One of the greatest points of pride for the College of Fine and Applied Arts is its thousands of alumni.

Every day graduates from the College’s seven academic units are contributing to the advancement of the visual and performing arts and environmental design in significant ways — exemplifying their excellent education from the University of Illinois.

They are advocates, practitioners, donors, and patrons of the arts they studied here, and we are pleased to feature a sampling of their accomplishments.

• School of Music alumna and entrepreneur Sheila Johnson has been named winner of the 2008 Illinois Alumni Achievement Award
• A graduate of the Art Education program in the School of Art + Design, Shauna Carey, was named National Teacher of the Year
• Theatre alumnus Robert Falls celebrated 20 years as director of the renowned Goodwin Theatre in Chicago
• Robert Kleinschmidt
• The March issue of American Theatre features two BFA alums! On page 22 is an excellent photo of Tinashe Kajese and an article about the production of Athol Fugard's new play Victory (in which she is featured) at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. Then, we turn to page 56 to find Jon Michael Hill pictured in the cast of In The Brown and Red Water, this month's printed playscript. Hill did the premiere of the play in Atlanta. In the same issue is our Department's ad on page 50, picturing the lovely BFA alum Mallory Portnoy as Cassie in our recent Chorus Line. 2008
• Outstanding Alumni Award to Michael Stepner, a graduate of the architecture program at U of I. Michael's career includes over 25 years serving the City of San Diego as a planner and City Architect. He currently leads Stepner Design Group and is a professor at the New School of Architecture, where he previously served as Dean. Michael was instrumental in the resurrection and historic preservation of the Gaslamp Quarter downtown and in the development of the Orchids and Onions architecture awards program in San Diego. Please join to recognize another Illini who has made a positive impact on our San Diego community.