Sister Helen Prejean has dedicated her life to opposing the death penalty after she witnessed an execution in her home state of Louisiana. Her efforts have sparked a national dialogue on capital punishment and she has helped shape the Catholic Church’s position on the topic. In 2011, she donated her personal archives to the university to help the DePaul community continue to learn from her work. On this episode of DePaul Download, Sister Helen talks about life’s work and what keeps her going. 

At the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic are bioethicists, experts who help health professionals and elected officials navigate tough decisions. While the toughest choice for most of us was just staying home, bioethicists, such as DePaul’s Craig Klugman and Valerie Koch, helped answer tough questions to prepare communities for COVID-19. They both served on statewide planning efforts to prepare for a pandemic, and on this episode of DePaul Download, they discuss the response to COVID-19 and what may come next.

University campuses across the country have been fundamentally disrupted by COVID-19. At DePaul, courses moved to remote delivery through the end of Summer Quarter and almost all university operations are being conducted remotely. Students, parents, faculty and staff are eager for some certainty about what the future holds. Will in-person classes at DePaul resume in the fall? Will COVID-19 permanently alter the way the university operates? While many details still aren’t known, DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban, Ph.D., shares his thoughts on these questions and the factors DePaul is considering as the university begins planning for the fall.

Brian Coleman, a 2014 DePaul College of Education alum, brings his signature energy to this episode of DePaul Download to discuss being named 2019’s National School Counselor of the Year and how his DePaul experience helped him and his career. The counselor at Jones College Prep in Chicago shares his “unicorn philosophy” and provides a glimpse into what high student face today, giving a picture of an alum who exemplifies “Here, We Do.”

Alumna Karli Butler inspired the TEDxDePaulUniversity audience in 2018 with her story of the acid attack she survived in 2006, her recovery and the path she took towards forgiving her assailant. In this episode, DePaul Download checks back in with Karli to hear what she’s been up to, how the TEDx experience impacted her life and what it was like to share such a personal story with hundreds of people. Karli is a Double Demon, holding both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the College of Communication.

There is no shortage of advice for business leaders seeking to optimize their performance or for parents hoping to do the best for their children. A DePaul professor says it’s time for one group to consider learning from the other. Alyssa Westring, an associate professor of management & entrepreneurship and a DePaul Presidential Fellow, and a colleague recently published a book, “Parents Who Lead,” about how applying leadership principles to parenthood can help parents lead more purposeful lives. In this episode, Westring suggests solutions for the burnout years of parenthood and describes how leadership provides some guidance. She also discusses her Presidential Fellow project, which evaluates DePaul’s culture to identify opportunities to enhance the engagement, retention and career advancement for women and faculty of color.

In the 10 years since DePaul’s School of Hospitality Leadership was established, the hospitality industry has seen dramatic changes. Advancements in technology are improving how hotels, restaurants and convention centers operate; new trends are reshaping the travel experience; and far-off destinations are more within reach. How does DePaul prepare students to enter this fast-growing sector? With a combination of classroom instruction led by professors with industry experience and hands-on training. In this episode, Nick Thomas, the school’s director, talks about how hospitality leadership educators are meeting the challenge of evolving with the industry—and shares what he’s learned from spending time on the opposite side of the world.

DePaul psychology professors W. LaVome Robinson and Leonard A. Jason recently received a $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to reduce African American youth violence. Robinson leads the project, Success Over Stress, reaching ninth graders in Chicago Public Schools. The program teaches coping skills to deal with stress, enhance resilience, and prevent interpersonal violence and suicide. The award is the largest research grant DePaul has ever received. In this episode, Robinson and Jason—collaborators for nearly 40 years—talk about the Success Over Stress Violence Prevention Project and how their work connects to DePaul’s Vincentian mission.

DePaul continuously looks for ways to evolve and offer students the best curriculum, campus life, technology and facilities. And results of the collective efforts are clear: U.S. News & World Report named DePaul one of the country’s “most innovative schools” in its 2020 Best Colleges rankings. As the university prepares to host the first annual DePaul Innovation Day for faculty and staff on Jan. 24, Interim Provost Salma Ghanem discusses how DePaul encourages innovation and the wide range of projects funded under the Academic Growth and Innovation Fund Program. 

A democracy that’s truly representative of the people depends on the people to exercise their right to vote. There are some groups of people, however, who regularly don’t vote—because they don’t know they’re eligible. Contrary to popular belief, in Illinois, a convicted felon regains eligibility to vote as soon as he or she leaves a corrections facility. Anyone awaiting trial in jail is eligible to vote, too. DePaul political scientist Christina Rivers, an expert in voting rights and a DePaul Presidential Fellow, helped pass legislation to provide voter education to soon-to-be released inmates. In this episode, she discusses these initiatives, her work with the Inside Out Program and her latest research: racial gerrymandering.