Southern Illinois has a reserved but definitive way of marking opportunity. It emerges from storefronts restored with care, breweries built from local pride, and small businesses that want to help build the character of their communities. Increasingly, it’s emerging through the hands of Saluki graduates, who are taking the skills they learned at Southern Illinois University and using them to shape the region’s next chapter.
Salukis Build Here is the movement, launched this past autumn, to harness that momentum.
What began as a conversation between SIU leadership, city advocates, and local entrepreneurs has evolved into a strategic initiative: to identify, uplift, and expand the footprint of alumni-owned and alumni-operated businesses across the region. Its philosophy is simple but ambitious: Southern Illinois is fertile ground for innovation, and SIU alumni, who have always or have come to call the region home, are uniquely positioned to cultivate it.
Vision Meets Place
Many who build a business in Carbondale or its neighboring communities have similar stories about Southern Illinois: this is a place where doors open easily, advice comes freely, and collaboration is intuitive as people pull toward the same goals.
City of Carbondale Economic Development Director Steven Mitchell ’88, MBA ’92 calls it the “Saluki advantage” -- a robust network of alumni already shaping the local economy and a municipal structure ready to support others.
Over the last three years, Carbondale has injected more than $750,000 into new and expanding businesses, igniting over $2 million in private development downtown. That growth is the product of a town actively clearing the runway for people who want to create something lasting.
A Collaborative Culture
For Scott Moller ‘85, co-owner of Hangar 9, the collaborative culture isn’t just anecdotal; it’s lived reality. When he and his team took on the well-known downtown Carbondale establishment, support didn’t trickle in. It flooded. City officials, university partners, and neighboring business owners stepped forward not just to congratulate him but to help him succeed.
That spirit isn’t limited to nightlife or hospitality. William Lo, executive director of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, sees it across industries: technology, manufacturing, retail, and agritourism.
“Carbondale’s business community is built on relationships,” Lo said. The chamber, the city, and the university share a rare alignment of purpose to make it as easy as possible for entrepreneurs to say yes to Southern Illinois.
“Salukis Build Here” is the connective tissue that brings those resources together, ensuring alumni know exactly where to turn and whom to call as they build or expand their ventures.
"Southern Illinois is open for business and built for success. It doesn't require reinvention, just recognition for its potential."
Deb Barnett, Executive Director, SI Now, and member of the SIU Board of Trustees
Southern Illinois as a Growth Ecosystem
The program’s reach stretches beyond Carbondale. Regional leaders see opportunities spanning the 17 counties that make Southern Illinois distinct -- land, affordable real estate relative to other areas of the country, a thriving tourism sector, and the manpower to support a strong trades and manufacturing backbone.
Deb Barnett, executive director of SI Now, a non-profit organization focused on economic development and opportunity for the region, said the initiative is a way of telling alumni what locals have long known.
“Southern Illinois is open for business and built for success,” she said, adding that the area doesn’t require reinvention, just recognition for its potential.
Allison Hasler, who transitioned her career in public service and the military to the hospitality industry, is a two-degree graduate of SIU. Her company, Southern Illinois Vacation Rentals, began with a handful of properties and has grown to more than 40, each one representing partnerships with local contractors, cleaners, artisans, and small shops to keep them maintained.
When one business grows here, the whole region feels it, she said. “Building a business in Southern Illinois isn’t just about profit; it’s about purpose. When you start something here, you’re not just changing your own life, you’re strengthening the heartbeat of this region.”
The University as an Engine
Behind the scenes, the SIU Office of Innovation and Economic Development functions as the quiet machinery driving entrepreneurial growth. Through the Illinois Small Business Development Center, alumni receive free, confidential advising from professionals who have launched, scaled, or managed businesses themselves. They assist with prototype development, marketing plans, funding strategies, and government contracting. Everything is hands-on and built to lower barriers.
Molly Hudgins, executive director of the SIU Alumni Association, said it can be a pretty easy sell to convince alumni to build a life and business in Southern Illinois. It’s a place already near and dear to their hearts, associated with some of the best years of their lives and cherished memories.
“For Saluki Nation, Salukis Build Here is a reminder of something that our alums already know,” Hudgins said. “This university and region are defined by resilience, creativity, and loyalty. Those aren’t just words, they’re entrepreneurial strengths that our alumni and their families can capture in the place that helped shape them.”