Albert Schorsch, III grew up in Chicago, and has worked or served as a construction laborer, youth and child care worker, swit

Albert Schorsch, III grew up in Chicago, and has worked or served as a construction laborer, youth and child care worker, switchboard operator, cab driver, Singer/songwriter/pianist, juvenile court outreach volunteer, choir director, community mental health clinic counselor, truck driver, magazine editor, interracial organization president, piano tuner, high school teacher, realtor and home builder, computer and management consultant, homeless shelter administrator, printing firm quality manager, park advisory council organizer, college logic and philosophy teacher, institute director, gang ministry organizer, city planner, program evaluator, and college administrator. He has taught at St. Ignatius College Prep, the former Niles College Seminary of Loyola University, and UIC. He earned psychology degrees from Loyola U., and later took professional education courses at MITs Center for Real Estate, Harvard’s Institutes for Higher Education, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and from professional organizations.

Schorsch earned a PhD in Public Policy Analysis in Urban Planning and Policy at UIC in 1992, and returned to UIC in 1994 to work at the UIC Center Urban Economic Development on the UIC Neighborhoods and NonProfits Network , which connected 50 organizations in Pilsen and the Near West Side to the university's computer resources and to a network of training and data. Schorsch joined the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA) Dean's office in 1996. He served as acting dean from 1999 to 2000, and has served as Associate Dean since 1999. Schorsch from 2004 until 2007 worked as interim director of the Great Cities Urban Data Visualization Lab which he helped found in 1997.

Schorsch resides in Chicago with spouse Betsy, a nurse, childbirth educator, and lactation consultant, and their children. As of 2010 Albert and Betsy have three grandchildren. For over 40 years, Schorsch volunteered with a number of Catholic and civic organizations. He worked with the homeless for 20 years through Friendship House, the Catholic interracial apostolate where he began work in 1976. Friendship House’s day shelter for the homeless closed in 2000 as Wicker Park’s Division Street gentrified. Through Friendship House, Schorsch met and/or studied the lives of women Catholic activists Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Patty Crowley, Betty Schneider, Ann Harrigan Makletzoff, Nina Polcyn Moore, Mary Jerdo Keating, Geraldine Adams, and their mentors such as Peter Maurin, the Revs. Reynold Hillenbrand, Paul Hanly Furfey, Jo hn Hugo, John J. Egan and Daniel Cantwell as recounted in his article, "'Uncommon Women and Others': memoirs and lessons from radical Catholics at Friendship House." U.S. Catholic Historian, 9(4):371- 386, Fall, 1990. While at Niles College Seminary in 1992-4, Schorsch directed the Reynold Hillenbrand Institute, and organized the Gang Ministry Research Project, which brought East LA gang priest Gregory Boyle, SJ to Chicago for a number of discussions with local ministries. Schorsch presently chairs the Board of Specified Jurisdiction for the Academy of St. Priscilla at Divine Savior, an a Primary Center of Excellence serving children 3-8 years old in Norridge, IL.

Quote: "My career has been a bit like the character Bert in the Disney film Mary Poppins. I appear one day as a one-man band, and the next as a chimney sweep. My job is to bring out the magic in others."

Updated 7/23/10