwu.edu/magazine. Or scan the QR code to be featured in the next issue!
having previously been on staff with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, where he was vice president of Government Relations and Strategy. Before that, Brad served as the director of Legislative Affairs at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and as a senior legislative staffer for the Illinois House Revenue and Finance and Labor and Commerce Committees.
2015
Lisa Mishra was featured in an article on Filmfare.com reflecting on her journey leading to a supporting role in the Amazon Prime Video streaming series Call Me Bae and the release of her debut album "Sorry I'm Late." The series is a Hindi language comedy drama in which Lisa plays the role of reporter Harleen Babbar. Lisa also creates music for Indian television after first collaborating to create the theme song for American Emmy-nominated show Brown Girls
2016
Matt Mason was named the 2024 Commissioned Composer by the Illinois State Music Teacher's Association. Matt was also commissioned by ISMTA, in
Brad Tietz '10
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS
My Fellow Titans,
Happy Spring! At the writing of this message to you, Illinois Wesleyan just wrapped its virtual February Board of Trustees meeting. As you may know, as president of the Alumni Association, I am also an ex officio member of the university’s board of trustees.
Like a new season, each gathering of the board of trustees often invites me to think, question and reflect.
Think.
With an institutional motto of Scientia et Sapientia, or Knowledge and Wisdom, I am sure you are not surprised that a board meeting can spark thought. One of my clearest thoughts is that I am proud of how well the board and university administration work together to ensure a financially sound and academically vibrant future for IWU.
Question.
Regardless of how you feel about the current political landscape, numerous conversations acknowledge the anxiety and concerns that permeate the campus community. And so, leads me to the question: how can we better support fellow Titans, whether current students or alumni, during moments of national and local uncertainty?
Reflect.
While I was at Illinois Wesleyan, I honed beliefs and values. Values like diversity (of people and ideas), equity (of opportunity and access), inclusion (to create belonging), and curiosity (about what’s said, meant and possible). Beliefs like our work should be done with care and compassion for others. Values and beliefs that guide me today… and are evermore important as we look to the future and decide how we might shape our university and society.
In Titan Pride,
Derrick L.
Tillman-Kelly,
President, Alumni Association Board of Directors
PhD
’09
Meet Your 2023- 2025 Alumni Association Board of Directors
Officers
Derrick Tillman-Kelly ’09, President
Meg Howe ’05, President Elect
Desiree Quizon-Colquitt ’89, Vice President of Committees
Paige Buschman ’17, Vice President of Affinity Groups
Dave Darling ’79, Secretary
Leadership
Al Black ’79, Regional Chapters Co-Chair
Alison (Braksick) Mullikin '10
Regional Chapters Co-Chair
Jazmyne Kellogg ’16, Alumni of Color Collective Chair
Taylor Williams ’18, Council for IWU Women Chair
Ed Pacchetti ’91, Alumni Academic Resource Council Chair
Stella Wang ’17, International Alumni Network Chair
Aaron Harris Woodstein ’15, Pride Alumni Community Chair
At-Large
Debbie Burt-Frazier ’75
Alan Leahigh ’67
Mandy Leifheit ’96
Beth Messina ’81
Brittany Powell ’10
Taylor Robinson ’21
Kate Roessler ’13
Kira (Larson) West ’86
ALUMNI EVENTS
Illinois Wesleyan’s alumni events are as varied and unique as our alumni population, spanning decades and interests. Join us for regional happy hours, weekend gatherings and new and exciting endeavors meant to bring Titans closer to each other and the University.
Council for IWU Women (CFW)
Women’s Weekend
Friday, April 4 - Saturday, April 5, 2025
This annual gathering provides an opportunity for students, faculty, staff and Council members to discuss social topics concerning women, network with successful alumnae, and channel inspiration to take on leadership roles in today’s world.
All In for Wesleyan McLean County and St. Louis Alumni
Socials
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Go all out and be all in with your fellow alumni! Celebrate our annual day of giving with two special alumni happy hours at Tommy’s in Hansen Student Center (McLean County) and the Boathouse at Forest Park (St. Louis).
The Petrick Idea Center
Groundbreaking and Entrepreneur of the Year
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Join us as we break ground on The Petrick Idea Center, a transformative new space for innovation, collaboration and interdisciplinary creativity. On this special day, we will also honor the late Dave Petrick ’67 as the 2025 IWU Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year, celebrating his lasting impact on our Titan community.
Festival of the Arts
Friday, April 24 - Sunday, April 26, 2025
Our Festival of the Arts is a reunion and celebration of the alumni, faculty, staff and friends that shaped Illinois Wesleyan’s Fine Arts programs into beacons of artistic expression for more than 75 years. Reinvigorate your artistic roots and glimpse the future of the Fine Arts at IWU.
Washington, D.C. Titan Connection
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Catch up with old friends, network with fellow Titans, and hear about the exciting vision for IWU’s future from President Zenger at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, located in DC’s renowned Penn Quarter district.
From the Stacks
From the Stacks is Illinois Wesleyan University’s community book club highlighting alumni authors who have made a significant impact on the world of writing. This quarterly webinar series invites readers to engage with IWU writers in fiction, history, sports, and more, all from the comfort of their own homes. Join us for in-depth discussions and live Q&A sessions that take you inside your favorite stories.
Upcoming Authors
Echoes Across the Tracks: Life Lessons Through Unexpected Connections
Dave Moravec ‘84
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 7 p.m. CST
Captivating Confidence: An 11-Step Guide to Develop a Healthy Relationship With Yourself and Own Your Inner Greatness
Interested in attending an alumni event? Visit iwu.edu/alumni/events/ to register and learn more.
Want to get involved with an affinity group or regional chapter? Fill out a form at iwu.edu/alumni/engage/ volunteer.html or contact Avary Kampwerth ‘24 at akampwer@iwu.edu.
ALUMNI EVENTS ALUMNI UPDATE
partnership with the Music Teacher's National Association, to compose a new work for solo piano titled "The Pianist's Guide to Illinois.” The piece premiered on Nov. 1, 2024, and the work was published by Just A Theory Press.
Hayley Roberts has been named a Balzan Fellow at Oxford University with the Balzan Centre for Cosmological Studies. Hayley’s research focuses on the evolution of galaxies through merger and “starburst” galaxies.
Save the Date
Homecoming and Family Weekend 2025
Are you ready to come home?
Homecoming and Family Weekend 2025 will be here soon! Mark your calendars and save the date for Friday, October 10 - Sunday, October 12, 2025. This will be a Homecoming and Family Weekend like never before as we honor 175 years of Illinois Wesleyan.
1850 Vendor Market
Calling all makers and small business owners! Our popular 1850 Vendor Market is back for its third year. Whether you’re
Get Involved and Volunteer
Get Involved and Volunteer
Alumni volunteers enrich Illinois Wesleyan in so many ways. Use your time, talent, or treasure (or all three) to make IWU the best it can be. The Office of Alumni Engagement offers numerous volunteer opportunities, including:
• Joining your regional alumni chapter, including our largest chapter in McLean County. We have chapters all over the country, including Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri.
• Mentoring students on campus and virtually. Share your expertise through the Hart Career Center, or be one of the first to engage with students at The Petrick Idea Center.
• Serving as a Titan Alumni Ambassador.
selling homemade items, crafts, or food, come set up a booth on the quad for this new IWU tradition. For more information and to secure your spot, contact Avary Kampwerth ‘24 at akampwer@iwu.edu.
Milestone Reunions
Whether you've been gone for 10 years or 50, you’re always welcome at IWU. This year is all about the classes of 2015, 2005, 2000, 1985, and our 50th class reunion, 1975. Reconnect, reminisce, and reunite. Interested in joining your class reunion planning committee? Contact Amy Crumbaugh at acrumba1@iwu.edu.
Answer questions, offer support, and welcome new students to the Titan family.
• And so much more!
Seeking
Regional Alumni Chairs
Our chairs are the driving force behind our regional chapters, whether supporting Titan Connections or brainstorming new and exciting events. We are currently seeking volunteers to lead our efforts in the following regions. If you’re interested in getting involved, please contact Avary Kampwerth ‘24 at akampwer@iwu.edu.
• Champaign, IL.
• Dallas, TX.
• Bloomington/Normal, IL.
• Nashville, TN.
• New York City, NY
Update Your Information
Keep Illinois Wesleyan in the loop by scanning the QR code to update your information. Stay connected to alumni events, networking opportunities, and the latest Titan news! #TitanPride
Hayley Roberts '16
Matt Mason '16
HART CAREER CENTER HAPPENINGS
Illinois Wesleyan’s Hart Career Center is constantly engaging with alumni and connecting them with current students in fun and enriching ways. Do you want to assist students to ensure their career success? Does your organization have internships or employment opportunities for Titans? Contact the Career Center staff at ccenter@iwu.edu or (309) 556-3095.
Careers in Healthcare PanelJanuary 14, 2025
Lucy Wisdom ‘95
Dave Milligan ‘05
Jill Young - friend of IWU
John Weiland - friend of IWU
Annie Marshall - friend of IWU
Beyond IWU: Young Alumni & Their
PhD Experience - February 6, 2025
Daniel Kenny ‘13
Brianna Piro-Gambetti ‘17
Michael Kistner ‘17
Internship & Job Fair - Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Phil Huckelberry ‘98
Molly Rollings ‘99
Katie Vogler ‘22
Abby Nytko ‘23
Josie Schmidt ‘23
Molly Morrissey ‘23
Anja Schrag ‘23
Megan Moody ‘24
Itzel Mendoza ‘24
Aksel Juarez Mejia ‘25
Careers in Accounting/Risk
Management - Wednesday, March 5 & Thursday, March 6, 2025
Matt Hill ‘12
Bradley Goldasich ‘21
Kailee Piwowarczyk ‘22
Izabella Villatuya ‘24
Donald Tichy ‘24
Additional Programming
Bob Gulino ‘97
Jaclyn Hitchings ‘00
Dana Peterson ‘06
Heather Miller ‘07
Zach Freeman ‘07
Michael Henry ‘12
Tera Peplow - friend of IWU
Career Immersion ExcursionSTEM Focused - Spring Break 2025
Thank you to the generosity of Cathy Carswell ‘65 for making this trip possible.
Ramani Natarajan ‘94
Phil Huckelberry ‘98
Jim Ulrich '98
Matthew Dearing ‘00
Matt Highland ‘02
Russell Smith '04
John Van Fleet ‘04
Marc Prasse ‘13
James Connolly ‘16
Seth Borrowman '19
Mark Falatico ‘19
Philip Andrango ‘21
Nico Lopez '21
Robert Reichert '21
(Left) Current students' visit to Argonne National Laboratory
(Right) Healthcare Career Panel
Titan Celebrations
IWU Magazine considers for publication photos of IWU people at celebrations and reunions of alumni. Please send your Titan Celebration photos to IWU Magazine, at iwu.edu/magazine, via email at iwumag@iwu.edu, or by mail at P.O. Box 2900, Bloomington, IL 61702. All featured content received by Feb. 22, 2025
Hannah (Dhue) Tweedy ‘15 married Addison Tweedy at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim on Oct. 17, 2024, with Brie Locketti ‘15 in the wedding party.
Grace McCarten ‘16 and Camden Weber ‘16 got married at IWU’s Evelyn Chapel with many alumni in attendance, including (left to right) Eric Hyla '16, Jess Hyla '17, Brendan Finnell '16, Brandon Straeb '16, Mitch Day '16, Blake Beehler '16, Ross Knezovich '16, Adam Glogovsky '16, Camden Weber '16, Grace McCarten '16, Jack Troike '16, Becky Fiedler '16, Patrick Webb '16, Elizabeth WirthRaatz '06, Peter Raatz '06, Jimmy Connolly '16 and Drake Leary '16
Jac Jemç ‘05 married Jared Larson with many alumni in attendance, including (left to right) Katie (Genualdi) Relkin '05, Annie DiMaria '06, Simone (Roos) Snook '03, Matt Erickson '06, Alison Daigle '05, Jac Jemc '05, Jen Houghton '05, Elizabeth Williams '06, Rachel (Price) Cooper '05, Megan Keach '05, Diego Báez '07, Zach Bosteel '06, and Scott Priniski ‘05.
Jasmine (Wright) Ryan ‘17 and Kevin Ryan ‘16 got married on August 24, 2024, with Jenia (Head) Nwobu ‘17 in attendance. The two met on campus in fall 2014.
Tiny Titans
Tolu (Ogunkeye) Ajise '95 and Michael
Oghenerute Ajise, born Nov. 21, 2023
Lauren (Eigenbrode) Greenberg '06 and Daniel Mateo Henry Greenberg, born Oct. 28, 2024
Adam Bohr '07 and Stephanie Bernadette Joan Bohr, born Oct. 4, 2023
Travis '07 and Bailee (Soltys) Myers '07
Truett Chandler Myers, born Dec. 30, 2024
Lindsay (Brown) Dausch '08 and Matthew Declan Reed Dausch, Dec. 2, 2024
Bridget (McFadden) Wicherek '09 and Mark Daniel Edward Wicherek, born October 23, 2024
Joey Schmitt '10 and Justin Kieran Leo Schmitt, born Sept. 2, 2024
Kathy (Pechous) Risch ‘10 and Chris Elaina Mary Risch, born Oct. 25, 2024
DJ ‘12 and Nikki (Salansky) Zenger ‘12
Eva Alexandria Zenger, born Feb. 3, 2025
Erick Henderson '12
Bennett Kane Henderson, born Sept. 16, 2024
Nick '13 and Zoie (Samaan) Nelson '14
Ryan Nelson, born May 30, 2024
Pete Ruther '14 and Kelly Caden John Ruther, born Nov. 21, 2024
Carly (Floyd) Sherman '17 and Nicholas Artemis Orion Sherman, born Nov 16, 2024
Erich '18 and Emilee (Monken) Lieser '18
Kate Stacy Lieser, born March 23, 2024
Rebekah (Ehresman) Mounce '18 and Michael Avery Marie Mounce, born Dec. 22, 2024
Braden '20 and Jessica (McGrew) Tanner '19
Harper Lee Tanner, Dec. 10, 2023
2017
Jasmine (Wright) Ryan was promoted to associate director of search engine optimization (SEO) at KINESSO. She also married Kevin Ryan ‘16 on Aug. 24, 2024. The couple met on campus in 2014.
2021
Anna Eager received her Juris Doctor from The University of Wisconsin Law School on May 10, 2024. Anna is a first year associate with Nowlan Law LLP in Wisconsin where she is specializing in civil and business litigation. She is incredibly grateful to have had Professor Dave Marvin as one of her advisors who always encouraged her path to law school. She also credits Professor Rob Kearney’s trial class for helping her find her passion for being in the courtroom. Additionally, she would like to thank Professor William Munro from the Political Science Department and Professor Ilaria Ossella-Durbal from the Economics Department for creating enriching learning environments that prepared her for her legal studies.
Anna Eager '21
Jasmine Wright '17
In Memory
Faculty, Staff and Friends
Marcia Hishman died Oct. 2, 2024. She was 88. Marcia was a graduate of the Yale University School of Music and was the winner of the school’s Lockwood Prize for pianists. She served with the music faculty of several institutions before finding her permanent home with Illinois Wesleyan from 1975 to 2012. Her husband, Richard Hishman, was also chair of music education at IWU from 1966 to 1992. Marcia served in the Bloomington-Normal community as the organist for Wesley United Methodist Church, for whom she helped acquire a new Austin pipe organ.
Alumni
Martha (Beadles) Giacobassi ‘48 died Dec. 15, 2024. She was 97. Martha was a junior high school teacher of English, social living and special education who loved camping and exploring the United States. She had a passion for the creative arts, especially playing piano, and she attended plays and concerts and toured museums up until the weeks before her passing. Her family and friends have also saved the many letters she wrote throughout her life. Martha is the daughter of the late IWU economics professor and dean and vice president of the University, William T. Beadles, after whom Beadles Hall and a campus award and scholarship were named. Martha is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
Marjory Irvin ‘48 died Jan. 21. She was 98. Marjory was a student of music who went on to join the faculty of multiple colleges and universities. She was also the author of her own textbook, Music in Perspective. In her retirement, she took up a multitude of hobbies and became a tutor for adults achieving their GEDs.
Arlene (Truscott) Miller ‘49 died Jan. 13, 2024. She was 96. Born in Argentina to a Methodist missionary family, Arlene came to IWU to study music. There she met her husband, Roger Miller ‘49, as a fellow music major. The couple moved to Decatur, Illinois, for Roger’s academic career, where he was president of Millikin University. Arlene is remembered fondly for her service to Millikin as chair and host of many university events and for her service with the local Methodist Church. Arlene is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.
Irmalee (Lewis) Brown ‘49 died Feb. 17, 2025. She was 99. Irmalee was born a Bloomington townie who became a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at IWU, where she studied business administration. After graduation, Irmalee led a career as a high school teacher in Melvin and Danvers, Illinois. She met her husband, fellow business student and Ellsworth-area farmer Edward Brown '50, at IWU.
Mary (Temple) McElfresh ‘50 died Oct. 26, 2024. She was 95. Mary studied sociology at IWU, where she was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority. In 1956, her family moved to Southern California and later the Bay Area, where she became a lifelong resident. Mary was a lover of reading and crossword puzzles and an avid local volunteer, especially with the local Lutheran Church. Mary is survived by three children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Robert McFeeters ‘50 died Dec. 9, 2024. He was 96. Bob studied chemistry and mathematics at IWU, where he met and married his wife Marlys (Reeter) McFeeters '51. After graduation, Bob
John Ficca died Nov. 20, 2024. He was 95. John was a beloved professor of theater who devoted his entire career to Illinois Wesleyan, where he began teaching in 1956. In 2011, John recalled that, when he first came to the University, “the students wore beanies and had to attend chapel every week.” One student who John went to lengths to push in his ambitions was Richard Jenkins ‘91, most recently known for his prominent supporting roles in the Monsters Netflix series and in the film The Shape of Water. Noticing that Richard was a bit of a wallflower as a firstyear student, John encouraged him to audition for “everything.” John’s tireless work also expanded the breadth and prestige of the IWU theater department, overseeing the design and construction of the McPherson Theatre and developing multiple degrees at the University.
served with the U.S. Air Force and earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois. After his military service, he became a research engineer with Caterpillar where he worked for 27 years. He was a member of the Morton (Ill.) Methodist Church and volunteered as a Cub Scout leader. Bob is survived by his wife and three children.
John McCracken ‘51 died Jan. 4, 2025. He was 95. John was a Tau Kappa Epsilon member at IWU who went on to start a real estate and home construction business in Kankakee, Illinois. He was also a certified home appraiser and was director and president of the Kankakee County Board of Realtors. His well-known business slogan was “Start packin’, call McCracken.” He was also a volunteer and board member with many community organizations, including the Kankakee Public Library and the Kankakee Rotary Club. John is survived by his wife, two children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Anne (Snyder) Jones ‘53 died Nov. 4, 2024. She was 93. Anne met her husband, James Jones '51, at IWU and served with him within Grace United Methodist Church in Decatur, Illinois, where James was the pastor. Anne is survived by three children, four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Burt McIntosh ‘54 died Jan. 7, 2025. He was 98. Born in Flint, Michigan, Burt served in the Second World War with the Marine Corps. After completing his service, he studied sociology at IWU where he met his wife, Elizabeth McIntosh '54, before continuing his education at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He spent 44 years in ministry with the United Methodist Church Illinois Great Rivers Conference. During his career, he was elected to serve as a delegate to the General and Jurisdictional Conferences of the United Methodist Church. Burt is survived by five children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Dorothy (Gregory) Menozzi ‘57 died Nov.15, 2024. She was 90. Dorothy was a lover of music and farm life who was known to have raised and sold a bull so she could buy a piano for her home. She studied vocal performance at IWU and became an accomplished vocalist. She also worked as a tailor and teacher’s assistant. After retirement, Dorothy designed her and her husband’s dream home in Winchester, Wisconsin. Dorothy is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Jack Waddell ‘63 died Jan. 1, 2025. He was 83. Born a Bloomington townie, Jack was recognized for his vocal talent at a young age. Encouraged by his high school teachers to pursue his interests, Jack came to IWU on a scholarship where Professor Henry Charles cultivated his individual talent as a singer, which led to the beginning of his career in opera singing. With few opportunities for black performers in opera, Jack moved to Europe where he learned German, giving him his first big break that granted him success on Broadway in the U.S. He also expanded his career to provide voice work for television and direct his own award-winning short film Introspection in 2016. In 2023 he was honored by the American Theatre Wing as an “Unsung Hero of Broadway.” In 2024, on a panel of African-American musicians hosted by the McLean County Museum of History, Jack was asked how to better welcome non-white students into the arts. He answered that including all perspectives in American history was the first step.
ALUMNI UPDATE
Clarence Thompson ‘57 died June 18, 2024. Originally from Rushville, Illinois, Clarence went on to the Loyola University Chicago School of Law after graduating from IWU, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He eventually earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in international finance. He was a member of Mensa and a karate black belt. He loved reading philosophy and books about world history and politics, as well as spending time with his family and keeping up with sports.
Carol (Potts) Zeedyk ‘58 died Jan.10, 2025. She was 88. Born in Kankakee, Illinois, Carol came to IWU to study nursing, spending more than 40 years in the profession. She loved to travel, taking several trips to Europe in her life, as well as to Alaska, Hawaii and Canada. She was also known to love ice cream. Carol is survived by her husband, two children, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Konnie (Konecki) Saliba ‘59 died Dec. 2, 2024. She was 86. Konnie studied music at Illinois Wesleyan, preparing her for a career as a professor of music at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. At the university, she became director of the master of music degree program. She was also an accompanist with the Dallas Civic Chorus under Professor Lloyd Pfautsch, who had been an instructor of hers at IWU. Konnie wrote 26 books and was a sought-after teacher presenting courses in graduate workshops from Canada to Germany to China. She is survived by a child and two grandchildren.
Harold Edwards ‘59 died Nov. 15, 2024. Harold’s primary and secondary education was completed at a one-room schoolhouse and in the Ashland, Illinois, public school district before he earned a degree in biology from Illinois Wesleyan. He went on to earn advanced degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois. In his career as an educator, he served thousands of students as a high school science teacher, a principal and as a superintendent of schools In Villa Grove and Sullivan, Illinois. He was a member of several professional and service organizations in which he assumed leadership roles. He is survived by his wife, Marty Edwards '60, two children and five grandchildren.
Lois Nelson ‘59 died Jan. 9, 2025. She was 87. Lois graduated from high school in Moline, Illinois, and studied history at IWU. She went on to earn a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, introducing her to the world of national policy. She originally worked with the Ford Foundation before moving to Oxford, Ohio. She earned a second master’s degree from the Institute of Environmental Studies at Miami University and was a staffer with Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Ohio before becoming the editor of the Ohio Journal of Science and the Cliometrics Society at Miami University. She also worked as an editor assisting work with the Department of Energy’s Cold War legacy sites. She is survived by her children and grandchildren.
Shirley (Koelling) Cunningham ‘60 died Oct. 27, 2024. She was 86. Shirley studied music education at IWU where she met her husband Roger Cunningham '62. Soon after wedding Roger, she earned a master’s degree in music from Northwestern University. During her career, she taught music to elementary school students throughout Illinois. She also worked for R.R. Donnelly and Sons, Benson's Maytag, Johnson's Men Store and the Ginoli & Company CPA firm, and she was a certified massage therapist. In retirement, Shirley and Roger traveled the world and enjoyed the fine arts.
In Memory
Bruce Heise ‘61 died Nov. 4, 2024. He was 85. Bruce studied music at Illinois Wesleyan where he met his wife Judith Heise '61. During his career, he taught children of all ages choral singing. Bruce is survived by three children and two grandchildren.
Gayle (Beckway) Smith ‘61 died Feb. 8, 2025 She was 85. Born in Chicago to immigrants from Canada and Denmark, Gayle spent most of her life there, though she came to IWU to study music and join the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. She became a high school teacher of speech and English, eventually becoming a teacher for homebound and pregnant teens. Gayle is survived by her husband, two children and six grandchildren.
Elizabeth (Braun) Rockford ‘62 died Feb. 10, 2025 She was 84. Betty met her husband Robert Rockford '64 at IWU where they studied music together, and the two were married for 65 years. She served as her church’s organist for 50 years and substituted at several others near Waterloo, Illinois. She also gave private piano lessons. She loved gardening and was active with her local Red Hat Society and Red Bud Bowling Leagues. Betty is survived by her husband, three children, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Ronald Zehr ‘62 died Feb. 24, 2025. He was 83. Ron had a driven personality as a young man, being the first in his family to go to college and determined to leave Illinois for a life and career in California. At IWU he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and met his wife, Jackie Zehr '65. He led a successful career in sales, eventually starting his own business importing luxury ceramic tile from Europe. As an adopted child, he identified and formed a bond with his birth relatives in the 1990s. He also wrote a memoir, A Man of Few Words, and Other Little White Lies. Ron is survived by his wife, two children and three grandchildren.
Karen (Comstock) Cheesman ‘64 died Dec. 6, 2024. She was 82. After graduating from IWU, Karen began her career as a teacher with the Rock Island (Ill.) public school district teaching classes in public speaking. She was beloved as an inspiring teacher with a personality, known for her love of rock music and the band Kiss. Her main volunteer work was with the Quad City Animal Welfare Center in Milan, Illinois, where she volunteered for more than 40 years.
John Gorman ‘64 died Dec. 14, 2024. He was 82. John studied political science at IWU before earning his law degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During his career, he worked for Goldsworthy & Fifield where he became a partner. He eventually sat on the bench himself when he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as a circuit judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, a position to which he was later elected. He was known for his legal acumen and positive demeanor with everyone he worked with and was “never too far from a good time.” John is survived by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Robert Mitchell ‘64 died Jan. 30, 2025. He was 82. Born in Decatur, Bob came to IWU, where he met his wife Susan Mitchell '65, to study art, going on to earn his master’s degree in ceramics and metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University. He joined the faculty at Arkansas State University and later became the business manager for the Society of North American Goldsmiths and ran his own computer consulting business. He also taught at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Bob is survived by his wife, child and grandchild.
died Jan. 29, 2025. She was 99. Nell met her husband, Robert Eckley, while he was deployed with the Coast Guard during the Second World War. They married after the end of the war in the Appleton Chapel of Harvard University, where Robert finished his degree and Nell worked as a teacher in Boston. They moved around the Midwest together, eventually residing in Bloomington when Robert became IWU’s president, a position in which he served for 18 years. Nell led major landscaping and renovation projects on campus during that time. The Eckleys’ service to the University is recognized in multiple campus landmarks being named after Nell and Robert, including the Eckley Quadrangle and the Nell Eckley Lounge in the Memorial Center. She was also an active member of the Bloomington-Normal community, joining the Four O'Clock History Club, McLean County Historical Society and Wesley United Methodist Church. Notably descending from a line of long-lived men who fathered children late in life, her grandfather was born in 1774 and died only four decades before Nell was born.
Gail (Hodge) Vecera ‘64 died Dec. 31, 2024. She was 82. Gail became an elementary school teacher after attending IWU, teaching primarily first graders for more than 30 years. Throughout her career, former students would return to thank her and credit her as contributing to their success. Gail is survived by a child, grandchild and great grandchild.
Georgia (Griffith) Whitley ‘65 died Nov. 14, 2024. She was 80. Georgia studied nursing at Illinois Wesleyan, where she met her husband Robert Whitley, Jr. '66 with whom she created an endowed scholarship at IWU. She spent her life advancing her education and career, earning her master’s degree from the University of Iowa and her doctorate from Northern Illinois University. She was both a practicing nurse and professor teaching at Joliet Junior College, Lewis University, Aurora University and Northern Illinois University, where she was associate chair of the School of Nursing. Georgia is survived by her husband, two children and a grandchild.
Fran (Rauth) Crumpler ‘66 died Nov. 5, 2024. She was 80. Fran
Nell Eckley
studied education at IWU, going on to earn a master’s degree in education and learning disabilities. She was a middle school teacher who was known for her love of and skill with horses, also working as a trainer and riding instructor. She earned multiple awards for her work with horses and was chair of the US Equestrian Saddlebred Committee for 17 years. Fran is survived by her husband and child.
Ruth (West) Weistart ‘66 died Oct. 17, 2024. She was 81. After graduating, Ruth became a nearly lifelong resident of Durham, North Carolina, where she was a realtor and a homemaker. She also started her own craft supply wholesale business, Decorations, which she ran for almost 40 years. One of her crafts was displayed on one of the White House Christmas Trees in 1997. Ruth is survived by a child.
Patrick Grady ‘67 died Feb. 7, 2025. He was 85. Patrick was born a farm boy and loved working on the family farm even as he began his own separate career. He studied mathematics at IWU and completed a 50-year career of teaching high school mathematics in 2015. Patrick is survived by his child.
Bruce Borton '69 died Aug. 11, 2024. He was 77. Bruce was a music major at IWU and earned his master’s degree from Southern Illinois University and a doctorate from the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Highlights of his years at IWU included singing in the Apollo Quartet and his membership in Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity. Bruce was on the faculty of West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia, and Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, where he served as chair of the music department for six years. He was director of the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton in his later years. Bruce is survived by his wife, Nanette (Witt) Borton '69
Kon Swee Chen ‘69 died January 22, 2024. He was 82. Originally from Malaysia, Kon came to the U.S. to study as the first ever Fulbright Scholar from Malaysia, and as one of the only first-year undergraduate Fulbright Scholars ever, thanks to the direct intervention of John F. Kennedy’s presidential administration. He studied chemistry at IWU, where he was part of a prankster plot to steal the Hedding Bell and lash it to the school of nursing building. After earning his doctorate from the University of Kansas, he was a professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Connecticut for over 25 years and helped establish the Wendell Hess Scholarship and the Kon Swee Chen and Susan Culver Chen Scholarship at IWU. Kon is survived by his wife, Su (Culver) Chen '70, two children and six grandchildren.
James Tungate ‘69 died Nov. 15, 2024. He was 77. After graduating from IWU, where he met his wife Susan Sumner-Tungate '70, Jim pursued advanced degrees in law from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois. Law ran in the family as his wife became the judge of the Illinois 21st Circuit Court in 2002. Jim taught communications at Loyola University of New Orleans and worked for the Iroquois County (Ill.) State's Attorney Office as well as running the Tungate Law Office. He served the Iroquois County Bar Association as its president for more than 20 years. Jim is survived by his wife, two children and five grandchildren.
Carol (Zahniser) Beardsley ‘69 died Dec. 26, 2024. She was 76. Carol married her college sweetheart Stuart Beardsley '67 after graduation, following him during his career as a U.S. Air Force dentist, moving to Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana and Arkansas. She served as a Sunday school teacher and Vacation Bible School instructor
ALUMNI UPDATE
everywhere they went. Carol is survived by two children and three grandchildren.
Sandra (Cavitt) Lanier ‘69 died Jan. 7, 2025. She was 77. Sandra studied music at IWU and devoted her life to serving as a music teacher. She was also a church organist and opened her own boutique decor shop in Geneva, Illinois, The Snooty Fox. Sandra is survived by her husband, a child, a grandchild and her fellow alumna sister Lisa Cavitt '81.
Richard Beers ‘74 died Nov. 21, 2024. He was 72. Originally from Evanston, Illinois, Richard spent his early years on the East Coast before returning to the Midwest to attend Illinois Wesleyan studying religion. He earned a master’s degree in behavioral psychology from Western Michigan University. He had a particular soft spot for Delavan Lake in Wisconsin. Richard is survived by his wife and two children.
Patrick Drazen ‘74 died Jan. 23, 2025. He was 73. Patrick studied communications at Illinois Wesleyan in preparation for what seemed his destiny to forge a career as a radio announcer, having begun in the trade before attending college. He was also a Japanophile academic, writing several books about Japanese culture and religion for American audiences. His disciplines combined when he served as the master of ceremonies at the Smithsonian Institution’s Anime Marathon of 2006.
Morris Tammen ‘75 died Feb. 19, 2025. He was 71. Morris was born in Thawville, Illinois, where he grew up on a multi-generational family farm. At IWU he studied economics and met his wife Linda (Brown) Tammen ‘76 when he called her to ask her on a date after seeing her photo in a yearbook. After he retired from farming, Morris’ children Katrina (Tammen) Reber '05 and Evan Tammen ‘09 convinced him and Linda to join them in turning the farm into a new family business, Artesia Brewing. Morris credited the background in the humanities that he received during his time at Illinois Wesleyan with inspiring him to read the canon of great books, and from them branch on into reading books by other great philosophers for the rest of his life. Morris is survived by his wife, three children and many grandchildren.
Donald Krause ‘77 died Dec. 2, 2024 He was 69. Donald was a native of Kankakee, Illinois, who went on to study at Northwestern University after graduating from IWU. He opened his private dental practice in Kankakee in 1982, from which he retired in 2023. He performed missionary dental work on multiple occasions in the Galapagos Islands serving children, and was involved in charitable work for all those in need. Donald is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren.
Jeff Norris ‘77 died Feb. 6, 2025. He was 70. Originally from Eureka, Illinois, Jeff studied music at IWU where he also went on to be a piano instructor for a decade. After his time at Illinois Wesleyan, he taught at Merit School of Music in Chicago, spending a total of 45 years teaching music. He was also the church organist and music director at Euclid Methodist Church in Oak Park, Illinois, for more than 25 years.
Gerald Goodell ‘78 died Jan. 5, 2025. He was 68. Originally from Galesburg, Illinois, Gerald studied mathematics at IWU and became an actuary at Country Financial, where he spent his entire career. In retirement, he enjoyed playing golf and taking trips to Biloxi, Mississippi, as well as visiting family in Texas. He is survived by his wife.
Shelly (Sherden) Rasche ‘78 died Feb. 3, 2025. She was 69. Shelly studied art at IWU, where she met her husband Jeffrey Rasche '81, propelling her into her career as a prolific commercial artist. Her art has been featured in children's books, greeting cards, prints, cross stitch kits, plush animals, mugs, puzzles, kitchenware, collectible figurines, music boxes and more. Shelly and Jeff also turned their home in Camp Point, Illinois, called Windsong Acres, into a popular Victorian-style event venue. Her art and home have been the subject of local journalistic features for years. Shelly is survived by her husband, three children and six grandchildren.
Bonnie (Evans) Allen ‘82 died Sept. 7, 2024. She was 73. Bonnie served her community as a nurse and instructor of nursing at different institutions for 31 years. Her volunteer work extended her medical expertise further into the community as she was a member of the Woodford County Medical Reserve Corps, with whom she served as president of the Board of Health. She was also an avid quilter and cross-stitcher. Bonnie is survived by her husband, child and three grandchildren.
Kent Slack ‘82 died March 6, 2024. He was 63. While at IWU he studied history and was an active member of the Alpha Phi Omega
student at Illinois State University. Returning to his hometown of Quincy, Illinois, he was a teacher with Quincy Public Schools, worked for the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County and also worked as building superintendent for the Western Catholic Union. Kent, an Eagle Scout, volunteered much of his time to local Boy Scout units and to the Quincy Community Theatre where he appeared on stage and worked backstage on running crew and set and prop construction.
Pamela (Rybolt) Saal ‘88 died April 9, 2024. She was 70. Pamela first became a nurse after graduating from the Methodist School of Nursing in Peoria. While she was working, she earned her nursing degree from Illinois Wesleyan University. During her 45-year nursing career, Pamela worked as a registered nurse in many capacities at several hospitals in the Peoria area, including serving as assistant director at St. Francis Woods in Peoria, to being the director of programs & staff training for a Rosewood Care Center in Peoria. She ended her nursing career by joining Caterpillar, where she became the first Caterpillar nurse ever promoted to management. Pamela is survived by her husband.
Megan (Geraghty) Kontos ‘13 died Jan. 11, 2025. She was 34. Megan was part of a star golf team during her time at IWU, where she studied business administration. For her career, she was a human resources business partner for AbbVie and Allstate, and she served as president of the Associate Board for Shelter, a nonprofit organization assisting the homeless. She loved being active and spending time with
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Springtime Chill
A stubborn layer of frost settles over campus as the last days of winter give way.
