More Cuddles in the NICU p. 13 … South Asian Heart Health p. 18 … “ Ebola is the canary in the coal Shoes Made from Plants p. 21 … Sesame Street’s Purple Pipeline p. 32 mine signaling the world’s most … Five Questions with Random House’s Benjamin Dreyer p. 48 vulnerable populations.” p. 36

SUMMER 2019

Water at the Breaking Point With water quality under siege, Northwestern comes to the rescue. p. 26 MOMENT

MOMENT

On a Midsummer Night Tucked away behind a wall of hawthorn hedges lies Shakespeare Garden, one of Northwestern’s cherished hidden gems. The garden is home to various trees, shrubs, flowers and herbs that were mentioned in Shakespeare’s writings, were common during his lifetime or are modern cultivars of those older plants. The Garden Club of Evanston has maintained the garden since its creation more than 100 years ago. The garden was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 PHOTO: BILL ARSENAULT MOMENT

Gear Shift The fantastical set and projection design stole the show in the Northwestern University Opera Theater adaptation of Igor Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress. The work was inspired by a series of William Hogarth paintings and engravings that Stravinsky viewed at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1947. Directed by Joachim Schamberger, Northwestern’s director of opera, the show ran at Cahn Auditorium in the winter.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 PHOTO: © TODD ROSENBERG 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 4 5

SUMMER 2019 Contents Vol. 21 Issue 3 FRONT 1 Moment 36 6 From the Editor Putting Patients First 7 Talk Back to Stop Ebola Virologist Daniel Bausch ’83 says the solution to containing VOICES Solutions for infectious disease outbreaks is 26 9 Howard Reich Troubled Water Conversations with to first engage communities. Northwestern Elie Wiesel By Lisa Stein researchers, students 11 Nichole Pinkard and alumni seek Making digital space solutions for water for girls in STEM 19 quality issues. Diagnosing ‘Art Acne’ NEWS Researchers discovered 17 Student Life Student- the cause of pimple-like founded cold brew protrusions on many of coffee biz expands Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. 18 Discovery South Asian heart health 21 Innovation Scoots 32 makes shoes from How to Get to Sesame Street pineapple and corn In its 50th season, the colorful world of Sesame Street is still “WE WILL” UPDATE teaching and entertaining 22 Simpson children, thanks in part to a Querrey Center for Epigenetics Genetic purple pipeline of talent. research could lead to By Josh Rosenblat targeted therapeutics

FEATURE 42 Leading by Example Meet the three Northwestern Alumni Medal winners

ALUMNI 51 Creation Former New York City food editor Sierra Tishgart launches 12 new cookware line 52 Class Notes ← “It’s very hard now to 68 Deaths

write a speculative dystopia BACK STORY 72 Dom Collins that doesn’t feel like you’re JD-MBA grad reporting from this world finds his beat in some ways. It is such a surreal moment. It just 48 16 feels like nothing is out of Q&A with Benjamin Dreyer ’79 Catch This! The Random House copy Propelled by five first-year starters, including catcher Jordyn bounds.” chief shares his writing Rudd, Northwestern softball reached the NCAA Super

—Karen Russell ’03, award-winning author © PETER EARLRUSSELL: MCCOLLOUGH LAKE: CARRERA MICHAEL GOSS; SOFTBALL: S.J. pet peeves. Regionals, finishing the season with a 47-13 record.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 On the Cover: Illustration by Heads of State SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 6 FROM THE EDITOR TALK BACK 7

Northwestern Northwestern Center for hundreds were killed “The article Magazine Progress Toward Water Research, which or forcibly converted. EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD coordinates water research Talk Back Norman Miller ’70 on Uzoamaka Krishnan Anantharaman ’91, across Northwestern Houston chair; David Beard ’81; Emily Clean Water for All Emeka Nzelibe Chow ’12; Alex Garcia ’89; and provides faculty and Adrienne ­Samuels Gibbs ’99; students with opportunities determine the likely sources was fabulous! Ryan Haggerty ’07, ’16 MS; for multidisciplinary of metals. While the testing of A BEACON OF HOPE Jerry Lai ’04; Robert Leighton Thank you, ’82; Mike McGee ’10; Cate f you drive by or on the Great Lakes. Industrial collaboration. copper and copper alloys of Plys ’84; Gita Pullapilly I stroll along the pollution, agricultural runoff, In our cover story, objects from Igbo Ukwu and There was a lot to like about Northwestern ’00 MS; Christina Rosales ’11; lakefront on the increased algae blooms “Solutions for Troubled Ife in Nigeria has not been the spring issue of the Law School, Joshua Rosenblat ’17; Kerem Evanston campus on a and recent severe flooding Waters” [page 26], you’ll read extensive, the testing that has Northwestern Magazine. The Taskin ’14; William Weinbaum ’82, ’83 MS; Steph Yiu ’08; regular basis, you might associated with changing about Northwestern faculty, been done suggests that the “Caravans of Gold” article was for recognizing Cat Zakrzewski ’15; Sheldon have noticed that the color weather patterns have led to students and alumni from source of copper for the Tada especially interesting. And the her talents and Zenner ’74, ’78 JD of Lake Michigan has been more bacteria in the lakes — a variety of disciplines — Seated Figure [“Caravans of article on Uzoamaka Emeka VICE PRESIDENT, OFFICE OF changing the past few years. and lower quality of drinking chemistry, environmental law, Gold,” page 29] is Western Nzelibe [“A Beacon of Hope supporting GLOBAL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS While most of the time the water for the millions of engineering, anthropology Europe’s Massif Centra [a for Asylum Seekers,” page 38] her work with Jeri Ward ’01 MEM, MBA water is a familiar slate people who depend on this and public policy — who highland region in southern was fabulous! What an EXECUTIVE EDITOR blue-gray or brown-green freshwater source. are finding innovative and France]. However, at Igbo inspiring woman she is! Not this neglected Stephanie Russell color, there are days when In March more than a cost-effective ways to keep Ukwu the most likely sources only is she doing such good, and vulnerable SENIOR EDITOR it turns a Caribbean blue, dozen leading scientists and water systems clean and CARAVANS OF GOLD for copper and its alloys were important and difficult work, Sean Hargadon almost turquoise. The photo experts from Midwestern sustainable in this country local, though there is also she is leading a crew of young population.” ART DIRECTOR of the Lake Michigan shore and Canadian universities and around the globe. The “Caravans of Gold” article some indication that during lawyers who are greatly Christina Senese — Mary Jo Deysach in Evanston on our table of and research institutions, These outstanding in the last issue [page 26, the later phases of metal magnifying her impact. I hope ASSISTANT ALUMNI NEWS EDITOR Leah Goldberger contents [page 4] captures including Northwestern leaders give us hope that spring 2019] fascinated casting at Igbo Ukwu these some of them will follow in PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR this strange tropical hue — it civil and environmental we can indeed solve one of me. I fondly remember materials may have been her footsteps. Thank you for believing that nothing is Anne Egger was taken in April. The image engineering professor Aaron the world’s most pressing studying African literature at supplemented with copper telling us about her. I have impossible. You are indeed CONTRIBUTING ALUMNI AND also shows that the water Packman, released a report challenges — making clean Northwestern with a woman from sources in the Sahara. a new hero! And thank you, born to do what you are doing CAMPAIGN NEWS EDITORS is so clear you can see the on how climate change water available to all. teacher whose husband Kathleen Bickford Berzock Northwestern Law School, for for the least and the voiceless Lindsay Beller Deborah Cassell ’00 MS rocks beneath the surface. could further affect the Great usually taught the course but Curator, Caravans of Gold recognizing Nzelibe’s talents of the world. Immigration Surprisingly, Lake Michigan Lakes and threaten public was in Nigeria that semester. Block Museum of Art and supporting her work with law practice needs more EDITORIAL INTERNS Daniel Fernandez ’19, and Lake Huron recently health, infrastructure, fish Our class enjoyed the novels this neglected and vulnerable people like you who know Valerie Fong ’22, Sophia Lo surpassed Lake Superior in and wildlife, and the regional by the Nigerian writers Chinua Catalan Atlas mapmaker population. and understand the crux of ’22, Jacob Munoz ’21, Dan water clarity. economy. Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Abraham Cresques [page 29] Mary Jo Deysach ’68 the immigration matter in our Rosenzweig-Ziff ’21 While that might sound Packman, an expert Something particular that was not merely Majorcan. He Evanston nation and globally. © 2019 Northwestern University. like progress in cleaning up in water scarcity, water Stephanie Russell caught my interest was the was the son of a rabbi and a Maureen Okoli ’18 Northwestern Magazine is published the Great Lakes, it’s not. The management and urban Executive Editor statement that the copper distinguished Sephardic Jew The passion for justice for Aurora, Ill. in fall, spring and summer. All Rights Reserved. Produced by the reason the water is so clear flooding, is director of the from that time in history who lived in Palma. Only four humanity is apparent in every Office of Global Marketing and has to do with an invasion of “was likely sourced in Europe.” years after his death, there line of your story, Professor I am a Northwestern law grad Communications, 1603 Orrington Ave., Suite 200, ­Evanston, IL 60201. zebra and quagga mussels Because these ancient was a massacre of the Jews Nzelibe. You inspire me just returned from a week Telephone: 847-491-5000 Website: that began more than Nabataean caravan routes of Palma (1391), and many and give me hope to keep volunteering at the Dilley magazine.northwestern.edu 30 years ago — when continued to pass through the Pro Bono Project in Texas. Views expressed in Northwestern Magazine do not necessarily reflect mollusks stowed away on Middle East (in modern-day There are many ways that the opinions of the editors or the cargo ships from the Black Israel), could the copper not nonimmigration attorneys University. Sea and were dispersed in the have come from the famous can volunteer to help. We will Great Lakes when the ships mines at Timna in what is continue to spread the word. ADDRESS CHANGES emptied their ballast water. now southern Israel? Julie Sommers Neuman ’86 JD Mail to: Alumni News Editor The mussels, estimated to Rita Winslade Steele ’66 Indianapolis Northwestern Magazine number in the hundreds of New Canaan, Conn. 1603 Orrington Ave. Suite 200 trillions in Lake Michigan The article [“Immigration Evanston, IL 60201 alone, eat 90% of the lake’s You pose a very interesting Misconceptions,” Online

Email: address-change phytoplankton, wiping out question. There were indeed Exclusive, bit.ly/NU_Mag @northwestern.edu a critical food source at the multiple sources for copper _ImmigrationMyths] is at odds

Web: magazine.northwestern.edu bottom of the food chain — that were active in the with actual data. For example: /change-your-address leaving the water crystal clear medieval period, between the “People are coming to the and devoid of food organisms 8th and the 16th centuries. United States to give birth for fish populations. Materials scientists use a to U.S. citizen ‘anchor babies,’ The mussels are just the process of isotopic analysis to ↑ The Catalan Atlas so they can get legal status.” latest in a large number of

events that have taken a toll ANJE JAGER We want to hear from you:  [email protected]  @NorthwesternU  /NorthwesternU @NorthwesternU

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 8 TALK BACK VOICES 9

It may be the case that in their everyday lives, quest for the presidency. I had “The story build on? What can we begin? If I know parents are not pursuing legal not just in their milestone family ties to Georgia, so I from the beginning that it all leads to status through such activity accomplishments. Would love attended. None of us dreamed ‘Wildcat Style despair, how can we go on?” but that does not mean that to see more stories like this. that within months he would — No Filter’ by Wiesel and the other survivors did such activity is not taking Becca Donaldson ’08 be nationally famous and go on, building new lives in foreign place to benefit their children. Milwaukee then not much longer after Marla Paul was countries, learning languages that were Gregg Barrett ’16 MS that be sworn in as president. quite touching. strange to them, having children and Johannesburg, South Africa Jonathan Addleton ’79 CONVERSATIONS WITH ELIE WIESEL answered questions that had haunted me grandchildren, rebuilding life. FIVE QUESTIONS Macon, Ga. Would love for decades but addressed some I didn’t If that’s not the definition of optimism, Professor Nzelibe, thank you WITH JOHN STROUP to see more even realize I’d been harboring. what is? so much for providing this Shared It literally has taken a book to Wiesel also explained to me why he, clarifying information and I feel proud to be part of a HOLDING POWER stories like articulate what I absorbed from this great like my parents, clung to faith, despite for all of the work that do on company [Belden] run by John TO ACCOUNT Histories of thinker and humanitarian, but some the knowledge that God had abandoned behalf of immigrants and Stroup [“Five Questions with this.” lessons stand out. Jews amid their persecution. Wiesel said refugees. John Stroup ’88,” Alumni, I’m not an ideologue, but — Becca Donaldson the Holocaust Above all, I was struck by his he could struggle with that bitter truth Art Chwalek ’81 page 46], that even with all how does a journalist such optimism, though he certainly didn’t call inside religion or outside. He chose inside. Asheville, N.C. his business pursuits, he still as Mr. Barstow [“Holding Bring Hope it that. In fact, he said that after all that Moreover, faith to him was not an end in cares about the humanities. Power to Account,” Online with a master’s degree in 1952 had happened to his family and millions itself, but a process: a tireless asking of Facts about the border Congratulations on the Exclusive, bit.ly/NU_Mag and then went back to India more, and with all the genocides that questions and seeking answers that may people are welcome in initiative! _DavidBarstow] objectively and served the country as a By Howard Reich had occurred after the Holocaust, he was elude us. To Wiesel, faith was not a noun light of today’s politics. Ana Santos determine what is a “dubious political activist and leading pessimistic. But he hastened to note it but a verb. Gini Tingley Duval ’61 São Paulo, Brazil tax scheme” unless he has journalist. I asked my sister- hen you’re the child was “an active pessimism.” Yet in Wiesel’s conversations with me Fargo, N.D. a reasonable background in in-law, who grew up in India, of two Holocaust What did he mean? and in his copious writings, he repeatedly tax accounting and is privy to if she’d heard of him. She survivors, as I am, the “Not to give up,” he said. “Because of expressed respect for survivors who later CAMPUS NEWS the IRS code? If there really responded immediately, “Of enormity of that event genocide, you must work harder, rather rejected the very faith he clung to. WILDCAT STYLE was something nefarious course! He’s an icon!” stays with you forever. than say, ‘Since it hasn’t helped, forget it.’” In so doing, he offered one more — NO FILTER It is so wonderful that going on in the president’s tax Kali Sabnis Plomin ’91 And yet, because it’s your own parents Rather than give in to despair, in other precious lesson: the meaning of tolerance. Professor Irv Rein [“Rein’s reporting, wouldn’t the IRS Chicago whoW suffered so greatly, you find it words, Wiesel and survivors like my This is hysterical. “I like to Reign,” News, page 16] is already know this? difficult — if not impossible — to talk parents chose hope. Howard Reich ’77 is the Chicago Tribune’s wear my parents’ clothes from still contributing to the Mike Davis ’14 MA I guess you are really old to them about it. How do you ask your “If despair is the answer, where do classical and jazz critic and an author. For a long time ago” [“Wildcat communications department San Francisco when Northwestern comes mother and father about enduring such we go?” Wiesel said to me. “What can we more on Reich, see his class note on page 54. Style: No Filter,” page 34]. Like at Northwestern. He was my and the Class Notes [page 50] cruelties, losing everything but their lives 1980 or 1990. Somebody is in inspiration and a significant Thank you for the sunshine. begin with the ’50s … and you and somehow summoning the courage for an awakening. contributor to my ability Truth to power is a noble graduated in 1948. to start over again? Bob Norris ’78 to have a successful career pursuit. Diana Gould Penney I certainly never knew how. Which Dixon, Ill. in the technology industry. Fatima Marashi-Hassan ’79 Coleman ’48 is why I was fortunate to have become Professor Rein made us think Wauwatosa, Wis. Longwood, Fla. friends with Nobel Peace Prize laureate The story “Wildcat Style — and communicate in an Elie Wiesel during the last four years No Filter” by Marla Paul was effective manner. He got us I would very much appreciate of his life. I met him in 2012, when the quite touching. It’s a great out into the world and out of knowing if Mr. Barstow has CORRECTION Chicago Tribune — where I have worked way to feel in touch with the library to experience and written and had published any my entire career — assigned me to how students on campus not just read —though he reports of dubious affairs of In the spring 2019 issue, interview him, because the newspaper are actually expressing what encouraged us to read too. powerful liberal Democrats, Bienen School of Music was awarding him its Literary Prize. they’re thinking and feeling Fifty years of teaching, 81 because I have the impression alumnus Jacob Nissly ’05 Within minutes of meeting in his New years young — he continues that they would not be allowed was incorrectly listed as York office, we communicated as if we’d to be a role model. by those in control at the New principal trombonist for the known each other for years. Our shared Stephanie Carmel ’78 York Times. San Francisco Symphony. He histories connected us, not least because South Orange, N.J. Marg Cooke ’80 is principal percussionist. Wiesel and my father, Robert Reich, both Charlotte, N.C. were liberated from the Buchenwald Favorite campus speaker death camp on April 11, 1945. Wiesel and [“Heard on Campus,” Voices, WE’D LIKE TO HEAR I soon decided that our ongoing dialogue page 12]? Jimmy Carter ranks ALUMNI NEWS FROM YOU should be captured in a book, and the near the top of the list. It must recent release of The Art of Inventing Hope: have been during the 1975–76 I saw the small blurb on We’d like to get your feedback. Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel school year, my first as a Kuldip Nayar [In Memoriam, Take our brief survey, and comes three years after his death. Northwestern undergraduate. page 70] and was interested to you’ll be entered in a drawing To say that I learned a great deal about The then-unknown candidate know more about this Indian to win one of five $25 Amazon the Holocaust, genocide, intolerance, spoke to a small audience man who studied journalism, gift cards. Visit magazine faith and aspiration from Wiesel would Saul Osorio

about his seemingly quixotic graduated from Northwestern .northwestern.edu/survey. TRIBUNE/TNS STONE/CHICAGO 2012/NANCY be an understatement. For he not only ↑ Elie Wiesel at Symphony Center in Chicago in November 2012

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 10 VOICES VOICES 11

SOUND OFF fascinating thing is that AI SOCIAL FEEDS By Nichole caring adults used city parks is happening in a very Pinkard ’98 PhD and classrooms to provide the condensed timeframe, Who was your extracurricular opportunities that Artificial bringing attention to favorite Northwestern Associate kept my friends and me busy while its risk alongside the Commencement or professor, School strengthening our ability to lead, Convocation speaker? of Education and Intelligence opportunity. Social Policy persist, collaborate, problem solve Should we consider AI as Accenture Strategy and celebrate others’ successes. full of promise or peril? has started to work All these skills, in addition to my with Northwestern to academic knowledge, have been enable our people with the critical tools on my journey. The right skills needed to manage inequity in our out-of-school the things that AI can do for clients. opportunities gnawed at me. Brian Uzzi, Richard L. Thomas Northwestern, through McCormick It was a bevy of opportunities, Professor of Leadership and School of Engineering dean Julio Ottino people and experiences that made Organizational Change and Sally Blount, former dean of the being a computer scientist possible Kellogg School of Management, helped for me. Now it’s my responsibility As AI gets better at human decision- us craft a specialized program for our to ensure that the next young making, it could potentially take jobs strategists and data scientists, taught by “African American girl has access to the resources to away from human beings. It’s not just gifted professors who are bringing great create her own path. the worry about losing your job, it’s the substance and teaching approaches. In studies professor When I returned to the worry about losing your status and self- the last two years, we’ve trained many of and future Chicago University in 1992 as a student esteem. AI has the potential to our people on how best to up-skill their Public Schools CEO in the first cohort of the learning make human beings feel like data-driven capabilities. Charles Payne. It sciences doctoral program, I was the machine is actually awakened to the transformative better than we are as an was meaningful to power of well-designed learning entity, because it does Adam Waytz, associate professor of hear from someone technologies. I’ve spent the last the things that make management and organizations who shaped so 20 years working to create the us human better than much of the way I infrastructure needed to support we do. Humans and machines kids in developing their digital It may be that our can partner effectively in learned to think.” literacy. I’m excited about bringing MY NORTHWESTERN DIRECTION response is to begin several ways. One way is to the Digital Youth Divas program to rejecting technology and divide up moral decision- @makegood  the Evanston community. embracing religion or to put making. Machines are Studies show that if a girl has value on the human spirit. It could also good at being objective On Board with STEM not engaged in out-of-school STEM lead to tremendous stratification, where decision-makers. It’s “I enjoyed my learning opportunities during the you have a caste system of elite human optimal for us to rely commencement ould you be students. Their stories of life in middle grades, regardless of how beings who run the machines, then you on machines to make speaker in on this bus if urban Chicago were as strange to well she does academically, she On our have the machines, then you have all pure utility-maximizing 1998: Ruth this was your me as my stories of suburban life will not major in a STEM field in the other human beings. Or maybe we decisions and then for reality? in Kansas City, Kan., were to them. journey college. The Digital Youth Divas Bader Ginsburg. redefine what it means to be human. We humans to make corrections if That was the On our journey back to Evanston, back to program is designed to create an have a new outlook with the premise they feel any moral rules were violated. #NotoriousRBG.” question asked of me and about we were asked to quietly reflect environment where girls can be Evanston, that all human beings are created equal. A second framework involves letting 25W other minority high school on the question, “Would you be on girls and also explore ways in which It’s a big planet. Maybe all three happen machines do the computational work of @ML_Schneider  seniors in 1987 as members of the this bus if Chicago’s West Side was we were technology is relevant for them. simultaneously and separately. sifting through gobs and gobs of data, Kellogg School of Management’s your lived reality?” asked to When I returned to the where humans can provide a check on Leadership, Education and My first interaction with ­quietly University in 2018 as a professor, that work and feed their input back to the “Senator Charles Development (LEAD) summer Northwestern made visible the role I was reminded of being a student reflect­ Mark Knickrehm ’84, group chief machine, augmenting the heavy-duty, Percy, in 1967. program. We were the best and of support structures in my life. on the bus answering a life-altering on the executive for Accenture Strategy robotic work with the human expertise. I believe it may the brightest, embarking on a This awakening followed me to question. Now I am the professor The third framework is letting journey, unbeknownst to us, to Stanford, where, as an undergrad, question, asking questions and seeking to have been his AI will have a more significant impact robots handle some emotional labor. make visible our support structures I was a reading tutor for youth ‘Would stimulate my students’ lifelong on how work is done rather than on For example, customer service involves first speech after and learning resources that in East Palo Alto, the community exploration of answers sparked you be on jobs, with a positive influence on labor managing others’ emotions. We typically the still-unsolved seamlessly combined to create the a biking distance from Stanford through our interactions. Hopefully, this bus if productivity that will continue to expand dislike talking to a robot when we need to murder of his opportunity paths that resulted in but a world apart in terms of the I can have the same impact that my over time. And while some jobs will reach customer service, but some robotic each of us having a seat on the bus. inequities in opportunities. ­Chicago’s Northwestern professors had on me. daughter near the indeed go away, vast amounts of existing systems can authenticate you based on We arrived at our destination When tutoring, I realized that West jobs will be augmented by AI, allowing your voice. If you have the robot manage start of that school for the day, an aging Chicago the students and I lived different Check out Nichole Pinkard’s Side was people to do more, faster. But looking that experience, then the customer service year.” Housing Authority complex with lives. They did not have access to “My ­Northwestern Direction” further out, many completely new jobs rep can handle more specific inquiries a high school nearby. We were to a resourced, tight-knit suburban your lived video at magazine.northwestern will also be created in the process. The and not deal with a frustrated consumer. Joan Ehrlich  JIM PRISCHING PHOTO: COLBERT spend the school day paired with community as I did, one whose ­reality?’ ” .edu/my-northwestern-direction.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 Illustration by Bruce Morser SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 12 VOICES CAMPUS NEWS / STUDENT LIFE / SPORTS 13

Fulbrights Scoots makes make their shoes from WHAT INSPIRES ME mark around plants p. 21 the globe p. 15 Swim. Bike. Run. Heal. Doc examines Champion triathlete and medical researcher is heart risks for South Asian helping develop and improve stem cell treatments. immigrants p. 18

Scientists and triathletes are interesting, Jacquie Godbe ’12, ’12 MS, doctoral passionate people. The fact that I get to student in the Medical Scientist interact with both on a daily basis keeps me Training Program (MSTP) coming back.” “As an athlete, you’re always asking, HEALTH ‘What’s the next level? Can I do better?’ A Jacquie Godbe is a doctoral candidate lot of that relates to the field of medicine, to in the lab of professor Samuel Stupp physical therapy. If I hurt myself training ’77 PhD at the Simpson Querrey Institute. Cutting or I wonder why a muscle works the way it She is helping to develop novel delivery does, I break out my medical textbooks and materials for stem cell therapies. Godbe the Cord look it up. At the same time, with triathlon also works with patients at the Feinberg ↑ Jacquie Godbe crosses the finish line at the training, I get hands-on experience that I School of Medicine’s Education-Centered 2015 Chicago Triathlon. Skin-like sensors can use to educate patients about their own Medical Home and has mentored high monitor babies in the wellness programs, their own nutrition, school students as part of MSTP’s PRISM national champion triathlete in 2016 and NICU without wires. and how to do physical therapy and rehab Outreach Program. Godbe, who was on 2017 and an age group world champion for everything from plantar fasciitis to the Northwestern swimming and diving in 2017. She competed professionally in a sprained ankle. It’s a two-way street. team as an undergrad, was an age group 2018 and 2019. n interdisciplinary A Northwestern team has developed a pair of soft, flexible wireless SPRING SPEAKERS “National news can’t “By my logic, if “It’s very hard now to “My harshest, toughest sensors to replace the tangle fill the void of local practice is what write a speculative critics are my own of wire-based sensors that reporting. We’re not makes you a good dystopia that doesn’t family and my own currently monitor babies in Heard in these communities. cook, then aren’t the feel like you’re community, because hospitals’ neonatal intensive We’re not covering grandmothers who reporting from this they can just smell care units (NICU) and pose on statehouses. This have been cooking world in some ways. baloney right away. a barrier to parent-baby is how corruption for 65 years just as It is such a surreal So I work really hard cuddling and physical Campus thrives, when people practiced or much moment. I brace to write in a way that bonding. are not covering it. In more than some of myself when I turn I feel is true to myself The team completed a first Last spring an ideal world it would the greatest chefs my phone on after a and that my friends, series of studies on premature Northwestern hosted make national news who have hourlong flight, because it just community and family babies at Prentice Women’s a bevy of speakers more focused on local episodes about them?” feels like nothing is can look at and go Hospital and the Ann & on campus, spanning coverage, but we’re Samin Nosrat, author out of bounds. Maybe through all the checks Robert H. Lurie Children’s numerous subjects still figuring that out.” of Salt, Fat, Acid, half the country and balances.” Hospital of Chicago. The and issues. Here’s a Maggie Haberman, Heat: Mastering the caught fire.” Layli Long Soldier, a researchers concluded that sample of what they New York Times White Elements of Good Karen Russell ’03, National Book Award the wireless sensors provided had to say. House correspondent, Cooking, as part of the award-winning author, finalist and citizen data as precise and accurate at a discussion Contemporary Thought at the Moore Lecture of the Oglala Lakota as the data from traditional sponsored by Speaker Series in Creative Writing Nation, at the annual monitoring systems. The Northwestern Hillel Spring Writers’ Festival wireless patches also are gentler on a newborn’s fragile skin and allow for more ­ skin-to-skin contact with the parent. “We wanted to eliminate the rat’s nest of wires and aggressive adhesives associated with existing hardware systems and

SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 14 NEWS NEWS 15

technology reach beyond its GLOBAL REACH lack of wires. The dual wireless sensors monitor babies’ vital signs — heart rate, respiration Northwestern’s rate and body temperature — from opposite ends of the Fulbrights body. One sensor lies across the baby’s chest or back, Around the World while the other sensor wraps around a foot. This strategy allows physicians to gather an infant’s core temperature as well as body temperature from a peripheral region. A GLOBAL CITIZEN “Differences in temperature Colombia between the foot and the chest Jeromy Gotschall ’18 have great clinical importance says his Fulbright Northwestern professor Amy Paller with Taschana Taylor, at the Universidad in determining blood THE ROCK RECORD mother of a baby in the NICU flow and cardiac function. Cooperativa de Colombia has offered Poland That’s something that’s not him a tremendous commonly done today,” says Jordan Todes ’18 opportunity to grow as is researching FISH FINDER replace them with something even provide advanced Rogers, the Louis Simpson and an educator, improve inoceramid bivalves, an United Kingdom safer, more patient-centric measurements that are Kimberly Querrey Professor his Spanish and model extinct family of giant global citizenship. “It and more compatible with clinically important but of Materials Science and Jessie Moravek ’16 is completing a clams. His research will be hard to leave master’s degree in biodiversity and suggests that major parent-child interaction,” not commonly collected.” Engineering and Biomedical Colombia,” he says, conservation at Lancaster University evolutionary advances says John A. Rogers, a bio- Typically, five or six Engineering and a professor of “but I hope to return in northwest England. Her current in this group seem to electronics pioneer, who led wires connect electrodes on neurological surgery. to Latin America soon focus is on river restoration and its occur during periods to pursue global health the technology development. each baby to monitors for Many premature babies impact on local fish populations. of climate instability. research.” “Our wireless, battery-free, breathing, blood pressure, also suffer skin injuries from Although it rains often, Moravek has “Understanding how skin-like devices give up blood oxygen, heartbeat and the sticky tape that adheres enjoyed hiking with friends in the life persisted and nothing in terms of range more. Although these sensors the wires to the body. Tape English Lake District. adapted … is a crucial endeavor that may guide of measurement, accuracy ensure health and safety, the can cause skin irritation, us in mitigating the and precision — and they wires constrain the baby’s blisters and, ultimately, effects of the current movements and pose a major infections. The sensors’ crisis,” Todes says. Wearables on Display barrier to physical bonding. skin-saving secret lies in The new NICU sensors “We know that skin-to-skin their lightweight nature (each DRUGS AND MASCULINITY and other wearable contact is so important for sensor weighs about the same South Africa RITES OF PASSAGE devices developed by John newborns — especially those as a raindrop), thin geometry Ethiopia Henry Chen ’18 is Rogers are on display who are sick or premature,” and soft mechanics. investigating drug use and A doctoral candidate in archaeology, in the Wired to Wear says Amy Paller ’88 GME, Rogers estimates that the masculinity in an industrial Dil Singh Basanti is studying death exhibition at the Museum dermatology department chair wireless sensors will appear township outside of Durban. and burial in Aksum, the capital of of Science and Industry and Walter J. Hamlin Professor in U.S. hospitals within the He’s also worked on studies the ancient Aksumite Empire. He is in Chicago. Devices from of Dermatology. “Yet when next three years. With support related to gender violence reconstructing the burial practices in schools and teenage of the ancient Aksumites, who Rogers’ laboratory include you have wires everywhere from two major nonprofits, fatherhood. The Fulbright built giant obelisks, conducted variations of his sweat and the baby is tethered to a Rogers’ team expects to send grew out of a study abroad trip elaborate ceremonies and even analysis patch, skin pH bed, it’s really hard to make sensors to tens of thousands and research he conducted began retrieving the bones of sensor and UV sensor. The skin-to-skin contact.” of families in developing in the same community their dead family members as they exhibition runs through The benefits of the countries over the next year as through a Northwestern sought to maintain connections with Undergraduate Research May 2020. their loved ones. Northwestern team’s new part of an international effort. Grant.

●Everette E. Dennis, ● The family of the late professor Dale T. ● Lonnie Bunch ● Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly’s book ● During the course of just over a week in The the Northwestern Mortensen donated his Nobel Prize medal to the ’19 H, secretary of about the pathbreaking African American women January, three clients represented by the Bluhm University in Qatar University. He and two colleagues, Peter Diamond the Smithsonian scientists whose work enabled NASA’s first Legal Clinic’s Center on Wrongful Convictions Ticker dean, will complete his of MIT and Christopher Pissarides of the London Institution, delivered manned mission to orbit the Earth, is the One — Eric Blackmon, Patrick Pursley and Huwe service in 2020 and School of Economics and Political Science, were the Northwestern Book One Northwestern selection for 2019–20. Burton — were exonerated or acquitted. The join the journalism awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2010. It commencement Shetterly will give keynote addresses on the Bluhm Legal Clinic is celebrating its 50th faculty in Evanston. is displayed in the economics department. address in June. Evanston and Chicago campuses on Oct. 17. anniversary in 2019.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 Illustrations by Beady Eyes SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 16 NEWS NEWS 17

CAMPUS LIFE ’CAT TALES → BrewBike founder The Father Lucas Philips Northwestern’s of the Yield Animal Kingdom Sign Oklahoma highway From tweeting foxes to elephant skeletons, the patrolman Clinton University has a history of life on the wild side. Riggs was a student at the Northwestern Traffic Institute, ast winter two was once spotted dashing now the Center for L beavers were spotted across Deering Meadow. “It’s Public Safety, in 1939 on the Evanston a complete myth, of course,” when he created the campus. University archivist Leonard scoffs. However, yield sign as a class Kevin Leonard ’77, ’82 MA says anyone who visits University assignment. His the Evanston campus has Archives will find a preserved goal was to improve long been home to more than wildcat, donated by the Gates public safety and Wildcats, with bats, raccoons, family in 1966. determine liability skunks, “semi-domesticated” Northwestern’s Museum in an accident. squirrels, foxes and coyotes of Natural History In 1870 In 1950, as a living on or near campus. Oliver Marcy, professor of member of the Tulsa Here are a few Northwestern natural history and physics, Police Department, connections to the animal founded a museum of natural Riggs placed the kingdom. history in University Hall that first yield sign at Furpaw One of the showcased a wide variety of the most dangerous University’s early mascots fossils, minerals and shells intersection in was a caged bear cub from and even included skeletons the city. Within a the Lincoln Park Zoo named of a whale and an elephant. year, the number “Furpaw,” who made an @NorthwesternFox In May of accidents fell to appearance before each 2012, @NorthwesternFox, a zero, and yield signs football game in 1923. parody Twitter account, soon appeared at Albert Wolfson’s Birds documented fox intersections across Acclaimed biologist and sightings on the the country. ornithologist Albert Wolfson, Evanston campus. Riggs, who retired a professor of biological Legend of the as the administrative sciences, did much of his Deer Deer are research on the migratory and a rare sight on mating habits of birds on the the Evanston Northwestern campus. campus, but GRADS TO WATCH Wildcat on Campus Many legend has it that if you spot Northwestern tour guides one before a midterm or final, tell the tale that a wildcat you will ace your test! BrewBike Rides the Buzz Lucas Philips’ cold-brew coffee startup is poised to expand nationally.

SPORTS assistant chief of the ucas Philips ’19 came nearly folded, due to credit of coffee — for under $4 a Five first-year starters, including All- department in 1970, L to Northwestern with and cash-flow issues — cup — and employs more American pitcher Danielle Williams, helped was also credited the goal of starting plus Chicago’s brutal winter than 40 people. Philips is lead Northwestern softball to the NCAA with the integration his own business. When he weather made it a challenge to leading an expansion of the of the department, graduated in June, Philips sell cold brew from a custom- service to other campuses in Super Regionals, where the Wildcats developing the Tulsa stepped full time into his built bike. warmer climates, including the lost to the eventual national runner-up, Police Academy and work as chief growth officer Now, with two permanent University of Texas at Austin. Oklahoma. Northwestern finished the authoring several for BrewBike, the startup he locations and a mobile shop, season with a 47-13 record, the third- laws, including co-founded as a first-year as well as a subscription Read more about the one that prohibits student in fall 2015. service for on-campus Class of 2019 in our most wins in program history, and most convicted felons from Philips admits there were organizations, BrewBike has “Grads Go Forward” roundup

conference wins (21) in program history. ATHLETICS HOPE CARPINELLO/NORTHWESTERN carrying firearms. times when the coffee retailer sold more than 50,000 cups at bit.ly/NU_2019Grads.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 18 19

RESEARCH Bad News for Egg Lovers, Diagnosing ‘Art Acne’

and other multiples in Illinois between newborn and 17 years WELLNESS of age. Jennifer Tackett, director of clinical psychology South Asians’ at Northwestern, is the project’s co- Heart Health Risks principal investigator. 1 Namratha Kandula is co-leading a study to understand high rates of heart disease among CUT YOUR 3 South Asian immigrants. EGG INTAKE BLISTERS ON A Feinberg School O’KEEFFE ART amratha Kandula from heart disease compared of Medicine study N distinctly remembers with other ethnic groups. found that adults Pimple-like protrusions the phone call from Kandula, associate who consumed more on many of Georgia India that brought the news of professor of medicine and eggs and dietary O’Keeffe’s paintings her 56-year-old grandfather’s preventive medicine at the cholesterol had a had long concerned sudden death. Feinberg School of Medicine, is significantly higher art conservationists. A “It was pretty shocking,” working to identify the factors risk of cardiovascular multidisciplinary team she recalls, “because he didn’t that lead to heart disease in disease and death from led by researchers necessarily fit the profile [of a this community. As a principal any cause. The large at Northwestern and heart attack victim]. He didn’t investigator for the Mediators study, which looked at the Georgia O’Keeffe smoke. He was relatively of Atherosclerosis in South pooled data collected Museum in Santa Fe, active and was someone who Asians Living in America in six different studies you wouldn’t think had an (MASALA) study, Kandula is totaling nearly 30,000 unhealthy diet. Many of us in partnering with researchers adults, found that the South Asian community at the University of California, eating 300 milligrams Tm qui con estinu fgdm have family members who San Francisco, to understand non pa qui dolutam. of dietary cholesterol have died at a young age from the risk factors faced by per day correlated a heart attack.” South Asians and improve to a 17% higher risk South Asians account heart disease prevention and of cardiovascular for 60% of the world’s heart treatment. The study, now in disease. A single disease patients. And that its ninth year, has followed U.S. tend to be more highly they are not as overweight as understand whether the high you feel lucky if you see your large egg contains trend continues for the more than 1,100 South Asians educated. Despite that, they other populations. “But even risk for heart disease and research actually have a of 186 milligrams of N.M., found that the 5.4 million South Asian in Chicago and the Bay Area. have low levels of physical though they’re not overweight, stroke is similar in second- community or policy impact cholesterol. protrusions are metal immigrants in the U.S. Their “There are some unique activity that partly contribute they tend to have a lot of fat generation South Asian in your lifetime,” Kandula soaps resulting from risk for heart disease is 2 ½ things about this group that to their higher risk of stroke around their internal organs. Americans and how changing says. “We’ve seen that with a chemical reaction times that of the general U.S. don’t fit with the patterns and death from heart attack. And we think those hidden cultural and behavioral MASALA.” 2 between the metal population. South Asians — that we understand about And they develop high blood fat stores inside the body patterns influence their health. ions in lead and zinc the second–fastest growing heart disease and stroke,” pressure, diabetes and heart contribute to higher risk.” Progress is already being On Capitol Hill TWO OF A KIND pigments and the minority group in the U.S. — Kandula says. For example, disease at younger ages — five Kandula, whose parents made. In 2015 the American In 2019 U.S. Rep. Pramila fatty acids within have the highest death rate South Asian immigrants in the to 10 years earlier than other came to the U.S. from India Diabetes Association changed Jayapal ’90 MBA, the Northwestern and the the paint’s binding ethnic groups — even though for their medical residencies, its guidelines to recommend first Indian American University of Illinois media. As a result they don’t fit the classic risk is focusing on second- screening Asian Americans woman to serve in the Urbana-Champaign of the discovery, the “Many of us in the South Asian patterns. generation South Asians, both for diabetes at a lower BMI, House of Representatives, have partnered to Northwestern team, One of the most notable in terms of their risk factors and the American Heart introduced legislation to launch the Illinois led by professors Marc community have family members differences is that South Asian and their role as conduits Association now recognizes increase awareness of Twins Project (ITP), Walton and Oliver who have died at a young age Americans develop risk factors of health information to South Asians as a high-risk South Asian heart risk and the first-ever such ­Cossairt, developed a at a lower body mass index their immigrant parents. group for cardiovascular provide more funding for database in the state. handheld tool to map from a heart attack.” (BMI), Kandula explains, and She is planning a study to disease. “As a researcher, treatment strategies. It will include twins and monitor artworks.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 20 INNOVATION 21

PINEAPPLE STYLISH ON TOP THREADS

One of the The stitching primary materials serves both a used in Scoots is functional and Piñatex, a natural stylistic purpose. textile made The customizable from pineapple color thread adds leaves that can be contrast to the dyed a variety of sole and bonds STUDENT ENTREPRENEUR colors. Scoots will the shoe together. launch with four color options — paprika, charcoal, Avoiding a Meltdown chocolate and oatmeal. Scoots Brent Chase is creating wearable smart are also made from corn-based technology that can help people with autism PLA, a type of spectrum disorder detect and mitigate biodegradable plastic that helps uncontrollable emotional outbursts. Brent Chase, right, maintain the is developing smart shoe’s stability. apparel to mitigate the rent Chase knows achieving professional and effects of meltdowns B the pain and social independence. experienced by people THE INSOLE helplessness of Alec is the inspiration with autism spectrum STORY watching a loved one go for Chase’s Products for disorder, like his brother, Alec. The removable through a physically and Autism Lifestyle (PAL), insole consists of emotionally damaging maker of smart apparel for three layers — a autistic meltdown. people with autism spectrum parents or caretakers of the employment and become natural cotton Chase, a master’s student disorder. He and a team of possibility of a meltdown. more independent. canvas, a natural latex foam and a in biomedical engineering, colleagues at Northwestern Caregivers can then try The PAL team is thin layer of cork. describes a meltdown as and the Rochester Institute to mitigate the effects — continuing to develop The cotton lining “an intense response to an of Technology, his undergrad remind the person to breathe hardware for the biometric lets air circulate, overwhelming situation. alma mater, are working to and remove him or her from sensors. PAL, a subsidiary keeping feet cool It’s like an extreme anxiety develop a shirt that collects the situation. People who of Gaia Wearables, is a and dry. The latex provides cushion attack — times a million. biometric data to help are affected by autism and resident team at The Garage, and support for It’s a hurricane, tornado, warn loved ones about an their caregivers can, over Northwestern’s student the foot and blizzard, end-of-the-world imminent meltdown. time, begin to understand startup incubator. Chase, improves the situation where everyone can The shirt includes what triggers a meltdown CEO of Gaia Wearables, hopes flexibility of the be a victim. You want to help biosensors — about half and proactively avoid such to release the biometric shirt cork midsole. them, but you can only do the size of a deck of cards situations. by early 2020. so much.” — to measure stress levels For people affected by “We hope that our Chase’s younger brother, through physiological data autism, Chase hopes his product has a big impact, Alec, was diagnosed with such as heart rate. When wearables will help decrease but this is also a call to autism spectrum disorder certain signals are detected, the number of meltdowns, arms for other people and INVENTION (ASD) when he was 3 years the sensors send information promote self-regulation and, organizations to innovate old. Alec’s meltdowns, Chase to a mobile app that alerts in the long term, increase and design with purpose,” says, have kept him from the person and their opportunities to secure Chase says. Scoots Footwear CORKED The Scoots sole Americans throw away about 300 million pairs of shoes each is made from STARTUP SUCCESS year. Almost all of them end up in landfills, where they can take Portuguese cork, which is centuries to break down. That waste inspired David Costello, a harvested every Medical device company Rhaeos placed fourth in the Zell Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management, to launch a new summer by hand. 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s largest The natural latex- plant-based footwear brand called Scoots as part of Kellogg’s New coated cork sole student startup competition, in April. Rhaeos, founded Venture curriculum. After 15 months of interviewing and planning molds to the foot, through a collaboration between professor John A. making the shoe — and taking classes at the Chicago School of Shoemaking — more comfortable Rogers and the Department of Neurological Surgery, is Costello and his seven-member team launched a Kickstarter over time. Scoots working on getting FDA approval for a device that would are manufactured campaign in June. Costello plans for a full launch in 2020. Here’s in the north of

help detect shunt failures in patients with hydrocephalus. LAUREL CHAMBERLAIN what goes into making Scoots’ first product, the PA1 (PineApple 1). Portugal.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 22 “We Will” Update 23

← Clara Bien Peek, left, assistant Like Onyema, Carroll is SCHOLARSHIPS professor of biochemistry and thankful for her scholarship. molecular genetics and medicine (endocrinology), and Rubye She has also appreciated the Peyser, a research technician, chance to get to know her in the Shilatifard Laboratory at Donor Challenge Supports benefactors. Carroll attended Northwestern Medicine the Newcombs’ tailgate before Law School a Northwestern football taking advantage of weekly game, and when she won seminars, annual symposia Benefactors are creating new opportunities for students as an award for best speaker at and training made possible part of the Scholarship Challenge for Today and Tomorrow. a moot court competition, by the gift from Simpson Jon Newcomb wrote her a and Querrey. congratulatory note. “The Shilatifard’s own y family taught me to inspire benefactors to from the McCormick School Newcombs gave this money investigations focus on that the purpose of life create scholarship funds. The of Engineering, and Ann on faith, and I want them to epigenetic modifications Mis service to others,” campaign has funded nearly Newcomb Covey. be proud of me,” Carroll says. of human chromatin — says Emelia Carroll ’19 JD, 40 scholarships so far. The Newcombs first met For Newcomb, creating the basic unit of our who recently graduated Grateful for the support Carroll, who received their a scholarship has been an chromosomes — which from Northwestern Pritzker that previous generations scholarship in each of her incredible experience. regulate gene expression. School of Law and will soon of alumni provided for his three years as a student, at “If you’re thinking about He and his collaborators have start her career at the Office undergraduate education Northwestern Law’s inaugural endowing a fund,” he says, “I performed groundbreaking of the Colorado State Public at the Weinberg College of Celebration of Scholarships can tell you that the emotional studies on epigenetic-targeted Defender. Carroll chose Arts and Sciences and at the in 2017. This year’s event reward has far exceeded what therapeutics for childhood Northwestern Law for its Law School, Jon Newcomb took place in the school’s we could have imagined when leukemia, childhood brain outstanding reputation, made his first gift of $5 to Lanny and Sharon Martin we made the gift.” cancer and adult triple- journals and clinics, and Northwestern in 1979. He now Atrium. Nnenna Onyema RESEARCH negative breast cancer. a scholarship endowed by volunteers for both schools ’20 JD, president of the Black Such research, which links Kathy and Jon Newcomb and serves on the Law Board. Law Students Association basic science to potential ’79, ’82 JD helped make it Currently he is a member and recipient of the Kruse Understanding the Impact medical advances, has possible for her to attend. of his 40th undergraduate Family Scholarship, addressed widespread implications. For The Kathy and Jon reunion committee as donors, thanking them for of Environment on Genes example, understanding how Newcomb Scholarship was well. Jon Newcomb is using their resources to make and why gene expression may established through the vice president, deputy Northwestern Law even better The Simpson Querrey Center for Epigenetics investigates how cause cellular dysfunction Scholarship Challenge for general counsel and chief for current students. “Your environmental factors can modify genes and affect human health. in the initial stages of breast Today and Tomorrow, part of information counsel in the contributions allow students cancer could improve early Northwestern Law’s Motion law department at Comcast to come here and truly thrive detection of the disease. to Lead campaign. The Cable Communications. at this institution,” Onyema ↑ Scholarship recipient enetic mutations — Created in 2017, Northwestern’s SQE recently moved to In 2018 the journal Nature challenge, supported by the He and his wife are the said. “They are grateful Nnenna Onyema spoke at inherited from our Simpson Querrey Center for the new Louis A. Simpson Medicine published a study Pritzker Family Foundation, parents of Jonathan Brooks for that. And I am grateful Northwestern Law’s 2019 G parents and carried Epigenetics (SQE) encourages and Kimberly K. Querrey by Shilatifard and his offers a one-to-two match Newcomb ’15, who graduated for that.” Celebration of Scholarships. from birth — can increase collaborations to illuminate Biomedical Research colleagues that identified our risk of developing how environmental factors Center on Northwestern’s a mechanism to slow the diseases from schizophrenia affect the human genome, Chicago campus. growth of cancerous tumors to cancer. But environmental impacting individuals and “Understanding epigenetics caused by an epigenetic factors also play a critical their health. is at the central core of imbalance. Northwestern role in determining who Bringing together experts understanding many human investigators have since “Before the campaign, we were thinking develops certain maladies in biochemistry, molecular diseases,” says SQE Director launched a clinical trial that about what we could do beyond our and who doesn’t. Identical genetics, computational Ali Shilatifard, who also is could lead to better survival annual contribution. The challenge twins, for example, start biology, clinical medicine and the Robert Francis Furchgott rates among patients with with the same DNA, but as other fields, the center is Professor of Biochemistry and late-stage bladder cancer. made the scholarship attractive because they age, variables such as advancing epigenetic research Pediatrics and chairman of In the coming decade, our family could leave a legacy, and I diet, exercise, emotional to better understand, diagnose biochemistry and molecular Shilatifard says, “My hope could also honor my yearly philanthropic experiences and chemical and treat disease. A $10 million genetics at Feinberg. Already, is that from the discoveries exposure can contribute gift from University trustees SQE has attracted nearly 200 made at Northwestern commitments to the Law Board and to very different health and generous supporters faculty affiliates from across Medicine and SQE, we can the Law School Fund.” outcomes. Louis A. Simpson ’58 and Northwestern’s Evanston develop a series of epigenetic- — Jon Newcomb The growing field of Kimberly K. Querrey fuels the and Chicago campuses. targeted therapeutics for epigenetics studies the effects work of the center. Housed Students and faculty are the treatment of a variety of environment on gene in Northwestern University seizing opportunities for of human diseases, ← Emelia Carroll, center, is the recipient of a scholarship activation and expression. Feinberg School of Medicine, collaborative research and including cancer.” JIM PRISCHING created by Jon and Kathy Newcomb.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 24 “We Will” Update 25

education I received,” Norton says of her decision to make A History of Generosity the gift. “I can honestly say that every class at Medill had a bearing on the rest of my life.” Trustee T. Bondurant “Bon” French ’75, ’76 MBA and his wife, Hollis “Holly” S. French, have not forgotten the important role Northwestern has played in their family’s life — Bon French’s parents and brother both graduated from Northwestern, and the Frenches’ daughter is an alumna. As longtime supporters of the University they love, they made a transformational bequest commitment that will support the Kellogg School of Management as well as ↑ Henry and Emma Rogers Northwestern. “We care deeply for Northwestern and Kellogg The Henry and Emma cluster of colleges and The Rogers Society was and are proud to give back Rogers Society was professional schools into originally named for Henry to the university that has founded in summer 1987 a nationally recognized alone. Emma’s name meant so much to our family to honor and recognize university. His leadership was added in 2007. This over the last seven decades,” alumni and friends led to a dramatic increase change recognized each during her time on campus. says Bon French, co-chair who have included in enrollment and spouse’s contributions PLANNED GIFTS “This opened the door to of We Will. The Campaign Northwestern in their positioned Northwestern to advancing educational opportunities for me to have for Northwestern. “Our estate plans. among the country’s most excellence, equality and a meaningful career. It is bequest will help ensure that prestigious universities. social justice. Planned Gifts Create my hope that this gesture Northwestern continues to Henry Wade Rogers was of my appreciation will also thrive for years to come.” dean of the University A champion of social The University has Legacy of Support open the door for future law Longtime faculty members of Michigan Law School reform and leader in welcomed 657 donors students.” often choose to leave their when Board of Trustees the suffrage movement, to the Rogers Society Forward-thinking donors seek to sustain Northwestern Like Bowen, Teresa Norton mark on the University Chair Charles Deering Emma Winner Rogers throughout We Will. in the future through their estate plans. ’67 decided to give thanks through planned gifts too. recruited him to become co-founded the University The Campaign for to Northwestern through The late Laurence Davis the 10th president of Guild, through which Northwestern. Today planned gifts that will aid was a pianist and professor Northwestern. During she worked to promote nearly 2,000 Rogers any donors wish to 14% of Campaign giving. of-its-kind scholarship at students in her field of study. at the Henry and Leigh Rogers’ tenure, from 1890 higher learning and Society members have make an impact on The Henry and Emma Northwestern Pritzker School Specifically, she has chosen to Bienen School of Music for to 1900, he expanded the arts within the included Northwestern MNorthwestern not just Rogers Society recognizes of Law. The African American support the Medill School of 34 years. His influence now academic offerings, hired Northwestern and in their estate plans during their lifetimes but alumni and friends who History and Culture Endowed Journalism, Media, Integrated extends beyond his lifetime new faculty and led the Evanston communities, through charitable after they have passed, have included Northwestern Scholarship will be awarded Marketing Communications through the numerous gifts construction of new and the Northwestern bequests, gift annuities, leaving a lasting legacy of in their estate plans — annually to outstanding and its master’s program he generously designated for buildings and facilities, University Settlement charitable remainder support for the University for example, naming students who demonstrate in reporting on religion, Northwestern’s Music Library including Annie May Association (now called trusts and other forms of and helping to transform the Northwestern as a beneficiary interest in, or commitment spirituality and ethics. and the Bienen School. Swift Hall, Orrington the Northwestern planned gifts, creating lives of future generations in a will or living trust. to, African American history “I wanted to show my A portion of Davis’ planned Lunt Library and Fisk Settlement), which at a lasting legacy at of students. An impressive (See “A History of Generosity,” and culture. gratitude for the superior gifts created the Laurence Hall. He is also credited the time provided social Northwestern. number of benefactors page 25.) “I was the beneficiary of a Davis Scholarship Fund, an with transforming the services and support for have chosen to make this Rogers Society members full scholarship that enabled endowment that will benefit University from a immigrants on Chicago’s generous commitment: Sharon Bowen ’82 JD, MBA me to earn my JD-MBA ↑ Planned gifts made by late students in perpetuity. near West Side. As of May 31, planned gifts and her husband, Larry degrees at Northwestern,” Professor Emeritus Laurence Davis helped fund Northwestern’s made during We Will. The Morse, made a planned gift says Bowen, who was an Music Library, pictured, and the For more information about Campaign for Northwestern commitment to Northwestern active member of the Black Henry and Leigh Bienen School planned gifts, visit For more information or to join, visit totaled $631 million, or that will support a first- Law Students Association of Music. giftplanning.northwestern.edu. giftplanning.northwestern.edu/rogers-society.

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 26 27

Solutions Northwestern researchers, students and alumni are discovering solutions for water quality issues and climate change for challenges in the Great Lakes region. by emily ayshford

Troubled

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 Photograph by Michael Goss Waters SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 28 29

One initiative is SAVEUR (Systems Approaches including bisphenol-A (BPA) and pesticides. “It’s Lake Michigan, whose shimmering beauty convinced for Vulnerable Evaluation and Urban Resilience). a lock-and-key fit,” says Dichtel, the Robert L. The multidisciplinary project involves using data Letsinger Professor of Chemistry. Northwestern’s founders that this was the place from the Array of Things sensor network throughout The first material he created from cyclodextrin in the Chicago area, which measures air quality, 2015 trapped hundreds of these pollutants found in to build the University, has been under threat since water levels and other environmental conditions to water, but it did not trap pollutants that represent determine how extreme weather events (like heat a growing concern: perfluorinated alkyl substances the early 20th century. waves and storms) impact the city. The sensors — Julius Lucks (PFASs), including eight-carbon derivatives known currently 100, eventually more than 500 — will Associate professor as PFOA and PFOS. These human-made chemicals support high-quality data models that can reveal the of chemical and have been used in industrial processes for the past city’s vulnerabilities as climate change makes these biological engineering 70 years. (See “What Are PFOAs?” page 30.) Lucks, a synthetic events more common. biologist, recently Even small amounts of PFASs and related According to the new climate change developed a quick chemicals are highly toxic and do not break report drafted by Packman and others for the and easy water down naturally, meaning every bit that found contamination test. ake Michigan is often thought of as the The report highlights the impact of climate Environmental Law and Policy Center, the forecast its way into the environment remains there. The crown jewel of Northwestern. As large as change on the 34 million people who live in the is grim. By the end of the 21st century, temperatures Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory limit an inland sea, its waters are ever-shifting: Great Lakes area and lays out several problems, in the area are expected to rise 2 to 7 degrees for these chemicals in drinking water is 70 parts They can sit as still as glass on a calm including lower quality of drinking water, extreme Fahrenheit, creating an additional 30 to 60 days per trillion, which is equal to one teaspoon in spring day, or crash onto the painted weather and decreased crop yields. of extremely warm temperatures each year. A 14 Olympic-size swimming pools. Many experts L rocks during summer thunderstorms, While it can be easy to be pessimistic, warmer atmosphere will mean more extreme think even this level is too high, and more stringent or collect into ice sculptures along the Clark Street Northwestern researchers say these challenges can rainfall events, which is especially bad for Chicago, limits are being implemented by individual states. Beach in subzero winters. Will Dichtel be solved. Through partnerships, new technologies, where the infrastructure leaves little permeability Dichtel and his group modified their The lake is a draw for students and professors Robert L. Letsinger startup businesses, public policy roles, and as legal for rainfall to be absorbed back into the ground. Sera Young cyclodextrin polymer to bind PFOAs and other alike, whether for exercise — professor Will Dichtel Professor of advocates, Northwestern faculty, students and Instead, localized flooding can stir up industrial related chemicals. Now, when placed in water, the Chemistry Assistant professor of anthropology is known to swim in the cool waters — or just for Develops organic alumni are keeping water resources like the Great contaminants, like metals and chemicals that are material binds the pollutant and eliminates it to daily contemplation. materials for water Lakes clean and sustainable. left in the soil, and introduce them into waterways. Young’s work on below 10 parts per trillion, which is in line with But this immense body of fresh water, whose purification, energy Packman is one of several Northwestern The city’s sewers carry both rainwater and sewage, measuring water the lower advisory limits introduced by Michigan, storage and explosive insecurity around shimmering beauty convinced Northwestern’s detection. professors looking for innovative, cost-effective and when too much rain falls, the city is forced to the world has California and other affected states. founders that this was the place to build the ways to tackle water issues. Chemistry professor Will discharge the mix of stormwater and wastewater garnered attention Using machine-learning algorithms, the group University, has been under threat since the early Dichtel has created a polymer that, when placed in into Lake Michigan. and accolades. is fine-tuning the material for other pollutants and 20th century. water, binds and eliminates PFOA, a human-made Packman and his collaborators ultimately hope The Great Lakes, the second-largest source of chemical that was used to manufacture Teflon to use the data to make recommendations on surface fresh water in the world and the source of and Scotchgard. Kimberly Gray ’78, a civil and introducing green infrastructure that can reduce drinking water for more than 48 million people in environmental engineering professor, is helping vulnerability to extreme weather. the U.S. and Canada, have undergone substantial develop a new membrane covered with a thin “I’m excited to be able to do fieldwork here, changes over the past 200 years of human activity. polyelectrolyte film that could be used in drinking where we engage the community and government Development, agriculture, infrastructure and Aaron Packman water treatment. Water security, both in Chicago and agencies to work together to solve this problem,” he industry have left the lake bottoms laced with Professor of civil worldwide, is the focus of anthropology assistant says. “It has been very positive to see many more and environmental legacy contaminants and toxins. More recent threats engineering and professor Sera Young’s research. And Julius Lucks, people understand what it takes to deliver clean include invasive species such as zebra and quagga director of the a chemical and biological engineer (and Young’s and safe water to meet our needs while avoiding mussels, microplastic pollution and algae blooms. Northwestern Center husband), is creating a new class of smart diagnostics degradation of natural resources and ecosystems.” for Water Research Now the Great Lakes region faces another to cheaply and quickly assess water quality. Changing sediment imminent challenge: climate change. A new report and the rise and fall “Water is life,” Packman says. “We all need water Finding ways to deliver clean and safe water by Midwestern and Canadian scientists and experts of the water level to live. So if you drink water, you should probably sometimes has origins in unlikely places. details how climate change could affect the Great led to his research care about what exactly is in your water, make sure Chemist Will Dichtel is an open-water swimmer in water transport Lakes and threaten public health, fish and wildlife, processes. that you have enough water, and make sure that we who isn’t afraid to traverse Lake Michigan’s summer water quality, and the regional economy. have a sustainable supply of water.” waves, but he wasn’t focused on the extent of “We are already seeing the effects of climate industrial pollutants circulating in the Great Lakes change on Great Lakes cities,” says Northwestern Packman has cared about water since he was a until he began to think about making new materials civil and environmental engineering professor kid growing up in St. Louis, on the bluffs of the from sustainable sources. In his lab at Northwestern, Aaron Packman, an expert in water scarcity, water Missouri River. Today, as head of Northwestern’s Dichtel develops specially designed polymers that management and urban flooding who helped Center for Water Research, he leads or is part of can do everything from store electricity to clean up write the report. “One example is the recent severe several initiatives aimed at providing solutions to water by taking advantage of the open space these flooding in the Midwest, which is associated with water issues in the Chicago area. By partnering materials have at the molecular level. changing weather patterns in the winter and Katie Kollhoff with other universities, as well as with institutions A few years ago, he and his research group began early spring. These events discharge sewage and CEO, NUMiX like Argonne National Laboratory, the Metropolitan to study cyclodextrin, a sugar derived from corn, Materials fertilizer into the Great Lakes. Flooding is very Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago which is made from molecules shaped like tiny Her water treatment damaging to vulnerable communities in cities startup removes and the Nature Conservancy, he’s now able to turn cups. It turns out those cups are the right size to

like Chicago.” metals from water. research into implementable solutions. HEADS INFOGRAPHIC: OF STATE EILEEN MOLONY; PHOTO: KOLLHOFF bind and trap many pollutants found in water,

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 30 31 will continue to tweak them as new chemical pollutants What are PFOAs? from extraction to use and disposal — while working free filters to residents in high-risk communities, are discovered. to scale up production of its adsorbents as part develop and roll out an education plan, and Dichtel and his group are also beginning to develop Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances of Argonne National Laboratory’s Chain Reaction ultimately replace all the city’s lead service lines. next-generation membranes that could potentially remove (PFASs), including the most notable example, Innovations lab-embedded entrepreneurship “Our children in the city shouldn’t be doomed to dissolved salt from seawater in a much more efficient perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, are human-made program. NUMiX Materials is also working toward failure before they even grow up,” she says. manner. “Our ultimate goal is to make materials that can chemicals that have been used since the 1940s in bringing its products to market soon. make water cleaner and safer and ensure our water security many industrial processes and in the creation of “We’re excited about developing a better tool so Protecting the Chicago region’s water is also the long-term,” he says. materials such as nonstick cookware, textiles and companies can treat water better,” Kollhoff says. Nancy Loeb goal of Marcelino Garcia ’97 JD. As a boy growing up In 2016 Dichtel co-founded the materials startup CycloPure firefighting foams. Clinical associate in Puerto Rico, he spent his days swimming in the to bring his PFOA-binding materials to market. The company’s PFASs do not break down and are now found in Nancy Loeb champions clean water as a universal professor of law Atlantic Ocean. When he came to Chicago to attend and director of research and development lab in Skokie, Ill., is working to scale soil and drinking water sources. Because PFOAs right. For her, protecting Chicago residents from the Environmental law school at Northwestern in 1994, Garcia looked up production while reducing costs. The company hopes to bioaccumulate and are not easily metabolized by the city’s legacy of lead pipes is the area’s No. 1 Advocacy Center out the window of the library and saw an expanse of launch its first PFOA-binding product later this year. the body, 98% of people in the U.S. have detectable environmental concern. Loeb is an advocate water that reminded him of home. Dichtel says the company has been making great strides amounts of PFOA in their blood. That’s a strong statement, considering Loeb, for environmental “It was like a sea,” he says. “But one of the best rights. in developing products for both municipal water treatment Data shows that exposure to these chemicals clinical associate professor of law and the director things about Lake Michigan is that when you’re facilities and household consumers. can cause cancer and developmental delays, even of the Environmental Advocacy Center at the finished swimming, you don’t have to scrape the salt “We want consumers to have peace of mind, a line of at low levels. Many communities near industrial Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Bluhm off your body.” defense between the water coming into their homes and the sites have declared states of emergency because Legal Clinic, works with students on environmental Garcia has pursued a career in government water they put into their bodies,” he says. of high levels of PFOA in their drinking water. justice projects around the globe. In recent years, and public service. Last year he was elected to the Since 2000, many companies have phased out her students have studied how to develop rules for board of commissioners for the Metropolitan Water The legacy of how companies and humans have treated the the use of PFOA itself, but many PFASs, including defining underwater pollution in a warming Arctic Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, which Great Lakes drives the work of Kimberly Gray ’78, chair of civil those used as direct replacements for PFOA, are Ocean and how to develop legal mechanisms for oversees 560 miles of intercepting sewers and and environmental engineering. For her, each problem — like still found throughout the environment and are protecting habitats in the Amazon rainforest. Kimberly Gray seven water reclamation plants that treat more than contamination and flooding — exists as part of a network of part of a larger family of hundreds of chemicals But Loeb aims to protect not only environmental Chair of civil and 1 billion gallons of wastewater each day. The district actions and interactions that disrupted ecological processes. that may also have broad health effects. spaces but also the most vulnerable populations environmental often receives attention when heavy rains cause the engineering Gray uses her background in environmental chemistry to affected by environmental threats. In Chicago, that mixed rainfall and sewage system to overflow and be Gray aims to develop examine everything from how contaminants like mercury includes low-income and minority populations, who sustainable cities discharged into Lake Michigan, causing high bacteria and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) move up the food web Metals are difficult to remove from water. Current treatments are often most affected by lead in water, which is that work with nature levels in the water and forcing beaches to close. in the Great Lakes to how to better develop and invest in involve complicated physical chemistry, are expensive to operate correlated with learning disabilities and growth and rather than against it. Those discharges irk Garcia, who has always lived green infrastructure in low-income areas of Chicago that are and maintain, and generate a lot of extraneous waste. hearing impairment. within an eight-block radius of the law school and prone to flooding. Katie Kollhoff saw that firsthand during her years working Though the use of lead pipes has been banned in had a view of the lake. Most recently, she is working with Ken Shull, professor in process analysis and risk management with chemical the city since 1986, many homes still use older pipes, As a commissioner, he is working to develop a of materials science and engineering, to develop a new manufacturers. Years later, while working in research safety, and tests have found that when the city disturbs strategic plan that will help guide the district for membrane that is covered with a thin film of polyelectrolyte she came across a 5-gallon bucket of water with trace amounts lead service lines through street work or plumbing the next five years. He wants the district to become complexes (PECs), a charged polymer material. As membranes of mercury. The cost to treat it? $1,300. repairs, high levels of lead are released in nearby more sustainable through resource recovery from filter water, they can become easily clogged with bacteria “I understood the pain of the problem,” she says. “Finding a homes’ drinking water. wastewater and by promoting green infrastructure and other materials. PEC films can be easily dissolved and solution for it has become my passion.” “We are continuing to devalue and harm huge Marcelino Garcia (like permeable alleys) within the city that will help reformed, meaning they can be placed over membranes, collect Now a student in Northwestern’s Master of Engineering populations of our city again, simply because they Commissioner, reduce flooding and prevent sewage discharges. potential clogging material, then be dissolved to take that Management Program, Kollhoff got her chance to take on the are poor communities of color where these issues Metropolitan Water He also wants to develop better public awareness material away. They can then be reformed over the membrane. problem when she enrolled in the NUvention: Energy course, haven’t been dealt with,” she says. Loeb sat on Reclamation District campaigns to educate residents to flush their toilets The researchers have published a paper showing how the in which interdisciplinary groups of students commercialize Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Health and Human of Greater Chicago less often during high rainfall events, and he wants He promotes green concept works and are now tweaking the film to make it kill technology developed by Northwestern researchers. Services Committee transition team and laid out infrastructure to to make it easier for residents to drop off expired bacteria. Such membranes could be used in drinking water She connected with other students who were also passionate a proposal for dealing with the crisis: Provide reduce flooding. prescription medications so they don’t flush them treatment facilities and at point of use. That’s important in about the problem, and a team soon coalesced. They came across down the toilet and into the water system. areas like Chicago, where drinking water is safe but can be the patented ion exchange technology from Mercouri Kanatzidis, “We need to do everything we can at the local contaminated by lead pipes on its way to consumers. Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry. level to help preserve the environment,” he says. “Clean water, clean air and being able to live someplace “We stood around for three hours on a Friday afternoon “Water is life. We all need water Clearly, when it comes to clean and safe water, that is safe and not prone to flooding or being able to eat talking about our passion for water and solid waste — all of there is a space for students, faculty and alumni food that’s not filled with contaminants — too often we don’t these weird things that no one else is interested in,” she says. to live. So if you drink water, you to all play their parts, whether in research, policy think of those as universal rights,” Gray says. “I think they are. The result was the startup NUMiX Materials, which or business. The growing interest gives Aaron Environmental and ecological quality is something that we manufactures adsorbent powders that can remove toxic metal should probably care about what Packman hope. need to work to preserve and protect.” ions from wastewater streams. The materials have a potassium exactly is in your water, make “In the summer, the sky is a gorgeous, clear interior that is released when placed in water. The empty space blue, Lake Michigan is shining, there’s a cool lake Ensuring long-term water security is going to take several in the powder then attracts target metal ions, which bind to sure that you have enough water, breeze, and you can look south and see the Chicago approaches, especially in the Great Lakes, where industrial the inside. Once the powder is filtered from the water, the toxic skyline,” he says. “Here, more people are focusing on processes have brought another class of pollutants: metals. metals are gone and the water is clean again. The process is and make sure that we have a conservation, on making investments for the future. Steel production and energy generation have historically much more efficient than current processes, Kollhoff says. sustainable supply of water.” It makes me more optimistic.” drawn water from the lakes for cooling, only to send it back Now the company, with Kollhoff as its CEO, is working to tainted with dissolved metals, like mercury or chromium. develop technology solutions across the metal supply chain — — Aaron Packman Emily Ayshford ’12 MFA is a freelance writer in Chicago.

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How to Get to

Sometimes Stephanie D’Abruzzo ’93 acts her age. celebrity actors who’ve rubbed elbows with Big But only sometimes, because every so often Bird and other beloved characters over the years, she’s transformed back into a 4-year-old. including Seth Meyers ’96, ’16 H, Zach Braff ’97, All it takes are simple things: getting a hug and Stephen Colbert ’86, ’11 H, Megan Mullally ’81 and hearing her name. Julia Louis-Dreyfus ’83, ’07 H, who famously swore Sesame And when you work on Sesame Street, as in front of Elmo in an outtake from a 1994 episode. D’Abruzzo has since 1993, your hugs happen to In its half-century, Sesame Street has become come from Mr. Snuffleupagus, and Big Bird says an integral part of early childhood education. your name. What started as a mission to teach children basic “I still remember singing along to Sesame reading and math skills has developed to explore records in my bedroom at the top of my little socioeconomic issues, medical and health lessons, Street lungs, wishing I could go to Sesame Street on differences and disabilities, food insecurity and In its 50th season, the colorful world of vacation. And the fact that this ‘street’ is where homelessness. Puppeteer Stephanie D’Abruzzo ’93 with Prairie Dawn Sesame Street is still teaching and entertaining I work with so many friends and idols, and idols Take Karli, a new character on Sesame Street, for who became friends, still boggles my mind,” example. She is a young Muppet in foster care, with children, thanks in part to a purple pipeline she says. her “for-now” parents, Dalia and Clem. Karli will D’Abruzzo is part of a long line of puppeteers help teach children (and their parents) about foster on the board of trustees for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational of talent. by josh rosenblat who have been instrumental in putting together homes and families and show that those who may arm of Sesame Street, for a decade. Before joining the board, she did 50 seasons of Sesame Street, which started in 1969. be facing similar challenges are not alone. policy-oriented research on the show. She’s also one of many Northwestern alumni Those are the things that Ellen Wartella, a leading One of the things that makes Sesame Street so remarkable, Wartella who have been involved in the show and in the expert in childhood media consumption, thinks observes, is its respect for its core audience: children. That respect has larger Sesame universe, from writing and puppet distinguish Sesame Street as a children’s TV show. allowed the show to explore complex and deep themes because “we creation to social impact and fundraising. And Wartella, chair of communication studies and learned that young kids are much more capable” of interacting with and there’s been a parade of Northwestern alumni the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor understanding them than previously thought, she says. of Communication, heads Northwestern’s Center In the United States, the show examines themes unique to American on Media and Human Development. Her research children. But as of its 50th season, an estimated 190 million children focuses on public policy, specifically on the roles view Sesame Street in 70 languages and 150 countries, making it “the technology and media play in children’s health, single largest informal educator of young children in the world,” learning and development. Wartella, who is also a according to former Sesame Workshop vice president Charlotte Cole. professor of psychology, of human development Different countries have different versions of the show, which are and social policy, and of medical social sciences, sat co-productions between local crews and Sesame Workshop. “When you go to India, people sing the theme song for Galli Galli Sim Sim,” the Hindi language adaptation of Sesame Street, says Chava Kallberg ’97, vice president of development for Sesame Workshop. No matter where in the world you are, “people view Sesame Street as their first educational organization.” The international shows tackle topics specific to the children in those countries, from the language and math skills that provided the basis for the show in the U.S., to lessons about trauma, drugs and gun issues — all geared toward an audience of 3-year-olds. “Sesame recognizes that the world is changing,” Wartella says. “And anywhere you go in the world, it is known as quality children’s television.”

For 50 years, children and adults alike have wondered, “Where is Sesame Street? And how do I get there?” As part of the show’s 50th anniversary celebration, New York City named the intersection of West 63rd Street and Broadway “Sesame Street.” Now everyone can find their way to Big Bird’s and his puppet pals’ home.

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out of the shot. With arms outstretched, they play out scenes while voicing their characters through microphones attached to hats or headbands. “There’s a lot going on below that TV frame, and it’s our job to make sure the viewer is completely unaware of it,” she explains. Each of those puppets embodies different traits and personalities and imparts lessons to viewers.

Before Sesame Street existed, “people didn’t really believe in TV” as a way to help children learn, says Wartella. Now, it has become indispensable as an educational tool. “You have to have that balance of education and making it snappy, fun and funny,” says Ron Holsey ’03, who has written for Sesame Street since 2016. Holsey is joined on the team of writers by Jessica Carleton ’05. She started writing for the show in Season 48. “It’s a dream come true,” Carleton says. “There’s a connection people feel to the shows that we grew up watching, especially a show as iconic as Sesame Street. Getting to write for the characters that I idolized Writer Ron Holsey ’03 with Ernie, left, and Bert

But others have found their own paths to Sesame Street. Stephanie D’Abruzzo did. She built her first puppets at Northwestern for a comedy production called “Freeform.” Shot in Kresge Centennial Hall’s Studio 22 and filmed on ¾-inch tapes, it earned a national College Stephen Colbert ’86, ’11 H and Oscar the Grouch sing “Things Are Going to Get Better” during an April episode of The Late Show. Television Award. A brief in the Chicago Tribune helped set up D’Abruzzo’s first audition for the Jim Henson cleanup. The characters ultimately come to says Nayna Agrawal ’15 MFA, who in 2018 won a Sesame Street Company in 1993. the conclusion that the best way to celebrate Writers’ Room fellowship, a nearly two-month program for talent from “Remembering the very first day I set foot the holiday is “to do something nice for your underrepresented backgrounds. She was awarded a creative development on the set still feels like someone else’s dream,” community and nice for your neighbors,” deal by Sesame Workshop. D’Abruzzo says. Holsey says. “Sometimes my mom would join my siblings and me, and we would Starting in Sesame’s 25th season, D’Abruzzo The writers take great care to stay true to the watch it together. In a way, watching Sesame Street was a bonding has played a redhead named Elizabeth; a monster show’s educational mission, while remembering experience for my family.” named Lulu; Baby Bear’s little sister, Curly; and, their primary audience: children. since 2015, Prairie Dawn. But Wartella says the show also targets parents Josh Rosenblat ’17 is a senior editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. To make the magic of puppetry happen, and adult caregivers. she rolls around on dollies with her fellow “It’s always better to have young children watch puppeteers, hunched over to keep their heads with an adult,” she says. “There’s a double code. Seth Meyers ’96, ’16 H with Count von Count That’s why there are celebrities on the show. It’s done on purpose.” as a child feels like a tremendous gift and a great responsibility.” A number of Northwestern alumni have It’s the writers’ job to come up with storylines and sketches that starred in the guest spots. Zach Braff helped illustrate a given season’s curricular goals. Carleton gets a lot of explain what “anxious” means. Nicole Sullivan inspiration from the curriculum seminar that writers attend. ’91 played the letter A and Stephen Colbert played The theme for Season 50, set to air this fall, is “how you can turn the letter Z in Sesame Street’s 2005 “All-Star an oops into an aha,” Holsey says. Alphabet” video. Richard Kind ’78 appeared as In one sketch, a young character named Abby spills honeysuckle the Fairy Balloon Person in a 2005 episode. Julia petunia juice. Her mother, Maggie, helps Abby realize that the spill wasn’t Louis-Dreyfus appeared on Sesame Street’s 25th a big deal. They work together to solve the problem and use a sponge to anniversary special. clean up the mess. Because the show provides a little something The writers have to balance a number of concerns and issues. Take a for everyone, Sesame Street can offer an emotional Fourth of July episode, for example. There’s the current political climate connection for families. to take into account, as well as having decades of past Independence Day “As a first-generation Indian American, I episodes with content that Holsey and his colleagues try not to repeat. watched Sesame Street every day because it was “It was an interesting creative challenge to find a new angle,” he says. one of the only shows my parents approved. To Zach Braff ’97 explains the word “anxious.” Megan Mullally ’81 with Elmo COLBERT: COURTESY OF CBS COURTESY COLBERT: The team ended up writing an episode centered on a streetwide RESERVED ALL RIGHTS WORKSHOP. SESAME ©2019. them, it was both entertaining and educational,”

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 36 37 PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST TO STOP EBOLA

Virologist Daniel Bausch says the solution to containing infectious disease outbreaks is to first engage communities — and win people’s trust. by lisa stein

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Last summer international aid workers Violence continued into the spring, “We can’t be too judgmental about the began descending from Soviet-era when armed men stormed into an Ebola people because they have been in this helicopters into the forests, mountains meeting in the town of Butembo and violent, very manipulated situation for a “Dan has helped our field and villages in the Democratic Republic opened fire. They killed Richard Valery long time. Ebola is often viewed as just move beyond using medical of Congo’s North Kivu region, setting Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist for another weapon or means of political up treatment centers and laboratories, the World Health Organization (WHO), manipulation.” countermeasures such as and donning hazmat suits as they and injured two other workers. vaccines, therapeutics and treated people sick with the Ebola virus. Since January, more than 85 health ENGAGING COMMUNITIES The workers brought computers, lab workers have been killed or wounded, Bausch directs the United Kingdom diagnostics. Now we know equipment, vaccine doses and anything according to the WHO, and as of June 27 Public Health Rapid Support Team the only way to win these else that supported epidemiology, data more than 1,430 people had died from (UK-PHRST), the UK’s unit for outbreak and patient management, and infection Ebola. It has become the second-worst response and research and one of battles is to work with prevention and control. Ebola outbreak in history and the first the major groups contributing to the the community and have And in this particular Ebola outbreak, to take place in a conflict zone. Now international response effort in Congo. they also brought helmets and flak Congo and international health officials The organization was established in the community be part of jackets, courtesy of the United Nations. fear that the Ebola outbreak could spiral 2016 as a collaboration between Public the response.” — Lina Moses Health workers in Congo have met out of control unless the violent attacks Health England and the London School not only disease but also a complex and against health facilities and workers stop. of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in often violent sociopolitical environment “It’s an extremely complex and the wake of the devastating 2013–16 in communities that have suffered volatile situation, with a fearful Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which unimaginably for many years, at first population sometimes violently resisting killed more than 11,000 before being 97.5% effective, meaning that it had from Congo’s civil war that killed more control efforts,” Bausch acknowledges. contained. These days Bausch has given probably saved thousands of lives. Health than 5 million people and, in recent up his role as a primary care provider for workers have administered the vaccine decades, from scores of holdover armed Ebola patients to focus on the big picture, using a “ring vaccination” strategy, giving militias, locally called Mai-Mai. supervising UK-PHRST response efforts it to those determined to be at highest Although Daniel Bausch ’83, an expert “Ebola is the canary and organizing research programs. risk, such as contacts of people with in tropical and infectious diseases, has His full-time staff of roughly 30 public Ebola and health workers. (See “Ebola worked in many Ebola outbreaks, this in the coal mine health experts, scientists, academics and Vaccine Brings Hope,” page 41.) situation seems particularly dire. Mai-Mai signaling the world’s clinicians is ready to respond to urgent — intent on extorting money — and requests from countries around the NURTURING LOCAL PARTNERS victims’ grief-stricken families attacked most vulnerable world within 48 hours to help prevent Bausch has continuously voiced the need five Ebola treatment centers in February populations, people local disease outbreaks from becoming to view Ebola and other diseases not and March, burning down one and killing global epidemics. only as contagions to be stomped out two people, causing the humanitarian whose human right After spending decades helping to but also as symptoms of extreme global organization Doctors Without Borders contain viral outbreaks across Africa, inequality. He views people living in (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) to to health hasn’t been Latin America and Asia, Bausch has affected countries as essential partners temporarily withdraw its staff. assured.” — Daniel Bausch become sure of one thing: The solution ← Daniel Bausch in treating their compatriots and works to containing infectious diseases lies in to help them live in vastly improved, engaging communities and winning their healthier circumstances with the capacity trust. All the equipment, procedures and to address outbreaks on their own. even vaccines won’t stop transmission “Ebola is a scary, fascinating, terrible if people don’t understand what the needs of the individual patient,” Bausch Now those same agencies have thing, and I’ve engaged with it directly disease is and feel part of the solution. explains. “We would come in and say, developed protocols that call for making and indirectly,” he says. “What I and Bausch points out that communities ‘Ebola is a very dangerous disease, and treatment centers more welcoming and others need to work toward is not only PGS 36-37: SUMY SADURNI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES SUMY SADURNI/AFP/GETTY PGS 36-37: that experience significant Ebola it can kill you, so don’t have contact less frightening. Rather than immediately an on-the-ground response — which is outbreaks have long histories of illness, with sick people,’ and then put people in placing patients in isolation, health obviously super important — but also, poverty and violence, and their residents Ebola isolation units but without much workers communicate with their families where does this come from? Why do we have grown suspicious of international explanation.” about avoiding transmission and allow have this disease that seems to afflict only workers. In recent years, international Over the years that impersonal them to see their loved ones. They listen the poorest populations in the world? It’s response agencies — including the approach made it extremely challenging more and view those they encounter as not random who gets a communicable U.S. Centers for Disease Control and to bring a person suspected of having people first and patients second. disease. There are many social, political, Prevention (CDC), the WHO and MSF — Ebola into a treatment center, because Health care directors also keep an eye environmental and economic factors. and other nongovernmental organizations so many residents grew wary of bringing out for locals whom they can train and Ebola is the canary in the coal mine (NGOs) have been changing how they family members to a facility into which mentor. signaling the world’s most vulnerable approach disease-stricken places. they disappeared and didn’t return. While the situation in North Kivu populations, people whose human right “Early on, international aid groups “If people don’t understand what’s remains extremely challenging, there to health hasn’t been assured.” focused on the technical side of things happening and think that they’re just are some bright spots: In mid-April, the The situation in North Kivu is as epidemiologists aimed to stop going to a facility to die, why would they WHO reported that the experimental especially complicated because of the

↑ A sick child lies in a hospital in Kikwit, a rural village in Congo. transmission but often overlooked the PETTERSSON/GETTY PER-ANDERS IMAGES LEFT: JON ENOCH go?” Bausch asks. rVSV-ZEBOV-GP Ebola vaccine was region’s abundance of minerals, such as

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gold, tungsten and uranium, which are remembers the first time she worked with medicine at Geneva University Hospitals were there in 1945, you might have said it highly prized by the global technology and Bausch in Sierra Leone and Guinea during in Switzerland. (The couple and their would be impossible to achieve that level defense industries. Despite such riches, an outbreak of Lassa fever. “It was difficult two children are based in Geneva, and of prosperity. The measure of calamity many towns in the area lack centralized at first to know what to make of him,” she Bausch commutes regularly to London.) in West Africa was on the order of the electricity and water, internet and paved says, laughing. “When I first met him, he Bausch was a psychology major at destruction of Europe. But if we put the roads. Because the Congolese government was wearing very bright African clothing Northwestern, focusing on neuroscience. same effort into rebuilding West Africa is largely absent, residents rely on NGOs made by local tailors. That impressed me. After graduation he spent two years and other places like the Congo, as we for basic health care and infrastructure. He was not your typical American.” doing neuroscience research before did in Europe, 50 years from now, they When Ebola hits, responders try to Another colleague, Stuart Nichol, chief entering medical school. Although could be equally economically stable and stem disease transmission by sending of the Viral Special Pathogens Branch initially headed toward a career in peaceful.” out workers who conduct “contact at the CDC, recalls Bausch’s remarkable neurosurgery, he had a growing interest Bausch and his colleagues are doing tracing” — investigating suspected work during a Lassa fever outbreak in in the broader issues of health and everything in their power to work cases of Ebola in people’s homes and Guinea, where he set up a field lab and human rights that led him to pursue toward that goal, one outbreak at a then tracking down all the people they collected rodents to test for infections, training in internal medicine, infectious time. As Lina Moses notes, “Dan has interacted with in order to get them into to better understand the transmission diseases and public health. helped our field move beyond simply isolation and care if they fall sick and of Lassa virus, which is maintained in While Bausch continues leading aid using medical countermeasures such as vaccinate them. Ideally, investigators rodents and sometimes transmitted to responses all over the world, he holds vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. would visit all contacts every day for humans through rodent consumption. onto a concept that came to him in the Now we know the only way to win these 21 days to check for early symptoms, (See “Breaking the Cycle of Infection,” aftermath of the West African Ebola battles is to work with the community something that is virtually impossible in bit.ly/NU_Ebola.) “While he was outbreak — a sort of contemporary and have the community be part of the the chaos of northeastern Congo today. ↑ Nurses working with the WHO prepare to administer Ebola vaccines in Mbandaka, Congo. managing research teams, he was also post–World War II Marshall Plan for response.” Yet, every missed diagnosis can result in trapping, freezing and shipping these disease-ravaged countries. dozens or hundreds of additional cases. biospecimens to CDC labs in Atlanta for “If you look at Europe today, it’s a Lisa Stein ’94 MS is a freelance writer based If the person has already died, helping further analysis,” Nichol says. “And he was pretty nice place,” he observes. “But if you in Evanston. the family safely prepare the body for explains. “But then there’s one case both wearing heavy protective gear in trying to get solar panels placed on the burial is crucial. Workers must walk a fine of Ebola, and everyone descends on the stifling heat, did their best to manage lab’s roof to generate more energy. Most line between respecting cultural customs the village. This has bred mistrust of about 60 patients. By then, all the nurses clinicians wouldn’t be doing that. He has while also minimizing transmission. outsiders, even people from [Congo’s had died or fled in fear, leaving behind a always been willing to get his hands dirty Investigators advise family members capital] Kinshasa. I’ve never seen facility bereft of support. It was, he says, and do what needed to be done.” EBOLA VACCINE BRINGS HOPE not to touch or kiss their loved ones, any response by local communities the hardest situation he’s ever been in. because bodily fluids on dead bodies are that seemed to me irrational if you One moment from that time still A MARSHALL PLAN FOR WEST AFRICA? Although the Ebola outbreak in Congo has worsened because of regional laden with the virus. To make matters understand the context.” haunts him. He had walked into an Two intertwined pursuits have run violence and instability, an experimental vaccine is showing promise. worse, teams of workers must also Although Bausch says the security intake room where there were three beds throughout Bausch’s career. As a Health workers now have access to a powerful tool: the rVSV-ZEBOV-GP decontaminate dwelling places with situation in North Kivu is the most crowded with people who had recently scientist, he is an expert in Ebola and Ebola vaccine, which was used near the end of the 2013–16 outbreak. chlorine. But some property, such as challenging he’s faced, the virologist staggered in with symptoms of Ebola. On other dangerous diseases such as Lassa Made by Merck & Co., the vaccine is 97.5% effective at preventing Ebola mattresses, needs to be destroyed, which says he and colleagues have encountered one mattress, a young girl who looked fever, Marburg hemorrhagic fever and now is sanctioned for use by the World Health Organization for can further alienate the community. strong community resistance before. about 8 years old was already dead. and SARS (or severe acute respiratory emergency use. And a second vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, Deep suspicions on the part of the And there has also been chilling violence. The only thing that Bausch knew syndrome), among many others. He is on the horizon, awaiting a rollout strategy by the London School of Congolese make sense to Lina Moses, an He points out that in 2003, Congolese about the girl was that she had come took the directorship of UK-PHRST, he Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a consortium of organizations that assistant professor at Tulane University’s villagers beat and stoned to death four to the treatment center alone, and that says, because it combines his three top develop vaccines against pandemic diseases, with virologist Daniel School of Public Health and Tropical teachers who they accused of casting an broke his heart. He suspected that the rest interests: to help build the capacity of Bausch as one of the principal investigators. Medicine, who has worked with Bausch evil spell to cause an Ebola outbreak. of her family had already died, and he countries to internally address disease The rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine is used to vaccinate “rings” around on many outbreaks. And then there was the 2013–16 West imagined her excruciating last moments. outbreaks, to participate in outbreak cases of Ebola, given to persons who have had close contact. Front-line “People in West Africa and the African outbreak, where the international “She reminded me of my own responses and to conduct research. health workers and others deemed at high risk are also vaccinated. Congo are dying all the time from many response was slow and lacked enough daughter, who was the same age at the It’s important to Bausch to be both different things — starvation, violence, resources to battle the virus effectively. time,” Bausch recalls. “I thought about a good scientist and an activist. He met More than 120,000 people have been vaccinated since the other diseases — and the international At one point in Sierra Leone, Bausch all the horror this girl had endured, his wife and fellow infectious disease outbreak began. community doesn’t seem to care,” she and one other colleague from the WHO, coming on her own from what must have specialist, Frederique Jacquerioz, in The WHO is now expanding the target population for vaccination, been a terrifying situation at home to a Chiapas, Mexico, where the two were but supply of the vaccine, which is still experimental, is limited. hospital with such a strange and fearful working on health and human rights environment, full of strange white people projects in 1994, with Jacquerioz In order to expand the amount of available vaccine, the WHO is like myself wearing masks and gowns, providing medical care to indigenous considering reducing the dose given to each person, based on new “We can’t be too judgmental about the people and put onto a bed where other people Mayan populations and Bausch working evidence that even this lower dose may still be protective. because they have been in this violent, very were sick and bleeding.” against unfair socioeconomic conditions Despite the existence of two highly effective Ebola vaccines, unless Whenever possible, Bausch tries to with a nonprofit he had co-founded, the violent attacks against health care workers stop and more local manipulated situation for a long time. Ebola is connect with people on a personal level Doctors for Global Health. She later people are engaged in treating the disease, it will be difficult to contain often viewed as just another weapon or means and is known for being open and friendly helped train aid workers during an the outbreak, say doctors who’ve been at the forefront of every Ebola with locals and co-workers alike. Nahoko Ebola outbreak in West Africa and now response. — L.S. of political manipulation.” — Daniel Bausch Shindo, a disease expert at the WHO, IMAGES KANNAH/AFP/GETTY JUNIOR D. works in migrant health and tropical

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←Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, one of the highest-ranking women in the U.S. Navy, has led several at-sea commands and missions in support of U.S. national security strategy.

A Rochester, N.Y., native, Franchetti joined the Naval Reserve Officers’ LEADING Training Corps program during first- year orientation at Northwestern. After graduating from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing BY EXAMPLE Communications, she entered the Navy with a goal of working on a ship, despite limited opportunities for women. At the time, there was one female admiral, and fewer than 20 female officers served on vessels. New doors opened for her in 1993 eet the three accomplished alumnae after the U.S. Congress repealed a law that barred women from serving on who will receive the Northwestern combat ships. Since then Franchetti Alumni Association’s highest honor, has commanded a guided-missile destroyer and a destroyer squadron. the Northwestern Alumni Medal, She also led a carrier strike group, which in October. They will join a select group of includes an aircraft carrier, a carrier M air wing, a destroyer squadron and 103 alumni — from innovative entrepreneurs associated escort ships charged with eastern half of the Atlantic Ocean and ensuring maritime security. and Supreme Court justices to award-winning In Command Mediterranean Sea from Europe to In 2013 she was selected as a rear Lisa M. Franchetti ’85 Africa to support the U.S. national admiral and became the first female writers and a Nobel Prize recipient — who have security strategy. She also helps every commander of U.S. Navy Forces Korea. As a coxswain on Northwestern’s crew person in the fleet “connect their dot” Today she is one of about 20 females received this award since 1932. team, Lisa Franchetti steered boats and to the mission. among more than 220 admirals. The University will proudly celebrate the her teammates to success on the water — Franchetti is an effective leader As she has risen in the ranks, a role that helped her become a leader in because of her authenticity and ability to Franchetti’s goal has remained constant. positive impact these women have made in their the U.S. Navy. make people feel heard, says Rear Adm. “Every day I wake up and I think “We won medals sometimes, but Jim Kilby, a friend and former colleague. about all the opportunities that we have careers and communities. They will be recognized mostly we learned to work hard, train “She establishes a personal level in America, and I want to make sure that this fall at the start of a yearlong commemoration hard and have a goal,” says Franchetti, of loyalty that exceeds the military we always have those opportunities,” she who now, as a vice admiral, has achieved hierarchy, where you want to serve this says. “That’s the motivation to serve of the 150th anniversary of the first women one of the Navy’s highest ranks. “The person because you believe she cares my country, and it’s been the same from teamwork that I learned at Northwestern about you,” he says. day one.” students at Northwestern — the bold and brave has made me very successful in the Navy women who led the struggle to open doors and because it’s the same thing — building great teams, getting a mission done and create greater access and opportunity for those working together to make it happen.” Throughout her 34-year naval career, “Every day I wake up and I think about who followed. Franchetti has held many leadership all the opportunities that we have in America, roles, including her current assignment Like the women who came before them, this as commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet. Based and I want to make sure that we always have year’s medalists have taken risks, charted their own in Naples, Italy — along with husband those opportunities.” James Sievert and daughter Isabel — she

course and inspired change. SPARTANA STEPHEN oversees all maritime activities in the

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 44 45

Change Maker Northwestern, which opened the door → During her to an internship at Hewlett-Packard. tenure, New York Bridgette Proctor Heller Life Investment There, she discovered her passion “For me, it’s always Management CEO ’83, ’85 MBA for marketing. Yie-Hsin Hung After graduation, Heller studied been about, how do I has tripled Bridgette Heller has carried her consumer behavior and marketing at leave things better than the company’s great-grandmother’s words with the Kellogg School of Management and business and led its international her throughout her life: “It’s all about joined General Foods, which later merged I found them?” expansion. your legacy.” with Kraft. During a career that has spanned more “Northwestern taught me to push than three decades, Heller led global beyond the discomfort to get my operations for some of the world’s largest questions answered,” Heller says. In 2016 Heller joined the executive Growth Mindset corporations, including Merck & Co., Kraft “When I got to General Foods, that team at Danone, an international food Foods Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. While quality made me stand out. I would company, to lead the early life nutrition Yie-Hsin Hung ’84 Heller is known for growing consumer always want to know, ‘Why are we division. A year later she assumed broader businesses and building highly effective doing it that way?’ ” responsibility as executive vice president Yie-Hsin Hung has always enjoyed teams, her measure of success goes She took over the company’s billion- of specialized nutrition. For three years solving problems, a quality that helped beyond sales figures. “For me, it’s always dollar coffee portfolio in 2000. After Heller led the business to industry- her grow New York Life Investment been about, how do I leave things better 18 years at Kraft, Heller took the helm leading revenue growth and profitability. Management, a subsidiary of the than I found them?” Heller says. of Johnson & Johnson’s $2.5 billion As Heller climbed the corporate insurance company New York Life. An English and drama enthusiast global baby care division and later ladder, her principles kept her grounded. Since she joined the company in 2010, from St. Petersburg, Fla., Heller majored served as president of consumer care Kenneth Frazier, chairman and CEO of rising first to co-president and then CEO in economics and computer studies at at Merck. Merck, says his former colleague has in 2015, the $325 billion business has a gift for making people feel valued, tripled assets under management and included and respected. become one of the world’s largest money “Bridgette is the rare human being managers. Hung has led the strategy to who is strong enough to be gentle, even broaden the company’s products and in the toughest and most competitive expand internationally through the business environments,” Frazier says. acquisition of specialized investment Heller continues to build upon her firms in Europe and Australia and offices legacy alongside her husband, Eliot in Asia. Today she oversees a network Heller ’84, whom she met through the of eight independent boutiques that are with IBM, where she became interested in our business,” Hung says. Northwestern jiujitsu club, and their subsidiaries of NYLIM. in business strategy. She champions other important daughters, Mariah and Sara. In 2014 Hung — who is New York Life’s After graduating from Northwestern, causes in her life too. As a board member she joined Northwestern’s Kellogg highest-ranking female operating Hung earned an MBA from Harvard for both the New England Center for Global Advisory Board and started executive — has earned industrywide University and embarked on a 30-year Children and Next for Autism, Hung an educational foundation in South recognition for her achievements, career in investment banking and asset helps people with autism — including St. Petersburg, Fla., in honor of her including a spot on American Banker’s management. She held positions at her son, Cole — lead meaningful and mother, Shirley Proctor Puller, a 2017 and 2018 Most Powerful Women Morgan Stanley Investment Management happy lives. Hung is also a member of the lifelong educator. The following year in Finance lists. and Bridgewater Associates before McCormick Advisory Council, where she Heller launched a summer program for Ted Mathas, New York Life’s joining New York Life, where she focuses helps shape strategy for Northwestern’s underserved children in the community chairman and CEO, says Hung is able on strategy and talent management to engineering school. to improve their reading, math and to strategically focus an organization meet the needs of clients. Says Hung, “It’s my way of trying to science literacy. for long-term success while delivering “What motivates me is making a give back to an institution that has made Her great-grandmother’s words superior results year after year despite positive difference in the world, whether a big difference in my life.” continue to inspire Heller: “She used to challenging market environments. it’s for our investing clients who are say to me that you are only as good as “Her disciplined, analytical mindset is trying to secure their financial future or Learn more at what you leave behind.” balanced by a deep understanding of the plan for retirement, or for my colleagues alumni.northwestern.edu/medal. work we do helping people secure what matters most to them,” says Mathas, who ← After more than named Hung to New York Life’s executive three decades of management committee in 2017. driving growth for A Pittsburgh native, Hung says “I want my colleagues to be able to achieve global corporations, she developed analytical skills as a their best, to be a part of something much Bridgette Heller mechanical engineering major at is transforming larger than themselves and to be appreciated education for Northwestern, where she met husband, underserved Stephen Farinelli ’84, during freshman for their contributions.” children in South year. Every summer for three years, she St. Petersburg, Fla. ALEX MCKNIGHT HANDELMAN BOB held a product-development internship

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN CREATION / CLASS NOTES / IN MEMORIAM 47

Reunion Weekend 2019 Oct. 24–27

Donors helped make this moment possible. At Northwestern, we believe our world-class education should be accessible to the very best students, regardless of their economic background. Support from alumni and friends ensures that we can continue to provide loan-free PURPLE IN THE PARK financial aid packages to undergraduate students for years to come. Lucy Godínez ’18 does a mic Annual gifts for scholarships transform the lives of our talented students, check before singing the national anthem at Wrigley opening doors to a lifetime of opportunities. Field. On May 6 more than 3,000 Northwestern alumni, students and friends turned Support scholarships for Northwestern students at the park purple to watch the wewill.nu/SupportNUScholarships. Chicago Cubs play the Miami Marlins at the Northwestern Alumni Association’s annual NU Day @ Wrigley. See photos at alum.nu/wrigley2019. STEVE BECKER STEVE

SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 48 ALUMNI ALUMNI 49

of words and threw them out because they were stodgy and I was boring myself to death. My “aha” moment was 4 realizing that I needed to take How did your time at PROFILE the voice I was cultivating Northwestern influence the on Twitter — trying to be trajectory of your career? succinct, trying to be funny, I arrived as a theater major Five Questions trying to be engaging — and and fairly early on recognized with Benjamin expand it to fit onto the page that I was in classes with a properly, and that was how I lot of actors who were vastly Dreyer ’79 was meant to write the book. more talented than I was. But what happened that was great for me was that I was the assistant director of a production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. 2 The director was David How do you deal with Downs, who was a professor writers who are protective of theater then. In working on of their words? the script, David was all about PIRATES’ TREASURE Happily, I have found that all investigating every single Lee Overtree presides over one of the best improv talent incubators around — just ask any savvy of the best writers love to be line to figure out why the line kid under 12. “We’re a group of people who are truly inspired by kids’ writing,” says Overtree ’02, copy edited. Excuse me, they was there, why Albee put it co-founder and artistic director of Story Pirates, a popular podcast and live show catering to the love to be copy edited well. there, why he put a pause pre-tween set. “Our secret is that we don’t think of it as making comedy for kids; we think of it as making comedy for each other.” The formula works. Since its 2004 founding, Story Pirates They recognize that nobody is here instead of there. And has dazzled more than 1 million audience members with its performances of stories written and ever going to read them quite this process was important submitted by children; each podcast boasts more than 100,000 downloads. The idea for Story as carefully as their copy in my learning how to read Pirates evolved from Overtree’s involvement in the student group Griffin’s Tale. Peter McNerney editor is going to. If the copy and how prose works, not ’05 and Joanna Simmons ’05, above, are among the Northwestern alumni involved with the show. editor approaches the work in just in a storytelling way, but a supportive fashion, to help sentences and commas and the author make their book the arrangement of words. into the best version of itself that it can be, well, authors NOVELTY ITEM really like that. name it the largest collection in the world. Nod of The collection includes bobbleheads of 5 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ’03, What’s one lesson you Approval sports journalist Michael Wilbon ’80, learned at Northwestern? Green Bay Packers defensive end Dean 3 One simple lesson is that It all started with Rocko, a yellow-beaked Lowry ’16, Northwestern football coach What are a few of your if you’re trying to write a bird with a wobbly head. Phil Sklar’s Pat Fitzgerald ’97 and Willie the Wildcat. writing pet peeves? line that you want to get a lifelong friend Brad Novak was working Novelists will sometimes laugh on, you need to put with the Rockford RiverHawks when the fill out their pages with the word that’s going to minor league baseball team released its characters nodding and inspire the laugh at the end first bobblehead, a replica of its Rocko the shrugging and all the things of the line, because if it’s RiverHawk mascot. Soon Sklar ’14 MBA that we do in real life that are in the middle, the audience and Novak were traveling across the In his best-selling not all that interesting on the is going to laugh over the country, attending sporting events that page. I try to inspire them to rest of the line and not hear offered the beloved collectibles. While book, Dreyer’s English, 1 cut back on that sort of thing. it. And that technique, of some might see bobbleheads as a novelty, You have more than 50,000 Also, though I’m not opposed taking a strong word in a Sklar envisioned something more. He the Random House Twitter followers. How did to adjectives and certainly sentence that is sitting in and Novak co-founded the National social media influence this not, as some people are, to the middle and moving it to Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, copy chief says it’s OK book? adverbs, I do keep an eye on the end for maximum impact, which opened its doors near Milwaukee’s I was having great difficulty the pointless ones. I’ve made is something I find myself Historic Third Ward in February. More to bend the rules of figuring out what voice I a public enemy of the word doing as a copy editor. That is than 6,500 bobbleheads are featured on wanted to use in the book, “very” because I think it’s definitely something I learned location, a display so massive that this grammar. and I wrote tens of thousands essentially a waste of time. VINCENT TULLO from working on scripts. summer Guinness World Records may

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 50 ALUMNI ALUMNI 51

NONFICTION each piece of cookware, blog posts written by chefs, and Random Families, recycling locations for old pots and pans. by Rosanna Hertz As part of a generation and Margaret K. that is getting married Nelson later, Tishgart says many young adults still depend on wedding registries to get their “We all have families that kitchenware. Great Jones, we are born (or adopted) Tishgart says, helps young into, and often we also have adults get cooking sooner. families that we choose. “We see so many people Another new kind of kinship who are happy that they can is emerging based upon upgrade and get something sharing the same gamete high-quality sooner than they donor,” says Rosanna Hertz expected,” she says. ’77 MA, ’83 PhD, co-author of Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm STARTUP SCENE Donor Siblings and the Creation of New Kin (2019). TRAILFORK Lillian With new reproductive Hoodes ’13 MA is co- technologies set to upend founder and CEO of the concept of family, Hertz, TrailFork, a company a professor at Wellesley dedicated to providing WATER SAFETY College, interviewed more ← Sierra Tishgart, outdoor adventurers with than 350 children (ages left, and sustainably packaged 10–28), their parents and Maddy Moelis and healthy dehydrated A Mermaid’s Guide donors to explore how they food. The Colorado used cultural narratives Institute for Social Impact to Water Awareness about genes and genetics to named her its 2019 Social ENTREPRENEURS understand their relationship Impact Entrepreneur Drowning is the leading cause of her body is like a balloon. Lang suggests to their immediate families of the Year of Northern accidental death for kids between the having your child take a deep breath, and donor networks. She cooking process through Great Colorado. Working out of ages of 1 and 4, with more than 3,000 close her mouth and go underwater — says her research spoke to an Now We’re Cooking Jones’ sleek and minimalist a shared kitchen space in children drowning every year. One in eyes open, but mouth closed. “opening up of ideas about When food editor Sierra Tishgart products. The Dutchess, an Broomfield, Colo., Hoodes 10 of those deaths occur in the bathtub. 3 Gentle Submersions — Start by family.” Ultimately, Hertz enameled cast-iron Dutch and her staff create vegan Shocked by these tragic statistics, mother teaching proper breath control in the presents an investigation couldn’t find affordable, easy-to-use oven, comes in five food- and vegetarian offerings. and swimming coach Michelle Lang ’04 bathtub and then, once in the pool, of how we create belonging cookware for her own kitchen, she themed colors, from broccoli The first in her family to go penned A Mermaid’s Guide: Empower Your teach your child to hold his breath and and intimacy and how these green to mustard yellow and a to college, Hoodes says her Child in Water and in Life to help teach go underwater for one second. Slowly new forms of family open created a line of pots and pans. limited edition macaron pink. graduate degree in history parents simple techniques to keep their build his breath control to five seconds. up possibilities for greater “We think the products has helped her succeed as children safe in the water. It’s vital that your child understands connection and kinship. As a James Beard Award– With the help of her really marry substance with an entrepreneur. how to hold his breath properly to avoid winning journalist for New childhood friend Maddy style,” says Tishgart, who “Northwestern set me 1 Breath Control — Breath control drinking or inhaling the water. York Magazine, Sierra Tishgart Moelis, Tishgart created works on product design, up with cognitive skills is the most important skill children 4 Floaties Are Not Lifesaving Devices ’12 ate at some of New York Great Jones, a name inspired branding and marketing. to do something as should learn prior to beginning swim — Infants can drown in just an inch of City’s finest restaurants. But by the cookbook author and “They are durable and high- simultaneously creative lessons, Lang says, and it can be taught water in less than 30 seconds. Never she wanted to cook better editor Judith Jones. Tishgart functioning — and look and analytical as running when children are just a few months leave your child alone in the bathtub or meals at home and realized and Moelis surveyed chefs beautiful sitting on your a startup,” she says. “In old, starting in the bathtub. Prepare your the swimming pool. Drowning happens she needed different pots to inform the design of the stovetop.” particular, the way history baby for his first underwater experience silently. Keep your eyes on your child at and pans. Frustrated by the custom-built cookware, By selling only online, is taught at Northwestern by teaching him to hold his breath as you all times when she is around water. potential expense and unsure with handles created to be Great Jones is able to offer its allows students to look at gently trickle or pour water over his head. 5 Increase Exposure — Teaching your about what cookware she comfortable and ergonomic. products at a lower price than a level of fine detail and 2 No Mouth Bubbles — The mouth child to be comfortable in water could needed and why, Tishgart set Tishgart, who was named its competitors. A five-piece then zoom out to draw bubbles your child blows while one day save his life. With regular practice out to create her own line of with Moelis to Forbes’ “30 Great Jones set is $395. conclusions about the underwater are composed of the air and routines, even the most resistant kitchenware to make cooking Under 30” in the 2019 food The company’s website wider world. I have to do inside her body — air that is actually children will eventually overcome their more accessible for young and drink category, hopes to also features recipes that that multiple times a day.”

keeping her afloat. Tell your child that initial fear and learn to love the water. WILLIAMS TORY adults. bring joy — and color — to the best suit the functions of

NORTHWESTERN SUMMER 2019 SUMMER 2019 NORTHWESTERN 72 BACK STORY

Startup Singer Dom Collins applies lessons he learned in his Northwestern legal and business training to his career as an entertainment entrepreneur.

Dom Collins ’16 JD, MBA sickle cell anemia — and had been working as a following your dreams. media and entertainment Thanks to the lessons he banker on Wall Street for a learned while splitting time year when he got the itch between the Kellogg School to leave his day job and of Management and Pritzker pursue his passion. He had Northwestern School of Law started writing songs while in the three-year JD-MBA in school at Northwestern. Program, Collins is on Now, out in the corporate his way. ↑ Dom Collins talks with news anchor Paul Robins before a world, he could not shake the performance at the Fox 40 TV studios in Sacramento. desire to perform and record I like to create and be his own music. Drawing autonomous. I enjoy the on his legal and business freedom of doing what I love. up my sleeves and help out in music business. This has background, Collins formed I knew entrepreneurship was any way I can, regardless of definitely helped me in my Domarco7 Entertainment going to allow me to do that function. We’re all a team. pursuit. and launched an R&B career long term. My goal was to in New York City under the leverage what I learned in the While some artists Music is so powerful, stage name Dom Marcell. corporate world and apply it outsource the business because it brings people of Collins, who was born in to my music startup. aspects to a manager, I all different backgrounds Puerto Rico and raised have self-managed thus far together. I’ve had difficult in New Orleans, recently I decided to go to graduate and used LinkedIn to build a times in my life where a released his debut album, school at Northwestern following. Some artists may certain song uplifted me. U-Nique Destiny, which because I wanted to take not know how to leverage features a mix of pop, R&B, my finance career to the LinkedIn as a useful platform When I am performing on hip-hop, dance and hints of next level. I had worked at a — in addition to Instagram, stage, it’s euphoria. That’s boutique investment bank, Facebook and Twitter — to how I know this is what I’m a commercial real estate promote their work. I’ve been supposed to be doing. investment firm and able to use this approach to a financial services firm market my music and gain You only live once, so if in New York. I wanted to supporters. you have a passion that’s develop both my business dormant, try to explore it Homecoming and Reunion Weekend and leadership skills while It’s important to tell my in your free time. You don’t also building my network. story in a way that will have to go all-in. Even though October 24–27, 2019 both inspire and galvanize I was in corporate America, I Law school essentially others to follow their still was singing in my church Undergraduate classes ending in 4 or 9, from 1959 to 2014— teaches the student passion. I hope to continue choir. And your passion can plus the Class of 2018—are invited to Reunion Weekend. how to be an effective to use my art as a conduit to change over time, so be open All alumni are welcome to join Northwestern’s annual ↑ The cover for Dom Collins’ communicator. I pull from accomplish this. to allowing that to happen, Homecoming celebration, which includes Friday’s pep rally single “Church Night” this whenever I pitch a new because you never know if it and Saturday’s football game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. idea to my marketing and While it is not necessary will come full-circle. gospel. His music focuses, creative teams, the press or to get an MBA, I would Registration opens in July: in part, on overcoming a business partner. Similarly, encourage all artists to be Interview by Jacob ­Munoz, alumni.northwestern.edu/reunion tragedy — in recent years I learned the importance of well-versed in business a sophomore from ­Ingleside, he lost his mother to breast leading by doing in business by reading books on Ill., who is studying

cancer and his sister to school. It’s important to roll entrepreneurship and the ­journalism and psychology. PHOTOGRAPHY DEREK GIOVANNI NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN MAGAZINE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY BOX 1603 2020 RIDGE AVENUE EVANSTON, IL 60208-4340

50YEARS Ernie and Bert appeared in the first scene of the first ­episode of Sesame Street, which aired Nov. 10, 1969. ­Fifty years later, the best friends and their Muppet pals help educate children in more than 70 languages and 150 countries. Read about the purple pipeline to Sesame Street on page 32.