What Does Civic Engagement Look Like?
Supper & Conversation
Nineteenth Century ClubOak Park, Illinois, USAJune Atkinson Silver, the immediate past president of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, is a life-long lover of literature, the arts, and the theatre, holding season tickets to more than several theaters. Born in Egypt of British parents and educated in British schools, she was one of the first admitted in the 1970s to the innovative Weekend College of Mundelein College of Loyola University. She is interested in “The Westerners”—the people and frontier history of the settling of the American West. She does book reviews, dramatic readings, and one-woman shows on such personages as Mrs. Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Lily Langtry, and tonight Jane Addams. She has three adult children and seven grandchildren. M. Karen Baldwin, a lifelong resident of Oak Park, believes it a moral imperative to give back to the community. She seeks ways to combine her skills, experience, and personal and family interests with important community goals. Her efforts over many years since graduating DePauw University are reflected in ten volunteer projects, commissions, and committees where she has served or now serves in different leadership capacities. Two have been on the Community Chest Allocations Committee and chair of the Citizens Involvement Committee. Two are now on the Commission on Community Relations and Eisenhower Expansion Committee. She is a former editor and current freelancer and enjoys playing the cello with the symphony orchestra. She is active at her children’s school. Her record of volunteerism models her belief in the importance of giving back to the community. Edward Bergstraesser is the immediate past pastor for 20 years of First United Church of Oak Park. Now he calls himself a post minister in a post-modern age. He serves as chair of Lifelink Corporation, a 107-year-old nonprofit charitable health and human service organization, related to the United Church of Christ and providing a range of services to children, families, and the aging. His board leadership presently includes Advocate Health Care and, during the 90’s, service as president of Community Renewal Society. Jim Boushay, president of Resources Unlimited Foundation, a nonprofit grassroots social justice think tank, creates, organizes, and guides leadership affirmation projects through the mechanisms of advocacy and policy development. He has 35 years organizing, training, teaching, and publishing in education, leadership, and social justice. He serves on the board of Regional Exchange Congress, the policy committee of National Coalition for LGBT Health, and the education and advocacy committee of National Association on HIV Over Fifty. He is a member of Community Renewal Society Interfaith Network of Religious Leaders and the Coalition to Protect Public Housing. With a combined six offspring now in college, he and partner Rickey Sain have their parental hands full and their bank accounts empty. Bonny Bumiller just returned from visiting the legislature in Springfield where she advocates, there and elsewhere, for improved services and attitudes of care in mental health. An ardent believer in persistent letter-writing campaigns, she can be found also at political and social justice rallys with public health lobbyists, dramatizing the need for increased mental health funding. She continues to share her advocacy knowledge with, and to learn from, the leadership and advocacy methods of the National Association of Mental Health. John Cesario lives in Aurora with his cherished family--wife Linda and sons Robert and David. He is an attorney with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Illinois Supreme Court. The commission is an agency of the court that investigates and prosecutes allegations of professional misconduct by attorneys licensed to practice law in Illinois. John pursues investigations and manages receiverships involving attorneys who have abandoned their practices. He is a voracious reader, and he also enjoys gardening and exercising when he finds time. Ann Christophersen is co-owner of Women & Children First, an independent feminist bookstore specializing in books by and about women and children's books for all ages. She has been active in local politics and culture for over 20 years, both through the work of the store and by serving on the boards of the Crossroads Fund, the Gerber/Hart Library, Impact, and the Mayor's Committee on Gay & Lesbian Issues during the Harold Washington administration. She has also worked on several political campaigns. She has been a director of the American Booksellers Association for four years, two as vice president, and last week was elected to serve as president of the association for a two-year term. Jacques Conway has been committed to community policing for the 18 years he has served as Oak Park police officer, with a present rank as sergeant. His now-ending three-year assignment as police counselor at Oak Park River Forest High School has allowed him to see vital connections between that work and his ministerial responsibilities. He is an ordained elder of the United Methodist tradition, serving as pastor and preacher at Greater Englewood Methodist Church in Chicago. In police work he says, he deals with the public, shows respect and concern, builds relationships, acts as a stable force, restores order, and pulls things together. The work of ministry is counseling, uplifting, building supportive relationships with individuals and families, and responding to the call to leadership. He grumbles, however, that at home he has completely failed to win the battle with his physician-spouse and three children for more computer time. Jean Bethke Elshtain has been since 1995 the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is the author of over four-hundred essays in scholarly journals and journals of civic opinion. She has authored many books, including Who Are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities, which won the Best Academic Book of 2000 Award from the American Theological Booksellers Association; Augustine and the Limits of Politics in 1966; Democracy on Trial in 1995, a New York Times Notable Book for 1995. Her book, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought, is considered a classic of feminist political theory. She is a contributing editor for The New Republic and lectures internationally. She is a fellow at the National Humanities Center. She chairs the Council on Civil Society, and the Council on Families in America. Elshtain was a member of the National Commission on Civic Renewal and served as vice-president of the American Political Science Association in 1998-99. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. She chairs, with E. J. Dionne Jr. of the Brookings Institution, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. She is married and the mother of four children and the grandmother of three. Most recently she published The Jane Addams Reader and Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy. She will be available afterward for book signing and conversation. Fillmore Family. Anita, Bill and Kathleen are three members of the Fillmore clan working in a number of volunteer capacities to make things better. Anita Fillmore recently graduated in political science from Barat College, with major course work in art, dance, and ballet. Her mother, Kathleen Fillmore, is a residential home caregiver and supervisor. Her interests include art, choral singing, classical music, and most especially her family. Bill Fillmore, a native of South Africa with a Ph.D. in social welfare and history, is divisional social services director of the Salvation Army in Chicago. He is an organizational development consultant and formerly served as trustee of the village of Oak Park. He was the creator and chief organizer of Vision 2000, a future-oriented study and report on the dynamic life and culture of the village. His interests include art, the theater, and choral singing. He serves on several boards, including the Oak Park Area Arts Council. Glynne Gervais, facilitator this evening, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and serves as clinical assistant professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, which she came to after serving as chief executive officer of a community and faith-based child welfare agency. She has spent the bulk of her public-sector career working in child welfare in management positions, completing that career phase as Deputy Director of Cook County. After raising three children in Oak Park, she undertook community leadership roles, serving as president of Community Nursing Service when it grew to offer home-based hospice service; as president of Community Response during a dramatic expansion of services locally and into the western suburbs; and as president for four years of the Village Manager Association, where earlier she served as chair of the selection process for candidates aspiring to elective office. In last year’s election, she was the co-campaign manager of the now-elected slate. For more than 10 years, she has served as a volunteer and board member of San Jose Obrero Mission, a homeless shelter. She loves gardening, reading, and nurturing her grandchildren, along with spending time with her husband Paul. Don Harmon, a lifelong Oak Parker, is an attorney specializing in government contracts and finance with the firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw. He earned his law degree combined with an MBA from the University of Chicago. He serves as the committeeman of the Democratic Party of Oak Park Township and is running as the democratic nominee for state senator of the 39 district. His family includes wife Teri and son Don Harmon III. Phillip Hill. When he is not working at the local Erik's Delicatessen and Catering, Phil usually enjoys writing and improving myself in the art of rap. In his four years at Oak Park River Forest High School he earned accolades, being named to the dean’s list, the honor roll several times, and student of the quarter. He performed in school poetry slams and last year won a place in the Martin Luther King Jr. oratorical contest. He will be attending the University of Illinois at Chicago next fall and hopes to study sports medicine. He asks that you sit back and enjoy his performance this evening. Natasha Holbert was born and raised in Colorado Springs and moved to Illinois to attend Lake Forest College, where after graduation she has been pursuing her interest in creating her own nonprofit in social advocacy. Natasha currently performs administrative work in the mission division of Fourth Presbyterian Church across from the Hancock Building. There she is gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience to add to her years of volunteer and advocacy work. She considers it an honor to participate in this dialogue, hoping to learn and to share her experiences and insight. Edwin J. Jaufmann, Jr. is chief technology officer for Teacher Records, Inc. He has 24-plus years in information systems management, architecture, design, and development. At Teacher Records, he manages the technology direction and development of the product portfolio. He is responsible for continued development of teacher records technology methodologies, practices, and strategic technology relationships through his active engagement in industry forums. His work also includes providing e-business consulting services. Special projects have included working with Fortune 500 companies. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of systems development for Chase Manhattan Bank. He is a Certified Computing Professional from the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals. He has published a number of papers in software design and engineering. Nathan L. Linsk, professor in the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is principal investigator of the Midwest Addictions Technology Transfer Center and the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center. A research specialist in family care issues and staff development and training, he is the author of three books and more than 40 articles on health and social policy issues. He has received numerous honors and awards in his field. His research and training includes cross cultural work in Eastern Europe (Hungary and Romania) and the African states of Namibia, Malawi, and South Africa. A fellow in the Gerontological Society of America, he is the founder and former chair of the National Association on HIV Over Fifty, co-founder of the Oak Park Area Lesbian & Gay Association, and served on the founding board for seven years of Community Response, a social services agency. He has organized and presented many national and international conferences and meetings on social work, on gay and lesbian concerns, and on older adult issues. JR Moore is engaged in serving as a role model in mentoring youth in literacy and social accountability through practical training programs. He does this work through his mentoring and performance responsibilities at Prologue, Inc., a nonprofit social justice organization providing educational programs. The firm serves at-risk and marginalized residents in Greater Uptown, on the west and south sides. His work is to nurture relationships of trust through Prologue’s alternative high school for drop-out students. He takes responsibility for seeing that students gain their graduate equivalency diploma (GED), or by teaching basic literacy skills with males who have recently been released from incarceration. His work is also with empowering teen mothers, at-risk LGBT youth, and persons homeless. Says JR: "I use hip hop as a training mechanism for greater awareness of the power of education to transform." Calvin S. Morris’ professional experience has placed him in key leadership roles in faith-based as well as in community based and educationally-centered institutions. His background holds a blend of scholarly and management experiences in religious and educational institutions and executive management experience in organizations committed to racial, social and economic justice. He is the executive director of Community Renewal Society, a metropolitan Chicago, faith-based organization that strives to eradicate racism and poverty in order to empower the disadvantaged. He is associate pastor of Galewood Community Church on North Ave. and Naragansett and the past chief executive officer of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change in Atlanta. He served as associate director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, now Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. He serves on a handful of boards, including Council for the Parliament of World Religions, as co-covener of The Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, and as board member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. Morris received his doctorate in history from Boston University and is an ordained minister of the United Methodist tradition. Charles Nelson, a Chicago native, grew up in Hyde Park and has learned where the city’s needs for community outreach are greatest. He has organized and guided HIV prevention and awareness programs for 13 years, managing the Brothers Community Awareness Network for seven years and co-founding Minority Outreach Intervention Project. He is the director of the Young Men for Community Advocacy Project. He also holds weekly support and discussion groups, including Getting All My Brothers Aware and Brothers United Together, both addressing a complex of issues and concerns of importance to African American gay men affected by HIV/AIDS. Laura Perna is the president of the Park District of Oak Park. In addition to raising her two teenage children, and continuing to struggle with family mental health issues, she serves as the committeewoman of the Democratic Party of Oak Park Township. Deborah Dowley Preiser grew up in Richmond Heights, Missouri, and earned her journalism degree at the University of Missouri. Debbie was recruited on campus to work as a catalog copywriter for Sears in Chicago, staying 14 years and progressively earning greater responsibilities in public relations, eventually becoming manager of employee communications. She “retired” from corporate life after having a son and moving to Oak Park. She is a freelance feature writer for numerous periodicals and newspapers and also serves now as the public information officer for the Oak Park Public Library. She continues to provide volunteer communications services, including photography, to Oak Park Conservatory, Parenthesis, and the annual ASID Infant Welfare Showcase House. Paul D. Preston is an activist in the HIV community, working toward tolerance of those affected by the disease. A recent transplant to Chicago with partner Edwin Jaufmann, he is celebrating his 15th year with HIV, somehow knowing from the beginnings of the positive possibilities for rising above the disease. For five years he has written a monthly newspaper column on positive living circulated throughout eight states Midwestern and Southern states. Before the move, he served as president of Project AIDS Louisville, an information resource and referral agency which was a frequent thorn in the side of elected officials dealing with HIV funding. As a volunteer he offers compassion and friendship to people impacted by HIV at Howard Brown Health Center and other places, giving loving care and helpful information based on his Seven Principles for Powerful Positive Living. Most recently he has developed an interest in writing about food and good nutrition.
Julio Rodriguez has worked in the public sector for 15 years. He is senior public service administrator for the Illinois Department of Human Services where his responsibilities include overseeing the design and implementation of the department’s service-delivery models, providing training and staff development, and offering technical assistance on business practices. He oversees the development of management programs that address organizational development, performance management, and cultural competency. His direct-service and policy-shaping work is with government officials, private foundations, business leaders, and the media. His private-sector and volunteer work includes consulting, public speaking, and group training on issues of human rights and public health both in the U.S. and aboard. His advocacy work is consistently a call to strengthen the support, direction, and leadership required to sustain real change in public and private health organizations. Jonathon Romain says that his skills as an artist and painter are not innate. Rather they were born and developed through “the pain and subjugation of prison, brought on by the copulation of mis-education and economic deprivation.” He believes that “it was only through my persistence in pursuing an education and my unyielding belief that God had a specific purpose for me that I was able to break the perennial chains of degradation.” Here tonight are two of his paintings--A Mile in My Shoe and Here I Lay. From 1993-2001 Romain’s work has been presented in dozens of art shows and 23 exhibitions in California, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and New York. Rickey Sain, Sr., director of organizational development with Horizons Community Services, has spent 20-plus years in social services advocacy and administration working on behalf of populations at risk for being ignored or patronized. His work includes improving the mechanisms by which social welfare policy makers are held accountable by those affected by policy decisions. His work also includes serving as chair or co-chair of a number of prevention and education/advocacy committees for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Public Health. He has served in Oak Park as a member of the Board of Health, chairing its committee on AIDS. He serves as board member of the Resources Unlimited Foundation. He has co-written many articles and essays with partner Jim Boushay. In the mid-90s, they co-founded the Festival of Potluck Foods, an outdoor free feast, a community picnic, attracting some 3,000 potluckers sharing their foods in an atmosphere of simple elegance and goodwill. Dorian Shelton in the fall will be attending Lewis University where, having won a scholar award, he plans to pursue a career in journalism—either writing or teaching. He writes poetry, and won the Talent Award in that genre from Omega Psi Phi. His interests include museums, Hip Hop and jazz concerts, theatrical productions and plays, and reading. Additional plans after graduating next month from Oak Park River Forest High School include continuing to write, working as a child-care volunteer, and eventually joining the Peace Corps. David Sinski has been working at community-based agencies for over twenty years. He has extensive experience working with youth and families, augmented by ten years’ work at a Latina women's agency. He has served in direct service, advocacy, administrative and leadership roles. He has been involved in developing policy, forming coalitions and creating greater unity among community groups. Currently he volunteers with the Association of Latin Men for Action, co-facilitating a support group in Spanish and he is a member of Queer White Allies Against Racism. Charles Strain is professor of religious studies and associate vice president for academic affairs at DePaul University. He is responsible for the university’s engagement with society, civic engagement, involving faculty and students in linkages that engage the community. He has direct responsibility for the Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning, a program that recently received a $5 million endowment gift and offers 60-plus courses a year involving faculty and approximately 900 students in service learning and engaging society. The program links engagement with the community with the academic courseware that students are involved in. As professor of religious studies his area of specialty is comparative religious ethics, exploring and comparing Buddhist and Christian movements for social change. Kelvin Tate is with his business manager George Robinson. Known as “Rappn Tate da Great,” Tate was born on an airplane enroute from Memphis to New York. His interests include theater and music, and rap music for the creative and exciting ways it expands retention levels in people are affecionados of the genre. His attending Roosevelt University has enabled him to develop a serious comprehensive interest in music, which has led, he says, to an even greater interest in hip hop and rap. His motivational play, “Stop the Dope” has gained recognition and honors throughout the Chicago school system. Vaughn Taylor, he quips, is a "semi-educated, psuedo-intellectual" trained at the University of Washington. Vaughn, a change agent with 12 years of experience in linking people together, is chief executive officer of Greater Chicago Committee, a service agency providing care and prevention programs to individuals, families, and neighborhoods impacted by HIV disease. Vaughn believes in building community through active participation and information sharing. Dorian T. Warren is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Yale University and a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. He received his B.A. in political science from the University of Illinois, where he was a campus activist. Currently based in Chicago, Warren's research interests and political activism focus on the politics of marginalized groups in domestic politics. His current project examines contemporary labor-organizing around issues of race, sexuality, and gender. He is a researcher with the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and recently was identified as researcher for the Black Pride Survey 2000—Say it Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud Donna Rose Weems is an activist/agent for social change, poet, performer, provocateur, essayist, social commentator. She won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award. An educator and trainer, she is pursuing an advanced degree in training and development at Roosevelt University. She was diagnosed with chronic illness in 1996. Her free time finds her in the garden or observing human frailty up close and personal. Her fondest achievements are having been chosen to mother Malcolm and to be Nick's "Granny." John FS Williams earned his M.Ed. from Loyola University in community counseling and has worked for 15 years with socio-economic, culturally and racially diverse populations of at-risk youth since the time when that professional label applied to him as a teen. He has been a police crisis worker and manager of community prevention. In the last seven years as Oak Park Township and River Forest Township youth services director, he has engaged people from a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and agendas and moving them to form effective coalitions toward common goals. “Reclaiming Youth”—that phrase refers to a “Common Language of Peace” that leads to effective models of conflict resolution. He provides consultation, training, and leadership on the street and in homes, schools, offices, and boardrooms. He created a model youth interventionist program combining the resources of local government and social institutions to positively influence the lives of youth, their families and communities. John studies Tae Kwon Do, the African djembe, and the Irish bodrhan drums as well as Native American flute and the acoustic guitar. Mel Wilson, a retired architect, has received numerous honors and awards for activism and community leadership over many years. His work in information dissemination is with the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. He is one of the founders of Community Response, a social service agency. He co-founded the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association. Terri Worman is associate state director and community organizer for AARP Illinois. She is involved in educational and advocacy efforts on federal and state issues affecting older adults. She also currently sits on the taskforce on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender aging issues in Chicago and is completing a master’s in social public policy. Back |