IWU Magazine - Winter 2025

WINTER 2025/2026

The Future Of Food

ELLIOTT NOTRICA '26

THE SCHOLARSHIP PROMISE

Because

someone gave you the support you needed - now it’s your turn.

Scholarship support is central to the Illinois Wesleyan experience. The first scholarship at IWU was awarded 136 years ago, and every year, students express their gratitude for donor support with a commitment to giving back:

“My hope is that one day, I will be able to give back in the same way that you have, to uplift students, open doors, and provide the same kind of transformative support that you have so graciously given to me.”

“Your generosity inspires me to give back to others and to continue striving for excellence in all that I do.”

“Your support has inspired me to strive for excellence and to give back to others, just as you have done for me.”

“I would not have been able to go to this school without this scholarship, and I hope that I can continue the cycle by contributing to future students once I get established into my career.”

Scholarship Quick Facts:

• More than 95% of students receive support from scholarships and grants each year

• 503 donor-funded scholarships awarded for the 2025-26 academic year

• 25 new scholarships awarded in the 2025-26 academic year

Now is the time to pay it forward. Support the next generation of Titans through scholarships.

Make a gift to the General Student Scholarship Fund today by scanning the QR code, visiting iwu.mobi/Support, or calling 309-566-3091.

18 Found Families

Celebrate one of the best-attended IWU Homecoming Weekends with stories of alumni friendships across the decades.

22 The Future Of Food

Elliott Notrica '26 is the founder and CEO of Symbio Bioculinary where he is creating the future of food with cutting-edge genetic engineering.

26 Hope In Crisis

34 | NUMBER 3 | WINTER 2025/2026

ON OUR COVER: Elliot Notrica '26 is developing micro-organisms that create new food products from food waste like cocoa husks and leftover bread dough.

EmPATH units, invented by Scott Zeller '82, are revolutionizing emergency care around the world. From the President’s Desk Inside IWU

It's been a great source of Titan pride to celebrate Illinois Wesleyan's 175th anniversary throughout this academic year. We've become quite fond of our University Archivist, Liz Bloodworth, and the gems she uncovers from our past that echo into our vision for the future. While much has changed in the past one-and-three-quarter centuries, our principle of devotion to broad-based knowledge continues to answer the challenges of each modern era.

Our various founders included local Methodist leaders who gave us the "Wesleyan" name, and I draw continuing inspiration from the words of John Wesley, the pioneer Methodist:

“Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.”

We also honor another, unrelated Wesley here at Illinois Wesleyan — John Wesley Powell, early Grand Canyon explorer, renowned geologist and innovative educator. As a professor in 1867, he took IWU students to the Rocky Mountains, one of the first expeditions of its kind in higher education and an early bedrock of the experiential learning our students continue to enjoy.

While these bedrock traditions continue, this institution also has a history of reshaping itself to continue serving the changing needs of students.

In the post-Civil War era, Illinois Wesleyan was a pioneer of remote learning — operating the first distance learning program in the U.S. from 1873-1910, in the form of mail correspondence courses available as a nonresidential degree program. This innovative revenue source also extended educational opportunities across a divided country.

Today, we're preparing to extend the power of innovative collaboration beyond our campus as we complete construction of The Petrick Idea Center, envisioned as a hub for creative problem-solving and liberal arts entrepreneurship. It's our ambition to exemplify how those unexpected words — "liberal arts entrepreneurship" — are the answer to today's unexpected questions.

We're also establishing a new Center for the Humanities under the visionary leadership of Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English Joanne Diaz. We're developing intentional programs to nurture and explore civil discourse, a natural strength — and obligation — of our liberal arts tradition. And our new concentration in Quantum Science and Technology has drawn out the talents of our students, showcasing the distinctive advantage of the Illinois Wesleyan liberal arts experience.

Ed Rust Jr. '72, who served 30 years as CEO of State Farm Insurance, spoke this fall to a packed audience in Young Main Lounge on the power of a liberal arts education for effective leadership. He reflected on a gathering of business and tech leaders decades ago, who dared to ponder the fledgling Internet: "Are there any business applications?" A student later asked him about the impending threat or promise of artificial intelligence.

"The business landscape today is marked by volatility," Ed remarked. "In such a world, rigid skillsets become obsolete — the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is paramount… Because liberal arts majors have engaged with diverse disciplines and perspectives, they are more comfortable with ambiguity and change. They approach new challenges not with fear, but with curiosity."

People in every era naturally believe themselves on the edge of modernity. Back in the year of our founding, families were urged to consider the higher education available at this new university, to ensure their children could meet the rapidly changing needs of the 1850s. As an early IWU advertising circular declared, "This is an age of improvement."

We're now fully in the Age of AI, when the human ability to think abstractly, make connections and adapt — core outcomes of a liberal arts education — are seen as essential to thriving in this bold new world.

On this hallowed campus — where our roots in applied liberal arts continue to prepare our graduates for successful, ethical lives — we believe that leveraging the history and great mysteries of evolving human knowledge remains the best preparation for whatever is to come.

Sheahon Zenger Illinois Wesleyan University President

IWU MAGAZINE STAFF

EDITOR

Chris Francis ’13

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Nick Munafo

CONTRIBUTORS

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Ann Aubry

VIDEOGRAPHER/PHOTOGRAPHER

Adam Day

DIRECTOR OF ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Katie Gonzales

STUDENT WRITER

Jeffery Woodard '28

Office of Communications (309) 556-3181

IWU Admissions Office (800) 332-2498 www.iwu.edu

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine iwumag@iwu.edu

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

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FEATURED NEWS, EVENTS AND VIEWS FROM THE IWU CAMPUS

IWU Welcomes Largest Incoming Class in 15 Years

Illinois

Wesleyan University welcomed its largest incoming class in 15 years for the 2025-26 academic year.

As of Sept. 8, which marked the 10th day of the semester, 595 new students had joined the 1,084 other Titans enrolled at IWU. That is the highest number of incoming students since 613 students were enrolled in the 2010-11 academic year.

“Even as the landscape of higher education shifts, we keep students at the center of everything we do,” said President Sheahon Zenger. “We know that the skills our students develop through a liberal arts education are more valued than ever by employers, such as critical thinking, strong communication and adaptability. While popular misconceptions about the value of a college degree may persist, we will let our outcomes speak for themselves.”

Of the new cohort, 544 are firstyear students and 51 transferred from other institutions. The class is represented by four countries other than the U.S. and 27 different states. Thirty percent of the class are first-generation

college attendees, 47% are student athletes and 39% identify as students of color. Top majors for new students include nursing, business, psychology, biology and finance.

Dean of Admissions Olivia Braun points to the dedication of the University’s admissions counselors whose passion for connecting with students has been instrumental in attracting this new class of Titans to campus.

At the same time, this milestone is not ours alone. It is the result of a campus-wide effort, and I am deeply grateful to our faculty, staff, coaches and colleagues across every department who play such an important role in welcoming and supporting our students. It truly takes all of us working together, and we will need that same spirit of collaboration as we look to the future," said Braun.

As Illinois Wesleyan marks its 175th year, the University continues to expand its outreach to students across the region.

Since assuming the presidency in 2024, President Zenger has

emphasized strengthening Illinois Wesleyan’s relationship with Bloomington-Normal and the surrounding community. He launched the Annual Back to School BBQ to bring together alumni, employees and friends of the University, and is leading initiatives to enhance campus perimeter signage — showcasing Illinois Wesleyan as an academic destination at the heart of the Midwest.

“Illinois Wesleyan attracts gifted students from around the globe, but we also want to keep building on our 175-year relationship with the vibrant families, schools and community leaders in our own backyard,” said Zenger.

Students arrived on campus this fall to find a freshly remodeled dining center in Bertholf Commons, an overhaul to residential space at Donnocker Hall and the new Petrick Idea Center taking shape.

In recent years, Illinois Wesleyan has rolled out new offerings based on the interests of students, including majors in Physical Education, Sociology-Criminology, Nutrition, Supply Chain Management and Communication; as well as new athletic programs in wrestling and women’s flag football.

“These updates, with more to come, prove that Illinois Wesleyan is a modern and vibrant university that holds true to its institutional values and traditions,” said Zenger. “We look forward to building on this momentum.”

Rust '72 Champions Liberal Arts as Essential for Business Leaders

Ed Rust Jr. ’72 visited the Young Main Lounge at Illinois Wesleyan on Sept. 22 to deliver the inaugural address of the Kinder Brothers Distinguished Business Speaker Series. Rust is a member of the IWU Board of Trustees and was CEO of State Farm Insurance for 30 years. Rust was greeted by a nearly packed room of about 300 students, faculty, staff and other IWU community members who had come to hear his lecture titled “Liberal Arts: Value from a Business Perspective.”

Rust began the address by acknowledging the namesakes of the speaker series.

“Jack and Garry Kinder… exemplified the impact of a Wesleyan liberal arts education through their distinguished professional careers,” Rust said. “Their experiences and achievements highlight how exposure to a broad liberal arts curriculum can expand the scope of one’s thinking and ignite a passion for helping others reach their true potential.”

The late alumni brothers were luminaries in the field of insurance,

starting their own international consulting firm, Kinder Brothers International, and writing bestselling books advising insurance agents.

As for what a grounding in the liberal arts grants to those in business fields, Rust said, “Business is, in its essence, a human enterprise. Success hinges not merely on the brilliance of ideas, but on the ability to effectively communicate them.

Rust also emphasized themes of humility and curiosity, as the liberal arts fosters a desire and willingness to learn from others’ experiences as well as from one’s own failures. When asked by a student, “What is the most important question to ask?” Rust responded with '“What’s your opinion?' One of the most important skills you can have as a leader is drawing out the insight that your colleagues have.”

During the event, Bloomington mayor Dan Brady celebrated the 175th anniversary of IWU’s founding by delivering an official proclamation marking Sept. 23 as Illinois Wesleyan University Day.

Six New Members Join IWU Board of Trustees

Sixnew members have been elected to join Illinois Wesleyan University's Board of Trustees in 2025.

Trustees elected at the February 2025 meeting include:

Desiree M. Quizon-Colquitt '89 has served over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, holding various roles in research and development, sourcing, procurement, business development, key account management and strategic alliances. Recently, she retired as a senior manager in Global External Supply for Pfizer, where she had been sourcing materials for their pharmaceuticals since 2020. Desiree and her husband, André '88, are deeply committed to philanthropy. They have established several community initiatives, including the Quizon-Colquitt Family Annual Scholarship at IWU. Desiree also actively supports IWU’s Alumni Association initiatives, including scholarship funding. The couple resides in Normal and they have one daughter, Asia.

Lucy N. Wisdom '95 is a board-certified dermatologist and is co-owner of Associates in Dermatology, SC in Bloomington. She studied biology at Illinois Wesleyan and then earned a medical degree and completed her residency at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She and her husband Matt '94 started supporting the McLean County Scholarship initiative in 2018, and they are strong supporters of the local Catholic schools where their children attended. Dr. Wisdom was also a member of the Illinois Wesleyan Associates Board in 20182019. They live in Bloomington and have three children, Parker, Lau-

ren and Jack. Jack is an incoming sophomore IWU student studying business and is on the IWU baseball team.

Trustees elected at the annual meeting in May 2025 include:

Christopher M. Bisaillon '93 is co-owner at Bottleneck Management, a hospitality company based in Chicago which owns and operate 13 restaurants across five states. He is also Chief Marketing Officer and General Partner for Riverwalk Capital Partners, a venture capital investment and management firm. Previously, Bisaillon spent 18 years with Van Kampen Merritt/Invesco where he worked as a regional vice president and a divisional sales director. While studying business administration and economics at IWU, Bisaillon played Titan football as a wide receiver. He was selected to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame 2012 Divisional Class, becoming only the second Illinois Wesleyan player to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame. Bisaillon and his wife Jennifer have four kids and reside in Wheaton, Illinois.

Robin L. Favor '00 is a board-certified general surgeon at Suburban Surgical Associates/ Suburban Metabolic Institute in the western suburbs of Chicago. After studying music and biology at Illinois Wesleyan, she received her medical degree from University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago before completing her surgical residency at Rush University Medical Center/Cook County Hospital Integrated Systems. Having been in practice for more than 20 years, Favor specializes in mastectomy and colon removal procedures. She is

also the trauma director at LaGrange Hospital and holds leadership positions at MacNeal Hospital on the Medical Executive Committee and as the director for the American College of Surgeons, National Surgical Quality Improvement Project. Dr. Favor, who also plays classical piano, lives in La Grange, Illinois, with her husband and fellow surgeon, Alexander Sauper.

Sam Porritt '84 is a former marketing executive who now leads a nonprofit organization. Porritt majored in accounting at Illinois Wesleyan, later earning an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Porritt was also awarded an honorary degree from IWU in 2017. He began his career in advertising, building some of America’s largest brands, including Cheetos, Betty Crocker

INSIDE IWU

and Soft Scrub. Porritt then joined Payless ShoeSource (later Collective Brands) where he worked in marketing, brand strategy, communications and social responsibility. In 2011, Porritt’s life took an unexpected turn when he suffered a spinal cord injury. After two years of rehabilitation, in 2013 Porritt launched the Falling Forward Foundation which he continues to lead today. The foundation makes grants to pay for continued outpatient rehabilitation for people whose insurance benefits have run out. Porritt lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife, Leann.

Mandy Watson '01 is an assistant general counsel at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Illinois. She has practiced law for over 20 years and joined Caterpillar in 2014. She studied economics and political science at Illinois Wesleyan and graduated with her J.D. from the University of Illinois in 2004. She supports numerous philanthropic efforts, including establishing the Watson Annual Scholarship at Illinois Wesleyan. She resides in West Peoria.

In addition to the new trustees, six current board members were re-appointed for another threeyear term. Those members are Jim Joslin '93, Daniele Kays '01, W. Thomas Lawrence '80, Ann Marquis Fisher '82, Edward B. Rust, Jr. '72, and Stephanie Whyte '91 Board of Trustees officers that were re-elected for the 2025-26 academic year include: Timothy J. Szerlong '74, Chair; John W. (Jack) Dickens '86, Vice Chair; Herbert A. Getz ’77, Vice Chair; Edward B. Rust, Jr. '72, Vice Chair; W. Thomas Lawrence '80, Treasurer; and Ann E. Marquis Fisher '82, Secretary.

President Zenger Caps New Leadership Team

AsPresident Sheahon Zenger turns the calendar on his first year at the helm of Illinois Wesleyan University, he has assembled a full leadership team who bring collective expertise and momentum to lead the University in the years ahead.

"I've said my job is to hold up a mirror to this community, to remind you of how truly special this place is," Zenger told the Board of Trustees at their October meeting. He credited the "talent of students, passion of faculty, sweat equity of staff and the power of the alumni network."

Gaelyn Rose joined Illinois Wesleyan as Vice President for Enrollment on Sept. 1, overseeing Admissions and Financial Aid operations. Rose was previously Director of Enrollment Marketing Strategy at DePauw University.

"Gaelyn brings an impressive record in enrollment strategy and leadership, with a depth of insight and experience in the latest innovations in the field," Zenger said

Prior to joining DePauw, Gaelyn was director of recruitment at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and Director of Operations for Rice University Men's Basketball. She earned a bachelor of arts in English and Political Science at Rice University and a master of business administration at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Mark Gibson joined Illinois Wesleyan on Aug. 1 in a new role as Chief Marketing and Branding Officer. As IWU faces the increasingly competitive headwinds of higher education — and the so-called "demographic cliff" of few college-aged students — Gibson leads a team developing strategies and marketing

communications efforts to increase the visibility, awareness, and brand presence of Illinois Wesleyan across all platforms.

Previously, Gibson spent over 35 years in marketing leadership roles, including 25 years at State Farm.

Prior to joining IWU, Gibson taught for eight years at Illinois State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in marketing of higher education with a dissertation on "Exploring the Impacts of Marketing Structure on Enrollment Yield in Higher Education." He also teaches in the marketing program within the IWU School of Business and Economics.

Craig Maynard stepped into the role of Vice President for Finance and Operations on July 1.

With 17 years of experience in higher ed finance, Maynard previously served as the chief financial officer at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and at Eureka College. A certified management accountant, he has a bachelor's degree in accounting and business

administration from Eureka College and a master's in accounting from Illinois State University.

"Craig has a proven ability for developing financial strategies that support academic excellence, student success, institutional priorities and long-term vitality," Zenger said.

Ernest “E.K.” Franks completed the IWU leadership team as Executive Director of Organizational Engagement, supporting key functions in university operations and advancement. He was previously the director of university relations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

With more than two decades of experience in higher ed, Franks has previously served various roles in athletics administration, recruiting and coaching across the U.S. Franks earned his bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Central Oklahoma, his master’s degree in adult education from Kansas State University, and his doctorate in higher education at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Also forming the new leadership team, as previously announced, are John Miles, provost and dean of faculty, and Jesse Meyer, Vice President for Advancement.

"It's been an incredible year at Illinois Wesleyan, and I look forward to even greater things ahead," Zenger said. "I'm proud of the culture that's evolving here."

Doris Kearns Goodwin Inspires Shirk Center

Audience with Lessons on Leadership

Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke to a crowd of 1,200 gathered at Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center on Oct. 6 as part of the Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series.

Her visit also included a master class presentation for students. Goodwin’s remarks at IWU were titled “Leadership in Turbulent Times: Advice for Today from Our Best Presidents.”

Using her vast knowledge about American history and presidents, Goodwin spoke of the qualities that make successful leaders, including humility, resilience and empathy.

Goodwin’s career as a historian launched when she was selected as a White House Fellow at age 24, an opportunity that led her to work personally with President Lyndon Johnson both in the White House and later on his memoirs. Her first book, Lyndon Johnson and the American

Dream, became a national bestseller and achieved critical acclaim.

Since then, Goodwin has authored numerous critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling books, including the Carnegie Medal winner The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism; and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Lincoln No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II earned her the Pulitzer Prize, and one of her most recent works, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, became an instant bestseller and is being developed as a feature film.

Goodwin is a graduate of Colby College and Harvard University, where she earned her doctorate degree in government.

IWU Ranks Among Best Schools in College Guides

Illinois Wesleyan University is one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduates to earn their college degree, according to The Princeton Review’s 2026 college guide, The Best 391 Colleges.

Only about 15% of America's nearly 2,400 four-year institutions are profiled in the annual book based on data collected from administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings. The Princeton Review also considers data it gathers from its surveys of 170,000 college students who rate and report on various aspects of their campus and community experiences for this project.

Illinois Wesleyan has been included in this annual unranked listing of Best Colleges every year since the list's inception. IWU also ranks among 151 colleges listed in the Best Midwest category.

“Illinois Wesleyan University is a community that ‘invites you to make the most of your education and is ready to bend over backwards to ensure you enjoy your experience,’” reads the synopsis on IWU’s profile, which features comments from students interviewed by The Princeton Review.

Student statements described Illinois Wesleyan as “an underrated gem that is always trying to give students opportunities that are beyond what most schools can give” with professors who are “brilliant, accessible and insightful individuals who are the best in their field."

Other quotes highlighted IWU’s connected campus culture where “people are very receptive to getting work done together” and that "everyone has friends in other departments and organizations."

Adding to a growing list of national accolades, Illinois Wesleyan University has also been recognized as the No. 2 Most Innovative Col-

lege in the Midwest by U.S. News & World Report.

This distinction, which is a new ranking category with U.S. News, is determined by peer nominations from top colleges. Survey participants identified institutions that are making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities.

Illinois Wesleyan is paving the way for innovative education in the Midwest, with The Petrick Idea Center taking shape on campus and recent curricular updates including majors in Physical Education and Nutrition and a concentration in Quantum Science and Technology.

U.S. News also ranked IWU in the following top-10 categories:

• No. 2 Regional College in the Midwest

• No. 4 for Undergraduate Teaching at Colleges in the Midwest

• No. 5 Best Value for Colleges in the Midwest

• No. 8 in Social Mobility for Colleges in the Midwest

These additional ranking organizations have recognized Illinois Wesleyan among the best colleges in the region and nation:

Money

According to Money, Illinois Wesleyan is among the Best Colleges in America 2025 out of more than 700 institutions named the country’s top values in higher education. Money analyzed dozens of data points including graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid and alumni salaries to rate colleges where tuition dollars are likely to pay off.

Niche

IWU has been deemed the No. 3 Best Small College in Illinois and the No. 8 Best College overall in the state by Niche, using metrics from the U.S. Department of Education and millions of reviews from students and alumni.

College Raptor

The University was also ranked #5 Best College in Illinois by College Raptor, which bases scores on graduation rates, campus diversity, endowment per student and other data as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Schieler '97 Funds New Monument to Celebrate Titan Stories

Thanksto the generosity of Corey Schieler '97, a new landmark has been installed on campus to celebrate Illinois Wesleyan’s 175th anniversary and inspire generations of future Titans.

Standing at 4 feet tall and 14 feet wide, the green steel “IWU” letters are positioned on a brick base in the plaza directly south of the entrance to the Hansen Student Center. With hand holds mounted on the back of the letters and room around the base to sit, Schieler hopes the monument becomes an “IWU branded, Instagram-able spot for students — past, present and future — to show their pride for being connected to IWU.”

Any photos posted to social media from the new spot are encouraged to include the hashtag #MyIWUStory.

Schieler came up with the idea for the project while on an early morning walk around campus in the fall of 2024. He and his wife Pam, who were married at Evelyn Chapel in 2009, decided to fund the legacy piece as a gesture of gratitude to the people of Illinois Wesleyan.

“I would like this gift to express to the University, the faculty and staff, and my former classmates and friends, my sincere gratefulness for the wonderful memories they helped me create during my time on campus and the many special life opportunities my IWU education has helped provide me ever since,“ said Schieler.

After gaining approval and support from President Zenger, Schieler began to research and design the monument.

“I also engaged several areas of IWU; now retired Director of Marketing Andrew Kreiss '86 and Director of Physical Plant Kenton Frost to get their input on the design, font style, color and landscaping,” said Schieler. “They all were

very helpful and great to work with in bringing this project to fruition.”

Schieler has remained actively engaged with his alma mater since studying finance and economics. He is a member of the IWU Board of Trustees, chairs the Endowment Investment Committee and is a long-time advisor for the Student Managed Investment Portfolio class, which oversees more than $6 million in real-world investments.

This involvement stems from inspiration Schieler gained as a student, particularly from the late IWU President Robert S. Eckley and former Board of Trustees Chair Hugh Henning '94.

“It is because of and in honor of these two men that I have stayed engaged with the Student Portfolio class for the past 28 years and have no intention of stopping any time soon,” Schieler expressed. “What

struck me was that these two professional, well-accomplished men in their late 70s gave so freely of their talents and their time to me and countless other IWU students. They would sit through four-hour stock presentations late into the evening and share their curiosity and counsel with such youthful spirit and vigor.”

Eckley and Henning served on the Student Portfolio Client Board when Schieler was a senior and he remained connected with both after graduation.

Schieler said his two favorite quotes reflect his experiences as a Titan: “I am a part of all that I have met” from Ulysses, and the 1993 Commencement quote by former President Minor Myers jr., “Go forth into the world and do well, but more importantly do good.”

“I have taken the Myers quote to heart and tried to live it the best I can,” said Schieler. “It inspires me in so many ways to continue to give back.”

Corey Schieler '97 and his wife Pam pose

the letter monument they donated to Illinois Wesleyan.

Womens Volleyball 2025

Women’s Volleyball Turns in Best Season Since 2018

For the first time in program history, Illinois Wesleyan claimed back-to-back CCIW Regular Season and Tournament Championships. The Titans went a perfect 8-0 in CCIW play for the second straight season, becoming the first team to do that since 2008-09. Amid a historic year, IWU reached its best ranking in program history, coming in as high as No. 3 in the AVCA Polls. With a 26-2 record entering the NCAA Tournament, the Titans earned a No. 1 seed and hosting rights to the NCAA Regional, just the second time Illinois Wesleyan has hosted the opening round, and the first since 2017. Led by head coach Kim Nelson-Brown and her CCIW Coaching Staff of the Year, the Titans landed a program-best seven student-athletes on the All-CCIW teams. Taylor French ‘26 was named the CCIW Offensive Player of the Year for the third straight season, becoming the first women’s volleyball player in conference history to earn a specialty award three times. She also became the first Titan to be a four-time First Team All-CCIW honoree. Sophia Feeney ‘27 was named the CCIW Setter of the Year and a First Team All-CCIW honoree, becoming the first IWU honoree to earn the award that began in 2023. Hannah Tellor ‘26, Kannyn Boyd ‘26, Eleanor Palmer ‘27, and Alex Bardouniotis ‘28 also represented IWU on the All-CCIW First Team, while Lauren O’Brien ‘29 earned Second Team All-CCIW honors. The historic season also saw French become the program’s all-time

aces, points, and kills leader. She surpassed Tiffany Hamblin ‘02 for the most aces, and now-assistant coach Tyler White (nee Brown) ‘18 for the program’s kills and points record. Heading into the NCAA Tournament with 26 wins, Illinois Wesleyan has recorded the most wins in a season since 2018.

Women’s Golf Earns 20th CCIW Championship

The Titans claimed their fourth straight CCIW Championship earlier this fall by 43-strokes over second-place North Central, securing the program’s 20th championship. Emily Gastrau ‘27 won the individual title, marking the first victory of her career. Gigi Zera ‘28 and Julia Henry ‘29 tied for third place, Nora Cerroni ‘27 earned a share of fifth place, while Grace Fagan ‘28 placed eighth as five Titans earned All-CCIW distinction. Gastrau and Fagan were co-recipients of the CCIW’s Elite 26 award, as both boast 4.00 GPAs.

Football Completes First Season Under Jared Williamson

Illinois Wesleyan finished 4-6 overall and 4-5 in league play in Jared Williamson’s first season as the Titans head coach. Three Titans were recognized on the All-CCIW teams, led by first team selection Will Nazha ‘28. Dermot Smyth ‘27 and Matt Hansen ‘27 were voted Second Team All-CCIW.

Crabtree Wins CCIW Championship, Qualifies for National Championship

Illinois Wesleyan cross country produced three All-CCIW performances at the CCIW Championships, November 1, as Adriana Crabtree ‘26 matched a 22year old CCIW Championship meet record and reset her own program record (21:05.1) en route to earning her second league championship. Brooke Nazos ‘26 earned All-CCIW Second Team honors, while Zack Daniel ‘26 also landed on the second team, running a personal best and placing 12th. Crabtree placed seventh at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championships, the highest finish by a Titan at a regional, and earned All-Region honors for the third straight season. Crabtree also earned an individual at-large bid for the third consecutive year to the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Spartanburg, S.C. later in November.

Men’s Soccer Posts Best Season in Program History

The Titans etched their names into the Illinois Wesleyan history books with a historic season setting a new all-time wins record with 13, a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament Championship, and its second ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Green and White rallied off a 13-3-4 record, surpassing the 1995 squad who won 12 matches, and finished the regular season 5-1-2 in the CCIW. Head coach Kyle Schauls led the Titans to two wins over CCIW preseason favorite, North Park University, including a 1-nil victory in the confer-

ence championship. Senior goalkeeper Sam Kedzior ‘26 inserted himself as one of the best keepers in Titan history with over 280 career saves, the most ever by an IWU netminder. Kedzior also sits atop of the wins list for goalkeepers in Illinois Wesleyan history with 31. IWU earned three All-CCIW members as Ryder Coleman ‘27 was elected to the first team. Co-captain Jerry Smazil ‘26 and Kedzior reeled in second team honors.

Ehrlich Repeats as All-CCIW Pick for Women’s Tennis

With the fall portion of its schedule complete, the women’s tennis team turned in a 7-5 record that included four 7-0 sweeps. Amber Ehrlich ‘27 earned her third All-CCIW selection and Elana Religioso ‘29 finished with a perfect 12-0 singles record. They resume their campaign in February.

Women’s Soccer Scores Three All-CCIW Performers

Illinois Wesleyan women’s soccer turned in its best season in three years, as the Titans earned the fourthseed in the CCIW Tournament, falling in penalty kicks to Wheaton to end their season. Liza Wiley ‘28 earned All-CCIW First Team distinction, following her second team selection a season ago. Ava Mapes ‘27 and Bree Cordray ‘26 landed on the All-CCIW Second Team, the first honor in their respective careers. Illinois Wesleyan finished 9-7-2, marking the first winning campaign and CCIW Tournament appearance since 2022.

Authors and the Arts INSIDE

Books

James Plath, professor of English, is the author of At Quarry Farm, published by Kelsay Books. His 11th book is a collection of poems inspired by Mark Twain’s eponymous summer home, where Plath was awarded a two-week fellowship to stay at the residence and research how Twain served as a model writer-celebrity for authors like Earnest Hemingway and John Updike. This is Plath’s first published full-length poetry collection.

Steve Vogel ‘68 is the author of Broadcast Live: 71 True Stories, Including Some I'd Just As Soon Forget. A quarter-finalist in Publishers Weekly's 2025 BookLife Prize for memoirs, Steve’s new book blends stories from his career into a cultural narrative that invites readers to remember, laugh and reflect. This is Steve’s third book. His first, Reasonable Doubt, was a New York Times best-seller.

David Petreman ‘70 is the author of El Amigo Cuando es Forastero: Mis Memorias de Francisco Coloane, his 11th book, published by Dhiyo Publishing House in Chile. This collection of memoirs recounts his 22-year-long friendship with Chile's famous writer, Francisco Coloane. The title alludes to a line from a famous Chilean song which, translated into English, says “You will see how they love in Chile / a friend when he's a foreigner.” David is a professor emeritus of Wright State University.

Dominique Didier ‘87 is the author of Ghost Sharks: A Fully Illustrated Guide to the Chimaeras of the World, published by Princeton University Press. Dominique began her work on ghost sharks at IWU under the guidance of professor of biology Thomas Griffiths. She has studied ghost sharks ever since and has named 18 species, including one she named after Griffiths. She is recognized as the premier world expert on ghost sharks.

Abby Mohaupt ‘08 is a co-author of Climate Justice, Climate Hope, published by Fortress Press. The new title is the latest book in the Fortress Press series “Building a Moral Economy,” which brings together academic and activist perspectives to provide hopeful solutions to modern systemic problems. Abby is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church as well as a trained ecologist with a Ph.D. from Drew University.

Art

Carmen Lozar (A), associate professor of art and design, had a retrospective of her artwork shown at Ken Saunders Gallery in Chicago. The exhibition, titled "The Arc of Becoming - A Petite Retrospective," is a collection of glass sculptures and figurines including found objects which depict female figures and images of nature.

The paintings of Ellen Veden ‘60 (B) were showcased at the Center for Modern Aging in Princeton, New Jersey. The exhibition of landscapes was titled “Princeton Unveiled: Landscapes in Texture and Color.” Ellen, who entered the New York City art world as a colleague of figures like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, returned to painting after retiring from a successful career in international telecommunications. She now serves on the board of the Princeton Adult School and was previously a trustee of the Princeton Friends of Opera.

BINSIDE IWU

Marcia Blouin ‘85 recently had her artwork shown at the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery, in Guntersville, Alabama, where she resides. Her exhibition, entitled "By the Ash Tree Meadow," featured nature-based portraits including animals and flowers.

Articles

Tara Gerstner, assistant professor of business and marketing, is a co-author of "AI Mistakes in the Classroom" published in the Journal of Finance Issues. The article is a literature review compiling studies that show how AI can support the connectivist view of learning, followed by examples of how mistakes in deploying AI in the classroom can affect attempts to use AI in this fashion.

Music and Performances

Reginald Lewis, visiting assistant professor of music and director of jazz at IWU, released Echoes of Cherry Street, his first jazz album. The album features a sextet of brass instruments, piano, drums and bass with songs inspired by Lewis’s personal experiences.

B CScott Moreau ‘01 (C) directed and starred in a production of Million Dollar Quartet at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre. It was Scott’s 19th regional production of the show. His understudy for the production was fellow IWU alum Bryant Cobb ‘23, who he cast in the role after he had excelled in a number of successful productions under Scott. Bryant first made the connection after reaching out to Scott shortly after graduating to seek advice on auditioning for roles in regional theaters.

Correction: The summer/fall 2025 issue of the IWU Magazine described The Beauvoir Series, for which Marybeth Timmermann '93 was a contributing editor and translator, as published by Penguin Random House. It was in fact published by the University of Illinois Press.

All submitted content received by Oct. 10, 2025. The submitted content deadline for the Winter 2025/2026 issue of IWU Magazine is Feb 20, 2026. Submissions may be edited, directed to other communications and/or preserved in IWU archives.

175 YEARS

YEARS OF TITAN STORIES

FOUND FAMILIES

Story by CHRIS FRANCIS '13

Celebrate one of the bestattended IWU Homecoming Weekends with stories of alumni friendships across the decades.

This year’s Homecoming celebration, coinciding with the 175th anniversary of IWU, was likely the most attended Homecoming in the history of the university.

“I have attended many a Homecoming since entering as a freshman in the fall of ‘67,” said Judith Ballard ‘71 in a Facebook comment on one of IWU’s Homecoming posts.

“Without a doubt, Homecoming 2025 ranks up there as one of my all-time favorites. Kudos to all that made this such a memorable weekend. I always feel that a little piece of my heart remains in Bloomington after I leave.”

This success was thanks to the incredible community of alumni who have remained connected to the University, and each other, through years of friendship. A few of these groups of long-time friends and colleagues have shared their stories during this historic Homecoming season.

“We’ve often been told the class of 2000 was ‘magic,’” said Nicole (Dykas) Scott ‘00 in a letter to the University, noting the “energy, ambition and unity” that propelled a specific group of them to lifelong success and friendship.

The Sanity Circle, as a group of 6 female alumni married to 3 male alumni came to call themselves in an online group chat, first met in 1996 when a majority of them attended a student-organized campus sleepover for minority students before the beginning of their first year on campus. Though some didn’t know until then that they had known each other long before 1996.

“Myself, Shaneka (McDavid) Langston ‘00, and Dwayne Hamilton ‘00 – who lives in Japan now – were all in the same third grade

(Opposite page) The “Sanity Circle" alumni of the class of ‘00 visited campus during Homecoming 2025, bringing along some prospective students. (Above) Front row, left to right: Jewell (Littles) Walton '00, Jeremy Daniel ‘00, Silver (Rayside) Daniel ‘00.

class together,” said Jewell (Littles) Walton ‘00. “We all dispersed and went our own ways after that, so in the first days after we arrived on campus, we were looking at each other like, ‘You look so familiar.’ So we found our third grade class pictures and realized, ‘This is you!’”

The group credits the sleepover weekend and support from existing students with convincing them that IWU was the place for them to be, despite it feeling like a distant and inaccessible place from their perspectives as urban-raised students of color.

“The efforts were organized by students who wanted to find people who, traditionally, private higher education didn’t serve as much, and show them that, maybe it’s not like the world they know, but they’re going to find a community that welcomes them and makes sure they’re okay,” Nicole said.

This opportunity not only created life-long friendships but created a chosen family and set them up for generational achievements.

“All but one of us are first-generation college graduates,” said Nicole.

“And my parents had gone to college in another country,” Silver (Rayside) Daniel ‘00 said, “so they had no idea what college in the Unit-

ed States was like.”

“We were the most diverse class in IWU’s history at the time,” Nicole continued, “and I think we were also one of the most successful.”

Among their friend group alone are a federal judge, a physician, an insurance chief legal executive, and other leaders and urban planning, health system administrators and directors in higher education. And, while on campus, the group found a guide and mentor in Deon Hornsby ‘97, now a trustee for both the Private Risk Management Association

and Illinois Wesleyan University. Deon even “married into” the Sanity Circle through his wedding to Mona (Williams) Hornsby ‘00

For 25 years, the Sanity Circle has supported each other as chosen family, celebrating weddings, birthdays and holidays together and supporting each other through all the successes and challenges that life has brought.

“The women of the Sanity Circle get together regularly, at least every other month, once a year for a planned trip, and the entire group consisting of spouses and children get together probably three or four times a year, at least,” Silver said. “Or just whenever someone needs someone to show up for them, one of us can throw up the bat signal and we’ll all come with whatever they need.”

Fourteen members of the Sanity Circle Family came together for their class’s 25th Homecoming reunion, creating a special opportunity to celebrate their lifelong friendship that began on campus.

(Below) Silver and Nicole (Dykas) Scott ‘00 reminisced over playing the piano in Ames on Main.

“At Riverwalk we have six members who are all IWU alums,” said Chris Bisaillon ‘93, the chief marketing officer of Riverwalk Capital Partners and a member of the IWU Board of Trustees. “Steve Dudash ‘99, Nate ‘96 and Matt Hilding ‘00, Collin Cheney ‘24, William McNulty ‘25 and myself.”

According to Chris, the multigenerational talent of the investment group is just one fractal of a large informal organization of alumni that formed around a common interest: golf.

“There’s about 30 of us IWU grads who have been playing every year together for at least 25 years,” Chris said. “It’s almost impossible to get 30 guys to do anything for 25 years.”

The effort that goes into maintaining the group is evident as a labor of love. The golf group, who call themselves the Fellows, have their own website and arrange competitions with prizes. But the effort has more than paid off with a considerable network of wisdom and talent

generated by what Chris calls the “Illinois Wesleyan ecosystem.”

“At a smaller school you’re going to be sitting with the same 20 people multiple times a week in your economics or marketing class, which helps you really develop friendships with those people,” Chris said. Almost counterintuitively, the smaller number of students at a liberal arts university seems to create more opportunities to form lasting relationships among exceptional alumni who can go on to create great value in their chosen fields.

“I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurship,” said Chris, who also joined IWU contemporary Jason Akemann ‘96 and Nate to create restaurant management firm Bottleneck Management in 2007. “What I’ve found is that, if you hang around friends who are high achievers you are almost forced to be a high achiever yourself. There’s a positive peer pressure when you see so many of your friends being successful and doing meaningful things whether in business or community service.”

“We started off as artistic collaborators but quickly became inseparable pals,” said Braden Poole ‘16. “We've always subscribed to the notion that Red Scarves is less of a band and more like brothers who make music.”

The brotherhood of Red Scarves’ members, including Braden, Ayethaw Tun ‘15, Ryan Donlin ‘17 and Robby Kuntz ‘18, began the same way that countless college friendships have, with the music of Bob Dylan.

“One of my biggest inspirations at IWU was meeting the late Professor Ronald Emmons,” Ayethaw said. “I took his ‘The Words and Music of Bob Dylan’ course in fall of 2011. I came away from that class becoming obsessed with Dylan and folk music… In the fall of 2012, while approaching his office, I heard that he had another student with him,” who happened to be Braden. “Professor Emmons immediately men-

tioned that Braden knew how to play ukulele and guitar and sing and that we should get together and form a group.”

The group called themselves Red Scarves after a specific scarf bought for Ayethaw by his mother before he was born. He saw his relationship with the accessory as a metaphor for the group’s relationship with music – an object with long-lived connections to comfort, purpose and complex emotions.

The full group came together in 2014, when Ayethaw and Ryan met Robby at an IWU Jazz Lab rehearsal, after which Ryan spontaneously asked the other two to stay for a jam session.

“It was an electric feeling,” Ayethaw said. “There was an instant chemistry.”

Over the last decade, the band has released more than 20 albums, demos and singles. Their style draws from a variety of influences one might expect from Millennials who appreciate the popular folk music of the 60s, and their vision and talent met with success as the group has sold albums and toured regionally. But the driving purpose of their band is brotherhood.

“Through highs and lows, deaths and births - we've been together to support one another,” Braden said. “One of the greatest privileges of my life has been to see these guys grow into the men they are today.”

Red Scarves plans to release its final album in 2026 as the band members move into new

phases in life, but they expect to continue to make music and friendship together for decades more.

During Homecoming 2025, members of the Sanity Circle Family came to campus to celebrate their friendship and connection to their alma mater, but they also came to potentially add some new Titans to the family.

A handful of high school juniors and seniors, all of whom grew up as cousins in the Sanity Circle Family, joined their parents to tour campus and talk about their plans for the future.

“It’s a smaller community where I know I can make friends,” said James Scott, III, of his interest in IWU. “I really like all the nature on campus, and I can do pre-law while playing guitar.”

Nicole beamed as her son spoke of his vision for himself.

“That’s how I know that this is still the place for us,” she said, echoing what she wrote in her letter to the University.

“We share this letter not only to commemorate our reunion, but also to offer a message of encouragement: Illinois Wesleyan University provides far more than an education. It cultivates resilience, community, purpose, and the kind of deep, sustaining relationships that define a life well-lived. We are living proof of the enduring value of the Wesleyan experience.”

(Above) Members of the Sanity Circle and their spouses and children posed in front of the Hansen Student Center during a Homecoming campus tour.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

Story by CHRIS FRANCIS '13

Elliott Notrica '26 is the founder and CEO of Symbio Bioculinary where he is creating the future of food with cuttingedge genetic engineering.

Elliott Notrica ‘26 first started making headlines with his cooking skill in 2013, when he was 10 years old.

As a small child, Elliott “started reaching for knives and lurching for knives and wanting to get a hold of the knives. And finally, my mom put her foot down and said, ‘Well, if you're so interested in knives, let's learn how to use them right,’” he told St. Louis’s local NBC news station at the time. Once he reached high school, Elliott was training with James Beard award winning chefs.

As a high school student brought into the world of St. Louis fine dining after winning multiple cooking competitions, Elliott couldn’t help but develop a passion for great food.

As a student with a deep interest in science, he also couldn’t help coming up with ideas for how to make

the vast industry of food production better.

Now, as a senior at Illinois Wesleyan, Elliott is the owner and CEO of his own food biotechnology company with two full-time employees and a newly assembled laboratory in one of Bloomington’s industrial parks. The modern demand for high quality and visually appealing food comes with an unfortunate side effect: incredible amounts of food waste. Everything from undesirable byproducts, like shells and husks, to slightly bruised or over-ripe fruit can turn into mountains of discarded garbage. According to the US Department of Agriculture, between 30 and 40 percent of food produced

in the US is wasted each year, which amounts to about 133 billion pounds.

While better food consciousness in American households would certainly help, much like CO2 emissions, the large majority of the problem comes from the industry rather than the consumer. When Elliott saw the volume of this problem first-hand in the restaurants of St. Louis, he knew he had an equally large opportunity.

“For some reason in America we’ve decided that the only thing you can do with food waste is use it as fertilizer or energy or put it in a landfill,” Elliott said. “It’s absurd.” It was obvious to him that there were much more creative uses for this resource that an enterprising organization could take advantage of.

“I started this almost four years ago,” Elliott said, referring to his biological engineering company Symbio Bioculinary. Note that Elliott is 22 years old as of fall 2025.

“Yeah, it was the year after I graduated from high school,” he confirmed. It was also after volunteering with World Central Kitchen to provide disaster relief in Ecuador and working with both a company in Los Angeles and the government of

Ecuador to bring rare tropical fruits to the Los Angeles area.

Elliott took a gap year after graduating to found his business, which began as a one-man operation making traditional fermented food products out of food waste and excess food produced by local farms.

“But those aren’t scalable,” Elliott said. “And the only way to really have an impact on the food system is to do things at a large scale.”

So Elliott had to start thinking big.

“Fermentation is one of the few processes that can really chemically alter the composition of food,” Elliott said, expressing his admiration for the discipline. Through the careful use of what is essentially controlled rotting, it can turn grains and fruits into alcohols, milk into yogurt, yeast into sourdough or kombucha and any number of other food products into something that is both delicious and naturally preserved. “It’s central to the foods that all of us eat, so it’s a natural way to approach the issue of food waste.”

The problem with traditional methods of fermentation wasn’t just

a matter of scale. Through thousands of years of trial, error and random chance, global cuisine had discovered at least hundreds of forms of fermentation. But those cooks were limited by the species of fungus and bacteria that existed in nature, evolving so that they happened to be able to transform one form of food into another via their natural processes. Those processes are just a matter of chemistry, and there’s no reason why these microbes couldn’t create thousands more foods for us to eat, especially if we weren’t going to eat the food that they were made of anyway. We only need to convince biology to cooperate.

Elliott came to IWU in 2022 as a biology major interested in fully understanding the world of fermentation. A few years later both he and the scientific world at large had the capacity to fulfill his vision.

“At some level, I understand it,” Elliott said of the incredible waste that the food industry tolerates. “Until recently, it was relatively hard to design the type of bio-processing systems that we’re creating and to do the type of bio-engineering that we’re doing, but it’s not anymore. The cost of genetic engineering

(Opposite page) Elliott Notrica ‘26 opened Symbio Bioculunary's new genetic engineering lab this year. (Below) The new lab was enabled by a team of investors and advisors committed to Elliott's success.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

has come down 100x in the last ten years. Now this is completely possible. ”

By “this” he wasn’t referring to the achievements of the world of science and engineering at large. He meant the achievements being made in the room in which he sat: Symbio’s own newly assembled genetic engineering and fermentation laboratory sandwiched between two auto shops in a Bloomington industrial park. The facility is equipped with a suite of technology capable of implementing the same kind of genetic engineering being done in industrial labs around the world, now available to a scrappy startup for a few hundred thousand dollars.

And by “we” he also wasn’t talking about a community of global scientists. He meant himself and his team of two full-time employees. Notably both of them had graduated from college with scientific degrees, but neither seemed bothered by having a boss who hadn’t yet walked at graduation himself.

At IWU, Elliott’s primary champion from the beginning was former director of the Petrick Idea Center John Quarton.

“I could see he was mature well beyond his years,” Quarton told WGLT in an interview about Elliott’s company and lab. “...he had this vision and this strive and this intelligence that blew me away for an undergrad, a freshman.”

“John was by far the best advocate I had on campus,” Elliott said.

when asked about the kinds of products they’re creating for clients.

As for what they are creating, “there wasn’t anyone doing what I wanted to do. There weren't any academic labs or any companies that were doing what we’re doing,” which is acting as a boutique engineer of microorganisms that turn a company’s food waste into new products. Once complete, rather than creating

the food product themselves, they license the use of the microorganism as part of the company’s industrial process.

One frontier for the company is cocoa husks. Discarded in the process of turning cocoa beans into chocolate, these husks have long been used to make things like tea and artisanal flours, but large amounts are either added to mulch

(Below) Elliott has been fascinated with fermentation and its part in solving the problem of food waste since before attending IWU.

As for Symbio’s business model, it’s shrouded in a veil of secrecy typical of technology companies, evidenced by the occasional answer of, “I can’t really talk about that yet,”

mixtures, thrown away or burned. A company that could invent a whole new use for this byproduct could save millions of pounds of food from becoming waste. And they might even do it before Elliott’s graduation in spring 2026.

“The sky's the limit for Symbio,” said Symbio investor and advisor Andrew Lusk. “Their fundamental product, upcycling of food waste, has potential clients in just about every agricultural and food manufacturing

sector… As far as Elliott? With him at the helm, Symbio will no doubt chart a clear course towards success. I look forward to his future TED talk.”

The future of Symbio is shrouded in optimism and more than a little drive. But Elliott is at least able to provide some slight details about a bacteria that transforms unused dough into a sugary syrup that can be added back into the dough to improve taste, color and shelf-life.

Still, it’s quickly evident to anyone visiting the Symbio lab that one is surrounded by trade secrets, any one of which might soon become a breakthrough.

“Huh, that kinda smells like meat,” said IWU photographer Adam Day while inspecting a dark liquid inside a beaker sitting inconspicuously on a countertop.

A slight nervous smile cracked on Elliott’s face in response, “Yeah, I can’t really talk about that.”

HOPE IN CRISIS

Story by CHRIS FRANCIS '13

EmPATH units, invented by Scott Zeller '82, are revolutionizing emergency care around the world.

Progress, in the world of medical science, is usually measured with modest gains and tradeoffs. A new medicine might be 5% more effective while being 3% more likely to cause a side effect, and the industry would call it a worthwhile achievement. When doctors and researchers start saying things like “halving the rate of hospitalization” or “effectively eliminating the need for intervention” at the cost of some basic remodeling and training, they know that a breakthrough is at hand.

Scott Zeller ‘82, a psychiatrist trained at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and chief of psychiatric emergency services at the Alameda (Calif.) Health System from 1996 to 2016, began the development of his own breakthrough as he faced the complex and acute challenges of mental health in the emergency room.

Scott began his medical training and career in the relatively early days of emergency psychiatry – a discipline that treats potentially life-threatening incidents of mental health crises like drug overdoses, suicide attempts, violent psychotic episodes, or any situation where the medical emergency is caused by the patient’s disordered behavior. The field was only about as old as he was, having emerged in the 1960s as a course correction after the notorious mental institutions of the early 20th century. Since then, the world of psychiatric treatment has been discovering new answers to questions of how to care for those suffering the worst mental crises.

The need for those answers started to become more urgent in the early 2010s when an unprecedented

increase in emergency mental health episodes began to push the medical system to its limits, especially in treating young adults and teenagers. According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, the number of such ER patients doubled between 2011 and 2020, “including a 5-fold increase in the proportion of visits for suicide-related symptoms.”

Scott, like all ER doctors, was personally all too aware of this growing problem, but he didn’t realize how poorly it was being handled around the nation.

“I started reading national news stories that said, ‘There’s all these psychiatric patients in emergency departments that need to be hospitalized in psych wards, but they have to wait for hours or days to be taken in,’” Scott said. “They would always conclude by saying, ‘Clearly the solution is to have more inpatient beds,’ but I knew from our work at Alameda that, if you intervene in the mental health crisis right away, just like you would with an injury or asthma attack, the great majority of these folks would be able to go home the same day.”

Around that time, the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry had concluded what was called “Best Practices in the Evaluation and Treatment of Agitation,” or Project BETA, led by Scott and his colleague Garland Holloman, Jr. Their research, both inspired and implemented by Scott’s work within the Alameda Health System, created what was originally known as the Alameda Model. Today it’s known as Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing, or EmPATH Units. And, according to Kimberly Nordstrom, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, speaking to medical news outlet Carlat, it “shook up the system and is now being used around the world.”

Anyone who has known a medical professional who works in a hospital’s emergency department, or who is just a viewer of the distressingly realistic HBO medical drama The Pitt, can understand that it’s not a helpful environment for those suffering a mental crisis. Yet it’s where a patient must be taken if they are to survive the danger in which their crisis has placed them.

“When you go to the ER,” Scott explained, “you check in with a nurse who will do what’s called triage, which is prioritizing how quickly you’ll be seen by a caregiver. Unfortunately, psych patients would be placed pretty much as low on the triage scale as possible.”

When they were given treatment, they would receive it in

the controlled chaos of a typical ER – “chaos” in that one might be surrounded by frantic doctors and nurses with patients who are in pain and anguish, and “controlled” in that patients are given little freedom to potentially complicate the treatment of life-threatening emergencies. Thus patients who are suffering mental health crises are placed in the same small, windowless rooms that are typically the only space available for those seeking emergency care.

“The typical ER is not well designed for psych patients,” Scott said. “It's designed for someone who’s having a heart attack or was in a car crash. If you place a psych patient in that same environment, they might find it frightening or claustrophobic or frustrating, which can lead to a lot of violence and agitation and aggression.”

(Opposite page) Scott Zeller ‘82 is the inventor and international advocate of the EmPATH system, which is revolutionizing emergency psychiatric care. (Below) The EmPATH unit at the University of Tennessee Medical Center provides a calm, comfortable environment for patients suffering from psychiatric emergencies. It has virtually eliminated the need for ER staff to physically restrain patients.

HOPE IN CRISIS

That aggression can then cause a spiraling crisis. If the patient becomes a danger to themselves or others, the ER staff must restrain or even sedate them, trapping them even more restrictively in the stressful environment that is making the problem worse. This can then lead to the decision to transfer them to an inpatient psych ward, which might require waiting for days while the patient is strapped to a bed in the emergency department.

“It used to be that maybe one in 20 patients in the ER was there for a behavioral health reason. Now it's like one in eight,” Scott said. Clearly this system of treatment was not sustainable, but how do you take the stress and chaos of “emergency” out of an emergency department? Hospitals needed a solution to this paradox.

than treating the patient’s mental crisis as a secondary complication to be managed with brute force, they facilitate the ER staff treating the mental state of the patient as nearly as urgent a concern as the physical threat to their life.

snack or drink or blanket without having to beg a busy staff member,” Scott said. “Making things more comfortable, less disturbing and allowing people agency to decide what they want to do helps a lot to relieve agitation and aggression.”

EmPATH Units are that solution.

The published studies and official names and acronyms can make Scott’s EmPATH Units seem more complex than what they are – a physical space and mode of care that insulates patients from the distressing environment of the ER. Rather

To implement an EmPATH Unit, a hospital needs only to find, or create, a space in or near the emergency department where patients can be kept in a calm, quiet environment that allows them the freedom to see to their own basic needs. Maybe it’s a converted waiting room, a portion of the hospital chapel, or a temporary but comfortable shelter outside the building. Then ER staff are trained to send patients experiencing mental health crises to this space once they are confirmed as having been physically stabilized. There they can take their time as they are evaluated and treated by psychiatric professionals and, in most cases, allowed to leave after being successfully treated.

Scott’s research and professional experience showed that these patients need “a space where they're free to move about, where nobody was telling them, ‘go back to your room’ or ‘I'm calling security.’ They should be able to get themselves a

“A lot” is modest at best.

“Before EmPATH, nearly 30 percent of patients in psychiatric crises at our ER went on to inpatient admission. After EmPATH, that number dropped to around eight to nine percent,” Marc Woods, chief nursing officer of University of Kentucky HealthCare Behavioral Health, began in a list of dramatic benefits seen since implementing their own EmPATH Unit in the summer of 2024.

“We’ve more than doubled the number of patients who connect to outpatient follow-up,” he continued, “rising from 29 percent before implementation to 65 percent now. About three-quarters of patients stabilize and are able to return home safely within roughly 16 hours, and 96 percent are diverted from state hospital placement.”

If drastically reducing the need to commit patients to psych wards wasn’t enough, Woods reported that “restraints and sitters (non-clinical

staff who provide constant surveillance of patients) have been virtually eliminated.”

What gratitude and hope must the parents of a suicidal teenager feel at their family receiving this kind of care?

“I can’t publish this. This couldn’t possibly be true,” said the editor of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine when Scott submitted the results of his original study for publication, according to Scott’s recollection. It showed the same kinds of outcomes now seen by the University of Kentucky and many other hospitals.

“No, really, it is!” Scott said.

Today Scott is the vice president of acute psychiatry at Vituity, a healthcare firm headquartered in Emeryville, California, where he helps hospitals around the world implement their own EmPATH Units.

“There are more than 50 across the United States and Canada right now,” Scott said. “There are two that are going to be opening in Mexico

could imagine doing it differently than how they always had,” Scott said. By federal law, they must treat the medical emergency of everyone who comes to the hospital, mental health emergencies included, but most aren’t trained in emergency psychiatry. They naturally and rightly see the overdose, self-inflicted harm or other physical threat as the priority that they spent years training to handle according to incredibly strict procedures. The mental health emergency, however, was seen as a secondary complication that could be controlled by force.

Of course Scott has incredible respect for these physicians, but when it comes to this, “they tend to think ‘this is a nail and we have a hammer and that's how we do it.’”

Also, before the modern epidemic of mental health issues, there wasn’t necessarily a need to disrupt their process. An ER could send a patient to the psych ward soon after stabilizing the physical threat rather than waiting for days. Deciding how

“Restraints and sitters (non-clinical staff who provide constant surveillance of patients) have been virtually eliminated.”

Marc Woods, chief nursing officer of University of Kentucky HealthCare Behavioral Health

“Virtually eliminated” – an allbut unheard of result in the medical field. Thanks to their EmPATH Unit, for the past year and a half, nearly every patient at the University of Kentucky who might have been strapped to a bed for days, watched over nonstop by a stranger and sent to a hospital’s psych ward has instead been able to rest in a quiet, open room with a wall full of windows overlooking trees and grass until they are ready to go home. And more than double the previous number have chosen to seek non-emergency care afterward.

in 2025. We estimate in the United States there will be more than 100 operating by 2027.” Locations in Europe, Australia and Singapore have also expressed interest.

The growth of the EmPATH method is remarkable for the cautious and skeptical world of health science, but the dramatic nature of the results begs the question: Why didn’t anyone think of this before? Wouldn’t it be obvious that agitated patients need a calm environment where they can collect themselves?

“I don’t think most ER doctors

best to treat their psychiatric emergency wasn’t nearly as pressing as making sure the next patient didn’t die of a heart attack.

Which then begs the second and much more important question: Why is there such a massive crisis of mental health to begin with, especially in young people, and what can we do about it?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Scott said. “If I knew the answer, I would have a Nobel Prize.”

Alumni Update

NEWS, WORKS AND CELEBRATIONS OF IWU ALUMNI & FRIENDS

Faculty, Staff and Friends

University Archivist & Special Collections Librarian Liz Bloodworth wrote a column for The Pantagraph describing IWU’s place in the McLean County community for the last 175 years, and she was featured in an article published by Central Illinois’ 25 News covering the University’s 175th anniversary.

1977

Herb Getz ran this year’s Chicago Marathon with his eldest daughter Allison. He has been running the Chicago Marathon about once every five years since he turned 50 in 2005. Herb wears Titan gear every time he runs the marathon, and he counted more than 20 IWU shout-outs during this year’s marathon.

1985

James Ingold was named "Volunteer of the Year" by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Since 2004, James and his wife, Martha, have dedicated themselves to fundraising for St. Jude. So far, they have raised over $2.5 million by collecting a network of consistent donors. James and Martha have also named St. Jude as the primary beneficiary of their estate.

1987

Rhys Lovell is retiring from his position as artistic director of the Heartland Theatre Company in Normal. Rhys first joined the company in 1989, only a few years after the company was founded in 1986, while Rhys was a theatre student at IWU. He became the company’s artistic director in 2015. Rhys said in a statement, “I’ve had the honor and privilege of shepherding the theater through more than 50 different productions. I’m proud of every single one of them.”

1989

Brenda Lessen Knoll was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the most prestigious national honor in the field of nursing, at a ceremony hosted in Washington, D.C. Brenda is an associate

professor of nursing at IWU and has made breakthroughs in neonatal intensive care through her creation and promotion of Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention (PIOMI), a form of physical therapy proven to help premature infants develop essential oral motor skills.

1991

Cara (Bilinsky) Blair donated one of her kidneys to an anonymous recipient. She describes her surgery and recovery as an easy process and she “would do it again” if she could. In March, she joined 15 other living kidney donors to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro on World Kidney Day with the goal of promoting the need for donors and to show that people can still lead a healthy and active lifestyle after donating.

1994

Trisha (Reynolds) Dorries started a position with Mercy Hospital St. Louis as a senior quality improvement specialist. In July of this year, she earned her Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality certification. Trisha has been a member of Mercy Hospital’s administrative staff since 2021 and was previously an occupational therapist.

1995

Nive Hasthak, after earning her master’s degree in counseling psychology from Montfort College in Bangalore, India, has started her own private practice as a therapist in Bengaluru. She previously worked in professional development at IBM and earned a master’s degree in economics from Tufts University. She credits her liberal arts background and a desire for lifelong learning cultivated by IWU for her ability to make this career transition.

1997

Lauren (Hansen) Brancato received the Count Basie Award for Best Musical Direction for Trinity Hall High School’s production of “The Hello Girls.” Lauren teaches dance and music at Trinity Hall, an all-girls Catholic school in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, which is

the first school in the country to put on “The Hello Girls.” Their production won awards for best musical, best direction, best costume design and best student choreographer. Lauren credits IWU’s traditions and values with preparing her for giving her students the opportunity to showcase and celebrate women’s mutual support through the show.

Sara Rodriguez is running in the 2026 race to become governor of Wisconsin, seeking the nomination of the Democratic party. Sara is currently the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin under the 73-year-old Governor Tony Evers, who is retiring after his term ends in Jan. 2027.

2000

Kevin Kalus is now the Chicago market president of Huntington National Bank. Kevin has been a banking professional since graduating from IWU with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and political science. Before moving to Huntington, Kevin spent most of his career with JP Morgan Chase.

2001

Dena Jalbert was featured in Orlando Magazine's 2025 “Faces of Orlando” series. Dena is the founder and CEO of Align

Business Advisory Services, a firm that assists in the merger and acquisition (M&A) of lower-middle-market companies. Dena has been working in M&A since graduating from IWU, working for companies like Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

2003

Andrew Mueller was promoted to acting general counsel of Pace Suburban Bus in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Andrew earned his law degree from Indiana University and was previously a member of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office. He has served as on-staff legal counsel for Pace since 2016.

Andrew Schneider is raising money to recover from the fire that destroyed his music and theater studio in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, which he shared with four other creatives. No one was harmed in the fire, but the blaze, which burned for seven hours and was fought by more than 250 firefighters, entirely destroyed the studio and everything within. Andrew is currently living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a scholar in residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.

Patrick Spangler was elected chairman of the board of directors of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, one of the largest pro bono organizations in Chicago. He has been the president of the board since 2020, and, since 2024, has been a board member with Aspire of Illinois – a disability advocacy organization. Patrick continues to practice law at Vedder Price PC in Chicago.

ALUMNI UPDATE

2006

Amanda Solliday was featured in an article published by the North Carolina State University horticultural science department. Amanda is a Ph.D. candidate at NC State’s cognitive behavioral lab where she studies ways of making the floral industry more sustainable, community-driven and economically viable. She recently won awards for her sustainability projects and outreach from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and from NC State itself.

2007

Kate Tombaugh received the Illinois Theatre Association’s 2025 Award of Excellence. Kate is the founder of the nonprofit music organization Poco a Poco, which provides opportunities for young aspiring musicians to learn and be exposed to the arts in Streator, Illinois.

2008

Sawyer Campbell has started a new position as associate professor of electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He is also now the director of workforce development in The Center of Excellence in Directed Energy at Penn State. His research includes published papers covering deep-learning artificial intelligence, materials science and optical physics.

2009

Robert Porter was appointed by Governor JB Pritzker to serve as public administrator and public guardian for Woodford County. Robert is an attorney with Costigan & Wollrab in Bloomington. In June 2022, he was named the McLean County Bar Association’s Young Lawyer of the Year.

2012

Erika (Olsen) Ohlendorf received the Illinois Organization of Nurse Leaders (IONL) Future of Nursing Award. She was also recently promoted to director of nursing at Riverside Healthcare

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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!

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS

My Fellow Titans,

What an incredible Homecoming weekend! It was so special seeing so many of you back on campus—catching up with old friends, celebrating milestone reunions and honoring our amazing Alumni Award winners. Whether you traveled from across the country or just across town, thank you for coming home to Illinois Wesleyan. The energy on campus—the laughter, the memories, the sea of green and white—was pure IWU spirit at its best.

Not long ago, I had one of those small-world moments when I realized I was sitting next to a fellow Titan on a flight. Before long, we were swapping stories, reminiscing about campus life and reflecting on how our IWU experience continues to connect us in unexpected ways. Encounters like that remind me just how strong and special our Titan network really is.

As we move into the holiday season, I’m feeling especially grateful—for our students, our alumni community and the many ways we show up for one another. Wishing our students a welldeserved and restful break and wishing all of you a joyful season filled with gratitude, laughter and a little Titan spirit wherever you are.

Go Titans!

Megan Howe ‘05 President, Alumni Association Board of Directors

Join Your Regional Chapter

Whether you’ve moved across the state or across the country, regional alumni chapters are here to help you stay connected! Join a chapter to find, network, and socialize with other Titans.

• Atlanta, Georgia

• Champaign, Illinois (chair needed!)

• Chicago, Illinois

• Dallas, Texas (chair needed!)

• Denver, Colorado

• McLean Co., Illinois

• Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

• Nashville, Tennessee

Connect Through Affinity Groups

• New York City, New York (chair needed!)

• Northern California

• Peoria, Illinois

• Phoenix, Arizona

• Raleigh, North Carolina

• Seattle, Washington

• Southern California

• Springfield, Illinois

• St. Louis, Missouri

• Washington, D.C

Do you have a passion close to your heart? Affinity groups and committees engage with the University in meaningful ways, planning initiatives, programming, and events.

• Alumni of Color Collective

• Council for IWU Women

• International Alumni Network (IAN)

• Parent and Family Council

Mentor Students

• Pride Alumni Community

• Wesleyan Fund Committee

• Young Alumni Council

Assist with Career Connections & Workshops through the Hart Career Center, who hosts virtual and on-campus career programs/workshops for students navigating the job and internship search. You can share expertise and encouragement or participate in one of their many annual Job and Internship Fairs! Contact the Hart Career Center at ccenter@iwu.edu or (309) 5563071 to learn more.

Become a Titan Alumni Ambassador

Welcome new and prospective students to IWU and aid the Admissions team in recruiting the best and brightest students to become part of the Titan family. Answer prospective students’ questions, share your experience of the University, congratulate new students on being admitted and offer support and encouragement in their first year at IWU.

ALUMNI EVENTS

Submit Your Titan Story Today!

To celebrate 175 years, we're collecting 175 years of Titan Stories - the stories that make up your life, and the life of the University. Your experience as a student, which professor had the most impact on you, how IWU prepared you for your personal and professional life – these are all things we want to hear about! Visit iwu.mobi/ titanstories or scan the QR code to tell us about your Titan Story!

Illinois Wesleyan thrives because of you, our dedicated donors and volunteers who give their time, talent and treasure to support the Titan community. This past year, 640 alumni, parents and friends volunteered their time to do well and do good for our Titan family by mentoring students, hosting events, serving on boards or supporting programs across campus. Looking to get more involved? There are countless ways to make an impact, from writing letters to prospective students and speaking on career panels to hosting regional events, serving on advisory boards or lending a hand during Homecoming and All In for Wesleyan. Every hour, every effort and every gift makes a difference.

Thank you for continuing to shape the future of Illinois Wesleyan with your support, spirit and service. To learn more, go to https://www. iwu.edu/alumni/engage/volunteer.html or scan the QR code.

Catch Up with Titans Near You!

Illinois Wesleyan University is hitting the road to connect with Titans across the country! Join alumni, parents and friends in your area to celebrate all things IWU. You’ll hear campus updates and have an opportunity to network with fellow Titans. Check out the dates and locations below to see when we will be in your area – we can’t wait to see you there! See more detailed information about upcoming events by visiting https://www.iwu.edu/ alumni/events/

» 12/10/2025 STL Titan Connection

» 1/31/2026 Phoenix Titan Connection

» 1/31/2026 ILMEA in Peoria

» 2/3/2026 Four Chaplains & Legion of Honor Ceremony

» 2/13/2026 Tampa Titan Connection

» 2/20-2/22 2026 Council for IWU Women’s Weekend

» 4/10-4/12 2026 Festival of the Arts

» 4/14 All In Socials in Chicago, STL, and McLean Co

Nominations Open for the 2025 Alumni Awards

Each year, Illinois Wesleyan University proudly honors exceptional alumni whose accomplishments, leadership and service exemplify the spirit of the University. The Alumni Awards recognize those who have made meaningful contributions to their professions, communities and to Illinois Wesleyan itself. Recipients will be celebrated during Homecoming Weekend.

Do you know an alum whose achievements deserve to be recognized? Submit a nomination for one of this year’s awards:

Distinguished Alumni Award

Presented to alumni who have made significant contributions to society, achieved professional distinction or demonstrated exemplary civic leadership.

Robert M. Montgomery Outstanding Young Alumni Award

Named for Robert Montgomery ’68, alumnus and former IWU alumni director, this award recognizes young alumni, those who graduated within the past 15 years, for exceptional professional success, civic engagement or both.

Loyalty Award

Honors alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to Illinois Wesleyan through outstanding service, financial support or both.

Celebrate the Titans who inspire us. Submit your nomination today

Contact Us

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? Scan our Get Involved & Volunteer QR Code or contact Avary Kampwerth ‘24 at akampwer@iwu.edu or (309) 556-2038.

Have a general alumni question? Reach out to the Office of Alumni Engagement at iwualum@iwu.edu or (309) 556-3145.

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

ALUMNI UPDATE

in Kankakee, Illinois. Erika was previously honored as a member of the IONL 40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders list in 2022.

Deborah (Demchuk) Schmidt has started a new position as assistant principal at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy in St. Louis. Debbie has advanced degrees in the teaching of gifted students and in educational leadership and administration, and she was previously a consultant teacher with St. Louis public schools.

2016

Eric Hyla was appointed as the Young Lawyer Representative for the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section's Trans-

portation and Energy Committee. Through this role, he will shape legal thought and policy at the intersection of antitrust, transportation and energy. Eric earned his juris doctor from Vanderbilt University in 2019 and has been published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.

Frank Stankowicz was recently a finalist in the national music competition America’s Top Hitmaker. For his day job, Frank is a registered nurse clinician and case manager with national home care firm Elara Caring, but he competes and performs professionally as his hip-hop artist persona, StankNasty.

Robert W. Harrington Endowed Professor of Biology Edgar Lehr presented actor Harrison Ford with a framed portrait of Tachymenoides harrisonfordi, the species of snake that Edgar named after Ford in 2023. The gifting of the photo was part of a ceremony granting Ford the E.O. Wilson Foundation’s Legacy Award for his work in conservation. Edgar had previously also gifted the late Jane Goodall with a framed portrait of Tachymenoides goodallae, the snake he had similarly named after her, in summer 2025 shortly before her death.

2017

John Gelasi won the Rockford (Ill.) Symphony Orchestra’s Music Educator of the Year award for the 2024-2025 season. John has been the band teacher at Stillman Valley (Ill.) High School since 2021 and is also the music director for Byron Civic Band and the

conductor for Theatre 121. John studied music education at IWU and played flute and trombone for the IWU Jazz Ensemble.

2018

Brock Thornton earned his doctorate in nurse anesthesia in May 2024 from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where he studied and presented on the efficacy of perioperative methadone. He is now a practicing nurse anesthetist with St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Illinois.

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.

Finance/Accounting

Career Night -

September 9, 2025

Paul Guercio ‘99

Sarah Blabolil ‘3

Jill Jackson ‘4

Jacob Anderson ‘10

Daniel Morrissette ‘11

P.J. Cummings ‘11

Marci Pape ‘13

Nick Kenaga ‘13

Mike Mayberger ‘14

Aneesh Sehgal ‘15

Alec O’Halleran ‘19

Skylar Le Vine ‘20

Colin Cheaney ‘21

Joe Prestamer ‘21

Abraham Nevarez ‘22

CJ Rodriguez ‘24

Lauren Wong ‘24

Nate Seputis ‘24

Peyton Pollman ‘24

Ashley Fehr ‘25

Daniel Flores ‘25

Kadin Angel ‘25

Lainey Scher ‘25

Will McNulty ‘25

John Paul (JP) Hills

Law School Admissions 101September 24

Rebecca Ray ‘01

Fall Internship/Job FairSeptember 29

Bart Hill ‘91

Jeff Mavros ‘98

Kay Birkner ‘06

Katie Vogler ‘22

Abby Nytko ‘23

Molly Morrissey ‘23

Alex Mucha ‘24

Lainey Scher ‘25

Thrive in Pre-Health: Alumni Voices: Exploring the Pathway to MedicineOctober 1

Dr. Kyle Eash ‘02

Kyle Cole ‘22

Healthcare Career PanelOctober 15

Krista Sheppard ‘94

Dr. Brian Emm ‘99

Dr. Tyler Neal ‘05

Dr. Zack Talbert ‘16

Dr. A.J. Thum ‘17

Finance TripOctober 24

Rich Berthold ‘04

Ken Holub ‘06

Shannan Abraham ‘20

Skylar Le Vine ‘20

Daniel Socha ‘23

From Illinois Wesleyan to the United NationsNovember 12

Charlie Sell ‘10

Additional Programming

Jim Kreiss ‘83

Justin Ahrens ‘94

Jon Robinson ‘05

Shawn Perrone ‘00

Joel Castillo ‘01

Tim Achstatter ‘06

Emily Cellini Henson ‘10

Dennis Bresingham ‘18

Isaiah Crews ‘23

Evan Turnbull ‘24

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 Oct. 10, 2025

Paige Buschman ‘17 married Travis Millard on June 7, 2025, in Bloomington with generations of IWU alumni in attendance. Left to right: Hannah Mesouani, Jim Richter '93, Rachel (Paturi) Mesouani '13, Sam Lundquist '17, Jake Morris '18, Paige, Kathryn (Craft) Workman '18, Jackson Garrett ‘18, Tiara Smith ‘17, Kahri Jung '16, Luis Cabrales-Vasquez '15, Tim Cobert '14, Avery Amerson '17, Nina Churchill '20, and Cassandra Schifano '17.

Patrick Murphy ‘20 and Maureen (McGrath) Murphy ‘21 were married on May 23, 2025, in Franklin, Tennessee with many alumni in attendance.

Maddie Minogue ‘15 and Nikhil Kamath ‘16 were married on June 27, 2025 in Chicago. Left to right: Zach Siegel ‘15, Val (Mack) Siegel ‘15, Julia Savich ‘16, Nikhil, Maddie, Cameron Leberecht ‘16, Alexandra (Burnside) Leberecht ‘16, Rebecca Greenwald ‘16, Nick Bates ‘16, Sujit Johnston ‘16, and Tina Fleres ‘16.

Sarah (Zwickl) McNamara '16 married Tommy McNamara on April 26, 2025 with many alumni in the wedding party. Back row, left to right: Larissa (Valentino) Cripe ‘16, Steph McAtee ‘16, Maisie Cox ‘16. Front row, left to right: Danielle Pruger ‘16, Sarah, Nancy (Guzman) Klang ‘16. Not pictured: Danny Roadman '15.

Tiny Titans

Michele (Kim) Park '10 and Branden

Mikayla Park, born April 23, 2025

Daniel '11 and Leah Megli '11

Lucia and Chiara Megli, born March 19, 2025

David '11 and Maura (Moran) Vaughan '11

Rosie Lynn Vaughan, born March 23, 2024

Kyle '13 and Rosie (Egan) Van Der Aa '13

Samuel John Van Der Aa, born Oct. 6, 2025

Clara (Ehrhart) Morrison '15 and Sam

Marion Florence Morrison, born recently

Ayethaw ‘15 and Kate (Ford) Tun '15

Julian Thaw Tun, born July 3, 2025

Karolina (Sierzputowska) Sodic '16 and Michael Dominic George Sodic, born August 28, 2025

Brock Thornton '18 and Baylee

Camden Lee Thornton, born Aug. 13, 2025

Ariel Bradley '23 and Trey

Brooks Bradley Edinger, born May 15, 2025

In Memory

Faculty, Staff and Friends

Durward “Dur” Cawley died Oct. 2, 2025. He was 74. Dur was known for being able to make or fix anything. He worked in construction building houses before joining IWU’s physical plant. He retired after 22 years at IWU in 2016. He loved sports and was involved in coaching his son's sports teams in the ‘90s. He played golf himself and also enjoyed watching sprint car races. He was a supportive fan of the San Francisco Giants, Denver Broncos and St. Louis Blues. Dur is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren.

Alumni

Dorothy (Reichert) Goleman ‘49 died Sept. 3, 2025. She was 98. Raised on the family farm in Virden, Illinois, Dorothy studied music at IWU and was a teacher of piano and organ for almost 60 years. She was also the music director at Divernon United Methodist Church, where she was a member for over 70 years. Dorothy is survived by one child, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

James Smith ‘53 died Aug. 22, 2025. He was 95. Jim earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from Illinois Wesleyan University. Following his graduation, he led a 31-year career as director of music for Taylorville (Ill.) Public Schools and band director at Taylorville High School. Beyond the classroom, he founded the American Youth Band and Chorus, which gave students the chance to perform internationally in prestigious venues across Europe. After retiring from the public school system, Jim joined the music faculty at Millikin University. His numerous community honors for music education reflected his profound influence on his students. Jim is survived by his child and grandchild.

Richard Sturgeon ‘53 died Sept. 14, 2025. He was 94. After graduating from IWU, where he earned a degree in physical education and played basketball, Richard earned his master’s degree in education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He served as an elementary school principal for 28 years, being the founding principal of Thomas Paine Elementary in Urbana, Illinois. He was also an elder and deacon at the First Presbyterian Church in Urbana. Richard is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Richard "Dick" Metzger ‘57 died June 24, 2025. He was 89. Dick was a Normal townie who graduated from Normal Community High School as a basketball star, going on to play basketball with the Titans while earning a degree in business. After graduating from IWU, he joined the United States Marine Corps. Professionally, Dick entered the printing industry and became the owner of multiple print shops. He also maintained his love of sports through golf, known for having achieved a hole-in-one. Dick is survived by four children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Linda Shirk died Sept. 6, 2025. She was 79. Originally from Texas, Linda came to Central Illinois to study at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She became a grade school teacher with Prairie School in Urbana, Illinois, before teaching preschool with Headstart in Chicago. In 1968 she married Jim Shirk, and the couple eventually moved to Bloomington where she volunteered at what is now

Carle BroMenn Medical Center and served as an elder at Second Presbyterian Church. She was also a member of Daughters of the American Revolution. The Shirk family, which owns and operates Beer Nuts Brand Snacks in Bloomington, provided the gift that enabled the construction of the Shirk Center in 1994. Since then they have also given gifts to renovate and maintain the building. Linda herself was also a supporter of McLean County Arts Center, the David Davis Mansion – where she served on the board – and the McLean County Historical Society.

John Andrae ‘58 died April 28, 2025. He was 89. John devoted his education and career to theology and counseling. After graduating from IWU, where he met his wife Vardeen (Eden) Andrae '58, he earned a master of divinity degree as well as a master’s degree in sociology/psychology at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis and Butler University respectively. His devotion to education and service brought him to Phillips University where he served as dean of students. John is survived by his wife, two children, six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Ronald Aldridge ‘58 died June 21, 2025. He was 88. Ron served in the National Guard after studying mathematics at IWU while simultaneously beginning a 32-year career with Illinois Bell. He was a pioneer in the creation of ethanol gasoline, earning an award presented to him in Washington, D.C. Ron and his wife built their dream home in Galena, Illinois, where he pursued his lifelong passion for boating, owning multiple sailboats and speedboats throughout his life. He also contributed to his local community, serving as President of the Whitley Bay West Homeowners Association and participating in the Eau Gallie Yacht Club.

ALUMNI UPDATE

John Wenum died March 15, 2025. He was 96. John served with the US Army following the Second World War, when he was deployed to West Germany as an anti-aircraft gunner. He returned to civilian life as a graduate student at Northwestern University where he earned his Ph.D. in political science. John became a professor at Lake Forest College and then Illinois Wesleyan, where he served as chair of the political science department and director of the social science division. Two years before his retirement as an IWU professor emeritus in 1994, John received the DuPont Award for Teaching Excellence, IWU’s highest award at the time. He described his keynote address as focusing on “the failure of members of society to speak and act appropriately toward each other and the responsibility of those in academe to help reinstitute civility in society.” He was also a member of the McLean County Board for 12 years, was a delegate to the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention from 1969 to 1970 and was appointed by the governor of Illinois as staff director of a legislative task force immediately thereafter.

and Jack moved around the country multiple times before finally settling back in Illinois. She became an active community member of Living Hope Church in North Aurora, being a choir and committee member, as well as joining the Tuesday quilting group. Evelyn is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

Alan Harler ‘62 died June 26, 2025. He was 85. Having studied music education at IWU, Alan went on to become one of the most visionary musical figures in the Philadelphia area. He served as professor and chairman of choral music at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, but he was best known for turning the Mendelssohn Chorus into a centerpiece of Philadelphia culture that earned a Pulitzer Prize in music for one of its commissioned works. Alan also served in leadership roles for Chorus America, the American Choral Foundation and the American Musicological Society, among other groups.

John Sutter ‘63 died Aug. 18, 2025. He was 83. John studied economics at IWU, where he also played basketball during his freshman year. His time at IWU laid the foundation for a successful career with Lincoln National Life Insurance, eventually becoming a director overseeing 25 group offices from Texas to Georgia to Puerto Rico. He also served as the president of the board of St. John's United Church of Christ in Minier, Illinois for 13 years. John is survived by two children, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Sayra (Foster) Johnson ‘58 died Aug. 6, 2025. She was 88. Sayra was a life-long townie of Princeville, Illinois, moving back there after graduating from IWU to be with her highschool sweetheart. She was a member of Princeville United Methodist Church for 79 years, rivaled in length by her membership with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority lasting 70 years. Sayra is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.

Bernice (Winston) Beavers ‘60 died Aug. 25, 2025. She was 93. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Bernice came to IWU to earn her master's degree in music. She went back south to continue her music education career teaching piano and serving as a church organist. Bernice was also an accomplished artist whose oil paintings were exhibited and sold in her hometown of 60 years, Oklahoma City. She eventually returned to Atlanta to be closer to family. Bernice is survived by two children, a grandchild and four great-grandchildren.

Evelyn (Holmes) Kinton ‘61 died Sept. 5, 2025. She was 86. Evelyn, originally from Rockton, Illinois, met her husband Jack Kinton '61 while studying sociology at IWU. Evelyn

Linda (Harshbarger) Feeney ‘64 died July 5, 2025. She was 82. A graduate of El Paso (Ill.) High School, Linda studied music at Illinois Wesleyan University and served as office manager at Feeney Oil Company. Linda was a beloved Sunday school teacher and youth group leader, known for her vocal talents and frequent performances at local weddings and funerals. She enjoyed traveling to the Ozarks as well as sitting down with a good glass of wine. Linda is survived by her husband, five children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Robert Stephens ‘64 died April 21, 2025. He was 86. Bob had a distinguished career in information systems, serving as a systems manager for several transportation companies. He was recognized in several “who’s who” lists of regional IT experts. In public service, he served as an elected trustee of the Village of Caseyville (Ill.), a Library Board president and was long-time treasurer and president of the Caseyville Cemetery Association, where revenue from his two history books paid to improve the cemetery’s roads. He was also honored as “Volunteer of the Year” by the Collinsville (Ill.) History Museum. Bob is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Dale (Whitney) Holloway ‘66 died June 18, 2025. She was 81. After graduating from Illinois Wesleyan and earning her master’s degree in German literature from the University of

In Memory

Chicago, Dale dedicated over 35 years to leading the Student Support Services department at Lewis & Clark College. She advocated for students with disabilities, maintaining adaptive services and ADA accommodations. Her many accomplishments included founding a braille printing site and creating mentorship initiatives connecting college students with younger learners with learning differences. Dale also opened her home to students who couldn’t return home during holidays, many of whom became lifelong friends. Dale is survived by her husband and two children.

David Lewis ‘66 died Aug. 30, 2025. He was 81. After graduating from IWU, where he met his wife Lynne (Ehrhart) Lewis '67 and earned a degree in chemistry, David joined the United States Air Force and was deployed to fight in the Vietnam War. During his service he earned the National Defense Service Medal. While his profession was quality assurance in the field of chemical engineering, David had a love of music that he expressed through choir singing and playing the alto saxophone. David is survived by two children, seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Michael McGinnis ‘72 died Aug. 9, 2025. He was 75. Mike developed his passion for education and athletics during his time at IWU. After graduating, he dedicated his professional life to teaching physical education and coaching football at Streator (Ill.) High School, where he spent much of his career.

Patricia (Lasater) Gathman ‘76 died Aug. 23, 2025. She was 71. Patty met her husband David Gathman ‘74 at IWU, and the couple regularly returned to campus for Homecoming. Professionally, Patty dedicated more than four decades to librarianship, first working at the Poplar Creek (Ill.) Public Library and then serving 40 years at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, Illinois. Patty was an active member of Faith United Methodist Church of Elgin, now Cornerstone United Methodist Church, where she and Dave led weekly Bible studies. Patty is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

Jim Larson ‘76 died July 7, 2025. He was 71. Jim was born the son of the Titans’ head football coach Don “Swede” Larson ‘50 and the “first lady” of Titan football Mary Larson. He attended IWU alongside his sister Mary (Larson) Howard '79 and played football for the Titans under his father’s leadership, earning recognition as a dedicated student-athlete and member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. After graduating with a degree in journalism, Jim began his career as a public educator in Danville before moving into insurance. He remained active in preserving its athletic heritage through the Titan Football Legacy Group. Jim is survived by two children and a grandchild.

Margo (Watkins) Harper ‘77 died Oct. 3, 2025. She was 70. Born the child of a military family, Margo moved all around the country before coming to IWU from McLean, Virginia. She

It was an honor to celebrate milestone reunions at Homecoming and Family Weekend with the classes of 1970, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2000, and 2015. Roommates reminisced, new friendships were formed, and a spirit of camaraderie lifted everyone’s spirits.

Each reunion group has set a giving goal for the academic year in honor of their milestone. Celebrating a reunion is the perfect reason to give back and pay it forward for current and future Titans.

P.O. Box 2900, Bloomington, IL 61702-2900