20 things you may not know about me

1. I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, although I lived in Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo before that as my father was moved from Ford plant to Ford plant designing assembly lines. 

2     When I was 16, I interviewed two young sportscasters in Chicago, Brent Musburger and Greg Gumbel.  (perhaps my printed interviews got the attention of the network?) (I was sports editor of my school paper 3 years)

3.     The next year I marched in the St. Patrick’s day parade…………in Dublin

4.     In college here at the U of I,  I produced 2 benefit concerts with Harry Chapin, raising over $20,000 for his charity, World Hunger Year.

5.     I also helped set a world record for vertical beer keg stacking with money going to MDA.

6.     Even though I graduated from the UI, I was the founder of my fraternity chapter at the University of Michigan

7.     I worked on the Michael Jackson Victory Tour

8.     I worked back stage at the first Farm Aid concert at Memorial Stadium

9.     I have played basketball against Charles Barkley and was with him the first time he ever played golf.  Charles said twice "Salen is the toughest defender I ever faced"

10.  I refereed the state finals in 4 A Girls Basketball 3 times. 

11.   I worked on the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival for 19 years, was the director 5 times and cooked the corn for 5 years, over 150,000 ears cooked.

12.  I am the co-founder of Austin’s Day, a day of service in memory of Austin Cloyd, killed in the Virginia Tech shootings. This year will be the 10^th anniversary.

13.  I am Executive Secretary of Champaign Rotary Club

14. I have been the Chapter Adviser of Phi Kappa Psi at Illinois for 31 years

15.   I wad Chairman of the UI Board of Fraternity Affairs, the sanctioning committee for the UI Greek System.

16.   I have facilitated over 15 I Programs for the UI Leadership Center

17.   I spent 6 years working for the UI DIA and worked directly with Augie Garrido the winningest coach in college baseball history, Richard “Itch” Jones, who took SIU to the College World Series and current UI Coach Dan Hartleb.

18.   My beautiful and brilliant sister, Kristina Salen, used to be CFO of ETSY and is now CFO of United Artists, and CFO of WWE

19.    I have produced 16 musicals for CUTC and Champaign Park District.  And  I can’t sing, dance or act. 

20.  My nephew Arlo is a super hero