’85 UIC grad makes most of access to opportunities

Debra Evans' parents made access to education a priority for their children.

Unimpressed with their local elementary school, Evans' mother chose to send all of her children to private school. Debra and her brothers spent 13 years each learning to expect excellence in school and at home.

Debra Evans then became the first child in her family to go to college, graduating from Northwestern University with her bachelor's degree before earning her master's at the University of Illinois Chicago in engineering in 1985.

Though she expected to finish UIC and head to a lab developing pharmaceuticals, she took a business class that changed her trajectory.

"After that business class, I started thinking: What do you want?" Evans said. "Do you want to be an individual contributor sitting in some lab, doing the finite development, or do you want to influence the science?"

Evans' career has taken her to companies across the country and given her experiences around the globe. She has worked at Pfizer, Baxter, Motorola, Hughes Aircraft Company and Northrop Grumman Corporation. Today, she is the global program manager for the rare metabolic disease franchise at AbbVie.

The chance for Evans to change her job and move from the East Coast to California early in her career was a surprise to her parents. They had spent their entire careers in one organization. The ability to advance by changing companies is Evans' definition of social mobility.

"You aren't supposed to stay in the same place and be bored; you're supposed to make it fun and contribute," Evans said. "That's why I look at social mobility as taking the chance to make your life interesting and be of service."