Alumni Spotlight
By Taylor Ann Mazique, GWS Student Public Outreach Employee Dionne Lipscomb, a Gender and Women’s Studies 2019 GWS alumni, says that she found a home inside of the GWS department. Dionne first came to the University of Illinois as a transfer student majoring in English but found herself wanting to...
Jaya graduated in 2009 with a degree in gender and women’s studies and went on to earn an M.A. in public policy and women’s studies at George Washington University. When she returned to Champaign-Urbana in 2013, she underwent the extensive training required to volunteer at Rape Advocacy,...
Aubree Henderson is a therapist-in-training turned nonprofit professional based in Brooklyn, New York. A Champaign-Urbana native, Aubree earned a Bachelor’s degree in Gender & Women’s Studies and Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. She went on to earn her M.Ed...
Elizabeth Labedz never thought sports were for her until she began to play fast pitch softball at the age of ten. She found that playing sports with other girls helped her grow physically, emotionally, and mentally. When Labedz became interested in girls’ studies while earning her degree in...
Dr. Garner, who received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies with a graduate minor in Gender and Women's Studies, is the first Executive Director of the Art Film Foundation (AFF). She will lead and oversee AFF's fundraising, organizational management, and community relations.
Aashika Anantharaman majored in Psychology and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois of Urbana Champaign. She has been involved in sexual assault prevention education on campus, as a facilitator of the First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education program and the sexual assault...
Emily DiFilippo has completed the PhD in Spanish Literatures & Cultures with a GWS minor, specializing in representations of disability in contemporary Spain. Next year she will serve as Assistant Professor of Spanish at Loras College in Dubuque, IA.
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek is an MD/PhD candidate in the Institute of Communications Research and the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their major focus of study is in the social and cultural studies of science, medicine, and technology, with minors in Gender...
S. Moon Cassinelli is completing a dissertation in the Department of English and has graduate minors in American Indian Studies and Gender and Women's Studies. His research uses queer and feminist theories to analyze the formation of families within contemporary Korean American narratives.
As a junior transfer student, Miranda has done her best to make the most out of her time at the University of Illinois. She is an active member of the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, and was the chapter's Relay for Life team captain this year. She is graduating with a degree in...
Kate has graduated with a degree in Integrative Biology and a Gender and Women's Studies minor. She is super thankful for all of the support of the GWS staff and TAs throughout her undergraduate career and really enjoyed her first internship at McKinley Health Center's Sexual Health Unit thanks to...
