I received a surprise email from my former professor, Dr. Ruth Anne Clark, earlier this semester. Dr. Clark was in charge of teaching me how to be a teaching assistant and instructor when I first came to graduate school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in (wait for it) 2001. That semester I had been assigned to teach two sections of Public Speaking. I was straight out of undergrad and so grateful for (and in-need of) Ruth Anne’s superb support and guidance. While earning my MA and then my PhD, I taught a range of other classes at the University of Illinois, and I was so, so grateful for that varied experience when I eventually began my career as an assistant professor at Purdue and then at the University of Utah.
All of this is to say that I had Shaleen Title in class back in 2004 or so, and she was kind enough to mention that in a recent News-Gazette column featuring distinguished University of Illinois alumni discussing the “faculty they’ll never forget.” You can link to the column, here.
Shaleen is now an attorney and the Cannabis Control Commissioner for the state of Massachusetts and she was named one of the 50 most powerful people in Boston by the Boston Business Journal. To say it is a treat to learn about all that she has accomplished, to hear from her and Ruth Anne, and to have her mention me in this article would be a huge understatement. In retrospect, it seems 2020 hasn’t been all bad after all.