Alumni Spotlight

Sociology

Treyce' L Spears
MA '06

Team Leader in Life/Health Underwriting: State Farm Insurance, Owner: Spears Consulting Services

How did Illinois State help me get there?

Treyce' L Spears, a 2006 graduate of Illinois State University's Sociology & Anthropology department, where she earned a Master's Degree, has been selected by The Conference Board to facilitate a session based on her thesis work, “Black Women: Balancing Multiple Identities In Corporate America” during their upcoming Diversity Conference.

"It was at Illinois State University in the classrooms where I was introduced to the writings of Patricia Hill-Collins; Ella L.J. Edmonson Bell and Stella M. Nkomo whose discussions on professional identity and “the outsider within” helped to explain what I was witnessing and reading about, a mass exodus of Black women from the corporate sector. I began to ask questions. The responses that came from women throughout central Illinois made my research necessary and relevant.

I will always be grateful to the many professors at Illinois State University who challenged me to explore the issues behind the actions. To understand outcomes and not be satisfied with simply knowing, but rather to influence others to understand and be moved to positive action. Dr. Maura Toro-Morn served as my thesis Chairperson and Dr. Diane Bjorklund, and Dr. Sammie Robinson, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, served on my committee. "

Spears is employed at State Farm Insurance Company in the Life/Health Underwriting department where she serves as a Team Leader. Spears, who worked while pursuing her degree, says that her employer was always flexible concerning class schedules.“When I needed to adjust my hours to attend a daytime class, my management made it possible." Spears says she recently celebrated 14 years with the company. Spears also owns Spears Consulting Services, and says that she hopes to publish a book on her business strategy and apply for a grant to expand her research on the subject she began at Illinois State University.

Anthropology

Murray Marks
BA '78

Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee

How did Illinois State help me get there?

"Since graduation from ISU, I received a M.A. in bioarchaeology/dental anthropology from University of Arkansas. I then became a Research Associate in Forensic Anthropology at Louisiana State University working for Douglas Owsley before entering the doctoral program in biological anthropology at the University of Tennessee. My doctoral research involved dental enamel histology as indicators of childhood stress in historic African-American skeletal collections. Since 1994 I have been on the faculty at the University of Tennessee and I became an Associate Professor in 1999."

"I was introduced to anthropology at ISU learning archaeological method and theory from Ed Jelks and being fortunate to be employed by several of his Forensic Archaeology Projects. I learned the precision of human osteology and romance of paleoanthropology from Marty Nickels and the beauty of ethnography from Rob Dirks. In fact, it was the initial cultural anthropology courses that provided the most resourceful contribution to the graduate years that followed ISU."

"Today, my main duties are teaching and mentoring graduate students in forensic and dental anthropology thereby providing human identification services and bony trauma evaluation for the medicolegal community. I have a joint appointment in the departments of pathology and dentistry/oral surgery in the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. I also perform human soft tissue decomposition research at the outdoor research facility where I teach the FBI’s evidence response teams on clandestine grave discovery/recovery. My former graduate students are now professors, medical and dental school students, and work as bioarchaeologists for the U.S. Central Identification Laboratory for the Joint Pacific Accounting Command (excavating crash sites from Vietnam and other parts of SE Asia) and as forensic anthropologists for Medical Examiner’s Offices."