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Contact Information

Chicago Semester
11 E. Adams St., Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60603
312.922.3243
312.922.3885 Fax

Staff Contact and Biographical Information

Name Position Ext.
Diana Anton
 Seminar Instructor  
Cynthia Bowman
 Practicum Group Leader  
Rebecca Burwell
 Faculty & Practicum Group Coordinator 14
Loren Crawford
 Seminar Instructor  
Tim Douma
 Practicum Group Leader  
Jeremy Dunn
 Web Site Editor  
Nancy Triezenberg Fox
 Social Work Coordinator  
David Frenchak
 Seminar Instructor  
Lisa Hensey
 Student Teaching Program Coordinator  
Andrea Kirksey
 Practicum Group Leader  
Carole E. Kolconay
 Student Teaching Placement Coordinator  
Leslie Lehner
 Internship/Alumni Associate 18
Michelle McClure
 Coordinator of Nursing Education  
Carol Ann McGibbon
 Practicum Group Leader
Silvia Navarro
 Registrar & Operations Manager 10
John Neafsey
 Seminar Instructor  
Erik Nussbaum
 Seminar Instructor  
Susan Rans
 Practicum Group Leader  
Perry Recker
 Program Librarian 19
Carla Schemper
 Social Work Practicum Supervisor  
Cynthia Stewart
 Seminar Instructor, Practicum Group Leader & Internship Assistant 20
Clinton Stockwell
 Executive Director & Seminar Instructor 16
Karen Dilsaver Stockwell
 Seminar Instructor  
Annie Thompson
 Coordinator of Recruitment & Student Services 11
Judi Zink
 Practicum Group Leader

 

Diana Anton

B.A., Western Michigan University; M.A., University of New Mexico.

As a Chicago native I grew up dancing in the living room with my Greek family.  Learning Greek and English simultaneously may have spawned my interest in culture and art and fueled my interest in travel which has taken me to five continents.

As a dancer and dance teacher for many years I have explored my interest in culture through choreography creating numerous dances and fine arts festivals for Chicago Public school students. I love the arts and have firsthand experience in seeing how student participation can change student attitudes about learning. I have raised an artist who is marrying an artist on August 31 on the beach at Cape Hatteras N.C! My life is filled with a wonderful circle of friends many of whom are involved in the arts and keeps me busy attending their openings, readings and concerts!

My work as an educator has primarily been in the Cabrini Green neighborhood. Working in and watching this neighborhood gentrify is akin to living in a sociological study. Starting my career as an artist and working in a neighborhood in transition has turned me towards grass roots activism where I work with students to develop a love of reading and help them explore their artistic talents by bringing in arts classes and creating performing experiences.

I enjoy gardening, kayaking, hiking in the southwest, dinner with friends at any out of the way restaurants in the city and just being near our great Lake Michigan.
I have recently taken up the harp and look forward to joining a "harp circle" as well as joining the Chicago Semester circle of friends!

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Cynthia Bowman

B.A., University of Illinois; M.A., North Park University.

I am a native of Chicago's Bronzeville community although most of my formative years were spent as an "Air Force brat" living in Germany, Paris, California and Texas. I love art, travel and experiencing new cultures and foods.

I spent many years in the corporate arena before starting Bowman and Associates, a consulting company that specializes in tax preparation, financial literacy and entrepreneurial consulting. Recently, I worked as the Director of Community and Economic Empowerment for a corporation with a $14mm plus annual operating budget, six subsidiaries, and over 110 employees. In addition to acting as Practicum Leader at CS, I consult and teach graduate and seminary classes on Faith-Based Community Development. I am also a published author and recently contributed to "The Prophetic Call", which investigates the impact of church, society, and the ecology on our communities.

I earned a Master's in Community Development from North Park University, a Bachelor's in Accounting, Management and Entrepreneurship, from the U. of Illinois, and I'm an alumnus of Harvard University's Summer Leadership Institute.

I am passionate about social justice issues and the possibility of empowering individuals and communities to create a better world.

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Rebecca Burwell

Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago.

Born and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, I've lived on both the East and West coasts and found a happy medium in Chicago, residing in the city for over ten years. I'm a sociologist by training, but still think of myself as a learner, nascent teacher and activist, and avid observer of the human community. I love to read, jog, and travel, and have spent time studying and volunteering in Latin America (Cuba, Guatemala, and Haiti).

I did my dissertation in Cuba on the negotiation of motherhood, wage-earning, and civic engagement in the Cuban context. I also spent several years prior to coming to CS studying the impact of Latino churches on Chicago communities, through the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the University of Notre Dame.

When I'm not teaching at CS or enjoying conversations with students and staff there, you can find me volunteering with the Dorothy Stang Popular Education Adult High School or dancing with a group of liturgical dancers at St. Gertrude's parish. I count myself extraordinarily blessed with a great group of friends, a faith community I love, and a close family. I am also very lucky to be married to Chirag Mehta, who works for the Service Employees International Union and is a great cook! We live in a two-flat co-op with some friends on Chicago's northwest side.

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Loren Crawford

B.S., Northwestern University; M.A., Northwestern University.

One of the first things anyone learns about me is that I am from Kentucky, so we’ll just go ahead and get that out of the way. I am a playwright, an arts educator, a Kundalini yoga instructor and I have one full length documentary to my credit, created with Stephan Mazurek: Under Kentucky Skies: 25 years of the Kentucky Music Festival. My stage plays include Prelude: The Life and Work of Katherine Mansfield, Missing Memaw, Dye Frye & Wicked John and the Devil published by New Plays, Inc., The People Could Fly, and The Unembarrassed Mind with Stephan Mazurek. I am currently collaborating with Mr. Mazurek and Jon Langford on a new Walkabout Theater piece, Goldbrick which will premier in early 2009.

I have my B.S. in Theater from Northwestern University, am a certified insructor of Kundalini Yoga and YogaEd, and I have completed my coursework for a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies at Northwestern. I went back to school later in life because, well, I like taking classes, and because as a writer I needed more tools in my toolbox. Northwestern has certainly given me that. More than that, I have developed a greater appreciation for the history of Chicago-what a dynamic place this is!

I tell my elementary and high school students that even though being an adult is far more complicated and demanding than one can imagine until you’re in the thick of it, it does come with one priceless perk- you are free to learn whatever it is you wish to learn. No one can force you to take an economics class.  That said, my own education has been far-ranging and on-going. I consider myself to be a life-long student (which is probably why I haven’t yet turned in my Master’s thesis) and for me, teaching is the best way of truly learning something.  So I teach a lot.

I teach high school students how to write plays because it gives me new perspectives on my own work. I teach yoga because I strive to embody the teachings, to move from becoming into being. I am the Faith Education Coordinator for Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ because I struggle daily with questions of faith. I teach my daughter everyday, almost as much as she teaches me, because being a parent is the greatest self-educational journey anyone can take. And now I have the great pleasure of teaching at Chicago Semester. I have the opportunity to share with others what gives me joy- the arts and humanities.

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Tim Douma

D. Min., Fuller Theological Seminary.

"You can’t go home again," may be accurate regarding relationships accompanied by some places, but it’s not true when it comes to always being energized by the city of Chicago! My wife and I are both Chicago natives. Her heritage includes having a grandpa who, with horse and wagon, laid the base for the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. That was the foothold for the "Dutch Mafia" in the garbage business. My own roots recall exploring all kinds of neighborhoods with my father and his friend who hauled the Stockyards and old Comiskey. We had box seats for any event at the Amphitheater and White Sox games. As a kid, many Thursday nights were spent at the old Helping Hand Mission. My parents were pioneers in urban cross-cultural ministry, and we lived it in the ‘50’s.

Favorite jobs include being a professional cowboy in Montana and teaching in Guam. I also lead a downtown congregation for Loop Christian Ministries. In that connection, we helped launch the Daystar School and the Chicago Urban Initiative. The Chicago Kuyper Club is also an outgrowth of that endeavor.

As to education, I dare wager a dinner out that I am the only graduate of Manhattan Christian living in Chicago. I also studied at the University of Guam and Calvin College, from which I graduated with a BA in philosophy. For some reason, the employment agency was not impressed that I had a knowledge of classical Greek. I’m a Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education alum and have an M.Div from Calvin Seminary. I also have a D.Min from Fuller Theological Seminary for my work that included Cleaning out the closet before it fills with skeletons: An invitation to conversation about homosexuality and the church.

We have four children, one of whom is currently a shrimp farmer, one a consultant and community development worker, one a home-maker/student and one who is a student in missions who spends an inordinate amount of time overseas.

Interests include biking, piano, hiking, opera, compiling an expanding list of ethnic bakeries and out of the way eateries, theater, exploring new neighborhoods, symphony, travel, sculpting, and our grandson.

Having finally come through my mid-life crisis, I have come to own the fact that I really do want to save the world, but I think I’m approaching this task and engaging this vision from a more healthy, biblical and Reformed perspective which can be described as somewhere between learning how to spell weltanschauung and having Gereformeerde voelhoerens.

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Jeremy Dunn

B.A., Bethany College (Lindsborg, KS); MLIS, University of Ill.

As the Web editor for Chicago Semester, I am more of a virtual staff member as I spend my time keeping the organization's web presence up to snuff. And, you'll see me at the table once a semester at those great dinners at the Parthenon in Greektown.

I first came to the Windy City as a college student from Kansas to study in an urban studies program very similar to Chicago Semester. I enrolled in a 3-week program to study peace and justice issues in the urban environment and now have been a Chicago resident for the better part of a decade. I find life in the city energizing as well as a place to practice my full-time vocation as a high school teacher/librarian.

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Nancy Triezenberg Fox

B.A., Calvin College; M.S.W., University of Michigan School of Social Work.

I grew up in South Holland, Ill., in a family of six girls. I graduated from Calvin College with a degree in Sociology and spent one semester of my Senior year on a wonderful program called the Chicago Metropolitan Center (now Chicago Semester). From there I moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where I attended the University of Michigan and received a Masters in Social Work degree with a concentration in Community Organization.

After a two month trip to Europe, I returned to Chicago and got my first job as a Community Organizer. While working here, I met a very interesting man, Gary Fox, who was a reporter for the local newspaper. We got married two years later and, so far, are living happily ever after. I also worked for several years at a Fair Housing organization where I ran a testing program to determine if local real estate agents were discriminating (they very often were).

My first son, Charles, was born in 1986; my second, Andrew in 1989. I received a job offer from the Chicago Metropolitan Center in 1991 and have worked here ever since as the Social Work Coordinator.

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David Frenchak

B.A., Toccoa Falls College; M.Div., Bethel Theological Seminary; D. Min.; Andover Newton.

Cities fascinate me. I have lived in cities all my life, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New York, Minneapolis, Boston and Chicago and I have visited cities all over the world, the most recent Sao Paulo, Brazil. Chicago is now my home and I love this city. I am, by nature and personality, a dreamer or a visionary type person who prefers to see the possibilities of life rather the limitations of life.

I serve as the President of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE). This is a program very much like Chicago Semester. We bring seminary students into Chicago for a semester that includes an internship and some intensive courses that focus on understanding the city and looking at the city through a set of theological lenses.

Psychology is my professional discipline and I have a small private practice where I enjoy doing dream analysis from the perspective of analytical psychology. I have also been a youth director and I have been a pastor of several churches. Leadership development is the focus of my teaching and I use personality styles and preferences to emphasize differences in how we all live and lead. I teach two courses at North Park University, one in ethics and another in human resource development.

I love the idea of restoration. I have an old 18th century house that I have restored from top to bottom, inside and outside, and I have filled that house with antique furniture which I have restored. The concept of restoration nurtures hope as I see the hidden beauty revealed.

This is what we do in the values and vocation course in Chicago semester-lift up the beauty that is in each of us in a way that frees us from our deepest fear.

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Lisa Hensey

B.S., Illinois State; M.A. & Ph.D., University of Iowa.

I joined Chicago Semester in August of 2005, the same month we moved to Chicago. I was raised in a small central Illinois town and I am a bit surprised to discover that I enjoy city living!

I have been an educator since 1983 when I graduated from Illinois State University. After teaching junior high mathematics for 6 years, I returned to college as a full-time student. I graduated from the University of Iowa with my MA in 1990 and my PhD in 1996. From 1993 - 2000 I taught at a small Christian college in eastern Iowa.

In 2000 my husband and I, along with our two children, went to Tanzania as ELCA missionaries. We worked at Tumaini University, which was the first private university in Tanzania. My job at Tumaini was to design and launch a bachelors degree for secondary school mathematics teachers. We loved our work and friends in Tanzania, but wanted to be closer to our families.

After living abroad, I am happy to have settled in a city that is a microcosm of the world! I have worked with student teachers off and on since 1989 and I thoroughly enjoy my position as the Chicago Semester Student Teaching Program Coordinator. I am learning about social justice issues in education first-hand! Our student teachers are dedicated educators who are interested in urban education and who want to make a positive difference in their students’ lives.

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Andrea Kirksey

I was born and raised here in Chicago in the Humbolt Park area. People often ask if I am a Sox or Cubs fan, and I say both which does not really work since you have to choose one or the other, but I am a bit of a trouble maker. I like to leave people guessing. I have five siblings all living in or around the Chicagoland area.

I am a freelance photographer and work with several non-profit organizations in the Chicagoland area. I also do weddings, events, and portraits. Photography was a hobby that has blossomed into a small business and for that I am thankful. I also do photo-journalism projects. This summer I went to Greece to photograph and tell the stories of young women who are trapped in prostitution trafficking. I was also a part of a project that took eight high school students to New Orleans. I also travel and speak at a number of events and conferences throughout the year.

HOBBIES: Photography, eating ice cream, reading, seeing just how far I can go with the "warning low gas" light blinking, pushing my car because I went just a little too far.

Some reading favorites: Cry the Beloved Country, The Poisonwood Bible, Bird by bird, God's Politics, Nickel and Dimed, When I Was Puerto Rican, to name just a few. I love to read so the list can go on for days.

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Carole E. Kolconay

B.A., Mundelein College; C.A.S., National-Louis University; M.A., Northeastern Illinois University.

It has been my pleasure to supervise student teachers during their internship in Chicago since 2002. I have been involved in placing students according to their certification requirements in Chicago Public Schools since the fall of 2005.

My academic career includes a B.A. in Economics from Mundelein College, an M.A. in English from Northeastern Illinois University and a C.A.S. in Technology in the Classroom from National-Louis University.

My professional career includes forty-one years of experience in the Chicago Public Schools where I taught in grades pre-kindergarten to eight and served as a mentor teacher to many student and novice teachers. The last seven years of my career were spent as a lead teacher, administrator, and budget manager.

These experiences have prepared me to supervise and seek meaningful placements and internships for Chicago Semester students. They have also equipped me to address other issues inherent to urban education including working with diverse student populations, examining the connection between language and culture, and the inequalities in funding education to name a few. Having been born and raised in Chicago, I feel I have a special empathy for the challenges as well as the opportunities intrinsic to this very special city.

Since dealing with students has always been the focus of my life, I continue to enjoy working with our student teachers at Chicago Semester and never cease to be impressed by their enthusiasm, preparedness, and, above all, their Christian values.

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Leslie Lehner

I joined Chicago Semester in December of 2004 as Internship/Alumni Assistant. Working with Judi Zink, Internship Coordinator, to help students discern their career interests and match those interests with an appropriate internship site has been lots of fun. The sites are pleased to have such outstanding students as interns and I've enjoyed helping to facilitate these opportunities and put everyone in a win-win situation.

In my previous professional life, I worked with neurologically impaired adults as a Speech Language Pathologist in a variety of settings. I provided therapy, supervised graduate students, and did research. It's interesting to be on the other side now, arranging for the internships and talking with sites about mentoring rather than providing the supervision myself.

I was born and raised in the Chicago area and lived in other cities during college, graduate school and my early working days. My husband and I returned to this area where we have raised our three twenty-something children. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, volunteering, reading, biking, gardening, cultural events and more.

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Michelle McClure

RN-BC, BSN, APRN-BC, MSN, CCE

The decision to pursue nursing as a career was an easy one. All my life I had been interested in being a nurse and providing care to individuals. After some bumps in the road my career path began in 1990 upon completion of my B.S.N. at Chicago State University. I later attended St Xavier University and completed the course work for the M.S.N as a Family Nurse Practitioner, in December 2001.

I have 15 years of maternal - child nursing experience and have been involved in prenatal education for the past 14 years. Currently I am practicing as a nurse educator in labor and delivery. My favorite thing about nursing is being able to teach others. I have the opportunity to enhance the knowledge of childbirth practices to help my patients as well as nurses.

I am excited about my role as Chicago Semester's Coordinator of Nursing Education. I am coordinating nursing internships and leading a professional seminar that is part of the internship experience to further prepare nurses with the knowledge, skills, and competencies essential for effective nursing practice and to integrate urban issues with their experience.

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Silvia L. Navarro

I joined the Chicago Semester team in August 2004 while attending Robert Morris College for my B.A. in Business. Working for the CS Program has been a wonderful experience! It is a very healthy, non-stressful environment where one can learn while working.

I grew up in Chicago and the city has treated me very well. One thing I love about this city is its diversity.  You really don’t have to travel outside the country to experience other cultures, languages, foods, or arts…we have them all here! I like art, music, reading, tennis, biking, cats and learning about other cultures.  I am currently working on becoming fluent in Portuguese but my goal is to one day master Italian.

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John Neafsey

B.S., Loyola University Chicago; M.P.S., Loyola; Psy.D, Rutgers University.

I was born and raised in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, and these days I live with my wife and two children in the Edgewater neighborhood not far from where I grew up, where we are active members of the St. Gertrude's Catholic Church community.

I'm a person of many interests and do a lot of different things. I'm a practicing clinical psychologist with a private practice of psychotherapy in the city. For the last several years I've also served as a clinical volunteer at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture in Rogers Park. I also teach interdisciplinary courses in the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, including a course I developed on the theology and psychology of vocation. I also recently wrote a book on vocation, A Sacred Voice is Calling: Personal Vocation and Social Conscience, in which I explore the psychology, spirituality, and ethics of vocational discernment and social responsibility in the contemporary world, especially in relation to issues of unjust poverty and war.

I've always been a lover of the unique style of blues that developed in Chicago in the 1950's, and perhaps the most authentic "Chicago" thing I've ever done is to serve as a guitarist in several Chicago blues bands when I was in my late teens and early twenties.

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Erik Nussbaum

M.M., Westminster Choir College.

Fortunately, there have been many very good teachers during my years of formal education, and several unforgettable ones.  Without them, I don't know where I would be at the moment.  Coupled with parents who love, care for, and encourage me unceasingly, enthusiastic, dedicated teachers do have the formula for enabling talent to grow.  Our youth need to experience more of that powerful combination, and find their place of excellence in the world.

The intimacy of life sustains me.  In photography, music, poetry....the arts....understanding which occurs up close, to me, makes the strongest, most lasting impression.  I am from a small town (Eureka, IL) a small college (Knox) a small graduate school (Westminster), and then I was in a huge city.....Chicago!  I arrived here because of the Chicago Children's Choir, and taught in Chicago's Public Elementary School system for 6 years.  Some days, I was the only white person I saw.  I remember many of the individual students who made the choir.  I believe the ways they opened me up and instructed me as to how life can be was equal to the influence I may have had on them in our times singing together.  Constantly, amidst all the experiences that have shaped me in professional and personal pursuits, relationships with people in the churches in which I have served confirm over and over again that God knows what it's like to be human, and in the smallest of places: the abundant and resilient heart, exists the greatest of possibility. 

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Susan Rans

I define myself as an “unreconstructed generalist”. Although my graduate work is in Religion and Literature, I write and teach about having faith in cities and faith in the diverse and gifted people who inhabit them. I am currently on the faculty of the Masters of Arts in Community Development Program (MACD) at North Park University. From 1985 to 1999, I was part of the faculty of the Urban Studies Program of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and I have also worked with student members of Catholic Schools Opposing Racism (COR), introducing them to city neighborhoods and the ways in which their neighbors combat racism and stereotypes.

I am passionate about the possibility of sustainable urban communities, places where nothing and no one is wasted, and I write regularly on sustainability issues. I am also affiliated with the Asset Based Community Development Institute and have recently authored the ABCD workbook Asset Strategies for Faith Communities.

Every moment that I can, I spend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where I ski and snowshoe until my head clears.

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Perry Recker

Born and raised in Lansing, Illinois, now a far south suburb of Chicago, but, not so terribly long ago, a small town, I was early on coaxed into a small town bias against the big city on the lake, Chicago. But at about the age most Chicago Semester students are now, I read Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs -- for a college sociology course at Trinity Christian College; then lived in Toronto, Canada for 7 years and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for another 18, before returning to the Chicago area in 1996.

I have acquired an activist streak -- which finds its most recent outlet and passion in reading and speaking about global warming, climate change and Christian Stewardship. In addition, I have volunteered as a first grade teacher’s aide in a Chicago Public School for two years, and am currently doing some volunteer and consulting work with the Planning Department of the City of Blue Island, where I live. I am very fortunate to be married to a great vegetarian cook and certified nurse-midwife, Barbara, and together we are the proud parents of a 27 year old rising star in the organic farming and community gardening industry, Julie Pavuk.

My educational experience, perhaps more than anything else has significantly altered my view of the world as well. Shaped Neo-Calvinist philosophy and theology, I have absorbed a love of reading and learning about many different topics and issues, often at the same time, so that what, to most people, might appear to a superficial eclecticism. But for me, my wide spread interests, reading, and a curiosity about daily life and experience, is a fun way of filling in gaps in my knowledge and expanding the boundaries of my Christian world and life view. It also goes well (at least most of the time, I think) with my professional interest in library organization and information management. Working in the Printers Row Library is a wonderful way for me to meet new people with fresh ideas and share information about good books and valuable resources for developing a Christian world and life view in many areas of life.

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Cynthia Stewart

I began my career as an Architectural Engineer/Construction Manager, where I worked for fourteen years designing and managing multi-million dollar projects throughout Chicago, other states and countries. I left this career to work fully in the retreat business and to continue her education.

My husband, Gerald, and I are the co-founders, along with another business partner of The Perfect Peace, LLC. We conduct retreats, workshops, career development training and other speaking engagements for churches, organizations, elementary schools, high schools, colleges and other avenues throughout the City of Chicago and Illinois. I am a member of The Faith Community of St. Sabina, where I am an active leader in the church.

I have a heart to reach the youth and young adults of today’s societies and to be an example that through education you can make it!

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Clinton Stockwell - Resume | Articles

B.A., Louisiana College; M.L.A., University of Chicago; D.Min., Chicago Theological Seminary; Ph.D., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; M.A., M.U.P.P., and Ph.D., University of Ill. - Chicago.

Hello, I am the Executive Director of the Chicago Semester program. In addition to the routine duties that go along with administering a large program, I also teach the Metropolitan Seminar, an introduction to the city that explores the tensions inherent in urban society, especially between contemporary issues such as globalization and cultural diversity. I am also the resident program librarian. I am a life long student of the city, and I consider myself to be a "streetwise academic" with earned graduate level studies that include M.A; MUPP and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago; and the MLA (Master of Liberal Arts) degree from the University of Chicago.

I have had opportunities to have several essays published on such themes as globalization, community development, and an assessment of the Chicago Metropolis 2020 plan for the metropolitan area, a major commercial plan on the city's future. An essay on the "Church and Justice in Crisis" is forthcoming from a book published by the Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing company. I am a member of several local not for profit organizations including Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council; the City Club of Chicago; the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago and I am on the editorial board of Pragmatics: The Journal of Community-Based Learning. I also participate in several national/international organizations including the International Association for the Promotion of Christians in Higher Education IAPCHE) and the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE). Karen Stockwell (spouse) and I are both liturgists in the faith congregation where we participate.

In my "spare time," I am an adjunct professor in North Park University's Master of Arts in Community Development program, and I teach a course, "Globalization and the City" for seminarians in the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) program. The things I do "for fun" include doing tours on the history of Chicago, eating at restaurants that represent the cultural diversity of the city, and playing in acoustic guitar classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I have played in numerous ensemble groups at the Old Town School including the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band. Some of my classes have explored the music of Woody Guthrie and songs from Ireland. An urban gardener in two cities, Karen and I own and love an 1840s vintage red-brick miner's cottage in historic Galena, Illinois, our getaway place when we need a change of scenery.


Karen Dilsaver Stockwell

B.A., Western Illinois University; M.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Teaching the Arts in the City seminar for five years was a tremendous learning experience, but I also have a full time job at an educational publisher in the suburbs. My life got a little too full! So I changed roles and became the researcher and resource person for the class. I’m the one who investigates what our event options are each semester. I present a very long list of incredible choices to the arts instructors who narrow it down to the final schedule. Then, I email event information to students and faculty each week so they can learn more about what they will experience.

A Chicago native, I’ve had the opportunity to engage many art forms. With two degrees in visual art, I’ve shown my drawings at local art shows and galleries, written interviews with artists and helped them write their statements for exhibits. In 1997 I began writing poetry and reading at open mics. I self-published a chapbook, Possibilities. I was featured at the Green Mill, Chicago Cultural Center, and Around the Coyote Arts Festival. As a semi-finalist in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Competition, I found that having her in the front row was both terrifying and inspiring! As half of Moon Lodge, a spoken word/musical duet with Shelley Miller, I co-wrote "Every Day Shine," a song featured on the "Hope: Next Two Exits" CD, which benefited an educational fund for children of 9/11 victims. I’ve studied guitar, voice and djembe drum at the Old Town School of Folk Music, written songs, and performed. More recently, I wrote an unpublished novel, In the Heart of Longing.

Lately, I’ve been making my way back to visual art by working in collage. I use Japanese and printed papers, as well as thread and fabric, to create pins, pendants, vases and candleholders. I also make jewelry and use fair trade beads from Uganda and Afghanistan. You can visit my online shop at www.stockwellcottage.com. I do much of my creative work at our second home in Galena, Illinois.

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Annie Thompson

B.A., Central College.

Growing up in Boone, Iowa, I knew I was destined for the big city. Pella, Iowa wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I left home, but Central College treated me well for 4 years as I worked toward my B.A. in Communication Studies. My time there, surprisingly, gave me a taste of city life with a semester in Spain and then in Chicago with Chicago Semester.

During my time in the Windy City I knew it was right where I wanted to be after graduation. So I packed my bags and before I knew it I had landed my first job in Chicago right where I started--Chicago Semester. When I'm not having fun at CS, I enjoy going to concerts, traveling, eating out, and exploring Chicago.

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Judi Zink

B.A., Bowling Green State University; M.A., Northeastern Illinois University.

There’s just something about students that I love. I’ve spent most of my career working alongside undergrad and graduate students. It must be that they keep me young. Or that most of them are eager to learn and ready to jump into new experiences. Or that they’re on the cusp of discovering how they want their lives to make a difference in the world.

I’m a practicum group leader, which gives me the chance to sit knee-to-knee with students every week as they experience the city and take first steps into their post-college future. I’m also a full-time therapist at a faith-based counseling practice on the north side of the city, after spending 11 years at a wonderful undergrad internship program in Chicago.

I grew up in the Cleveland area, but became a Chicago transplant after college. Writing, biking and any kind of travel are favorite avocations. I reached my goal of getting to all 50 states before my 50th birthday, and am about halfway to traveling to all the Canadian provinces and territories.

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