Alumni
Hello, alumni! We appreciate your interest. If you would like to update us, if you would like more information about what our current students are doing, if you and your employer are interested in hosting a Fellow, or if there is anything else that we can do for you, please call 309-438-7090 or e-mail
.We look forward to hearing from you.
Heather Fosburgh
M.S. 2002 Political Science
Heather Fosburgh graduated from Purdue University
with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication in the Liberal Arts Honors Program in 1995. After graduation, Heather served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1995-1997. Heather entered the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Illinois State University in 1998. During her 11-month professional practice internship through ISU, Heather worked with the City of Lockport, Illinois, as the Economic Development Coordinator. The city opened this as a full time position after she completed her internship and hired her. During her time in Lockport, she worked closely with the Main Street organization which eventually led to her thesis research on downtown revitalization programs. Heather completed her thesis and graduated in May 2002.
The applied nature of her graduate instruction at ISU, along with her professional practice experience in Lockport aided her when applying for a Research Associate position at Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies (CGS). CGS is a public service, applied research, and public policy development unit that applies the intellectual resources of the university to address public issues facing communities, the region, the state, and the nation. Here Heather was able to work under many experts in the Applied Community and Economic Development field. During her time at CGS she served as the Executive Director of Main Street DeKalb and worked with several municipalities, community groups and state organizations.
Five years ago, Heather decided to once again focus on international community development and she took a position at Rotary International. Currently she manages Rotary International’s Stewardship Department that focuses on grant monitoring, auditing, evaluation and compliance. She is fortunate to love her job and its many challenges as well as traveling and working throughout the world.
Heather believes that ISU and the Peace Corps Fellows opportunity created an environment that allowed her to develop a unique skill set in community development work for both domestic and international settings.
