The Administrative/Professional Council named those who will be honored with an A/P Distinguished Service Award during the Founding Celebration. They include Danielle Beasley, Cara Boester, Rachel Caracci, and Janeen Mollenhauer. Karmine Beecroft and Maggie Morris Davis will receive A/P Emerging Leader Awards. Chris Roberts has been named the recipient of the Esprit de Corps Award.
An awards ceremony honoring the work of members of the University community will be livestreamed at 12:30 p.m. February 16 on the Illinois State University YouTube channel. Find a schedule of activities on the Founding Celebrations website.
A/P Distinguished Service Award
Danielle Beasley, Student Counseling Services
Danielle Beasley received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from DePaul University and her master’s degree in social work from Illinois State University. Beasley is currently the associate director of Diversity, Equity and Outreach at Illinois State University Student Counseling Services (SCS) and has been with the University since 2016. Danielle started at SCS as the case manager and transitioned into her new role as associate director in the Spring of 2021. The associate director of Diversity, Equity and Outreach is a newly created position that is multifaceted in scope and function. Her leadership role includes the professional development of Student Counseling Services with a focus on enhancing inclusive practices, developing culturally informed outreach, reducing barriers, and increasing access to services. Beasley leads efforts in assessing, re-defining, and re-developing programming that are innovative, responsive, culturally relevant, and coordinated. Utilizing a social justice framework, Beasley oversees the development and implementation of SCS EDI-A strategic plan.
Beasley always centers students in her work. She is dedicated to providing services to marginalized communities. Beasley was a pivotal part of the creation of the Healing Circle Series dedicated to racial justice and racial healing for Black students at Illinois State University hosted by the Multicultural Center. In a time of pain and uncertainty, Beasley brought clarity and peace with her presence to help plan and execute the Healing Justice Program. With her help, the Multicultural Center was able to honor the experiences, voices, and hearts of the students who felt a great deal of fear, frustration, sadness, and discontent.
Beasley contributes professionally to her field. Because Beasley is committed to the field of social work and is a social worker at heart, she has worked for the ISU School of Social Work as an instructional assistant professor. When serving as a case manager, Beasley presented nationally at the Higher Education Case Management Association national conference and in her new role as the associate director for Diversity, Equity and Outreach at SCS, she has joined the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education to continue her service on a national level.
Cara Boester, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Cara Boester is the director of Clinical Education in Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and has been employed with the University since 2003. Boester’s primary responsibility includes scheduling clinical experiences for all graduate clinicians in the on-campus clinic as well as at off-site part-time and full-time internships. Annually, this program is comprised of nearly 80 students, each of whom needs to earn a minimum of 400 clinical contact hours within the two-year graduate program.
Boester is involved with the Council for Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her involvement in CAPCSD consists of serving on the nominations committee, reviewing submissions for presentation at the annual conference, and presenting at the national conference. She is also a member of the Midwest Clinic Director’s group and serves as a resource for new and veteran clinic directors in our field. Boester is a member of and a volunteer for the American Speech Language Hearing Association. She is also active in the Illinois Speech Language Hearing Association and serves on the board for speech pathology and audiology at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Boester serves on several committees within the CSD department. Her service extends beyond the department. She is an active member of the ISU Parking Advisory Committee and the College of Arts and Sciences Technology Advisory Committee. In 2020, Boester and her colleagues in the speech and hearing clinic were recognized with the University’s Living Our Values Award for Leadership and Scholarship.
Boester’s passion lies with guiding her students to gain the clinical experiences needed to be successful in the field of speech-language pathology. Boester’s degree in deaf education allows her to serve clients who are deaf and hard of hearing with aural rehabilitation, speech, and language needs. She also teaches a phonetics class for the deaf education students in the Department of Special Education at ISU.
Boester’s job at ISU is not a job at all. It’s a dream. Boester and her husband have two boys who keep them young and busy.
Rachel Caracci, Graduate School
Rachel Caracci has enjoyed working at Illinois State for the last 15 years. During her time with the University, she’s served the Office of Admissions in student recruitment before joining the Graduate School in 2018. In the Graduate School she currently serves as the associate director and oversees recruitment and admission of graduate students, coordinates graduate recruitment initiatives, and works with campus partners to promote and elevate graduate education. She works with one of the best teams on campus to ensure the external and internal graduate admissions experience is as smooth as possible. She enjoys being an ambassador for the University and the Graduate School and mentoring current undergraduate and graduate students. While serving in the Office of Admissions for 12 years, Caracci established strong relationships with community college colleagues and worked tirelessly to connect with prospective transfer students. She was active among the transfer coordinator community, served on an advisory board, and presented at several conferences on transfer student recruitment.
Caracci served on numerous campus teams and task forces including the University Chili Cook-Off, A/P Council, Transfer Council, Persistence Committee, and several international related committees. She’s been involved in state associations, including serving a three-year term as the West-Central regional chair for the Illinois Association of College Registrar and Admission officers in 2016. Starting in 2014, Caracci served two back-to-back terms on the A/P Council as the Awards Committee chair. She created and implemented an electronic submission of the A/P awards. She was humbled each year to read the amazing accomplishments performed by individuals on campus. While on the A/P Council, she enjoyed learning and understanding the issues on campus and discussing ways to resolve them.
Caracci received her bachelor’s degree in HR management in 2006 and her MBA in 2013 from Illinois State’s College of Business. You can often find Caracci in her office working tirelessly to help students make ISU a reality. When not in her office, Caracci is hanging with her family. Caracci has been married to her husband Joe, also an alum, for 10 years. She is busy chasing around two beautiful little girls who are her pride and joy. The Caracci family attends and volunteers at various events on campus and throughout the community. Once a Redbird, always a Redbird!
Janeen Mollenhauer, Mennonite College of Nursing
Janeen Mollenhauer began her career with Mennonite College of Nursing in 1996 as the coordinator for Student Development. In this capacity, she served as a licensed clinical professional counselor for MCN students, taught a nursing elective course, and developed student programming to meet the unique needs of a highly demanding major. In 1999 her role transitioned to that of academic advisor when Mennonite College of Nursing became the sixth college at Illinois State University. Over the next 18 years, Mollenhauer would assume progressive leadership roles in the college that have in some way touched the Student Nurses Organization, Transcultural Nursing Program, annual Candle Lighting Ceremony, Nursing Themed Living Learning Community, and high school nursing camp. Mollenhauer received her Bachelor of Arts from Augustana College in psychology and pre-physical therapy, and her Master of Science in counseling psychology from Illinois State University.
Since 2017, Mollenhauer’s role as associate dean has created opportunities to work closely with teams in academic advising, admissions, enrollment management, immunization compliance, marketing and recruitment, technology, and event planning to ensure that effective processes are in place to support nursing students. Her passion for building successful teams is reflected in her commitment to effective onboarding, professional development and staff retreats, and advocating for the staff perspective. Her involvement on multiple MCN and university-wide committees help support policy advancement, curriculum initiatives, enrollment management, student advocacy, and staff development.
With her background as a licensed counselor, Mollenhauer’s true passion is working with staff and students to understand emotional intelligence and its impact on life/job satisfaction. She provides guest lectures each semester in the undergraduate leadership course on this topic. She has also presented at two National Academic Advising Association conferences, multiple departments on campus, and at a regional community college. Additionally, her team’s poster presentation was accepted at the Midwest Nursing Research Society.
When not working, Mollenhauer can be found enjoying Green Bay Packer football games, attending her son’s competitive rock-climbing competitions, and enjoying Redbird tailgating. She has been a member of Epiphany parish since 1991.
A/P Emerging Leader Award
Karmine Beecroft, Milner Library
Karmine Beecroft joined Illinois State University as coordinator of the Milner Library Digitization Center in 2019. In that capacity, they provide project management for the digitization, description, and digital delivery of historical materials from Milner’s Special Collections and University Archives, as well as the ISU and surrounding community more broadly. Beecroft received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Michigan State University in 2010 and a Master of Information Science from the University of Michigan in 2012. They have previously worked for the University of Michigan and Ohio University library systems.
In 2020 Beecroft was elected co-chair of Milner’s Diversity and International Inclusion Committee, now known as the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Committee. Over the past year, they have reinvigorated the committee and established it as a formal part of the library’s shared governance structure. Beecroft also chairs the Milner Library Council and served as part of the team responsible for writing the library’s five-year strategic plan for FY21-26, creating a set of values statements, and updating the existing mission and vision statements.
Following the dissolution of the Triangle Association and LGBT/Queer Studies and Services Institute, Beecroft participated in several open planning sessions to conceptualize a successor organization geared towards LGBTQIA+ faculty, staff, and graduate students. In January 2021 they were elected to the Executive Board of the resulting university-sponsored affinity group, Queer Coalition, where they have subsequently been very active in planning events and engaging in advocacy on behalf of the local queer community.
Maggie Morris Davis, Director of English Education
Dr. Maggie Morris Davis is currently the director of the English Teacher Education program at ISU. In collaboration with program faculty and staff and teacher candidates, she has led the program to more clearly articulate, work toward, enact, and reflect upon its commitment to socially just English Language Arts (ELA) instruction. Since taking the position in the summer of 2018, the program has not only grown in enrollment, but more program graduates are also choosing to teach in underserved schools in Illinois and across the nation upon graduation. By establishing and mentoring an English Education Student Advisory Committee, Dr. Morris Davis continuously invites English Ed teacher candidates into outreach efforts outside of coursework and clinical work, including The Representation Project (a self-funded grant initiative to provide diverse books to ELA classrooms not otherwise able to expand their curricular offerings to better represent the lives and lived identities of the learners in their school community) and the annual NCTE African American Read-In (a local enactment of a long-standing national effort to celebrate and center Black voices, stories, and experiences).
Looking forward, Dr. Morris Davis is eager to support the newly approved master’s degree in English Education and Accelerated English Education sequence, which she co-constructed with English Ed faculty colleagues Dr. Danielle Lillge and Dr. Sarah Hochstetler. The first of its kind regionally, this degree program is built to support practicing English teachers’ efforts to study their own practice and work to effect change in their classrooms, schools, communities, and the broader field through their research.
Prior to transitioning to higher education, Dr. Morris Davis taught high school English in southern Illinois and western Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. in English, and her research focuses on representations of children in poverty in American literature and culture.
Esprit de Corps Award
Chris Roberts, Planning, Research, & Policy Analysis
Chris Roberts joined Planning, Research, & Policy Analysis (PRPA) in June 2019 as a research & planning analyst. In this role he assists in providing both University clients and external agencies data support for both federal and state compliance reporting, academic planning, administrative planning, student support services, and long-term research and policy analysis. Roberts began his service at Illinois State University in 2009 as an admissions and records specialist with Registrar Systems, within the Office of the University Registrar. During his time there, Roberts served as a systems analyst, and a systems production manager, analyzing and developing solutions for student data problems, running support for campus clients, and serving as a liaison between end users and business intelligence staff. Roberts was a member of the Student Records Data team for the “LEAP Forward” project, serving as a subject matter expert for student records, and previously assisted with the student testing center. During his time at Illinois State University, Roberts has served on the Civil Service Council, acting as the liaison to the Academic Senate and chairing the Scholarship Committee and later served on the Administrative/Professional Council, again representing them to the Academic Senate.
Roberts holds a Bachelor of Science in history (‘05) and a Master of Science in history (‘16), both from Illinois State University. Prior to his service with Illinois State, Roberts worked as a research assistant at Chestnut Health Systems and acted as a client services manager for a Bloomington local law firm representing the busines to the McLean County Economic Development Council and to the McLean County Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee.
Roberts and his wife Nora have two pushy dachshunds, which serve as their lessons in patience. In their free time they enjoy trips to Las Vegas, cooking new recipes, and watching movies from their ever-growing collection.
