Billy Huff is a communication scholar and the director of the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).

UIC’s Gender and Sexuality Center is a cultural center serving the campus’s LGBTQIA+ students, faculty and staff. Huff’s role enables him to combine his passion for working with students with his interests in queer and trans scholarship and activism.

On Wednesday, October 14, Huff will present “Out of the Closet, Into the System: How Gender and Sexuality Organize Our World,” this year’s William R. Johnson Intercultural Lecture at Elmhurst University.

Huff holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric from Georgia State University, and his work bridges higher education administration with community engagement to foster equitable, socially just environments on campus and beyond.

The public lectures and other cultural programming at Elmhurst University support community engagement and lifelong learning, and prepare our students to thrive as adaptive leaders. The William R. Johnson Intercultural Lecture is named for the Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson ’68, an Elmhurst alumnus and the first openly gay person to be ordained by a mainline Christian denomination.

This year’s Johnson Lecture begins at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center. Admission is free but reservations are encouraged, at elmhurst.edu/Cultural.