Urbana City Council
Ward 4
- Urbana homeowner for 20 years
- Champaign-Urbana resident since 1980, in a variety of neighborhoods
- Active volunteer in community
- Academic professional at UI specializing in Geographic Information Systems
- Member, Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
- Champaign County American Civil Liberties Union steering committee, 18 years - president, 3 years
- Champaign County Citizen's Advisory Committee on Jury Selection
- Lierman Neighborhood Action Committee
I have lived in Champaign-Urbana since coming to school at the UI in the late 70s, and bought my house at 304 W Nevada Street in 1996. I was president of the Champaign County American Civil Liberties Union for 3 years and have been an active member or officer on the steering committee for nearly 18 years, lobbying for social justice and civil liberties issues at every level of government. I've volunteered weekly as a groomer and dog walker at the Champaign County Humane Society for many years and I’ve been active with the Lierman Neighborhood Action Committee. In addition, I served on the Champaign County Citizen Advisory Committee on Jury Selection, working to increase diversity on juries.
I served on the board of the Greater Community AIDS Project (1988-1991) to help bring accurate information and services to at-risk populations. I've continued to advocate for equality and against discrimination in its many forms in my work with the ACLU. I was also a founding member of the Vine-Maple Neighborhood Association in Champaign in the early 90s.
WORK
I currently work in the Department of Pathobiology at the UI College of Veterinary Medicine where I use geographic information systems (GIS) to study how diseases move through habitats and populations. In this position I have also worked on many projects with the local health department, using US Census demographics of Champaign County and customized local data to help identify needs for services. Previously I worked in another campus GIS lab as a research programmer supporting environmental modeling and visualization of landscape processes. I've also worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers Research Lab and Control Data Corporation, developing GIS applications for land use planning.
I recently worked part-time for several tax seasons as both a paid and volunteer tax preparer. I really enjoyed meeting the diverse clientele and having meaningful discussions about family finances and planning strategies. Early job experience included restaurant and hotel management, retail sales, and farm labor.
EDUCATION
I have a BS in LAS from the UI, concentrating in Biology with elective coursework also including Finance, Accounting, Economics and Philosophy. I also have an AAS degree from Parkland in Visualization Computer Graphics Programming, where I tutored Mathematics and Calculus while in school. I worked as an intern with the software development group at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) in the early 90s, across the hall from the group that developed NCSA Mosaic, the world's first successful graphical web browser.
For fun, I enjoy bicycling and hiking, and I often take 2-week wilderness backpacking trips in the western US (and once in Alaska). On one of these trips in 2000 or 2001, three of the 10 backpackers in our group were named Bill so somebody started calling me "urbanabill" and I decided to use it for my email address.
My primary in-town mode of transportation is bicycling. In the fall of 2015 I rode for 8 days from Louisiana to eastern Florida with my friend Ray Spooner on Ray's Little Ride. The past few years I've also taken up running in the winter and ran the Illinois Half Marathon in 2016.
I also enjoy spending time with family and friends, and gardening and fixing up my old house, though there never seems to be enough time to properly accomplish either.
