Alumni Spotlights
Jennifer Baum
BA English (Liberal Arts), 2003
I am a Writer and Instructional Designer for Maestro, a creative learning agency. I have the pleasure of writing and editing a variety of content, including blog posts, eLearning courses, scripts, and more. Prior to Maestro, I directed communications, events, and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Throughout all of my positions, my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English were invaluable. The ability to intentionally select the right words, meaningfully arrange them, and create connections through writing has served me in my professional and personal life a thousand times over.
Heather Lanette Good
BA English (Creative Writing), 2006
I am currently a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working with a mental health group practice in Chicago. Prior to entering the field of psychology, I had a fluid and rich career path that ranged from private school teaching to executive leadership roles with statewide environmental and urban conservation nonprofit organizations. Earning an English degree has served me profoundly and consistently in each and every one of these professional roles. The foundation of my education at WMU is also why my job satisfaction has been high, why I have felt so well-equipped to work with a variety of groups and individuals, and why I feel I have made a difference for people, animals, and the environment in my work.
Ireland DeRosia
BA English (Liberal Arts), 2017
MA English, 2019
I am a Writer and Instructional Designer for Maestro, a creative learning agency. I have the pleasure of writing and editing a variety of content, including blog posts, eLearning courses, scripts, and more. Prior to Maestro, I directed communications, events, and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Throughout all of my positions, my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English were invaluable. The ability to intentionally select the right words, meaningfully arrange them, and create connections through writing has served me in my professional and personal life a thousand times over.
Jeff Huebner
BA in English (Creative Writing), 1982
Although I’ve been able to make a living as an art journalist, freelance writer, and author, in Chicago, I didn’t major in journalism. I wanted to be a creative writer. I wanted to write novels and short stories. Little did I think back then that learning how to craft fiction would be useful in my four decades of creating fact-based stories for a variety of local, regional, and national publications as well as for several non-fiction books. One reason I moved to Chicago was because I always wanted to write for the Chicago Reader, the city’s “alternative weekly.” It’s where I’ve plied my long-form and shorter narrative journalistic craft consistently for over two decades, more sporadically in recent years, as I’ve shifted to other kinds of writing projects, books. One of these days, I’ve always told myself, I’ll write a novel. But as a freelancer who needs to make a living, even now at what most would consider retirement age, I’ve never felt I’ve had the luxury of time to do so. But maybe some day.
Scott Overton
BA English (Creative Writing), 2002
I’m Site Head of Quality for a facility that turns human plasma into life-saving therapies.My degrees in Biomedical Science and Chemistry were my membership card into the industry, but it’s my time in the English Department that made me successful. I’m essentially a teacher or a coach.I don’t teach people how to make vaccines or plasma products, but I do ensure that many different departments – engineering and production, finance and quality control, research and commercial – work together and move in the right direction. I help them listen to each other and see the common goal. As an English major, I discovered that reading everything – especially the things I wouldn’t ever choose on my own – did something I never expected. It builds the amount of empathy that would take a hundred lifetimes to build in non-readers. It also shows you how your own mind works as you fill in the details left off the written page. Introspection and humility, as practiced in the English Department, are what my leadership roles have been built on.
Sydney Linders
BA English (Rhetoric and Writing Studies), 2020
I work as a Grant Writer for a non-profit where I prepare and track grant proposals on a yearly cycle, including private foundations and government contracts. Beyond the Grant Writing class I took with Dr. Brian Gogan, the most important way my English program prepared me was the confidence my professors instilled in me to use the tools taught in the classroom. Because of that confidence, encouragement, and insight, I was able to pursue a career in writing full-time.
Scott G. Williams
BA English (Liberal Arts), 2007
I’m the Community and Public Relations Manager for San Antonio Public Library (SAPL), a municipal library system serving over 2,000,000 people. I manage all of SAPL's marketing, public relations, graphic design, advertising, and outreach for a network of 30 library locations. As a career professional communicator, I believe that great communication starts with excellent writing. Communicating an idea, whether through advertising, video, or a Facebook post, always begins with the ability to clearly convey a thought through writing. Of everything I learned studying English at Western Michigan, a keen appreciation for language and effective writing skills have been the single greatest assets in my fulfilling and successful career as a communications professional.
Kristen Potts
BA in English (Secondary Education), 1997
I have been a nonprofit administrator in Kalamazoo County for 15 years. I am currently the CEO of SLD Read; my work has been focused on grant writing, relationship building and developing donor-centric appeals and communications. I believe my experience in the English Department at WMU gave me the skills I needed to move forward in a career built on communication and motivating donors, partners and funders to invest in an organization’s mission.
Jason Weeby
BA English (Secondary Education), 2003
I began my career as a middle school language arts and social studies teacher and have since worked in talent, strategy, policy, and philanthropy roles across the education sector. I now guide CEOs, superintendents, state leaders, and school board presidents as they make high-stakes decisions that affect millions of students. My English degree from WMU taught me to dig beneath the surface of an issue and examine it from multiple angles to formulate a more complete understanding.
Phillip Shane
BA English (Practical Writing), 2005
I am a 2005 graduate of Western Michigan University, where I majored in English. I went on to study law at Michigan State University and earned my J.D. in 2008. For most of my career, I’ve been practicing law at Miller Canfield, the oldest and one of the largest law firms in Michigan. In my experience, much of being a lawyer has been about solving problems by telling our clients’ best, true stories in clear and compelling ways, supported by their best evidence. Studying English at WMU helped prepare me to be an advocate for others by focusing on my audience, my message, and my delivery. I’ll be forever grateful to my WMU English professors and classmates.