Rainbow Briefs
Archivist April Anderson-Zorn (she/her) shared stories of women in World War I on Redbird Buzz.
She incorporated her passion for theme parks into an Honors Exploration course, Theme Parks and the Power of Place and collaborated on a research study published Beyond ‘Fake it ‘till you make it’: Impostor Phenomenon in Archivists.
Caitlin Mercier (she/her), WGS/PSY, authored “Centering veg*ns of color: An intersectional imperative to anti-veg*n stigma” in the Journal of Health Prevention and Health Promotion, Vol. 6 (1), pp. 31 –51, and co-authored “Skin Deep: A Relational Cultural Approach to Colorism,” in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
David Giovagnoli (he/him) was promoted to Assistant Director for Scholarly Teaching and Learning at the Center for Integrated Professional Development.
Gavin Weiser (they/them) was interviewed regarding the Annual 3 Minute Thesis competition and the 34th Annual University Research Symposium as Graduate School Interim Director.
They also collaborated on two publications:
- DeMartino, L., Weiser, S. G., & Stasicky, L. (2025). Everything is fine: Converging pandemics, resistance, and sustaining wokeness in education. Social Alternatives, 43(1), 32–41.
- Weiser, S. G., & DeMartino, L. (2025). Reproductive futurity: Policy, pop-culture, and praxis. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 47(1), 1–22
Xan Daggett won the 2024 James L. Fisher Outstanding Thesis Competition with their thesis Digital safe spaces: Nonbinary community building on TikTok.
They currently work as the Assistant Director of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Illinois Weslyan University.
Karmine Beecroft (they/them) presented “Voices from the Trenches: Uncovering World War I Stories through Digitization and Visualization” with Emily Baldoni as part of Milner Library’s Digital Scholarship Speaker Series. They gave a similar presentation with Emily Baldoni and Maddi Loiselle to the Golden Redbirds Alumni Network on May 14. That same day they also presented on “Equipment Recommendations, Pricing, Scanning, and Post Processing” with Ellie Harman at the CARLI Professional Development Alliance (PDA) webinar “Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing.” Back in March, Karmine was interviewed on The 21st Show about Trans Day of Visibility and how the trans community is faring under the Trump administration.
Zuby Khaled was hired as a Grants and Contracts Associate at Research & Sponsored Programs.
He was featured in an article: From Dhaka to Normal, alum credits the people he’s met for making him feel at home.
He was appointed as Faculty/Staff advisor for the Bangladesh Student Association (BSA), an RSO.
He was recently elected as a Member-at-Large on the board of Queer Coalition.
Kelly Clemens (she/her) had a paper accepted: Clemens, K. S., Matkovic, J., Odelson, A., Strain, A.,& Wesselmann E. D. (2025). Psychosocial influences on pain in transgender individuals. Frontiers in Pain Research, 6:1546526
Dan Taube (he/him) was interviewed to discuss cybersecurity and why it is necessary.
He presented "Becoming a Cybersecurity ACE" to the University Club.
February 16, 2025, marked his 16th year working full-time at ISU!
Lawrence Lair (they/he) was awarded the Staff Civic Engagement Award.
Ashley Weitzel (she/they) was promoted from a Financial Aid Representative to a Financial Aid Advisor and recently married their non-binary spouse after 11 years of dating.
Alison Bailey presented “The Weighty Conversation: How White Supremacy Damages White People,” the fourth chapter from her book The Weight of Whiteness published in 2021 at the Leadership for Liberation pop-up library.
Edcel Cintron-Gonzales (he/they) was featured at a workshop at Milner Library in celebration of National Poetry Month.
He was a finalist at the annual Image of Research Competition.
Milner Library hit an exciting milestone with the publication of English Studies doctoral student Audrey T. Heffers’s (she/they) article “Imaginary Margins: Disability Poetics & Reinventing the Page” in New Writing, the 100th article accepted and published under open access agreements negotiated by Milner Library.
Amy Hurd was inducted into Illinois State University’s Million Dollar Club. The Million Dollar Club was established in 1990 by President Thomas Wallace and Provost David Strand “to recognize grant/contract productivity by members of the ISU community.”
Amanda Martin (she/her) was awarded the 2025 Impact Award and Administrative/ Professional Emerging Leader Award.
She co-authored “Conflicted Help-Seeking: Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissistic Traits in College Students” published in the Journal of College Student Mental Health.
Megan Patterson (she/her) highlighted her involvement in internship funding grants, including the Launch Grant, which helps ensure that all students get the opportunity to improve their professional skills and networks through internship experiences.
Dr. Helen Plevka-Jones (she/her) was awarded the Sorenson Dissertation Award.
Dr. Mike Hendricks (he/him) received $1,500 from the Office of Student Research’s Faculty-mentored Independent Research Experiences (FIREBird) Grant.
He was awarded the Impact Award and the Center for Civic Engagement's Faculty Award.
He participated in a virtual roundtable on Governance and Violence in Latin American Migration.
He published two articles in the Journal of Underrepresented and Minority Progress’s Special Issue on “Hispanics in Higher Education.”
He received the College of Arts and Sciences Kenneth A. and Mary Ann Shaw Teaching Fellowship.
Melissa Calvillo (she/her), Mennonite College of Nursing, won the BirdFEEDER research grant for her article “Creation of a Grounded Theory of Prioritization Among School Nurses.”
She graduated spring 2025 from ISU with her Ph.D. in nursing.
Kerrigan Link ’23 enrolled in the Graduate School at Illinois State.
Ela Przybyło (she/they) published Ungendering Menstruation.
Ruth Burke (she/they) is featured in the Spring 2025 Redbird Scholar cover article titled "Ag art: Ruth Burke uses oxen team to create pollinator-friendly earthworks".
Eric Willey received promotion to full professor, effective July 1, 2025.
Sydney Hinton (she/her) was hired as the Office Support Specialist at the Center Integrated Professional Development.
When she is not at work, she is a writer and a dog mom of 2 (Perry and Scooby) with her partner, Eric.
Kylie Maurer completed her birth doula training with Carriage House Birth, made possible by the YWCA McLean County WINGS Award. Her focus is on providing trauma-informed support to the queer+ community and survivors of sexual violence in Central Illinois.
Jimmy Chrismon's book Trauma-Informed Practices in 9-12 Theatre Education is set for release on June 11 with Routledge. He wrote this with his husband who is a mental health clinician to provide strategies for high school theatre teachers to take care of their students, themselves, and their audiences with tailored practices in trauma-informed work.
Amy McNamara (she/her) performed with several other School of Music faculty in a recital featuring Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale.
She also performed as a flugelhorn soloist with the Athena Brass Band (an all woman group) at the International Women’s Brass Conference.