Based on pieces that originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune, each chapter imparts one person’s experience with abortion. By looking at myriad factors that influence the decision to abort a pregnancy—whether socio-economic, religious, legal, or medical—the accounts collected in this volume challenge the conventional labels of “pro-life” and “pro-choice.”
Leventis Lourgos has been a Chicago Tribune staff writer since 2009. Her work has won two Lisagor awards and one Sarah Brown Boyden award. She previously reported for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington.
Geno Schellenberger (BS ’20, advertising), senior communications manager at Havas and graduate student in the strategic brand communication master’s degree program, is making a difference for unhoused individuals in Chicago during the holiday season.
Through his role at Havas, Schellenberger has played a pivotal role in launching “The Donation Display” campaign, an innovative initiative that reimagines Chicago’s holiday window displays as gateways to giving.
At first glance, the display mimics the traditional holiday shopping showcase, but as onlookers draw nearer, the facade gives way to a more profound narrative—revealing the reality that the holiday season may not be as joyful for Chicago’s 68,000+ unhoused residents.
Located at 36 E. Grand in Havas Chicago’s lobby, a block away from the Magnificent Mile, the display includes a QR code that allows passersby to directly support the Night Ministry with a simple scan and donation, ensuring that contributions go straight to aiding disadvantaged families and individuals in the Chicagoland area and sharing the holiday spirit in a meaningful way. The Donation Display will be on exhibit through January 5.
Schellenberger says the campaign is a testament to Havas’s commitment to using advertising for social good.
Gilbert, who joined Leo Burnett in 2020, has led award-winning campaigns like Beam Suntory’s “Bourbon Time” and Coors Light’s “Clone Machine.” She has also directed the strategy behind campaigns for Campbell’s Chunky Soup, including “Lunchtime is your Halftime” and the current “Champions of Chunky,” which features NFL players and brothers Travis and Jason Kelce. That work helped Chunky Soup double its sales growth, outperforming the wider soup category, and earned Leo Burnett a gold at the ARF David Ogilvy Awards. A passionate educator, Gilbert co-authored a comprehensive crash-course strategy guidebook, known internally as the Strategy Launchpad.
Gilbert is a board member and mentor for the University of Illinois Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising’s James Webb Young Advisory Board. She is also involved in Leo Burnett’s Pencil Project, an initiative in partnership with Chicago State University to introduce students of color to mentorship and educational opportunities.
The late comedy legend brothers Arte Johnson (BS ’49, radio journalism) and Coslough Johnson (BS ’52, radio journalism) made sure to invest in the future of media by preserving part of its past.
(Gisela and Arte Johnson by Michael P. Maron Photography.)
Arte Johnson dressed as his German soldier Laugh-In character, with Dean Martin and Diane Shatz on The Dean Martin Show. (Wikimedia Commons.)
Both have donated artifacts to the University Library from their most famous collaboration, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, which aired 1968-73 on NBC, in which Arte was an actor and Coslough was a writer. They won Emmy Awards and multiple nominations for their roles on the pioneering comedy sketch show that addressed social and political issues, mixed with one-liners, non-sequitur bits, and jump-cuts at breakneck speed, plus a constant stream of Hollywood cameos.
Laugh-In brought in the biggest guest stars of the day: Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, Bob Hope, John Wayne, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Regular cast members included Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. It paved the way for Saturday Night Live, which debuted two years after Laugh-In ended. It was still cemented in TV history three decades after it ended, making TV Guide’s list of 50 greatest shows of all time in 2002.
The Johnson family’s latest gift comes from Arte’s widow, Gisela (pictured above); the couple were married for 51 years until his death in 2019. Earlier this year, Gisela provided the University Library with a wealth of archival materials from Laugh-In and other TV episodes and movies that featured Arte, plus scrapbooks, photographs, and letters. (Learn more about their latest contributions.)
Coslough Johnson, Dan Rowan, and Cos’s writing partner Chris Bearde. (Photo courtesy of Mary Jane Ferguson Johnson.)
Coslough previously donated 62 Laugh-In scripts to the University Library. The Library’s 1994 Friendscript newsletter noted its cultural significance: “Whether it’s the satirization of the Vietnam War, the fun poked at politicians and government policies, or the songs sung by the entertainers (all the lyrics are in the scripts), each script gives an interesting snapshot of the issues and tastes of the nation at a particularly unsettled period of our history.”
By email, Gisela wrote that Arte “loved his University and his years there, and all the friends he made and stayed friends with, all through his time of being famous—it didn’t matter to him, he always was just ARTE.”
During the ’70s, Arte and Gisela visited campus to cheer on the Illini with Arte’s Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brother and classmate Larry Stewart (BS ’47, journalism). Stewart was a renowned local sports broadcaster, known as the “Voice of the Illini,” calling games for football and basketball, the creator/host of the call-in talk show Penny for Your Thoughts, and general manager of radio station WDWS.
Stewart’s daughter, Debbie, remembers Arte keeping in touch with her dad, calling him and attending Illinois games together.
“Arte and my dad were great friends till the end of my dad’s life,” Stewart said. “They spoke on the phone frequently and Arte was always sending him postcards. They really enjoyed their friendship.”
Larry Stewart (BS ’47, journalism), center, greets Gisela and Arte Johnson at Arte’s Class of 1949 reunion in 1974. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Stewart.)
Arte, who grew up in Chicago, had considered himself a bibliophile and said, “the [University] Library was for me at once a place to escape to, a place of enlightenment, a place of encouragement,” in a 1979-80 Friendscript. Arte was also quoted for his love of libraries, saying in a 1987 issue: “The legacy of the printed word is still one of the greatest gifts one generation can pass on to another.”
After Arte died, a New York Times obituary described him as “a one-man ensemble on Laugh-In, playing a range of characters with accents, but he was probably best known for the helmeted German soldier who would peer through bushes before slowly uttering, ‘Very interesting.’” He had also starred in episodes of many classic TV shows such as Lost in Space, Bewitched, and Murder, She Wrote, voiced characters in many cartoons such as Animaniacs, The Smurfs, and DuckTales, and narrated dozens of audiobooks including for humor columnist and author Dave Barry.
At the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, historians of popular culture can explore scripts from Laugh-In’s first four seasons, as well as scripts Coslough donated from other 1970s TV variety series that he wrote for, such as the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Laugh-In is currently available to watch on streaming platforms including Freevee, Roku, Tubi, and Amazon Prime.
Erika Hayasaki (BS ’01, journalism), a writer and associate professor of literary journalism at the University of California in Irvine, won a silver Nautilus Book Award in Journalism and Investigative Reporting for her 2022 nonfiction novel Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity and the Meaning of Family.
Hayasaki’s book, which was also named one of NPR’s Books We Love in 2022, tells the story of identical twins who were born in Vietnam—one was adopted by an affluent white American family, the other was raised by her maternal aunt. The two eventually meet as teenagers.
The Nautilus Book Awards began in 1998 with a core mission to celebrate and honor books that support conscious living and green values, wellness, social change and social justice, and spiritual growth.
Author Catherine Adel West (BS ’02, MS ’04, journalism), whose most recent novel, The Two Lives of Sara, was selected as the Arlington Heights Memorial Library’s 10th annual One Book, One Village community read, will share the story behind her book at “An Evening with Catherine Adel West” at Forest View Auditorium in Arlington Heights on Thursday, Oct. 26. The discussion, which will include Natalie Moore of WBEZ, will also be livestreamed on the Arlington Heights Memorial Library’s YouTube channel.
One Book, One Village is an initiative that invites the community to read the same book at the same time and share in the experience through related library programming and book discussions.
West, who currently resides in Chicago, has been published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better than Starbucks, Doors Ajar, 805 Lit + Art, The Helix Magazine, Lunch Ticket, and Gay Magazine. Author of Saving Ruby King, Catherine was named one of USA Today’s Black Authors You Should Know.
“Unsettled: An African American Reflection on The Potawatomi Trail of Death,” an interactive performance co-presented by Nicole Anderson Cobb (MS ’16, journalism) in April 2023 at Allerton Park, was featured in The Christian Science Monitor.
The article, “Indigenous People’s Day: What the Potawatomi Taught Me,” explores Anderson Cobb’s collaborative presentation with Latrelle Bright, who teaches theater at Illinois, and its benefits on the writer’s journey to greater awareness of Indigenous history.
Theatre makers Nicole Anderson Cobb and Latrelle Bright (pictured below) are both artists-in-residence at Allerton Park and have worked together on a project called “Beyond Land Acknowledgement.” Their performance, which recalls the Potawatomi journey through Danville and Monticello where the Potawatomi camped for several days, invites the community to reflect on the Potawatomi removal.
Anderson Cobb, an author, historian, and playwright, is also a researcher and advocate who examines American institutions (often in crisis), and how people of color have navigated these spaces in the past and present. She holds multiple degrees from the University of Illinois: BA ’95, political science; MA ’99, history; and PhD ’07, history.
Shawn P. Fojtik (BS ’85, advertising), CEO of Control Medical Technology and Distal Access, has more than 150 pending and issued medical device patents with over 1 million patients safely treated in cardiovascular, women’s health, cardiac electrophysiology, surgery, interventional oncology, and emergency medicine.
Fojtik’s previous work experience includes sales, marketing, product development, and general management experience at Black & Decker, GE Medical, and Boston Scientific. He has co-founded Pinyons Medical (sold to Covidien), Distal Access (sold to Merit Medical), Resectr (sold to Boston Scientific), SAM IO (sold to Sam Medical), Axiom (sold to Teleflex), Fluidx Medical, Transit Scientific, Control Medical, PolyEmbo, CIRCA Scientific, Emergency Medical Technologies, and others.
Fojtik, who received a master’s in liberal arts from Harvard University, serves on multiple board of directors including the University of Utah Center for Medical Innovation, and is also an adjunct assistant professor of surgery (non-clinical educator) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Ronald E. Taylor (MS ’71, advertising; PhD ’83, communications, ICR), devoted scholar, teacher, and mentor, passed away at his home in Tennessee on September 11.
After receiving his PhD from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Taylor joined the University of Tennessee as the head of the Department of Advertising, where he built a nationally recognized advertising program at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
During his tenure, the Department of Advertising was rated by US News & World Report as one of the top eight advertising graduate programs in the country. After a reorganization of the college, Taylor served as the director of the School of Advertising and Public Relations until 2011.
Taylor was an active member of the American Academy of Advertising, where he served as secretary. In 2013, he was awarded AAA’s Charles H. Sandage Award for Teaching Excellence, which recognizes outstanding contributions to advertising education.
Academically, he was a champion of qualitative research and a recognized leader in advertising message strategy. He is best known for his “Six Segment Strategy Wheel” conceptualization, which he published in the Journal of Advertising Research in 1999.
Jill Wine-Banks (BS ’64, journalism), MSNBC legal analyst, author, podcast co-host, and former prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, was one of five female lawyers to receive the 2023 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award this summer.
The American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession established the award to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of women lawyers who have excelled in their field and have paved the way to success for other women lawyers.
“These five distinguished lawyers are role models for all women in the legal profession,” said Commission member Victoria Alvarez, co-chair of the Margaret Brent Awards committee.
Wine-Banks, who earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a law degree at Columbia Law School, was the first woman to serve as an organized crime prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Less than five years later, she was named one of the three Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutors—and the only woman—for the obstruction of justice trial against President Nixon’s top aides. She became a major player in the Watergate tapes hearing that preceded the trial, cross-examining Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s secretary, about the 18 ½-minute gap in a key White House recording.
Her legal career also includes service as the first female General Counsel of the U.S. Army where she helped integrate women into the Regulate Army by eliminating the Women’s Army Corps, and into West Point; as the first Solicitor General of Illinois where she argued in the U.S. Supreme Court and first female Deputy Attorney General; and as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Bar Association, the only woman to have held that position.
