Dr. Richa Pandey-Kochar sees approximately 30 patients a day as a nephrologist at Springfield Clinic, yet she still finds time to give back to the community she now calls home. Pandey-Kochar grew up in Mumbai, India, and describes Springfield as a “welcoming” community that gives her every opportunity to express her “whole self.” Pandey-Kochar says […]
Cinda Ackerman Klickna
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Advance Illinois releases education findings
Advance Illinois has released its most recent findings about education in Illinois. “The State We’re In 2025: A Report on Public Education in Illinois” presents data that should give us pause and spur action. These findings, coupled with major federal cuts in education, pose serious challenges for school districts and their students. Advance Illinois is […]
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Former King’s Daughters Home to house nurses
Yolonda Rice, a Springfield investor and entrepreneur, plans to purchase the former King’s Daughters Home and create apartments for nursing students and traveling nurses. “This has been a long journey,” Rice said, “but I have been met with great support from the city, the Historic Sites Commission and many others to make this a reality.” […]
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Monica Walls-Butler
In any one day, Monica Walls-Butler might be setting up a tea for young girls, helping teenage boys learn to tie a tie, taking voting-age teens to the polls, helping facilitate peer-to-peer discussions or mentoring a student. As a family and community engagement liaison for Springfield Public School District 186 at Southeast High School, Walls-Butler […]
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Vidya Sundareshan
Vidya Sundareshan is a doctor, educator, clinician, mentor and public health advocate. She is not only a woman of influence in Springfield but also nationally and internationally due to her focus on combining the fields of medicine and public health in all she does. As a professor and chief of infectious diseases for Southern Illinois […]
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Reading to reclaim memories
Ten to 20 people sit in a semi-circle; in front of them a person opens a book and begins reading to the group. No, this is not a school classroom; it is an almost daily scene at Mill Creek Alzheimer’s Special Care Center, located on the west side of Springfield. The group consists of patients […]
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Medical students get practice through Standardized Patient Program
Eight private exam rooms, each with a large, one-way mirror, line a curving corridor. On the other side of the mirror is a room where instructors watch what is happening in the exam room while listening through headphones. In the exam room is a patient dressed in a gown awaiting the entrance of a medical […]
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Vying to fill vacancies
A teacher shortage and a waning interest in teaching as a profession are both being addressed locally by two major grants. The Teacher Vacancy Grant pilot program provides resources to attract, hire, support and retain teachers in the state’s most understaffed districts, and the Grow Your Own grant awarded to University of Illinois Springfield’s School […]
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LLCC apprenticeship program builds tech skills
By Cinda Ackerman Klickna “Let’s build talent, not buy talent,” says Brenda Elliott, director of apprenticeship programming at Lincoln Land Community College. The program, only in existence for a year, was developed as a way for local businesses to fill needed information technology positions while offering LLCC students a path for a career or career […]