Catherine Forslund received her bachelor’s degree in modern European history from the University of Illinois. After graduation, she pursued other careers, but wound up entering graduate study at Washington University in St. Louis where she earned her Master’s and Doctorate in modern United States and U.S. diplomatic history. While in graduate school, Dr. Forslund taught as an adjunct as well as serving for several years as Chair of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council and working in local and state politics.

Following her graduate work, Dr. Forslund taught U.S. history at Misericordia University, also a small liberal arts college. During three years there, Dr. Forslund directed the Honors Program and served as the History Club advisor. However, the lure of returning to the Midwest was enhanced by an opening at Rockford University, her mother’s alma mater. She joined the RU staff in the fall of 2000.

Dr. Forslund teaches United States history, U.S. diplomatic, African-American, and women’s history, the Vietnam War era, and Modern China history courses. In 2002, her revised dissertation was published as Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations by Scholarly Resources Press as part of its Biographies in American Foreign Policy series. As a result of this work, she has also been a commenter on many panels exploring various women’s roles in American foreign relations.

Following the publication of her book, Dr. Forslund began work with editorial cartoons, giving conference presentations and later publishing two articles in refereed journals: “…Worth a Thousand Words: Editorial Cartoons of the Korean War,” Journal of Conflict Studies, Spring 2002 and “I’ll Be The Judge: Editorial Cartoonists View the Dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur,” The New England Journal of History, Fall 2003-Spring 2004. Additional editorial cartoon work also included a presentation in 2004 entitled “Those Who Like Green Cheese Can Have It: The Space Program as Foreign Policy in Editorial Cartoons.”

Dr. Forslund has contributed to two recent encyclopedias: East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations since 1784, James I. Matray, ed., 2002 writing entries for Anna Chennault and Clare Boothe Luce and in 2006 to A Historical Dictionary of Sino-American Relations, Yuwu Song, ed., with entries for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, George Frost Kennan, Civil Air Transport, and the Two China Policy. She also has entries for John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in the Encyclopedia of the Cold War.

A second research project on Edith Kermit Roosevelt resulted in a chapter published in A Companion to First Ladies. To do this archival research, Dr. Forslund was awarded a Sabbatical for Fall 2006 by Rockford University, and also received a research grant from the White House Historical Association and a scholarly fellowship from The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History to help defray research expenses during her sabbatical semester.

Dr. Forslund partnered with two other RU professors, Dr. Mary Weaks-Baxter and Dr. Christine Bruun (Emerita Professor of Psychology), to publish We Are a College at War: Women Working for Victory in World War II in 2010. This work explored the many roles women played during WWII through example of RU women and alumnae.

Dr. Forslund served as advisor to Student Government, has overseen student internships in history, and advised the RU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the international history honor society, and taught First-Year Seminar and served as a member of the First-Year Advising Team. She also served as faculty co-chair of the UnCommon Lives: Extraordinary Women in the Arts program at Rockford University between 2002 and 2006. Her contributions were recognized in 2004 with the Excellence in Teaching and Campus Leadership Award. Forslund has also served twice as Forum Series Administrator.

Off campus, Dr. Forslund is a long-time committee member at Midway Village and Museum Center, serving on the Program Committee. In addition, she has worked regularly as an Election Judge in Rockford city elections since 2001. Since 1999, each summer, Dr. Forslund has participated in the scoring of Advanced Placement United States History examinations. She also currently serves as Board president of Womanspace of Rockford and as a campus liaison to the local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).