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Today's Featured Biography

Michelle (Shelly) Kern Coussens

Originally Shelly Kern, I finally grew up and committed to my full first name “Michelle” upon graduating from college (interestingly, my parents never even told me this was my real first name until I applied to college!). I changed my last name to “Coussens” when marrying my college sweetheart in 1988. After “living in sin” for three years, the time was right to elope to the Caribbean over the Christmas holidays, thereby excluding and ticking off both sides of our families!

Our first child, Ashley, was born in 1990. She is now in her senior year of college, which is both strange and wonderful. Having Ashley inspired us to then have Darcy and Nick. My husband stayed home with the kids for over 16 years, and for that I will always be forever grateful, as that has made an incredible difference in the opportunities and involvement we could provide to them (although it has been at great financial sacrifice!).

After falling in love with Chicago during college, I have worked in “the loop” ever since. Commuting first from Villa Park, and then from far west (Batavia) has become a way of life. It is my hope to move into the city of Chicago once my son graduates from high school in 2012. While the Midwest is characterized to outsiders as farms, the heart of it is quite cosmopolitan. I love that I know my way around the city, have made it my own, and yet it always engages and surprises me.

In college, I started out as a double-major in math and music, but music quickly went by the wayside. I discovered that what I loved about music was less about the theory and study of it and really just playing it. I think I also fed on my parents’ encouragement and approval growing up and enjoyed being “special” as acknowledged through various performance opportunities and awards. Once in college, I realized that I just didn’t love it enough to devote my life to it, and that frankly, I wasn’t that special.

I went into the insurance industry after college, first doing actuarial work, and then in various management and operational roles. From there, I went to grad school and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Being there on 9/11 was an experience I most certainly wasn’t anticipating.

Today, I am the Dean of the School of Business at Kendall College in Chicago. I oversee and manage all aspects of the Business School, including faculty and curriculum selection and assessment, as well as program direction. I coordinate with both the internal departments and outside business community and serve as the “face” of the School and its programs. I also own Plan B Consulting, which I started over six years ago. I do strategic and business plans, market analysis, and competitive intelligence work for organizations around the world, as well as train professionals through organizations like the American Management Association. I particularly love working with not-for-profit organizations and find such work extremely worthwhile.

I really feel that I didn’t come into my own until maybe age 40. In my childhood, I thrived on accomplishment and praise; in college and into my 20s, I went a little wild and savored breaking away; in my 30s, I focused my life almost exclusively on my own family and nurturing my children; and in my 40s, I have allowed myself to think and behave a bit more unconventionally than many would believe of the childhood “me”, and I finally have more time for myself—for me, for the things that are too important to miss as life goes by. It is my hope that that thread continues, and I look forward to the next half (or hopefully more) of my life and the adventures it will bring. Despite my leaving B’ville, B’ville has never left me (sometimes to my frustration, but more often to my delight). I don’t physically return often, but when I do, it is really a treat. As far as childhood friends—those of you I have reconnected with know who you are, and I fiercely value those relationships. To others I have not seen or talked with over the years, I have come to learn that it is never too late to reconnect.

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