Presenter Bios

Timothy L. Killeen is the 20th president of the University of Illinois System, which includes universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. He took office in May 2015.

Since taking office, Killeen has helped lead a surge of growth across the state’s flagship university system. Enrollment is at record highs, including increases among in-state and underrepresented students.

A leading researcher in geophysics and space sciences, Killeen champions efforts to expand research discovery that drives progress and job creation. That includes helping lead the creation of the Discovery Partners Institute, a world-class research, technology talent development and business-building center in downtown Chicago, and Illinois Innovation Network, a system of satellite hubs that combine research, public-private partnerships, entrepreneurship and workforce training to spur inclusive economic development across the state.

Killeen was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, and is a member and past president of the American Geophysical Union.

A native of Wales and a U.S. citizen, Killeen received his bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy at University College London, where he also earned his doctoral degree in atomic and molecular physics.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Flexpoint Ford, LLC

Donald J. Edwards founded Flexpoint Ford LLC, a private equity investment firm with $7 billion of assets under management, in 2005 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since that time. He began his private equity career in 1994 at GTCR, a leading Chicago-based private equity firm, where he was a Principal and Chairman of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining GTCR, Don was an investment banker at Lazard, Ltd. where he focused on mergers and acquisitions in financial institutions and other industries.

Don has served on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees since 2017, and as Board Chair since 2019. He is a trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), a director of Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Chairman of the Finance and Audit Committees of the Board of the PGA of America. He previously served 1 O years as a Commissioner of the Chicago Park District, and as a Director of World Business Chicago. He is a lifetime member of the University of Illinois Alumni Association, and he and his wife Anne (Gies ’88) have endowed scholarships for Gies College of Business, the men’s golf team at the University of Illinois, and Harvard Business School.

In 2020, Don and Anne gave a $10 million gift to the University, the largest ever by a trustee, to provide support to Gies Business and the Discovery Partners Institute, a purpose-driven, collaborative research institute established in Chicago by the University of Illinois.

Don received his bachelor’s degree in finance, with highest honors, from Gies College of Business in 1988, earning Bronze Tablet honors from the University. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School, with Baker Scholar distinction, in 1994.

Tol Foster (Mvskoke Creek Nation, Oklahoma) has served UIC as a prehealth adviser in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and as the director of the Native American Support Program since 2021. Previously, Foster taught for more than 20 years as a faculty member in Native American studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his doctorate degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Native American literatures.

Barbara Ransby is the John D. MacArthur University Chair; UIC Distinguished Professor of History, Gender and Women’s Studies and Black Studies; and the founding director of the Social Justice Initiative. She is the author of three books: “Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement,” “Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson” and “Making All Black Lives Matter: Re-imagining Freedom in the 21st Century,” and numerous articles. Ransby’s books have received awards from the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the American Studies Association. In 2017, Ransby was honored as among the top 25 women in higher education by the publication Diverse Issues in Higher Education. In 2018, the Chronicle of Higher Education cited Ransby’s biography on Ella Baker as “one of the most influential books of the last 20 years.”

Ransby is the former editor in chief of the journal Souls and is part of the editorial working group of the London-based journal Race and Class. Former president of the National Women’s Studies Association (2016-2018), she also is an elected member of the Society of American Historians and has received several lifetime achievement and career awards. In 2020, Ransby was an inaugural recipient of the prestigious Freedom Scholars Award from the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Justin Banks is a senior in the UIC Honors College majoring in integrated health studies with a minor in kinesiology. He works as an undergraduate researcher in the Lee Lab in the department of physiology and biophysics, where he investigates cell aging in vascular cells. Justin also volunteers at the UI Health hospital and tutors with the African American Academic Network. He serves as the co-president of UIC’s GlobeMed chapter and as a student leader in UIC InterVarsity. In his free time, Justin enjoys playing basketball and exploring Chicago with his friends.

Jonathan Banks is a third-year graduate student in the doctor of dental medicine/doctor of oral sciences program at the UIC College of Dentistry. He is a proud UIC Honors College graduate with a degree in biological sciences (class of 2021). Jonathan serves on UIC’s Graduate Student Council and the University Senate on the Senate Research Committee, and he is the vice president of the Black Graduate Student Association. As a national advocate for dental student researchers, Jonathan serves on the board of the National Student Research Group for dental research. For fun, Jonathan likes to play the saxophone and try out new recipes.

Juliana Stratton serves Illinois as the 48th lieutenant governor. She is dedicated and highly qualified, committed to showing that the way we move forward is together.

In this role, she leans on empathy and expertise to open doors and expand pathways to uplift communities statewide. She brings her visionary leadership to more than a dozen councils, commissions, boards and agencies as chair or executive liaison. These span the Illinois Council on Women and Girls, the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council, the Military Economic Development Committee and the Rivers of Illinois Coordinating Council.

Among several responsibilities, Stratton’s portfolio includes overseeing the administration’s Justice, Equity, and Opportunity Initiative and chairing the board of the Restore, Reinvest, Renew program. She leads office initiatives that address the needs of Illinoisans from efforts to build a strong diverse teacher pipeline to helping create pathways to economic empowerment for women to establishing the Ag Connects Us All Agricultural Equity and Food Insecurity Initiative.

The lieutenant governor is the immediate past chair of the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association and a White House-appointed member of the federal Route 66 Centennial Commission. She is actively engaged in The Chicago Network, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and The Links Inc. In her free time, she enjoys running, cooking and spending time with her husband, Bryan, and four daughters.

Stratton loves the state of Illinois, the people of Illinois and doing the work that will uplift the next generation in Illinois and beyond.

Philip J. Hanlon became the 18th president of Dartmouth College on June 10, 2013. He served for 10 years, leading the institution through a decade of extraordinary achievements that included historic expansions in financial aid, Dartmouth’s invitation to join the Association of American Universities and a more than 20% growth in undergraduate admissions.

As Dartmouth College president, Hanlon championed academic excellence in service to the world and encouraged innovation in scholarship and teaching. He launched initiatives to build interdisciplinary strength around global challenges, expanded opportunities for experiential learning and initiated new seed-funding programs to support cutting-edge research and creative endeavors. He led the creation of the Guarini School for Graduate and Advanced Studies, the first new school at Dartmouth in over a century. Under his leadership, Dartmouth launched the Irving Institute for Energy and Society, established the DEN Innovation and New Venture Incubator (now known as the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship) and led the expansion of the Thayer School of Engineering. He also created the Society of Fellows, an interdisciplinary community of post-doctoral scholars dedicated to the integration of research and teaching. Committed to reining in the costs of higher education, Hanlon maintained fiscal rigor throughout his presidency, establishing an annual institution-wide reallocation process while holding tuition increases to the lowest levels since the 1970s. At the same time, he oversaw record levels of giving, raising more than $3.7 billion with 60% alumni participation in the Call to Lead campaign, the most successful in Dartmouth’s history.

Under Hanlon’s leadership, Dartmouth also launched a comprehensive set of initiatives designed to combat high-risk behaviors while building a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment for students, faculty and staff. Among them were Moving Dartmouth Forward (2015), Inclusive Excellence (2016) and the Campus Climate and Culture Initiative (2019), aimed at creating a learning environment free from sexual harassment and the abuse of power. These three interlocking initiatives formed a broad-based program to ensure that behaviors and relationships in all contexts on campus are consistent with Dartmouth’s values.

As a mathematician, Hanlon’s academic research focuses on probability and combinatorics, the study of finite structures and their significance in bioinformatics, computer science and other fields. A dedicated teacher-scholar, Hanlon is a current member of the Dartmouth faculty and teaches in the mathematics department.

Hanlon has earned numerous honors and awards for his mathematical research, including a Sloan Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Henry Russel Award and the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and held an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship, the University of Michigan’s highest recognition of faculty whose commitment to undergraduate teaching has had a demonstrable impact on the intellectual development and lives of students.

Prior to Dartmouth, Hanlon served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, where he was also the Donald J. Lewis Collegiate Professor of Mathematics. Hanlon was a member of the Michigan faculty for more than 20 years and held a variety of administrative posts during his tenure. He began his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1981-83) and was a Bantrell Fellow in Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology (1983-86). He is a member of the board of directors of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education and the executive committee of the National Academies’ Division of Policy and Global Affairs.

Hanlon earned his bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth, from which he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1977, and earned his doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1981.

Hanlon is married to Gail Gentes. The couple has three children and two grandchildren.

Na’ilah Suad Nasir is the sixth president of the Spencer Foundation, which funds education research nationally. Before joining Spencer, she was a faculty member in education and African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also served as the chair of African American studies, then later as the vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. She also served on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Nasir’s research examines the racialized and cultural nature of learning and schooling, with a particular focus on the experiences of African American students in schools and communities. She co-edited “The Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning” (Routledge) and “We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys.” She is also the author of “Racialized Identities: Race and Achievement for African American Youth,” published by Stanford University Press in 2012. Nasir is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. She is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and the International Society for the Learning Sciences. She was the president of the American Educational Research Association in 2021-22. She serves on the board of Sage Publications, the National Equity Project and the UC Berkeley Board of Visitors.

Chancellor Miranda joins the chancellors of the University of Illinois System, accomplished leaders in their respective fields who bring a wealth of expertise to their roles.

Janet L. Gooch became the seventh UIS chancellor on July 1, 2022. She is an accomplished higher education leader and educator, previously serving as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at Truman State University, where she spent a total of 27 years serving as an administrator and member of the faculty.

Prior to serving provost, Dr. Gooch was dean of Truman’s School of Health Sciences and Education and, prior to that, department chair of Communication Disorders. She held interim roles as dean of the School of Science and Mathematics and director of Strategic Initiatives and was a professor in the Department of Communication Disorders.

As provost at Truman, Dr. Gooch led the Academic Affairs division through successful strategic planning initiatives and helped lead the university through the redesign of its undergraduate liberal studies program and supported the development of new online graduate programs.

Dr. Gooch also has strong history of leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion. She received her doctorate in speech-language pathology from Case Western Reserve University in 1997, a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from Kent State University in 1990, and her bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology in 1988 from the University of Kansas.

Robert J. Jones became the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on September 26, 2016. He is the first African American scholar appointed as Urbana chancellor in the institution’s history.

At Illinois, he has led the university in establishing a new vision of the land-grant university for the 21st century, while honoring the institution’s long history of achievement. The university recently completed a $2.7 billion philanthropic campaign that was the largest in the university’s history and included two of the largest private gifts ever made to Illinois. Jones has implemented the vision of creating the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the first engineering-based medical school in the world. The hiring of an inaugural vice chancellor for diversity, education and inclusion was a major step in fostering an even more open and collaborative community of students and faculty. And with the Illinois Commitment, a program that guarantees four years free tuition to state residents with family incomes less than $67,100, Jones has continued to deliver on the university’s founding promise of making a world-class college education affordable and accessible.

A Georgia native, Jones, earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a master’s degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia.