Deleatrice (Dee) Alexander

By Day - I have been working at the UIC since 1990...initially in the College of Pharmacy with Dr. Norman Farnsworth and Harry Fong in PCRPS for about three years. Afterwards I worked with Dr. Antonio Scommegna who was the Chair and Department Head of Ob/Gyne...after he retired I transferred to OVCR in the Department of Office of Technology Management working with Jill Tarzian Sorensen. I am in OVCR in the Office of Research Services at the front desk....so I am the first person you will meet. Some may

think that this position is solely a receptionist position, but it is hardly that.  I am a people person and in this role there is great emphasis on customer service, organization and communication skills.  I am responsible for intake of paperwork to be reviewed by budget reviewers for processing grants and contracts. Deadline periods are stressful, but I manage it in stride!!!!

By Night - While holding down a full time position here at UIC, I am also a performing artist. I took part in the Millennium Park series of "Home Cooked Jazz" on Sep 11 performing a tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. I am also a member of the AACM Chicago Chapter- Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians which is an organization dedicated to creating, developing, composing, nurturing and performing original music. I have two groups "Dee Alexander Quartet and the Evolution Ensemble, but have also performed with various artists such as Orbert Davis, Nicole Mitchell, AACM's Great Black Music Ensemble, Inventions, Ernest Dawkins' Chicago 12, just to name a few. In November, I performed in Poznan, Poland with a group of performing artists in a series called "Made in Chicago" which was sponsored by the Jazz Institute of Chicago. I am currently working on a CD project collaborating with Miguel dela Cerna, which should be released by this summer. I was selected as the 2007 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz and won the 2008 Chicago Jazz Entertainer of the year at the Chicago Music Awards.

Kary Raines Kary Raines currently serves as Associate Director for Facilities

Management and Director of Hospital Environmental Services at the University of Illinois Hospital.  This is one of the largest departments within the Medical Center where he supervises over 190 employees. He has been employed with the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1974.  He has provided over 33 years of dedicated service.  We spotlight Kary because he demonstrates how hard

work and a good work ethic can pay off. Kary started as a part-time employee in the Food Services Department as a Food Service Laborer. He worked there for over three years.  He decided to transfer to the Hospital Housekeeping Department in 1978. In the Housekeeping Department he was able to advance through the ranks with continuous promotions consisting of the following titles; Hospital Service Worker, Hospital Service Foreman, Hospital Service Supervisor, Assistant Executive Housekeeper, Departmental Information Supervisor, Health Center Administrator, Assistant Superintendent Building Services and Superintendent of Building Services. 

Kary has been employed at UIC his entire work history. He states, “There is always opportunity to succeed as long as you keep an open mind to reach the goals that you set for yourself.”  He is a people person and states that he will never ask any employee under his supervision to do something that he won’t do.  “In the housekeeping business, you’re a lawyer, a counselor, a psychiatrist and a manager.”

  Kary has worked hard and earned many awards for dedication to

his department and UIC including the Class Act Award in 2006, while continuing to earn a BA degree in Business Administration.  He has enhanced his education by earning the designation of Certified Healthcare Environmental Services Professional (CHESP). The CHESP is a national credential that distinguishes an individual as being among the elite in the critical field of healthcare management. He has also completed the education requirements for a Registered Executive Housekeeper which is the highest designation offered by the International Executive Housekeepers Associations, Inc.  Kary manages his investment properties after work and on weekends. His goal is to one day make this his daily business.  Kary resides in Westchester, IL with his wife and twin children Donovon and Diana.

Carl C. Bell, M.D. Dr. Carl Bell serves as Director of Public Health and Community

Psychiatry and is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health. He was recruited to UIC in 1983. He is President/CEO of the Community Mental Health Council Foundation, a community-based organization providing comprehensive mental health services to the Chicago metropolitan area.

  His contribution to the African American community through his

work in Public Health and Community Psychiatry is impressive. For more than 35 years, he has worked tirelessly as a mental health advocate for the African American Community. Throughout his career, he has worked to provide mental health services to the local community and shape policy decisions at the federal and local levels. “One thing that I would say about my tenure at UIC is that by being involved with the academic research at UIC, because I am also deeply on the community service side, I have been able to transport the research we have done at UIC directly into the community as I take research and apply it in the real world of service.  I have taken several UIC research products and moved them into the real world a la HIV prevention in South Africa, Violence Prevention in Chicago Public Schools and soon to do work in New Orleans.”

    In addition, he is a national leader in Mental Health and

Community Psychiatric research. Listed in Who’s Who Among Black Americans, Dr. Bell has published more than 375 articles on mental health issues involving women, children and the African American community.  He has received numerous honors and awards and was appointed to the Chicago Board of Health in 2002 by Mayor Richard M. Daley.  More recently, Dr. Bell was appointed to the National Institute of Mental Health National Mental Health Advisory and he served as an International Fellow - Institute of Philosophy, Diversity, and Mental Health, Center for Ethnicity and Health, Faculty of Health, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom, 2007.

MEE Prod Inc. photo

John C. Nash, C.D.T. John C. Nash is a board certified dental lab technician. He is a

1980 graduate of Triton College where he received an A.S. degree in dental laboratory technology. John has been with the College of Dentistry since 1980.  In 1984 he joined the UIC Craniofacial Center where he presently serves in the Maxillofacial Prosthetics Clinic as Chief Dental Technician.

  In 1988, John received a certificate of completion in dental

implantology construction from Northwestern College of Dentistry. Through his position in the Maxillofacial Prosthetics Clinic, John is responsible for the oral prosthetic reconstruction of the mouths and faces of patients. Many of the patients have had radical surgery because of mouth or head cancer, an accident, or are born with developmental deformities of the mouth or skull.

  Because of his unique and interesting work, John serves as

ambassador for both the UIC Medical Center and College of Dentistry. He routinely speaks to students and hosts’ students and interns in his lab. Student’s eyes light up when they hear his stories and see his work. He is one of few African Americans engaged in this line of work and he is a tireless motivator to our African American community. This year the National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology recognized John Nash for his 25 years as a Certified Dental Technician.

  In his leisure time, John enjoys carpentry and gardening growing

vegetables and perennial bulbs. John has been married for 27 years and has a daughter who is a sophomore at UIUC and a son who is a senior in high school. John is truly a clinical artist whose work is exhibited in the faces of his patients. He is making Black History at UIC every day.

Joseph Day, MA I had no great awaking to the ideas of public health; only the

vague feeling of things not being right in my community and in the world. To this was added a growing awareness that there seemed to be a relationship between the number of young men in the Austin neighborhood wearing white T-shirts standing on corners at midday and the rising levels of the world’s oceans. It seems to me that though we are all connected, this connection is not equally felt and that the gifts we bring are not always recognized or used. Public health has

offered me an integrated and holistic approach to examine and, I hope, ultimately to address problems affecting the US population at large and minority groups in particular.  One group in particular, African American men, are at the greatest risk for morbidity/mortality related to some of these public health problems and yet this group is one of the least studied. Without gaining a greater understanding, we will continue to see African American males become data points in the ever-growing body of statistics we have come to know as the health disparities crisis that is affecting our nation. These disparities affect us all in that we, as a nation, pay financially, socially and above all morally if we fail to address this ever growing problem.

  I am currently a DrPH student in the Community Health Sciences

Division in the School of Public Health. My background includes a BA and MA in psychology. I was awarded the 2007 Amuwo Minority Fellowship and was recently awarded an NIH Minority Supplemental Grant that will examine the recruitment and retention of African American and Hispanic males as research participants into a diabetes self-management study. Additionally, I am currently involved in a study examining the impact of social emotional learning in Chicago Public Schools. Previously, I have

worked on projects related to homelessness, substance abuse and the relationship between incarceration and HIV infection rates in certain Chicago communities. 

George Edward Manning, II Just prior to high school George’s Mother Jamesia and Father, George “the first” were discussing

George’s Oedipal issues to decide whether George II would stay at home with mother or go with his father on a loooooooooong train ride to God only knows!  It was decided that George would go with his father. George became the “pillow boy” on a

  train trip to the east that his father had helped to organize …. After three days and lots of pillows they arrived.  Once there,

George Jr.’s question, “Is it time to go home, yet” was answered with a kiss and the words, ”Not yet, baby…we just got here.”  Walking several blocks they reached their destination with thousands and thousands of other individuals.  During one of the speeches George Jr. shared with his father that the speech was redundant, saying, “The speaker has said, ‘I Have a Dream’ at least ten times, already!”  To that George’s father said, listen for both of us (George senior was deaf – but read lips).  This might be a very important speech one day”.  The event was the March on Washington.  The speaker was of course, Dr. Martin Luther King.  George’s father was always right! 

  A day in the life of this classically trained (violin, viola, pipe organ, harpsichord in addition to piano

musician) troubleshooter at the UIC SPHPI (School of Public Health / Psychiatric Institute) facility can range from participation as an appointed (by Mayor Richard M. Daley) former full member and chair of the Public Services Sub Committee of the Chicago Community Development Advisory Committee to solving PI flooding and construction problems.  As a Department of Psychiatry administrator (Director of Research Surveillance; Director of Community Relations, Consumer Groups, and Special Events; and Project Coordinator of Educational, Research and Clinical Services), George, who prefers to be called by his first name, divides a major portion of his time between research and development meetings at West Side Veteran’s, civic meetings, construction meetings, UIC research meetings, building issues, fund raisers, and issues of mental health consumer and advocacy groups.

  His work ethic and creativity have been awarded the State of Illinois “Employee of the Year

Award” three times while working for the historically renowned ISPI (Illinois State Psychiatric Institute).  Today, the Institute has been transferred to the University of Illinois and renamed “The Psychiatric Institute. 

  Two interesting facts about George that may not be known by even those who see him daily are

that he is knowledgeable in the Russian language and that he teaches ballroom dancing.  Every four years George presents 40 young Chicagoland scholars in a gala Scholarship Cotillion at the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Over the past 25 years he has witnessed 90 per cent of his Cotillion Kids (250) to successfully go on and compete and complete college degrees and land impressive jobs.

  Not only is George an accomplished musician- performer (he has a grand piano in his UIC office

and 4 grand pianos at home), he is also a composer/director.  He has played for 3 US Presidents (especially fond of being organist of choice for two Habitat for Humanity convocations for President Jimmy Carter).  He is the founder and president or member of several Chicagoland neighborhood associations (e.g. The Austin Schock Historical Association and The Society of Midway Park).  George is passionately involved in the preservation of architectural and historic landmarks and often lectures and participates on panels on the subject.  George’s own (single-handedly) restored 18-room Victorian home complete with third floor ballroom has been named a Chicago Historical landmark by the Chicago Commission on Architectural and Historical Landmarks.  The home has been featured on Oprah and in numerous periodicals.

  George has worked for YMCA International / Peace Corps and lived abroad for over 40 years and

has traveled to countries in Central America, South America, Europe, the UK, and Africa.  He maintains that we speak “one” language – “Friendship”.  As most know, George always ends his talks, speeches, presentations, chats with humor or a memorable quote, and to the readers he would like to say: “Remember Kindness—a language deaf people can hear and the blind can see” (in their later years, his father was deaf and his mother legally blind).