The Pantagraph Holiday Spectacular brought another year of cheer to Bloomington-Normal during performances on Dec. 3-4. The production was written by Nancy Steele Brokaw ’71, directed by former faculty member Lori Adams, and featured performances by Marketing Director Andy Kreiss ’86 and Assistant Professor of Music Bob Mangialardi. Read the full Pantagraph article here.
Janet Lee Claus ’81 passed away on November 13th, 2022 in El Paso, Illinois. She was born June 27th, 1959 in Normal, Illinois. Read the full obituary here.
Barb Nathan ’80 will retire as the CEO of Westminster Village mid-February of 2023. Barb has served as the CEO since 2012. Current CFO, Matt Riehle ’97, will replace Barb as the CEO. You can read more here.
Sandra Steingraber ’81 will deliver a lecture at The State University of New York College at Geneseo on October 5 titled “Designing the Unfractured Future: Thoughts on Pipelines and Plastic in an Age of Climate Emergency.” You can read more here.
Mike & Keri Wall again opened their home to host fellow IWU alums Gary Judson, John Dalton, Tim Brophy and Todd Vohland (IWU ’80-81) for a weekend of golf and fellowship.
Vickie Folse ’86 reflects on her first month as president of Ripon College, praising her past experiences at Illinois Wesleyan. More can be read here.
After 40 years as a public school band, choir, jazz band, and general music teacher, Mark Allen ’81 has finally retired. He is now retired from Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, as well as 3 years spent teaching in central Illinois. Allen switched from trumpet to saxophone during his junior year at IWU, and now spends his weekends doing solo sax shows throughout the Four Corners area.
William (Bill) Metzger ’86 passed away on June 9th, 2022. Bill graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in business and was a member of the Sigma Pi Fraternity. While at Illinois Wesleyan, he was a four-year letterman of the track team where he ran the high hurdles as well as throwing the javelin. He was chosen and inducted into the Illinois Wesleyan Order of Titans, by the coaching and physical education staff based on athletic contributions, academic accomplishments, and general citizenship.
Rick Bakewell ’87 was named chief financial officer of Modern Campus, a leading engagement platform for higher education, in March 2022. Rick will lead all Modern Campus’ financial activities. He brings a wealth of experience to the role, including 25 years in the technology and services industries, where he specialized in financial organizational, operational efficiency, financing and capital raising initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions. Rick most recently served as chief financial officer at Benefitexpress, a cloud-based benefits administration technology and human resources services provider. Prior to that, he held senior finance positions at Fruition Partners, NTT Data Americas and the Revere Group.
Illinois Wesleyan Associate Professor of Nursing Brenda Lessen Knoll ’89 published a study in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology with colleague Ehsan Naderifar on involving mothers in the assessment of their own preterm infant feeding skills while in the neonatal intensive care unit. The research is the first part of a larger study assessing the effect of Brenda’s Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention (PIOMI) on early feeding skills scores.