Extraordinary Alum In Profile
NAME: Nakeyshaey M. Tillie-Allen (MSW ’05)
OCCUPATION: Founder and CEO of the Hip-Hop Therapy Project in Milwaukee. “I work with high-risk urban youth, mostly teens and young men who have been court-ordered to undergo anger management or behavior management therapy. I use hip-hop music lyrics to engage participants;
stimulate discussion; and examine life issues, struggles, and experiences.”
HIP-HOP CULTURE: “Hip-hop is a musical form, but it’s also a young, urban American mainstream culture. It communicates aspiration and frustration, community and aggression, creativity and street reality, style and substance. In my youth, hip-hop spoke to me in a way that no one else could, representing what I saw every day in my home—abuse and neglect—and in my community—poverty and pain.”
BACKSTORY: Becoming pregnant at 16, she heard her grandparents saying, “You’re turning out just like your mother.” “That was my motivator. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.” She changed directions. “I was on welfare and food stamps, but I finished high school and volunteered as a youth counselor while going to community college part time and working full time.” Besides her Loyola MSW, she now holds an MS in organizational leadership and development from Springfield College.
FAMILY TIES: Married since 1998 to high-school teacher Maceo Allen Jr. The couple has four children: Keyaira, 14; Tommy (Jeremy), 12; Maceo III, 7; and Kendrick, 3.
LOYOLA EXPERIENCE: “Attending Loyola was wonderful. I started out at the satellite campus at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and finished up commuting to Chicago twice a week. It was in one of my classes at Loyola that I came up with the hip-hop therapy idea.”
INFLUENTIAL PROF: Brenda Crawley, PhD, associate professor of social work. “I was a little cocky when I came to Loyola. Dr. Crawley gave me a C on a paper and wrote on it, ‘I know you can do better.’ It was a wake-up call. She’s been a mentor to me ever since.”
GIVING BACK: Tillie-Allen is chair of the School of Social Work Multicultural Awareness Resource Committee of alumni, which assists minority students through mentoring and cultural sensitivity programs. “It gives students of color a place to go to help them adjust to the college experience.”
I TELL TODAY’S STUDENTS: “Never give up. If you have a goal and you really want to achieve it, let nothing stand in your way.”
JOHN T. SLANIA (BA ’79)