Grace Wilson graduated in 1931 with a degree in Architecture and joined the faculty in 1946. At that time, there were only 14 women in the College of Engineering. Despite a dip in the 1950s, female enrollment grew, reaching 73 by her retirement in 1973. She founded the Society of Women Engineers chapter, and the Grace Wilson Award was established by the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers...
Helen Octavia Dickens earned her B.S. in 1932 and M.D. in 1934, becoming the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. She graduated in 1934 as one of only two women in her class.
Helene Ruth Foellinger graduated in 1932 with a B.A. in Mathematics and was active in Pi Beta Phi, Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Torch. She served on the student council and as the women’s editor of *The Daily Illini*. In 1935, she joined the News Publishing Company, later becoming its president and publisher of the Fort Wayne Indiana News-Sentinel. Foellinger had a 45-year...
Jane Fauntz Manske, who graduated around 1932 with a degree in Art Education from Illinois, was a national champion swimmer and diver. She competed for the USA Olympic team in 1928 and 1932, winning bronze in springboard diving in 1932. Despite a high school ban on female athletics in Illinois, she excelled in college swimming and diving and was a Kappa Alpha Theta member. Manske was also among...
Marie Hochmuth Nichols was a faculty member in the Speech and Communication Department from 1939-1976. Her pioneering work in rhetorical studies, known as “The Illinois Tradition,” highlighted the role of rhetoric in community building and change. Nichols was NCA president in 1969, the first woman elected by the whole membership, and received the NCA’s “Distinguished Service Award” in 1976. She...
Natalia M. Belting earned her B.A. in 1936 and M.A. in 1937 from Illinois. She joined the History Department in 1940 and was the first woman promoted to Associate Professor. Teaching from 1941 to 1985, she authored several books, including children's history books, and received the Mother’s Association Medal of Honor. Her faculty papers and personal journals are archived at the University.
Carita Robertson joined the Physical Education Department in 1925 and later became its head. She sponsored the first Big Ten swim meet for women in 1930 and helped design a basketball floor plan for women in 1932.
Florence Bell Robinson joined the Department of Landscape Architecture in 1929 and was notable for "breaking the tenure barrier" in co-ed Landscape Architecture schools. She became an Assistant Professor in 1946 and a Full Professor in 1951 before retiring.
Irna Phillips, a 1923 UIUC graduate, was the first alumna to receive the Alumni Achievement Award. Known as the “mother of the soap opera,” she created the hit shows *As the World Turns* and *The Guiding Light* and helped develop several other popular soap operas.
Louise Dunbar earned her PhD in History in 1920 and joined the History faculty that same year, during a time when few women held such positions. She had a significant influence on campus, particularly in the History Department, and retired in 1962 after more than 40 years of teaching.