Machota, Jeff | University of Illinois Archives

Jeff Machota is a financial manager and alumn of the University of Illinois. Machota grew up in Cicero, Illinois, graduating from the all-male Catholic high school, Fenwick High School, in 1984. The following fall, he became a freshman at the University of Illinois, electing to live in Allen Hall because of the learning experience he would receive through the Unit One program. Through this program he became involved in politics on campus, forming the organization Progress Resource Action Cooperative, a group that supported anti-apartheid and anti-chief movements. Machota also served on the Student Government Association in 1988, serving Harold Washington's re-election campaign in Chicago. Around this same time, he left school and never finished his degree.

After attending several concerts at Nature's Table his freshman year, he became an employee of Nature's Table in 1985. He would work until the last day of the table in May, 1991. Throughout his time as an employee, Machota recorded local and touring jazz performers, rock bands, folk bands, and blues groups. Following his work at Nature's Table, Machota continued to work in grassroots politics and at local music venues.

Jeff Machota, Unit One Oral History Project Interview, 2024: https://exhibits.library.illinois.edu/s/voices-of-illinois/item/30104.

Jeff Machota, Oral History Interview with Sean Kutzko, 2015: https://naturestable.net/oral-history/

Jeff Machota, Oral History Interview with Nolan Vallier, 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9tX5psGS2k&t=126s

Jeff Machota, Oral History Interview with Dawn Bangert, 2013: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/42573