Media Resources

"Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award–winning and International Latino Book Award–winning author and poet — the first Latina and the first Puerto Rican to win the Bram Stoker Award. She writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. Chicago is not her setting. Chicago is her cosmology. She holds a Master of Science from Roosevelt University."

"Barbosa is a Brazilian-born runner who was raised in England and moved to Chicago in 2022 to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology at Roosevelt University. In June 2026, he became the first person known to have run every street in all 77 Chicago neighborhoods, covering more than 5,000 miles over 680 days. He also holds a Guinness World Record for the fastest time visiting all 146 CTA stations."

"Throughout her career, Zoe Heller, director of CalRecycle, has been focused on the human connection to environmental effects. That focus continues today through her work leading an agency with a 2026/2027 annual budget of $2.2 billion and an ambitious agenda of sustainability and circularity in the world’s fourth-biggest economy. "