Marc Alexander '00

Marc Alexander is the Director of Development & Membership at the YMCA of the University of Illinois, an organization focused on leadership development in areas of social justice, environmental protection, interfaith cooperation and global engagement. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2004 with a BA in Political Science and Minor in History. At Uni Marc was active in literally every music group offered, Theater, Soccer, Irish Club and Dance Team by virtue of jumping in the yearbook picture as it was being taken. In his spare time he continues to take an active interest in music and agonizes far too much over perhaps the two worst NCAA football programs in the nation.

 

Micah Berman ‘08

Micah Berman manages more than $100M each year to seed and scale charitable technical and humanitarian innovation at Google.org. After earning a BA in Psychology at Pomona College, he began his career at Google as an engineering analyst fighting web search abuse. Micah is based in San Francisco, has hiked the soles off of more than one pair of boots, and still occasionally wears his Uni High Student Council T-shirt.

 

Isaac Chambers ‘09

Isaac Chambers is a Business Analyst with Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice. He has also launched two ventures: a web development business and a mobile payments app. Mr. Chambers graduated summa cum laude from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems & Operations Management, and Marketing.

 

Jeffrey Helfrich ‘99

Jeff Helfrich is a Portfolio Manager at Penn Davis McFarland, Inc.  He joined the firm from Perot Investments, the family office of the Perot family in Dallas. Mr. Helfrich began his investment career as an analyst at Janus Capital Group.  He sits on the advisory board of Hampton Preparatory, a high-performing charter school in Southwest Dallas.  Mr. Helfrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a BA in Economics and is a CFA charterholder.

 

Jeremy Hobson ‘99

Jeremy Hobson currently hosts The Hobcast and is the former co-host of the nationally syndicated public radio show Here & Now on WBUR.  Before joining Here & Now, he hosted the Marketplace Morning Report, a daily business news program with an audience of more than six million.  Prior to taking the anchor chair, he served as a reporter for Marketplace Morning Report and various other public radio programs.  He also spent years as a producer for NPR’s All Things Considered, Day to Day and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!  He has a BS in Journalism from Boston University.

 

Jim Hurst ‘96

Jim Hurst is a Champaign lifer who graduated summa cum laude from Illinois in 2000 with his BA in Economics.  He is currently the Director of Engineering IT Shared Services, heading up an organization of 75 IT professionals serving the diverse technology needs of one of the top Engineering schools in the world, right here at the University of Illinois.  He has practiced IT for nearly 20 years, including brief stints in social service and for-profit industry before returning to the University in 2003.  Perks of his current job include a view of Uni High directly across the street from his office in the Siebel Center for Computer Science.

 

Christopher Hutchens '98

Chris Hutchens attended UIUC, completing a Bachelors and Masters of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science with a focus on Algorithms and Optimization.  He uses his powers to leave everything better than he found it. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.

 

Asad Husain ‘97

Asad Husain is an Executive Director of Global Acquisitions and Corporate Development at The Interpublic Group (IPG). He executes global acquisitions, restructurings and deal integrations for media agencies across the marketing services spectrum. He is also actively involved in the company's corporate venture capital investments. Mr. Husain serves as a mentor to entrepreneurs selected into the various global R/GA Accelerator programs. Prior to IPG, Mr. Husain was vice president in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, where he executed M&A, debt and equity transactions in the global media and communications sectors. He has lived and worked in the US, India and Malaysia. Mr. Husain graduated from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

Julie King ‘87

Julie King is an intellectual property and business attorney practicing nationally and based in Champaign. She graduated from UIUC 1991 with a bachelor's degree in English, UIS in 2014 with a master's degree in computer science, and the University of Illinois College of Law in 1999. She is also a part-owner of the Women's Entrepreneurial Network and the Brilliantosity networking group. She still has all her old madrigals music from Mr. Murphy and mimeographed outlines from Mr. Butler's history classes.

 

Elisabeth Larson ‘14

Elisabeth Larson is a registered nurse in Chicago who is pursuing her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Nurse-Midwifery. She graduated with honors from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign with a Bachelor of Science in Community Health and from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Masters in Nursing Science. While at Uni, Elisabeth co-founded Spectrum, an LGBTQ organization with a focus on reproductive rights and education. Today, she volunteers by teaching content-focused, comprehensive sexual health education for Uni High's health class and as an Our Whole Lives educator. 

 

Sam LeRoy ‘14

Sam LeRoy ('14) lives in Washington, D.C., where he works as a management consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice. Sam earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Gies College of Business and his master's from the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. At Uni, Sam played basketball, sang with the Madrigals, and performed in many plays and musicals.

 

Chris Payne ‘71

Chris Payne has remained actively connected with Uni since graduation. She has organized/hosted reunions every 5 years and has stayed connected with many alums from the 50s through the 80s worldwide.  She has served on Uni's Advancement Committee for over 8 years.. As part of this participation, she chaired or co-chaired the Uni Gala twice. As part of the Advancement Committee's work, she is currently chair of the Annual Fund. She volunteers her time to benefit the Advancement Department by developing the Guidelines for Class Agents, by helping with reunion and event planning and updating the Alumni Class List.

 

Nick Phillips '21

Bio coming soon

 

Lis Pollock ‘99

Lis. Pollock is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Central District of Illinois, based in Urbana.  She graduated with honors from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 2003, and with honors from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2006.  In addition to her work as an attorney, Ms. Pollock is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the U of I and coaches the Trial Team.  She also served as Uni’s head volleyball coach from 2009 through 2014.

 

Phil Rowell '00

Bio coming soon,

 

Philippa Soskin ‘99

Philippa Soskin is an emergency medicine physician at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C. She also serves as the program director for the Health Policy Fellowship and Social Medicine & Health Equity Track. In her spare time Philippa loves to travel, take in as much theater as possible, and reunite with her Uni friends! 

 

Adele Suslick (Retired Teacher)

Adele Suslick taught English at Uni for 35 years.  Her senior debates were a rite of passage for many Uni graduates.  Suslick won the Ella Leppert Award for an Outstanding Teacher twice, in 1982 and 1993, as well as the alumni-bestowed Four Square Award for Innovative Teaching and the Makino Teaching Excellence Award in 2011.  She received her MA in English Literature and Pedagogy from Stanford University.  She graduated from UCLA with a BA in English Literature.  She also graduated from Pasadena City College as Valedictorian with an AA in English Literature.

 

Adam Tiouririne ‘09

Adam Tiouririne advises organizations on crisis management and strategic communication; coaches business leaders for high-stakes public engagements; and researches language, leadership, and the media at Logos Consulting Group. He earned a BS in Economics summa cum laude from the New York University Stern School of Business, and is based in Chicago.

 

Derek Wade '96

Derek Wade serves as the Database Administrator for FASS, a Champaign-based non-profit association management firm. He attended Washington University in St. Louis.