Face Time with Kathy Westman

Blackberry Township resident Kathy Westman was perusing the art at Beech Tree Studio in Geneva when she answered 13 questions for the Kane County Chronicle's Brenda Schory.

Where did you grow up?
Homewood

Pets? A golden named Cody and a Tibetan spaniel mix named Roxie

Who would play you in the
movie of your life? Helen Hunt

First job? Burger Chef in
Homewood

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? A social worker or a teacher. I was a social worker. Now I'm a sociology professor at Waubonsee Community College. Race, sex and gender are my specialties.

A book you’d recommend? “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

Words of wisdom? It is what it is

Favorite charity? TriCity Family Services in Geneva, Waubonsee Community College Foundation for scholarships, and I'm a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Do you speak another language? Tagalog

Favorite ice cream flavor? Peach

Do you have children? Three

Favorite local restaurant? Patten House in Geneva

What is an interesting factoid about yourself? As a Fulbright Scholar, I researched human rights in the Philippines over the summer. The indigenous people are in trouble there – big-time trouble. I also just got done teaching U.S. race relations at Canterbury University in the U.K. They see us as extremely racist, and they're trying to understand it because they perceive themselves as having no racism. But when you go into London, when you talk to men of color – people of color are only 3 percent over there – they will tell you a different story.