Meet the women of NEIU

Margaret Johnsson was hired as an adjunct professor of management and entrepreneurship for the current school year and it was exciting for her to discover that students were eager to learn about innovation and entrepreneurship. Johnsson is a serial entrepreneur looking to make a difference by training faculty and students on how to start their own businesses. Education was emphasized when she was growin...

Jeanine Ntihirageza was born in Burundi in Central Africa and fell in love with the English language through music. She was a gifted math student but could not find a math program in English in Burundi so she changed her focus to study literature and linguistics. In college she became a Fulbright scholar and came to study at Southern Illinois University. She got her doctorate degree in linguistics ...

Amanda Goldblatt is a Creative Writing professor at NEIU and is one of the professors who has done tremendous work to get the Creative Writing Minor to where it is currently. She has been a huge inspiration in my own creative work and I recently had the privilege to talk with her about what inspires her and what her motivations are regarding her work at NEIU. When it comes to the inspiration surrounding...

Dr. Durene Wheeler has dedicated her life to educating and fighting injustice. A professor at NEIU since 2006, Wheeler teaches in the College of Education and Arts and Sciences. Wheeler was born in Ohio and earned her bachelor’s at Wooster College then attended Ohio State for her masters and doctorate. As an undergrad, she was a studio art major, with a minor in sociology. Her first masters w...

Edie Rubinowitz is working on a podcast with Spanish Public Radio that features NEIU students centered on the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program called “DACAmentation: Humanizing Our Stories.” “To see my students tackling these issues from a variety of perspectives and build something up that seems to have legs and is getting recognition… the students the...

Alexis Hamm is a Biology major working on a microbiology based research project at NEIU. She works with Dr. Emily Rumschlag-Booms exploring alternative mechanisms to overcoming multidrug resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the bacteria responsible for many hospital acquired infections. “I was interested in her project because I was previously in the peace corps. I did my service in Moroc...

Wanda Dukes has dedicated more than 25 years of her life to helping women that suffer with mental health and substance abuse. Dukes is a McNair Scholar. She graduated Cum Laude from NEIU with a bachelor's degree in both inner city studies and interdisciplinary studies. “When I came to NEIU in 2005, I started out at the north campus. There I received most of my gen eds. When I found out about th...

Jenn Lee writes creatively for herself and others, particularly her younger self, many of her topics focus on trauma “It’s thinking what I could have read when I was 12, 16 or 19 and wrestling with any of these traumatic events - what I could have read that would have helped me feel less alone,” she said. Lee has been published in different literary journals such as SEEDS Literary and Vi...

Jennie Lasko was raised in a world of adversity and diversity. As immigrants from the Philippines, her parents worked day and night in order to raise all five of their children. Lasko remembered how her mom would work two or three jobs, usually taking the night shift, before returning home at 8 a.m. to take care of them. Her dad started at the bottom of the ladder but now runs the company today. ...

Approximately 25 years ago, Cyndi Moran was assigned to edit a commercial for a Chicago hockey team in what was at that time considered the male dominated field of video production and editing. She faced adversity in that situation because “women couldn’t possibly know about sports.” Now Moran is the associate chair and full-time professor for the NEIU communications, media and theatre (CM...

Ashlei N. Ross is a senior at NEIU and an inner city studies and social work double major with a minor in child advocacy studies. She is also known as the president of the Student Government Association (SGA), president of the Black Student Union, president of the Justice Studies club, vice-president of the United Greek Council, and the basileus (president) of the Sigma Eta chapter of the Sigma Gamma ...