THANK YOU for continuing to make Illinois Wesleyan one of your giving priorities.  It is YOUR support that makes IWU a truly transformative place for young people.  

Click the photo to see what exciting memorabilia Meg Miner – University Archivist & Special Collections Librarian – has requested.

My family and I relocated with State Farm to a community just outside of Nashville, TN for my role as a Division Manager. It has been wonderful being so close to the Music City. I am delighted that I will begin my Masters in Science Management program in May of 2014.

We had a little last minute TKE get together last week.

Pictured: Otto Tomes ’92, Roger Kallal ’90, Mark Hunter ’90, Larry Andretich, Guy Petrelli ’88, Tim Mahler ’91, Matt Chadesh ’89, and Tom Cousins ’90. Jeff Pilon ’92 and Don Tomes ’87 showed up later but they missed the picture.

We have discovered that we have three Illinois Wesleyan alums working at Mercy Housing Lakefront in Chicago and wanted to share this!  IWU is one of the most represented universities in our office.  The attached picture is from Mercy Housing Lakefront’s annual Moving Forward Together fundraising and networking celebration on October 9, 2013.

Mercy Housing Lakefront is one of the Midwest’s premier non-profit affordable housing development and management companies. We have developed and currently manage 27 properties serving more than 3,900 residents.

From left to right:

Alva Winfrey (class of 2000), Resource Development Director, Mercy Housing Lakefront

Linda Brace (class of 1977), Vice President Real Estate Development, Mercy Housing Lakefront

Kristin Jenkins Bronsteader (class of 1991), Senior Financial Analyst, Mercy Portfolio Services

On July 17, over 2,500 alumni and friends made gifts to IWU totaling over $450,000. Unless otherwise specified by donors, all the money raised went to student scholarships and financial aid.  The “All in for Wesleyan” challenge began when Illinois Wesleyan Trustee John Horton ’82 and his wife, Joann, offered a gift of $100,000 if alumni and friends could raise $50,000 in one day.  When that challenge was met, several more challenges followed — and each was fulfilled.  Howard ’60 and Sharon ’60 Fricke offered a $10,000 gift if 600 donors participated.  Ed ’62 and Lin Phelps then offered $25,000 for 1,000 total donors.  Korey ’00 and Heidi Coon offered a $15,000 challenge for 1,200 donors.  Dr. Mike Sombeck ’83 offered $25,000 if we could reach 1,500.  Finally, at the end of the day, Dr. Randy ’73 & Jodie Reed offered $25,000 and Ed ’62 & Lin Phelps added $10,000 more to match every new gift, dollar for dollar…up to a total of $35,000 in gifts before midnight.

It was an exciting day to be a Titan.  The challenge became about so much more than numbers and dollars and donors.  It provided our alumni and friends with a chance to share their pride and explain how much IWU means to them.  If you weren’t following these conversations on social media, you can click here to read them now.  THANK YOU to all of our loyal alumni and friends who made July 17 an incredible day for our school and our students.

Hi Class of ’91. This is Brian Beam. I’ve been working with Ann Harding and her crew in Alumni Relations on this new format for Class Newsletters. We’d love you to share your news, updates, and especially your photos. Let us know what you are up to, and upload a photo of your family. Nostalgic IWU photos are also highly encouraged. Here’s a photo of my girls at IWU Homecoming. Thanks for sharing, Brian

Stephanie A. Whyte has joined Chicago Public Schools as its first ever Chief Health Officer. A board-certified pediatrician, she oversees student health and wellness policy and programming for the district with the goal of improving student achievement by removing health-related barriers.

Whyte, who received her bachelor’s degree in biology from IWU, will collaborate with the Chicago Department of Public Health on the “Healthy Schools” component of the citywide “Healthy Chicago” initiatives.  “I am honored to serve in a capacity that will focus on and promote the indisputable link between healthy students and schools and academic achievement,” Whyte said. “I look forward to working with the leadership team to positively impact student health and increase achievement in the classroom.”

Prior to this role, Whyte served as the Medical Director for a not-for-profit organization, the Mobile CARE Foundation, which used mobile medical units to deliver asthma care and education to hundreds of students each year at dozens of schools and Head Start sites across the city.

Whyte received her degree as a medical doctor from Fitch University of Health Science/The Chicago Medical School in 1996. She completed a residency in pediatrics at Louisiana State University Medical Center in 1999 and earned her master’s degree in business administration for public and not-for-profit management in 2009 from St. Xavier University in Chicago.

A 1991 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Salgado is an influential civic leader and social innovator.  For the past 12 years, Salgado has led the Instituto, a not-for-profit organization which creates educational, training, and community engagement initiatives and workforce opportunities for Latino communities in Chicago, through a period of national award-winning recognition and historic organizational growth.President and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino and Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus Juan Salgado delivered the address “You Who” for the University’s Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 5 at 1 p.m. Salgado was one of two recipients of an honorary doctor of humane letters degree during the Commencement ceremony, along with Robert Parris Moses, founder and president of the Algebra Project.

Most recently, Instituto has founded the Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, a new charter high school aimed at inspiring and preparing Chicago’s youth for success in the growing healthcare fields. In 2009, the Instituto was selected as the National Council of La Raza’s Affiliate of the Year and was also given an Award of Excellence from the United States Department of Labor in 2008.

A significant voice in local and national settings for his work on the educational, political and economic advancement of the Latino community, Salgado was recognized as a 2011 White House Champion of Change for Social Innovation. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund Excellence in Community Service Award. From 2006 to 2009, he served as an advisor to President of Mexico Felipe Calderon on the state of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Salgado was also the recipient of the 2007 and 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival Fellowship, joining top decision-makers, journalists, artists, policy experts and government officials from across the globe.  In 2005, he earned a fellowship in the distinguished Leadership Greater Chicago program.

An economics major at Illinois Wesleyan, Salgado grew up in Calumet Park, Ill. After winning a graduate fellowship to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he earned a master’s degree in urban planning in 1993.  He currently serves on numerous boards in the Chicago-land area.