Colleen Callahan Biography
Colleen Callahan Burns is an agriculture news reporter and the Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. She was an agribusiness reporter for WMBD-TV and WCIA from 1974 to 1997.
Colleen Callahan Age
Colleen was born and raised in the United States of America.
Colleen Callahan Education
She graduated as salutatorian from Milford Township High School in May 1969, and from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973.
Colleen Callahan Family
Callahan grew up on a farm near Milford, Illinois. Her father, Francis Callahan, was the chairman of the Iroquois County Democrats. Her grandpa, Joseph R. Callahan, served in the Illinois House of Representatives. Her uncle, Gene Callahan, was the administrative assistant and press secretary for Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon (before Simon became a United States senator) and chief of staff for U.S. Senator Alan Dixon; his daughter, Cheri Bustos, was the U.S. representative for neighboring Illinois’ 17th congressional district until 2023.
Colleen Callahan Husband
Callahan is married to her husband Dick Burns they live on a farm near Kickapoo, Illinois. They have a grown daughter who became a practicing attorney in Chicago.
Colleen Callahan Career
She was an agribusiness reporter for WMBD-TV and WCIA from 1974 to 1997. In 2003, she paid for her own study trip to Afghanistan and Iraq at the invitation of the United States Secretary of Agriculture. She founded Colleen Callahan Communications in 2003. She switched jobs from WMBD in Peoria to WGFA in Watseka, Illinois, in 2003, and has worked as the agricultural director at both stations since. She ran for U.S. Representative in Illinois’s 18th congressional district in 2008, filling Ray LaHood’s seat after he retired. She won the Democratic primary but lost the general election to Republican Aaron Schock by 59% to 38%, with Sheldon Schafer receiving 3%.
Callahan began working as the United States Department of Agriculture’s Illinois State Director of Rural Development on June 13, 2009. J. B. Pritzker appointed Colleen Callahan as co-chair of his Agriculture Transition Committee in 2017. On March 1, 2019, when Pritzker was elected governor, Callahan was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Callahan stepped down as department director on January 16, 2023, and was succeeded by Natalie Phelps Finnie, a former state senator and IDNR deputy director.[1She has also been a member of the St. Francis Medical Center Women’s Health Services Public Relations Committee and the National Association of Women Business Owners.
She was extensively involved in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB), serving as the organization’s first female president and chairman of the Ethics Committee. She has also been involved in local Catholic institutions, sitting on the education board at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Kickapoo and volunteering at Peoria Notre Dame High School.
Callahan Net Worth
Colleen has an estimated net worth of 1 million dollars.