Five new members to join ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Board

Five new ECE ILLINOIS alumni will join the department’s Alumni Board of Directors in January.

The Alumni Board's purpose is to support the department's strategy and link ECE ILLINOIS' 22,000 living alumni to the department's leadership.

Board members assist the department by selecting recipients of departmental alumni awards, supporting several awards and scholarships for current students, meeting with alumni and students at a variety of events, and supporting the ECE ILLINOIS Office of Advancement in areas like alumni relations, corporate relations, communications, and fundraising.

The five new board members include:

Tod Courtney

Tod Courtney (BSCompE ’94, MS ’95) is the lead engineer at Jump Labs, the Champaign-based office of Jump Trading, located at the University of Illinois Research Park.

He specializes in software development in the areas of high-performance computing and computer-based simulation. Courtney also manages an internship program that offers students the opportunity to work on the challenging software, hardware, and data-science problems in financial trading systems.

Courtney is grateful to represent ECE ILLINOIS because the department provided him with a “tremendous” education and strong network to develop his career.

“ECE ILLINOIS has a strong tradition of excellence in education and innovative research,” Courtney said. “I am both humbled and honored to have the opportunity to join the board and become more involved with the ECE department. I look forward to serving in any way that I can.”

Sharon Hwang

Sharon Hwang (BSEE ’89) is an intellectual property lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in patent litigation and intellectual property counseling.

She was selected as a 2015 Illinois Super Lawyer and was previously honored by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as one of its “Best Lawyers Under 40.” This year, she received the Sandra R. Otaka Leadership Award from the Asian-American Bar Association of Greater Chicago.

Hwang is looking forward to giving back to Illinois, which provided her with countless opportunities and experiences. She plans to use this opportunity to mentor and promote ECE students and alumni.

“I look forward to promoting and supporting ECE Department initiatives to ensure that ECE ILLINOIS maintains and enhances its reputation for excellence,” Hwang said. “I am particularly interested in working with the board to support the recruitment of more women to the ECE faculty and to attract and recruit more female ECE students.”

Linda Reinhard

Linda Reinhard (BSEE ’87) is an experienced vice president and market leader for the Energy and Buildings group at Penton.

Reinhard is looking forward to using her role at Penton to support developments and achievements of the departments Power and Energy Systems group. During her time at Illinois, she fostered her passion for promoting technologies that can improve peoples’ lives.

“My career was focused on taking new technologies to market, and I leveraged my global experience from Illinois to commercialize technologies around the world,” Reinhard said. “As an alumna, I value the consistently high ranking electrical engineering program. I believe that the scale of the university enables a rich set of collegiate experiences and special programs not found elsewhere.”

She hopes to add to students’ experiences by encouraging them to consider non-traditional engineering career paths like technical sales, product marketing, product management, consulting, media, or ownership of a technology company.

Glendon Schuster

Glendon Schuster (BSEE ’93) is a senior vice president and chief technology officer at Centene Corporation.

Schuster is responsible for all technology functions within Centene’s core and specialty businesses. He leads a rapidly growing team of more than 500 information technology professionals to help drive IT solutions to deliver cost-effective, quality healthcare.

He plans to use the experience he has gained in his career as a business and technology leader to help continue to grow the reputation of ECE ILLINOIS.

"Working in healthcare, I am finding my ECE background increasingly relevant to today’s challenges in the healthcare industry," Schuster said. "I hope to be able to narrow the gap between a ECE degree and a successful career in a healthcare field that can benefit from those engineering skills."

He's also looking forward to meeting the rest of the ECE ILLINOIS alumni board members, "and having the opportunity to give back to the university that gave me so much," he said.

Becky Webb

Becky Webb (BSEE ’03 MS ’05) is a senior engineer at Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation.

Webb maintains her connection with Engineering at Illinois through her support of recruitment activities, the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Alumni Association Freshman Calling Program, the ECE Power Affiliates Program, and the Engineering Open House. 

She grew up as an Illinois fan and is proud to be a member of the strong professional network of the ECE department. With her time on the board, Webb plans to continue to develop the connection between students and the alumni community

“I was a student member of the ECE Alumni Board and experienced firsthand the great benefits the board provides,” Webb said. “I am looking forward to continuing to strengthen the connection between alumni, students, and faculty during my tenure. The Alumni Board is well positioned to provide insight that enhances both the student and alumni experience by connecting the innovative research and teaching on campus with the trends in industry.”