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Meet the Alum Board

Meet Your Alum Board – Gay Greenwood Kirkton

Hello! My name is Gay Greenwood Kirkton, and I was a member of the pledge class of the fall of 1975 and a graduate of the May class of 1979.  I majored in speech and English education and spent most of my career teaching at Dekalb High School in Auburn, Indiana, north of Fort Wayne. I attended the 85th anniversary weekend this past summer and was so impressed with all that the alumni board has accomplished! I only hope I can keep up with them as I begin my tenure!
I grew up  in Chatham, Illinois, and I always hoped to attend the U of I because my father graduated from there. I heard many stories of his experiences in his classes and living at Illi- Dell. We spent a few weekends every year visiting with his Illi- Dell buddy Bill Gossett and his wife Nancy, who lived at 4-H House. [ ]

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Meet Your Alum Board – Beth Patterson

Greetings.  It’s Beth
Patterson – your Alumni relations connection on the board.  When the House women look to meet, mix, and
mingle with our illustrious alums for networking opportunities, I’m the one to
call!  The Homefront also falls under my
responsibility.  As Joyce Riskedal (web
site maven) has previously mentioned, please update your profile on the House
web site as we are moving to more digital communication in January of 2020.

A little about me.  I hail from Carroll County in Northwestern Illinois and was determined to attend the UI no matter what.  My folks were concerned that this small-town girl would get lost in the shuffle of the University and they were right.  Thank goodness for learning about 4H House through the connections I made while showing projects at the state fair.  The night that Natalie Webb Dougherty and Nancy Blankenship Ottosen called me to join 4H House and the pledge class of 1978, I was [ ]

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Meet Your Alum Board – Pam Clodfelter

Hello!  My name is Pam
Clodfelter, and I serve as the Parent
Liaison on your Alumni Board.  It amazes
me how time slips away so quickly and before I know it, I find myself being a 30-year alumnus of the University of Illinois
and 4H House.  I graduated with a BS
(1989) in Agricultural Communications (News-Editorial) and an M.Ed. (2002) in
Human Resource Development.   I grew up
in Kewanee Illinois on a farrow to finish hog farm where I was active in
athletics at Wethersfield High School and 4-H.

In the past 30 years, I have worked in various industries as
my husband, Randy, and I have grown our careers and our family. Starting with
the Illinois Pork Producers Association to Higher Education to Ag in the
Classroom, I never strayed too far from promoting agriculture and education.  Currently, I am the human resource/office
manager for a local commodity brokerage firm. 
We live in Sterling where we raised our two
children – Meghan and Mitch.  [ ]

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Meet Your Alum Board- Joyce Riskedal

Hi, this is Joyce (Maierhofer) Riskedal (’91).  I am the one you hear from on FB and emails.  I serve as the website/database chair on the
alum board. (Don’t forget to update your profile).

Shortly after I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education,
I married my college sweetheart, Brad (FH, ’91).   I taught kindergarten for 2 years and started
our family.  I like to consider myself as
still being on maternity leave.  Except for
some substitute teaching years ago, I have not returned to the classroom.

We have 2 sons, Darren and Stephen.  Darren (FH, ’16) married Kendall Herren (4-H, ’16) and lives in Lake Mills, WI. He works for Insight FS.  Stephen (FH, ’19) will be starting a job with Grainco FS here in LaSalle County after graduation.

I stay busy helping Brad on our family farm in Leland, IL, keeping
the books for our trucking company, “R” Delivery, helping with Riskedal Beef
while the boys are away, [ ]

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Meet Your Alum Board – Rebecca Ries

Hi! My name is Rebecca (Becki) Ries. I am a member of 4-H House’s 2017 pledge class, but I graduated from U of I in 2016 with a degree in Animal Sciences. I grew up in Waterloo, IL on a small hobby farm. While in 4-H House, I served as the Philanthropy Chair, Brother’s Weekend Chair, and Risk Chair. On campus, I was very active with ACES Council, serving as President my junior/senior year. I was also the President of a club for international students called English Corner for two years. 

After graduation, I received a poultry certification from the
Midwest Poultry Consortium’s Center of Excellence Program hosted at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison. With the poultry certification, I moved to
Kentucky to work in a management training position with Pilgrim’s. From there I
became the Human Resources Supervisor. This past summer, I moved back to the
Champaign-Urbana area and took a job at the [ ]

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Meet Your Alum Board – Kelli Lively

I, Kelli Lively, am a Class of 1996 alumna of 4-H House and graduated UofI with a major in Finance from the College of Business. I grew up in West Salem, IL as part of a proud farming family and was a 10-year member of our local 4-H Club. As an undergraduate, I was an active member of the house mostly serving in offices related to Treasurer, Social, and Pledge guidance. I was proud to represent 4-H House on the University’s Panhellenic Council for two years, and held an elected position in Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA) serving as Homecoming Committee Chairperson in my senior year.

After college, I worked in various finance, treasury, and trust
administration roles at Citicorp and Northern Trust in Chicago, IL. At Northern
Trust, Washington University in St. Louis was one of my not-for-profit trust
administration accounts, which led me to pursue a career at WashU when I
married and [ ]

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