Features – Page 5

Drawn to Excellence: Artist traces her global fame to ISU

Wonsook Kim is true to her name, which in Korean means “seer.”

Different kind of cure: Alum’s academy teaches critically ill children

Ill child in bed with the founder of an academy that helps ill children

Illinois State University alum Megan Nickels is the founder and faculty director of PedsAcademy at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida, which creates educational experiences tied to a patient’s disease or condition.

Meeting the national need for teachers

Deborah MacPhee has designed a collaborative model of teacher education targeted at bridging the theory and practice gap, in order to better prepare aspiring teachers and improve instructors already in the classroom.

America is facing a critical shortage of teachers, and Illinois State University is working to help fill the gap.

Different kind of cure: Alumna helps uninsured afford health care

Partnerships are at the center of Advocatia Solutions, both with clients and the staff team. Laura Robbins, who welcomed her first child in July, tackled a project with co-worker Matthew Neff.

Laura (Brebner) Robbins ’10, M.S. ’12, has partnered with her brother to create Advocatia Solutions, a company working to make accessing health care benefits much easier for uninsured and underinsured patients.

Better and brighter: Bone Student Center revitalized

The east entrances to the Bone Student Center have a whole new look.

The first phase of the Bone Student Center’s transformational revitalization was completed during the spring semester, with more work finished throughout the summer.

Diamond memories: Redbird baseball’s 1969 national championship team

The 1969 Redbird baseball team is still the only national title team in university history.

The Redbird baseball team won the 1969 College Division World Series, still the only team national championship in Illinois State University history.

Business alumna breaks barriers

Progressive Insurance CEO Tricia Griffith

Tricia (Thomas) Griffith’s accomplishments as chief executive officer of The Progressive Corporation are so impressive that she is the first woman named Fortune Magazine’s Businessperson of the Year.

Mennonite Milestone: Nursing college celebrates centennial

Nursing students learning how to operate a machine from a staff member.

Mennonite College of Nursing marks its centennial year having achieved a level of excellence and energy that belies the struggle behind its founding.

Alum’s action plan

Man wearing a suit looking away from the camera

Andrew Purnell is known as the man who can solve all kinds of problems—from his major in mathematics to addressing local discrimination as an undergraduate, followed by establishing as an alumnus a group that has empowered Illinois State black students for 35 years.

Seeing it all: Marine scientist leaves ocean to focus on family

Marine scientist Jamie Baldwin Fergus with her children, Mack and Olivia.

On a walk one day, Jamie Baldwin Fergus’ graduate school advisor asked her if it all ended tomorrow, would she be happy?