faculty news - College of Law - University of Illinois at Urbana ...

First Health, and remains its longest-standing director and
chair of the compensation committee. First Health became
a public company in 1987 and became the largest, most
successful independently-held health care cost management
company in the United States. Ron and co-founder
Dr. Robert Becker realized the vision of creating a company
that could significantly reduce health care costs of payers
nationwide.
Ron earned his B.S. in Commerce and Law from
the University of Illinois in 1957 and his law degree from
the College in 1959. He founded Galowich and Galowich
in 1960 and was in private practice specializing in business,
corporate, and real estate matters in Joliet and
Chicago until 1981 when he became Director of Real Estate
Operations for Pritzker & Pritzker, as well as president of
the various real estate entities of the Pritzker family
throughout the United States.
From 1981 to 1990, Ron was director of real estate operations
for the Pritzker family interests and president of
numerous Pritzker-related real estate companies, including
certain subsidiaries of The Marmon Group. His duties
included assisting in the non-hotel real estate operations of
Hyatt Hotels Company, a Pritzker entity. He served as
President & Director of TransUnion Land Development
Corporation, a major developer of residential and commercial
properties in Illinois, California, Colorado, and
Minnesota, Leadership Housing, Inc., a major developer of
large residential, commercial and industrial tracts in
Florida and California, and HeatherRidge Realty
Company, developer of a 2,000-unit condominium and residential
project in Gurnee, Illinois.
Ron is an airline transport rated pilot and served as
President of Airwich Airlines, an air taxi service in the U.S.
and Canada, and Pro Aviation, operating turboprop and
jet business aircraft. He served in the U.S. Army JAG
Corps for two years. He was appointed as an Illinois
Supreme Court Commissioner and has served in leadership
capacities for the Joliet Junior College Foundation,
Joliet YMCA, Rush University Medical Center Cancer
Institute, Athletes Against Drugs, and the Bernard Zell
Anshe Emet Day School. He has also served as President
of the College's Board of Visitors.
Phyllis J. Holmen '74
Phyllis J. Holmen serves as the
Executive Director of the Georgia Legal
Services Program (GLSP), a position she
has held since 1990. GLSP is a non-profit
law firm that provides free civil legal
services to the approximately one million
eligible low-income Georgians who live outside the metro
Atlanta area in10 locations throughout the state.
Phyllis earned her B.A. in English from the University of
Illinois in 1970 and her law degree from the College of
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
Law in 1974. She joined GLSP upon graduation as a staff
attorney, moving up to managing attorney in 1978, senior
attorney for health and education in 1983, and Director of
Litigation in 1984 until she assumed the Executive Director
position in June, 1990. She also served as a staff attorney
in 1977-78 with the Legal Assistance Foundation of
Chicago.
Phyllis is a member of the Executive Committee of the
State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors, and is active
with several State Bar committees including the Advisory
Committee on Legislation, the Access to Justice
Committee, the Indigent Defense Committee, and the
Individual Rights Section. She is a member of the
Advisory Council to the Supreme Court of Georgia's Civil
Justice Committee. She was a member of the Supreme
Court of Georgia's Indigent Defense Commission and has
served on the Governor's Judicial Nominating
Commission, the Supreme Court's Blue Ribbon
Commission on the Judiciary, and the Administrative
Office of the Court's Committee on Pro Se Litigants. She is
a member of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.
Phyllis is a member of the President's Task Force on
Access to Civil Justice of the American Bar Association,
and a former member of the Standing Committee on Legal
Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID) of the ABA.
Phyllis is a current or former member of many national
and community boards and organizations, including the
National Legal Aid and Defender Association; the
National Senior Citizens Law Center; the National Poverty
and Race Research Action Council; CHRIS Homes, serving
troubled children; the Women's Policy Group; Research
Atlanta; Leadership Atlanta; and the ACLU of Georgia.
In April, 2005, she received the Atlanta Bar Association's
Lifetime Achievement Award and, two months later, was
honored with the Traditions of Excellence Award from the
State Bar of Georgia's General Practice and Trial Section.
Phyllis also has received the Atlanta Women's Foundation
Justice for Women Award, the Georgia Woman Lawyer of
Achievement award from the Georgia Association of
Women Lawyers, the CHRIS Homes' CHRIStal Vision
award, and the Kathleen Kessler Award from the Georgia
Association of Women Lawyers. She was recognized by
Georgia Trend magazine in 2004 as one of Georgia's Legal
Elite and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in its 2005
“Who's Who in Law and Accounting.”
Judge Marilyn F. Johnson '79
Judge Marilyn F. Johnson was appointed
Circuit Court Judge for Cook County,
Illinois on March 17, 2006 by the Illinois
Supreme Court, assigned to the Traffic
Division. Judge Johnson handles high
volume court calls involving quasi-criminal
(fine only) traffic offenses and Class A misdemeanor
59