Descended from generations of civil rights activists, Billingsley earned her B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and her M.A. degree from the Ohio State University. While living in Berkeley, California, she was active in the political arena, supporting a number of candidates, including Congressman Ron Dellums. Billingsley later moved to Washington, D.C. and formed her own consulting company, and later co-founded Black Women’s Agenda, Inc. before serving as a consultant in the Clinton White House and serving as special assistant to Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman. Billingsley later returned to consulting, forming Amistad Associates before joining The HistoryMakers.

Crowe has been steeped in African American arts and culture, and the humanities for over 30 years. With an undergraduate degree in history from Wright State University, he has held a variety of positions including theater manager; assistant editor for Third World Press, the largest black publisher in the United States; and manager of an African American bookstore. In his current position, he interviews HistoryMakers and completes research. As of July 2009, Crowe has conducted around 900 interviews for The HistoryMakers’ project.

Hickey is very proud to have been a videographer for The HistoryMakers from the start. A 25-year industry veteran, Matthew Hickey produces, directs, edits, and shoots for video, still photography and feature films. His production experience includes live events, talk shows, travel shows, corporate training, documentaries and drama. His work has appeared on WTTW, C-SPAN, Fox Sports, The International Channel, ESPN, and many other broadcast and cable TV outlets. Hickey was formerly Production Manager for SCTN Teleproductions, The HistoryMakers, Take 1 Video Productions and the Athenaeum Theatre.  

Stearns has over twenty-five years of experience in the video production and multimedia industries. After attending the University of Denver, he went on to pursue a career in the production industry. Stearns served as Director of Production for over three years and played a key role in developing the Interviewer and Videographer Guidelines. Prior to joining The HistoryMakers, he ran his own video production and rental facility.  

Margaret has been a volunteer with the organization since its inception.  She serves an indispensible role with the organization tending to the reception area and answering office inquires.

Daniel joined The HistoryMakers in May of 2008 as a graduate assistant through a collaboration with The University of Illinois. After the collaboration dissolved Johnson was brought on full-time as an archival assistant. Johnson oversaw the digitization of all of the documents in The HistoryMakers collection as well as 15,000 photographs and 3,000 Beta Cam SP videotapes. Johnson then became digital archivist in 2010 and took over the content management for The HistoryMakers’ website, The HistoryMakers databases and all new HistoryMaker interviews. Johnson also assumed administrative duties over all HistoryMakers archival grants. Johnson earned his B.A. degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 and his MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009. 

Coming Soon

Alison is interested in communicating science to the public. After earning a degree in Biology at Northwestern University, Bruzek joined The HistoryMakers as a Science Researcher. She stepped up to manage the project in the fall of 2010 and has since created curriculum based on ScienceMaker interviews, directed outreach efforts, and co-organized several public programs across the U.S. for both youth and adult audiences.

Brad joined The HistoryMakers in July of 2011.  He studied Television & Film Production at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  During college, Morgan was active with several media entities including National Public Radio and MTV Networks - Country Music Television.  Prior to moving to Chicago in early 2011, Morgan spent several months in Anchorage, AK working on a feature-length film starring Jon Voight.  His interests include music and further exploring the arts in Chicago.  In his current position, Morgan processes new interviews for The HistoryMakers and digitizes old interviews shot on Beta Cam SP tapes.

As the Business & Operations Manager, Zhu manages financial operations for The HistoryMakers. Her duties include developing and implementing the organization's policies and procedures, business management planning, grant and accounting management, financial analysis and forecasting. Zhu has over 3 years’ experience in financial management and accounting in higher education and government accounting.

Zhu received her B.S. in Electronic Commerce from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, and MSA and MBA from University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also a Registered Certified Public Account in the state of Illinois.