Category: Bio-Social

Shawn Healy, PhD, leads iCivics’ state and federal policy and advocacy work through the CivXNow Coalition and oversees civic education campaigns in several key states. Since Healy joined iCivics in 2021, 24 states strengthened civic education policies, Congress quadrupled funding for K-12 civics, and the CivXNow Coalition grew to 340+ viewpoint and geographically diverse organizational members.

Healy chaired the Illinois Task Force on Civic Education in 2014 and later led separate, successful legislative campaigns for a required civics course in Illinois in middle and high school. He also chaired the Illinois Social Science Standards Task Force. The State Board of Education adopted its recommendations in 2015.

Healy speaks regularly at conferences across the country, contributes to local and national media, and produces original scholarship on political participation and civic education. He also serves as an adjunct professor in Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and on the Board of Directors of the Legislative Semester, Inc. and the Student Press Law Center.

Previously the Democracy Program Director at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Healy began his career as a high school social studies teacher in Wisconsin and Illinois. A 2001 James Madison Fellow, he holds a MA and PhD from UIC in Political Science and earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in Political Science, History and Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Dr. Emma Humphries joined iCivics as Chief Education Officer in February 2016.

Emma began her career in education as a classroom teacher in North Florida, where she taught all levels of American government, American history, and economics. It was there she first learned the power of innovative learning tools that allow students to engage with important content and make meaning of otherwise dry concepts such as federalism and limited government.

In 2008, she began a Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Florida, where she focused her studies and research on civic education and teacher professional development until she graduated in 2012. As luck would have it, Justice O’Connor visited the Florida legislature during this time, inspiring them to pass the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act in 2010, which mandated civics instruction at the middle school level. This timely development provided Emma with opportunities to partner with the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship in drafting a yearlong 7th-grade civics curriculum and assisting in subsequent teacher training efforts.

In 2011, Emma joined the team at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service as its Civic Engagement Coordinator. In this role, she worked with center and campus leadership to promote civic engagement at the University of Florida by developing, implementing, and coordinating innovative programs for students. During her tenure, she also created and taught an award-winning, online citizenship course entitled “Rethinking Citizenship: Identity, Collaboration, and Action.”

Emma has degrees in political science and education and was awarded a James Madison Fellowship in 2004. She was a founding member of the iCivics Educator Network and has been spreading the good word about iCivics since 2010.

Emma lives on Saint Simons Island, GA, with her husband, Michael, and their daughters, June and Julia. In her spare time, she chairs the annual St. Simons Island Wine Festival benefitting local arts and education causes.