Maureen McKane worked as a columnist for the Aurora Beacon News and a mental health blogger on mckaneassociates.com. A lifelong interest in understanding racism started in Jim Crow Virginia when she was in sixth grade. After settling in Aurora, Illinois, she headed the nonprofit board of Aurora Community Study Circles for interracial dialogue. Maureen is now a retired psychotherapist and author. She received her MSW degree from University of Illinois Chicago and a two-year postgrad certificate in family therapy from the Family Institute at Northwestern University. She sits on the Aurora Human Relations Commission.