Alumni

Meet Anne Sweeney (BA,'15, history), a social studies and English teacher at Oswego High School. She has taught a range of courses in her 10 years at Oswego, including AP Psychology, World Cultures, and U.S. History. Sweeney credits her strong critical thinking skills and being an effective...

 An annual survey of recent graduates reports that 98% of history and history of art alumni who graduated during the 2023-2024 period secured their first destination within six months of graduating.  That figure...

Meet Hailey Baumstein (BA,'17, history; MA,'22, education policy, organization, & leadership), a social studies teacher, girls' cross country coach, and assistant track coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. She began her career at Thornton Township High School before transitioning to...

Meet Ljubica Basica (BA,'18, history and political science; MBA,'23), a project manager at Google with Mandiant Cybersecurity Consulting. Her journey after graduating with a BA in history and political science led her from working in government, to completing her MBA and now working in...

Meet Thomas Dowling (BA,'18, history and political science), the co-founder and former CEO of TaxProper, a property tax software start-up acquired by Opendoor in 2022. Dowling is currently the director of TaxProper under Opendoor. He was also appointed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to be the...

Editor's Note: The School of Information Sciences profiled history alumnus Adam Beaty and we have reshared it here with their permission. Adam Beaty (BA, '21, history) decided to pursue an MSLIS degree to combine his love of history, the arts, and community-centered...

Editors note: This piece originally appeared on the Prairie Research Institute Website.Meet Alexander Rushing...

Russell Wigginton (PhD, '01, History) is the president of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. A profile about his career was the cover story of the Summer 2024 issue of Illinois Alumni magazine....

This year Ernest Crim III (BA, '09, history) was our convocation speaker. Crim is the founder of Crim’s Cultural Consulting. Through his work, he speaks to companies, middle and high schools, educators, colleges, and community groups and uses Black historical narratives to empower and educate...

Charles J. Shields (BA, English, '75; MA, History, '79) is the author of 20 nonfiction books for young readers, and biographies of Harper Lee, John Williams, Kurt Vonnegut, and Lorraine Hansberry. He recently retired after a successful 25 year career as a writer where he combined his interest in...