WGSS Alumni Are Leaders in Their Fields

Radiance Campbell '20 minor

Radiance has accepted a full-ride offer to Georgetown Law's Class of 2023 where she will be a Blume Scholar and Public Interest Fellow. She is moving to Washington D.C. and is excited to be studying just a few blocks away from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alexandra Daggett '19 minor

Alexandra just finished her first-year teaching at Eisenhower High School in Decatur. She is the new sponsor for the Gay-Straight Alliance, and a founding member of the new district LGBT committee. She is very proud to have been one of six teachers nominated for teacher of the year! She was the only first-year teacher to receive this distinction!

Venise Keys '16 graduate certificate

Venise is a full-time visual art teacher at the Art In Motion Creative Charter School in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. Her writing has been published in Adjunct Riot, a 'zine crafted by Amy Fleming. She has also written "The People's Church of the G.H.E.T.T.O.," for Sixty Inches From Center. The article explore commemoration and healing through a Black Feminist burlesque performance honoring Audre Lorde. She is a member artist at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago and her art appeared in the TOUCH virtual exhibit in June 2020. Venise's virtual art show in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Rachel Cooper Gallery can be viewed here.

Emily Johnston '16 graduate certificate

Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in Writing Pedagogy at the University of Delaware, where she teaches and researches ways of writing and teaching for social justice. Her current project is developing a transforming rape culture curriculum for first-year writing programs.

Kevin Mell '16 minor

Started his first year in the DePaul University College of Law, where he is a student member of the National Lawyers Guild. He is also a trained Legal Observer who monitors police conduct during organized actions and ensures that activists who are arrested during a protest are given access to a pro bono attorney.

Fabiola Rosiles '16 minor

• Currently pursuing her master's degree in women's and gender studies at DePaul University in Chicago, where she focuses on analyzing systems of oppression towars people of color in academic spaces and the experiences of Latinas in the academy.

• Serves as graduate assistant with Take Back the Halls, a teen dating violence prevention and community activism program, and works with the DePaul Women's Center.

Brooke Barnhart '15 minor

• Completed her first year in the Gender and Women's Studies Master's Program at University of Wisconsin - Madison.

• Served as a teaching assistant for both Introduction to LGBTQ Studies and the Introduction to WGS course.

Emma Belz '15 minor

Emma is pursuing her Master's degree in College Personnel Administration at Illinois State University and is currently working as a graduate assistant in Heartland Community College's Office of Engagement. She is an intern in Health Promotion and Wellness working on survivor support services and violence prevention education. She also volunteers with Stepping Stones.

Malia Haanio '15 minor

• Recently returned from China where she taught kindergarten and 1st grade English language.

• Accepted a position in a domestic violence and sexual assault prevention organization in Denver, Colorado.

Matt Rillie '15 minor

Matthew works at Columbia College in Chicago as the Coordinator of Student Support and Engagement in Student Diversity and Inclusion. He works to create and grow networks of support and education to help students explore how their identities impact how they navigate the world. He also advises Columbia Pride and the Trans Student Union, the two main LGBTQ+ student support groups on campus. His WGSS education at Illinois State University has been a foundation of his work. He attests so much of his critical thinking and intentional work to his time in the program.

Flourice Richardson '15 graduate certificate

• Has had a major publication in Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication by editors Dr. Miriam F. Williams and Dr. Octavio Pimental.

• Completed doctorate in English Studies at ISU.

• Served as an instrumental leader in the creation of Umoja: Celebration of Black Graduates on ISU's campus.

Tomas Bolivar '14 minor

• Admissions Counselor at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.He uses his WGSS knowledge every day to craft diversity initiatives for a new recruitment protocol.

• Recently accepted into the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Master’s Program at Loyola.

Erin Frost '13 graduate certificate

• Erin is an assistant professor at East Carolina University, where she specializes in feminist approaches to technical communication.

Danny Matthews '11 minor

• Assistant Director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center within the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations at University of Illinois.

Erica Thurman '09 minor

• Writes and manages grants and contracts with the National Partnership for Women and Families, in Washington, D.C.

• Has had six book chapters accepted for publication in a three-book series on race and American television.

• Blogs at Life Behind the Veil.

Jenna Goldsmith '08 minor, '10 graduate certificate, '20 Outstanding Young Alumni Award Winner

Jenna earned her PhD in English from the University of Kentucky in 2016. Goldsmith is a writing instructor at Oregon State University-Cascades School of Writing Literature and Film. She has published two poetry chapbooks: Genesis Near the River (blush books, 2019), and Suppose the Room Just Got Brighter (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming). This spring she returned to campus to receive the prestigious Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Visit her website.

Katelyn Wood '07 minor

• Began a tenure-track position in theater history and performance studies at the University of Virginia.

• Working on book manuscript about the politics of U.S. Black feminist comedic performance in 20th and 21st century.

Andrew Anastasia '06 minor

Andrew was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of English at Harper College. He was a member of the 2019-2020 Social Justice Leadership Cohort at Harper and completed his final project on developing equity-based, trauma-informed curricular infusions for faculty to implement across campus. Recent conference presentations and invited talks have included creating trauma-informed composition classrooms and working with white, heterosexual, cisgender fragility in the classroom through understanding psychosomatic responses to discomfort and cognitive dissonance.

Sarah Ehlers '04 minor

Sarah was recently awarded tenure - and as of 1 September 2020 will be an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Houston. Her first book, Left of Poetry: Depression America and the Formation of Modern Poetics, was published in June 2019 by the University of North Carolina Press (https://uncpress.org/book/9781469651286/left-of-poetry/).