Background Checks Work p. 7 … A Dozen Wildcats in the NFL p. 14 … “There’s no greater gift that you can PedalCell Powers Up p. 19 … Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey p. 40 … give your children than the tools to Seattle Gentrification p. 46 … Jayne Atkinson on Stage and Screen p. 59 navigate their future lives.” p. 8

FALL 2019

150 Years of Women Northwestern honors alumnae, students and faculty, including poet Natasha Trethewey P. 24 MOMENT

Space Bubbles Using South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT telescope, professor Farhad Yusef-Zadeh and an international team of researchers discovered a gigantic, balloon- like structure in the center of the Milky Way. The newly spotted pair of radio- emitting bubbles spans hundreds of light-years. In this composite view, the sky to the left of the second-nearest antenna is the night sky visible to the unaided eye, and the radio image to the right has been enlarged to highlight its features.

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 PHOTO: SARAO/OXFORD/NRAO FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 2 3

FALL 2019 Contents Vol. 22 Issue 1 FRONT 1 Moment 40 4 President’s Letter Soul Restoration 6 Talk Back Northwestern professor Natasha Trethewey believes in the healing power of VOICES poetry as she confronts 7 Lori Post Background checks work a family tragedy and the misapprehensions of 9 Louise Kiernan Discovering the power American history. of social justice By Adrienne Samuels Gibbs journalism

NEWS 15 Student Life Doctoral students hunt down 24 earthquake anecdotes 150 Years of Women 16 Discovery Economic Northwestern celebrates the uncertainty costs remarkable alumnae — like female candidates up-and-coming comedian 18 Innovation Kellogg Ashley Nicole Black — who alum creates a better breast pump for new have faced obstacles, broken mothers in East Africa barriers and forged ahead to make a difference in the “WE WILL” UPDATE University community and the 20 Scholarships The world at large. 11A Modern Home University receives for Discovery its largest gift ever Northwestern opens for financial aid the nation’s largest biomedical academic ALUMNI research building. 49 Creation Former Wildcat QB Todd Somers creates a new game-day condiment combo 50 Class Notes 68 Deaths

19 BACK STORY 72 Mike Stanton Veteran newspaperman brings ← Engineering senior colorful characters Vishaal Mali launched to life PedalCell with the goal of creating a reliable onboard power source for cyclists. Future Founders 47 46 named it one of its 2018 An Artful Harvest Five Questions with Jeffrey Shulman Outstanding Student Visual artist Beth Reitmeyer’s In his documentary On the Brink, the University of Washington creations spice up East business professor evokes the human impact of gentrification

Startups of the Year. KORNYLAK; ANDREW TRETHEWEY: KEAY; MALI: NATHAN PRATT/TBS BLACK: JESSICA SHULMAN: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Nashville’s Tomato Art Fest. in Seattle’s Central District.

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our newest undergraduates how she made people to change if you treat them in a differences, treat each other with respect, ambitions, and your ability to help bring The Next Generation the point that advocates for social and civil manner, she argued; and second, learn from one another and be examples those talents into full blossom, I believe institutional change have a choice to make. even if you are unsuccessful in changing for others to emulate. you will be hearing from this entering of Catalysts They can be content in simply expressing minds, treating them as humans rather I believe our incredibly accomplished class for years to come. their moral outrage and being consumed by than as symbols embodying all that you and supportive network of alumni their anger, or they can invest in the hard hate is quite simply the right thing to do. provides a model for the manner of Best wishes, work that results in lasting change. I am not saying that there are always community we seek to build on campus. That work, she argued, means treating good people on all sides or that all sides And I’m grateful especially for the many your opponents with a modicum of respect, are equally good — I believe that is ways in which you help Northwestern n 1869 the Northwestern by other Northwestern graduates teaching even when it is tempting to resort to pure absolutely not the case. But Ms. Nash students to become the next generation I University Board of Trustees at high schools in the area and across the vilification. “But why do that?” one might offered our Northwestern community of catalysts — as they develop deep and voted to admit women as globe, by current students, by faculty and ask. “Aren’t our enemies the personification words to live by, even if they are easy to enduring friendships, gain the ability to students. This academic year we are staff and by many others. I read enough of all evil?” Perhaps not, she suggested. Give forget in the heat of the moment. educate themselves over a lifetime and commemorating 150 years of women at files to realize that finding 10 applicants them some benefit of the doubt. I told our new undergraduates that prepare to repair a broken world. Morton Schapiro Northwestern, to celebrate the individuals to reject for each one that we accept is a First of all, it is a lot easier to convince we need to understand and celebrate our Because of our students’ talents and President and Professor who have taken risks, charted their own daunting task, given that many of those course and inspired great change. we passed on would surely have thrived At the end of September we welcomed here if presented the opportunity. 2,200 first-year and transfer students I informed the outstanding few who at the President’s Convocation in Ryan beat those formidable odds that, now Fieldhouse. This entering cohort is that they are here, our goal is for them our most diverse ever, with students to think of Northwestern as their home, hailing from 67 nations; with more their community and their family — not than 20% of students coming from low- just for the next few years, but for a income, Pell Grant–eligible families; with lifetime. 13% representing the first generation of One of the concerns I shared with their families to attend college; and with our entering undergraduates has to do 6% coming from Chicago Public Schools. with what many experts see as a national And apropos of our commemoration, issue — stress and anxiety among college 51% of our entering students are women. students at a time when the competition In short, the incoming class is filled to outdo one another in academics and with the next generation of catalysts activities is more intense than ever. At — and I can’t wait to see what they will Northwestern, we are always looking for accomplish here on our campus. I shared ways to improve student well-being. We my hopes for them, as individuals and as want our students to never be afraid to future leaders, and touched on how they ask for help, to care for themselves and to might be able to carry on a tradition of watch out for one another. progress within their academic careers Our new students reported to action and lives, like those bold and brave within a particular context — a time, women in the past 150 years who have alas, of growing tensions and incivility opened doors, creating greater access in the world. With our recognition of and opportunity for all who followed. 150 years of women at Northwestern, It’s easy for me to appreciate how we’re reminded of the call to succeed not exceptional our incoming students are, simply at a personal level but in a way having reviewed a sample of the 43,000 that lifts up others. That is not easy, given applications we received for this year’s what is going on in our larger world. first-year and transfer class. The 500 or so During the darkest of times, I recall files I selected were suggested by alumni, perhaps the most memorable talk I have attended during my decade at Northwestern. The speaker was on “I told our new campus in 2016 as part of our Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. She was undergraduates Diane Nash, a civil rights legend who still that we need to stays active in her hometown of Chicago. She put her life on the line as she fought understand and for voting rights, for desegregation and celebrate our for dignity for all. Ms. Nash’s talk was about effective differences.” activism, and this fall I recounted to

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 6 TALK BACK VOICES 7

Northwestern INVENTION administrators in anonymous surveys. Magazine The creation of a federal universal VICE PRESIDENT, OFFICE OF Talk Back Scoots Footwear [Innovation, background check is imperative to stop GLOBAL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS News, page 21, summer 2019] mass shootings because a patchwork Jeri Ward ’01 MEM, MBA is a brilliant invention and of federal and state laws has created EXECUTIVE EDITOR SOLUTIONS FOR thoughtful solution to our loopholes. Background checks will only Stephanie Russell TROUBLED WATERS horrendously overflowing work if the same rules apply within each SENIOR EDITOR landfills. I’m a vegetarian CURBING GUN VIOLENCE While this has successfully stopped state to both licensed and unlicensed or Sean Hargadon I read “Solutions for Troubled always looking for good- dangerous individuals from being hired private vendors. ART DIRECTOR Waters” [summer 2019] looking, well-made shoes. as direct care providers for vulnerable In the end, U.S. Senate Majority Christina Senese with great interest but was Ann Jarmusch ’73 Background patients, firearm background checks will Leader Mitch McConnell earlier this year ASSISTANT ALUMNI NEWS EDITORS dismayed to see the No. 1 Sedona, Ariz. need to go much further. refused to act on a House-passed bill Lena Elmeligy ’18 issue impacting water was Checks Work First, the background check has to be to expand background checks for gun Leah Goldberger not addressed — population FIVE QUESTIONS conducted on the basis of a fingerprint purchases because it was not clear that PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR growth. Many of the problems scanned into the FBI’s Integrated President Trump would support it. Anne Egger discussed would not be an smile spreads across my face. More than anything else By Lori Post Automated Fingerprint Identification In Texas, one day after the mass CONTRIBUTING ALUMNI AND CAMPAIGN NEWS EDITORS issue if the world’s population Syreeta Carrington ’97 I have ever encountered, System to determine whether a person shooting in Odessa, eight new gun laws Lindsay Beller wasn’t sprinting toward West Orange, N.J. Dreyer’s English has made me his past August ended as it has a criminal history. went into effect that were designed Deborah Cassell ’00 MS 13 billion. All the technology think deeply about writing began — with a mass shooting Second, we must identify escalating to ease restrictions on guns and curb EDITORIAL INTERNS in the world can’t offset Awesome stuff! Even Tech and editing — with the added in which a gunman took a predatory behavior and personality fatalities by arming civilians. Daniel Fernandez ’19, the ramifications of a near grads can appreciate this! benefit of making me laugh. significant number of lives. disorders. Documenting concerning Increasing the number of guns Valerie Fong ’22, Sophia Lo ’22, Jacob Munoz ’21, Dan doubling of our population Ken Crites ’91, ’97 MBA It was a delight, then, to On Aug. 31 a man killed seven behavior is necessary to include with and gun-toters will not work. Let’s try Rosenzweig-Ziff ’21, Emma over the next 80 years. Shelburne, Vt. see the interview with its near Odessa, Texas, just weeks after a criminal records to provide an overall prevention instead. Yarger ’23 Progressive thinkers tend author, alum Benjamin Dreyer Tshooter in El Paso, Texas, and another profile. EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD to focus on the negative What a delightful journey. ’79 [Five Questions, Creation, in Dayton killed a total of 31 people. Third, hate speech aimed at racial, Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Krishnan Anantharaman ’91, impacts of industry and Our daughter, Julie Petrando, page 48, summer 2019]. Even Although mass shootings in the U.S. ethnic, religious, LGBTQ or migrant Health Policy and Economics at the Feinberg chair; David Beard ’81; Emily Chow ’12; Alex Freund ’17, business and ignore now 50 years old, literally more so, I was impressed by comprise less than 1% of all gun deaths, groups and speech obsessed with killing, School of Medicine, was the lead principal ’20 JD, Alex Garcia ’89; population growth. But Al grew up with Sesame Street the fresh insights that the sensationalism drives news cycles and massacres, kill counts or stockpiling investigator in the Michigan Background Adrienne ­Samuels Gibbs ’99; Gore put it best: “Global and interned with Jim Henson piece elicited. Well done! ultimately gun policy. Polls show that the weapons and ammunition are all critical Checks Pilot Program, which became the Ryan Haggerty ’07, ’16 MS; Jerry Lai ’04; Robert Leighton climate change is caused and his crew following her Matt Baron ’90 majority of Americans believe some sort telltales, and they should all be flagged by prototype for the patient protections section ’82; Mike McGee ’10; Cate by three things: population graduation. To say that Oak Park, Ill. of gun control legislation is needed. current and former employers and school of the Affordable Care Act. Plys ’84; Gita Pullapilly increases, certain modern Sesame has stood the test In the wake of these recent mass ’00 MS; Christina Rosales ’11; technologies and people who of time would be a gross shootings, politicians on both sides of Joshua Rosenblat ’17; Kerem ON A HIGH NOTE Taskin ’14; William Weinbaum refuse to acknowledge that understatement. It has the aisle voiced support for background ’82, ’83 MS; Steph Yiu ’08; population increases and enriched young lives for a A friend and I attended a checks as the solution. Cat Zakrzewski ’15; Sheldon certain modern technologies half-century and hopefully Cleveland Orchestra concert However, as details emerged that Zenner ’74, ’78 JD cause climate change.” will do so for another 50 years. that Roderick Cox ’11 [“On a the Odessa shooter had failed an earlier © 2019 Northwestern University. Karin Crane ’00 Thomas Barger ’62 High Note,” Close-up, page 63, background check and still managed to Northwestern Magazine is published Chicago Carole Shirreffs Barger ’63 summer 2019] conducted last obtain a firearm, this led some people to in fall, spring and summer. All Rights Reserved. Produced by the Bloomington, Ill. month. It was magnificent. conclude that background checks don’t Office of Global Marketing and Excellent, well-written article! Madelyn Dinnerstein ’83 work. I strongly disagree. Communications, 1603 Orrington Ave., Suite 200, ­Evanston, IL 60201. I love the many experts DRIVING THE STEM BUS Pittsburgh In 2014 the Odessa shooter was denied Telephone: 847-491-5000 Website: featured, each addressing the purchase of a gun because he was magazine.northwestern.edu different problems and Brilliant! Professor Nichole KUDOS adjudicated “a mental defective.” Yet Views expressed in Northwestern Magazine do not necessarily reflect solutions. Thank you for Pinkard’s creative energy despite this, he was able to buy a firearm the opinions of the editors or the this important journalism! [“On Board with STEM,” My Congratulations on the through a private sale. This is a pretty University. Karen Allen Northwestern Direction, summer 2019 issue. It is far clear case that the background check ADDRESS CHANGES Chicago page 11, summer 2019] is more interesting, intelligent, worked when it was conducted and that a Mail to: Alumni News Editor exactly what is needed to pave informative and useful comprehensive background check system Northwestern Magazine PURPLE PIPELINE the way for youth who may than most past issues. The requiring a check for all gun transactions 1603 Orrington Ave. Suite 200 TO SESAME STREET not have ended up on that bus photographs were similarly would have prevented the actual sale. Evanston, IL 60201 to explore their potential. She of fine quality. The magazine In Michigan I led a team that

Email: address-change Thank you for sharing “How is a rock star in the field of synthesizes the creativity developed the national model for a @northwestern.edu to Get to Sesame Street” STEM education. We are lucky I lived with during my comprehensive background check

Web: magazine.northwestern.edu [summer 2019]. No matter to have her in the community. Northwestern years. system for workers in long-term care /change-your-address what I’m doing, if Sesame Melanie West Judith Harris ’61 facilities, to make sure that people who Street is on, an immediate Evanston Trevignano Romano, Italy have physically abused or neglected patients or stolen Social Security checks We want to hear from you:  [email protected]  @NorthwesternU  /NorthwesternU @NorthwesternU don’t slip through the cracks. ↑ Lori Post, speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council last September

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 8 VOICES VOICES 9

SOUND OFF about overparenting, helicopter SOCIAL FEEDS By Louise way we think about the world. parenting and lawnmower parenting, Kiernan ’92 MS Much of what has driven my What’s your favorite memory the tendency is to be overly involved work since has grown out of that from the #Shakespeare Modern in our children’s lives even as they get Editor-in-chief, experience. As a longtime projects garden? older. We as parents need to be self- ProPublica Illinois reporter and editor at the Chicago Parenting aware and not swoop in and solve all our Tribune, my work ranged from How has parenthood changed kids’ problems for them. We often err on “Exploring with my leading the enterprise and urban in the past generation, and the side of doing too much. affairs teams to examining child There’s no greater gift that you can little boys, letting homicide and writing about the what are the advantages or give your children than the tools and them think they’d Great Migration. But almost all of it drawbacks of 21st-century resilience to navigate their future lives. found secret hiding had, at its roots, a focus on issues at parenting? the heart of public affairs: poverty, places. Barefoot, of justice, race, gender and class. Alexandra Solomon course.” In 2010, I returned to Medill ’98 MA, ’02 PhD, clinical to teach and have been fortunate @jane_grover  assistant professor of to count among my friends Jack Matthias Doepke, professor of psychology, clinical Doppelt, the professor who taught economics and father of three psychologist at the my legal reporting class. Together, Family Institute and Jack, lecturer Kari Lydersen ’97 Parents on average mother of two and I helped create Medill’s social now spend almost justice and investigative reporting twice as much time There are more teens specialization and Social Justice on parenting — struggling with more significant mental News Nexus — ideas, again, interacting with health problems now than a generation grounded in challenges facing their kids — ago. There are also more kids dealing the vibrant, troubled city around compared to a with chronic conditions: food allergies, us. In my classroom I worked to generation ago, asthma, autism spectrum disorder, introduce students to slices of that even though the ADHD. “We did wedding photos city, hoping to help them strike MY NORTHWESTERN DIRECTION number of kids has Parents should not feel ashamed there. It’s one of my favorite their own journalistic spark. gone down. about or resistant to asking for help. places in all of Chicagoland!” Two years ago I took an Our interpretation is that a lot of this Parenting is hard enough in the modern academic leave to join the more intense parenting is a reaction era, but when a child is facing additional @denaedae  Discovering the Power of nonprofit investigative news to rising economic inequality. Parents challenges, having a therapist who’s just organization ProPublica, leading react by trying harder to give their kids there to support the couple can help a lot. Social Justice Journalism its first regional operation as the best shot in this more competitive “That took me back, editor-in-chief of ProPublica environment. feeling nostalgic hen I was could look out to see if anyone Illinois. To work for a newsroom There are clear downsides to these Craig Garfield, professor and missing poetry a graduate had lined up outside to visit them whose mission is to “expose developments. We have more issues of pediatrics and class.” student at that week. Here, I encountered abuses of power and betrayals of with anxiety and stressed parents and medical social Medill, I took a toddlers in party dresses who had the public trust by government, children alike. This intense parenting is sciences and legal reporting been prostituted by their parents business and other institutions” @chez_lululu  also expensive and something you have father of two class in which we chose a local to buy drugs, chubby-cheeked feels like the natural next step to be able to afford. Not everyone can courthouseW to cover. Cook County fifth-graders accused of carrying on the journey that started at the keep up, so that parenting is becoming From 1965 to the “It was a great Circuit Court’s Juvenile Division guns and teenagers who had been This doors of juvenile court. more unequal. present, the amount sounded to most students, I think, abandoned by their mothers, only Recently, I returned to the secret in my years; is what However, there is some upside, of time that dads are like the least desirable option. None to grow up and lose custody of ­journalism building, this time because because now parents and children often involved in fathering has very few people of the local news organizations their own children. ProPublica was arguing for our education have emotionally closer relationships more than doubled. When there’s more knew it was there. covered it on a regular basis, and The time I spent reporting at right to publish information in than in earlier times. equity at home, it leads to more fulfilled I used to retreat there wasn’t much public interest in juvenile court profoundly changed at its best a case being heard there. It had parents. And children thrive when the news the court generated. my understanding of journalism can do: been 28 years since I first walked parents thrive. there to think when But I found it appealing and and how I wanted to approach it. through the metal detector. So feeling stressed. bring us Shelly Vaziri Flais ’95, There may be two things asked for that assignment. From I saw how government and policy into the much has changed since then, in ’99 MD, ’02 GME, driving this increase. One is a societal Looks like the the first morning I walked through and systems affect the lives of my life, in the court, in journalism. clinical assistant expectation. And there has been a shift in planting is much the court’s metal detector, what individuals who have little power or places and But the fundamental questions of professor of perspectives in that men look forward to I saw and experienced was a say in what happens to them. And I lives that justice and truth? Those remain. pediatrics and and want to be involved. improved! (I live in revelation. realized that those were the stories And they drive me still. England now. This transform mother of four Here, teenagers in the detention I wanted to understand and to tell. the way we Have a “Sound Off” question you’d like looks ‘proper.’)” center upstairs would lean their This is what journalism education Check out Louise Kiernan’s “My Despite awareness in ­answered? Email us at magazine mattresses against the windows at its best can do: bring us into the think about Northwestern Direction” video at  the last couple of years @northwestern.edu. @bencardsbites on Wednesday nights so they places and lives that transform the the world.” numag.nu/Kiernan.

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 Illustration by Bruce Morser FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 10 VOICES CAMPUS NEWS / STUDENT LIFE / SPORTS 11

A dozen former Putting pedal WIldcats suit up power to good WHAT INSPIRES ME on Sundays p 14 use p 19

Female The Authentic Life candidates Professor and pastor finds common ground in struggle in times of economic the pulpit, the classroom and the boardroom. uncertainty p 16

and seeing them prosper and thrive — it’s Nicholas Pearce ’10 MS, ’12 PhD, clinical just an amazing privilege to know that associate professor of management and you might’ve played some small part in organizations encouraging them along the way. “I’m no less a pastor in the classroom, and “There’s another piece of it too, and I’m no less a professor in the pulpit. I really that is family. I married my high school try to bring my whole self wherever I am. sweetheart, and we have a toddler at home, “I draw my inspiration from my and all of the things that I do outside the faith. I really believe that I am doing this house are not as significant as who I am in ↑ Nicholas Pearce work because it’s a calling from God. But the house.” on a more humanistic level, what also inspires me is seeing people grow and Nicholas Pearce teaches three Apostolic Church of God, a megachurch flourish. That is really the unifying thread. popular courses at the Kellogg School on Chicago’s South Side. Pearce, In the classroom, seeing the lightbulb of Management — Leadership founder and CEO of the Vocati Group, come on in a student’s eyes is a priceless in Organizations, Negotiations an executive consultancy, is the author MEDICAL RESEARCH moment. In the pastoral context, seeing Fundamentals and Beyond Diversity. of The Purpose Path: A Guide to Pursuing parishioners grow in their understanding He’s also an assistant pastor at the Your Authentic Life’s Work (2019). A Modern Home for COMMENCEMENT “One of the most “If what you thought “Mark my words, the “The next time truth 2019 important lessons you wanted isn’t day will come when and misinformation Discovery I’ve learned is bringing you you are so good at your meet at a media to think beyond satisfaction, don’t job, you’ll be asked to crossroad, you will Northwestern opens Sound yourself. Remember think of it as a failure be in charge of other not be students. You the largest biomedical to fight the good fight. but as a lesson. As you first-class problem will be part of the academic research Advice Remember that there learn more about what solvers. Solving media machine with a building in U.S. is a greater good that drives you, take risks.” problems as a team platform and a reach. Newly appointed transcends individual Courtney D. will be your collective It is up to you to Smithsonian gain or personal Armstrong ’93, superpower.” determine what type of he University Institution secretary achievement.” ’96 JD, MBA, executive Yie-Hsin Hung ’84, impact you will make.” T celebrated the official Lonnie Bunch Lonnie Bunch ’19 H, vice president of CEO of New York Sara Al-Saadi ’12, opening of the Louis delivered the address secretary of the worldwide business Life Investment director of public A. Simpson and Kimberly K. at Northwestern’s Smithsonian affairs at Warner Bros., Management, at the diplomacy at the Querrey Biomedical Research 161st Commencement Institution, at at the Pritzker School McCormick School Embassy of the State Center — the largest new in June. Here are a few Commencement of Law convocation. of Engineering of Qatar in Washington building solely dedicated to highlights from his convocation D.C., at Northwestern biomedical research at an talk and graduation University in Qatar’s American medical school — speeches from across graduation in June at the Feinberg School the University. of Medicine. Northwestern is the fastest-growing research enterprise among all U.S. medical schools — climbing from 39th to 15th in National Institutes of Health funding since 2002. The new center STEVE HALL STEVE

FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 12 NEWS NEWS 13

“I just know scientists will GLOBAL REACH start talking about things that will lead to new directions and experiments, and bridge Wildcats Around clinical and basic science.” Quaggin says the larger the World lab space will also enable her to hire new scientists with stem cell, vascular and developmental biology expertise to advance her efforts to develop a bioengineered kidney and ENDING GENDER- pancreas that grow blood BASED VIOLENCE Vietnam vessels, which she calls “the holy grail.” Over the summer Flexible lab space also junior Chloe Wong, above, worked with allows research groups The Simpson Querrey GUITAR VIRTUOSO seniors Vasilia to develop based on new Amsterdam Kavadas and Biomedical Research CLIMATE CORES discoveries and new funding. Nefertari Bilal, Center lobby In July senior classical guitarist Greenland in Hanoi with the “You want space that is more Marisa Sardo performed Institute for Studies open to expand and contract Pete Puleo ’19, an her favorite piece, Johann of Society, Economy incoming doctoral Kaspar Mertz’s Tarantella, to follow where the science is and Environment student, collected on the classical guitar at going,” says Elizabeth McNally, (iSEE) as part of sediment cores from Mozarteum University’s provides much-needed Research Institute together director of the Center for Northwestern’s island lakes in southern Wiener Saal in Salzburg. Days Global Engagement biomedical research space with colleagues from clinical Genetic Medicine at Feinberg. Greenland as part of Earth later she performed at the Studies Institute. to continue the University’s affiliates Northwestern “That’s what the Simpson and planetary sciences Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal in They helped create professor Yarrow Axford’s Amsterdam. Sardo showcased projected growth. Memorial Hospital, Ann and Querrey Biomedical Research a guidebook to train mid-July to mid-August her talent after winning first The 12-story building adds Robert H. Lurie Children’s Center gives us.” victim advocates and research trip. The samples prize in the senior age category more than 625,000 square Hospital of Chicago and Space in the new building confidants as part will be used in coming (19 and above) of the Grand Prize of iSEE’s Building feet of research space to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — in will allow McNally to hire years to examine climate Virtuoso International Music Responsibility and Chicago academic medical one academic medical district. new scientists to advance change over the past MUSIC PRESERVATION Competition. 15,000 years with a focus Accountability campus. And it is designed for The floor plan for each work on her new treatment PODCAST on abrupt climate events for Gender-Based Ghana a future expansion, with up lab is designed around the for muscular dystrophy, a in the south Greenland Violence Elimination CARBON CYCLE STUDY to 16 new floors in the second idea of flexible “research group of diseases that cause region. In the fall Cesar Almeida ’19, project. phase of construction. neighborhoods,” with the progressive weakness and loss front right, returned to Ghana on Australia The building brings goal of creating a vibrant of muscle mass in children. a Fulbright to produce a podcast Earth and planetary sciences physicians and scientists from hub. Each floor, which can The Simpson Querrey with the University of Ghana. professor Brad Sageman Feinberg, the McCormick accommodate 23 principal Biomedical Research Center The podcast examines music collected samples from a preservation and monetization, 90 million-year-old lake School of Engineering and investigators and their teams, is named in honor of trustees and Almeida hopes to foster Stanley Manne Children’s also has deliberate interaction Louis A. Simpson ’58 and deposit in Australia to start dialogue between Ghanaian developing a more complete space in the center to promote Kimberly K. Querrey in scholars and musicians. Last year reconstruction of the global conversation among the three recognition of their generous Almeida organized and facilitated carbon cycle from a high lab “neighborhoods.” support that has advanced a music education workshop in Southern latitude during an “Collaborations collaboration with Solidarity ancient hyperthermal period. “Collaborations will the University’s academic Studios and the University flourish on campus,” says excellence and scientific Sageman received a Fulbright will flourish on of Ghana to advance cultural to support his sabbatical campus.” Susan Quaggin, director of discovery. (See “New Chicago preservation initiatives in Ghana. research, which could inform the Feinberg Cardiovascular Facility Spurs Collaboration how we respond to current

— Susan Quaggin and Renal Research Institute. and Discovery,” page 21.) HAL STEVE MUSIC COMPETITION INTERNATIONAL GRAND SARDO: PRIZE VIRTUOSO rapid climate change.

● Northwestern’s ● Northwestern University in Qatar welcomed ● Professors David ● The University rose to No. 9 in the 2020 ● Northwestern is ● Northwestern’s The sponsored research its largest and most diverse class with 123 Cella, Susan Quaggin, Best Colleges Rankings from U.S. News & the sole law school new Master of funding reached incoming students. Members of the first-year John A. Rogers and World Report. For each of the past three years partner in the Move Science in Energy Ticker nearly $800 million class represent more than 30 nationalities. Catherine Woolley Northwestern has moved up one spot in the Best the Needle Fund, an and Sustainability in 2018–19. This is a The new class includes an aspiring poet from were elected to the National Universities category, reflecting, in part, initiative to create a degree, a full-time, 13.6% increase over Zambia, a Chinese student who wants to be a National Academy of the University’s continued success in attracting more diverse, inclusive one-year program, the previous year. novelist and a professional cyclist from Syria. Medicine in October. top researchers and research funding. legal profession. begins in fall 2020.

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 Illustrations by James Olstein FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 14 NEWS NEWS 15

STUDENT LIFE ’CAT TALES

← Abbey Road Chicago Bears Welcome Home special teamer Anniversary Sherrick President Schapiro urged first-year students to McManis Fifty years ago, the find community and family at Northwestern. world’s greatest band dropped what would become one of its uring the first for your lifetime,” President most famous albums. D crisp days of fall Morton Schapiro told the new Longtime NPR audio in late September, students gathered for the engineer and producer Northwestern welcomed its President’s Convocation at Flawn Williams ’74, newest class of first-year and Ryan Fieldhouse. who reviewed Abbey transfer students. “Most of all, I hope and Road for the Daily “My wish for you here is pray that when you leave this Northwestern in that when you graduate from campus you will be prepared October 1969, says the Northwestern — and you will to repair a broken and group’s last recorded graduate from Northwestern challenging world.” album still holds up. — you’re going to cherish the The convocation followed “Some of the stuff friendships you’ve made here, a week of Wildcat Welcome rocks pretty hard, that you’ll have the humility to events, including new student but a lot of it dates realize that education doesn’t orientation, March Through back to [the style of] end with an NU degree — it the Arch and a dash across English music hall,” he begins with an NU degree Ryan Field at the start of says. “Their producer, — and that you will gain the the football game against George Martin, → tools to educate yourselves Michigan State. figured out ways The view from Parents on campus to to string individual Inspiration Peak say tearful farewells to their songs together into a in Joshua Tree Class of 2023 students included Denisse medley.” National Park, Guerrero, mother of Maria The Beatles have overlooking a branch of the Daniela “Leli” Guerrero, a first- a special connection San Andreas 2,010 year student whose family is fault in California First-year students from Venezuela. Her younger brother Juan said Leli is living

her dream — determined to 2019 BEARS CHICAGO study chemistry, then go into 252 medicine. First-generation college “Oh my God, I’m going to FIELD NOTES students cry,” said Denisse, standing in the middle of Sheridan Road before March Through Seismic Memories 67 the Arch. “I’m so proud. I’m Countries represented speechless.” Graduate students collect earthquake anecdotes on California excursion.

WILDCAT ATHLETICS t wasn’t your typical shaking. Information was and Gallahue, both doctoral I California road trip. once submitted via mailed students in Earth and In the opening week of the NFL’s 100th to Northwestern. Doctoral students questionnaires (until the mid- planetary sciences, collected season, 12 former Northwestern football The Music Library’s Leah Salditch and Molly 1980s) and can now be entered anecdotes about two early- players were on teams’ active rosters or John Cage Collection Gallahue spent a week in online via the U.S. Geological 1990s earthquakes. includes seven original September hunting down Survey’s “Did You Feel It?” The data will be used to reserve/injured lists, including four Green lyric sheets from the earthquake stories from system, introduced in the late create a publicly available Bay Packers. For cornerback and special Beatles as part of the residents of Central and 1990s. During the transition database of seismic intensity teamer Sherrick McManis ’10 the Sept. 5 Notations Project. The Southern California. to the online system, some called CHIMP (California kickoff against the Packers was his 100th Music Library is one Since the early 20th moderately sized earthquakes Historical Intensity Mapping of just two libraries in century, U.S. government were overlooked. To help fill Project) and help improve game with the Chicago Bears. He is the the world with original agencies have sought firsthand in this decade-long period in hazard maps in earthquake-

longest-tenured active Bears player. FUNK © MARKETING; MCMANIS: JACOB AFFAIRS STUDENT WELCOME: WILDCAT APPLE RECORDS Beatles lyric sheets. accounts of earthquake the data collection, Salditch vulnerable areas.

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 16 17

RESEARCH Celiac Treatment and a Chemo Trojan Horse

A treatment POLITICS 1 developed in the lab of professor Stephen Miller may reverse celiac disease, Economic which can lead to damage in the small intestine. In a Uncertainty Costs phase 2 trial, patients were given a biodegradable Female Candidates nanoparticle that contained gluten, hidden Northwestern researcher Galen Bodenhausen in a protective shell. The says that despite women’s political gains, an nanoparticle teaches the economic crisis can spark gender stereotyping. immune system that the antigen (allergen) is safe. After treatment, patients ore than 90% of of marketing at the Kellogg were able to eat gluten M Americans say they School of Management, with a substantial would vote for a and Lei, now an assistant reduction in inflammation. woman for president, and professor at Haverford research suggests that, in College, wanted to see if the Women are still general, the disadvantages same sentiment prevailed in 2 underrepresented facing female candidates in times of economic crisis. in the music industry, past decades have largely In their recent study, they according to a study led vanished. found that female candidates by Ágnes Horvát, an However, psychologists face an uphill climb in times assistant professor of Galen Bodenhausen and his of economic uncertainty. communication studies. former graduate student In an experiment According to Horvát, Tm qui con estinu fgdm Ryan Lei ’15 MS, ’17 PhD designed to evaluate voters’ non pa qui dolutam. men release more songs wondered, “Is that a stable responses to male and female than women, are signed gain, or is it a precarious gain candidates, Bodenhausen and to record labels more that’s vulnerable to setbacks Lei, the study’s lead author, frequently and are aligned if the conditions don’t manipulated the participants’ with more collaborators favor openness to female sense of economic anxiety either male or female. (The Bodenhausen says. “Women attitudes — beliefs people demise. Some blamed her to produce music. candidates?” by giving them an article to candidate’s party matched have made a lot of important have about others based loss on sexism. Others say Research shows that read about the state of the the study participant’s stated gains, but those gains can be 13% upon their group identities she lost because of the 3 A new drug-delivery people often look to men for economy and then examined party affiliation.) somewhat tenuous, or they Of Americans believe and demographic category economy. “Our study suggests system disguises leadership in times of war. their support for hypothetical When the economy was can be reversed in situations that men are better suited memberships — says his study those two explanations chemotherapeutics as Bodenhausen, a professor Senate candidates who were portrayed as strong, male and that may lead people to for politics than women with Lei complements studies aren’t necessarily mutually fat in order to outsmart, female candidates performed question the suitability of of women’s involvement exclusive,” says Bodenhausen. penetrate and destroy equally well. However, when women for leadership based in politics. One recent “They can actually dovetail tumors. “It’s like a Trojan the researchers amped up the upon crude gender stereotypes examination of nearly five in a way that may have horse,” says chemistry economic anxiety, support for they hold,” says Bodenhausen, 94% dozen countries over a span disadvantaged Clinton.” professor Nathan “Women have made a lot of Of Americans say they the female candidate declined the Lawyer Taylor Professor of three decades corroborated Bodenhausen is not in Gianneschi, who led the would vote for a woman important gains, but those gains while support for the male of Psychology. “And in our that women’s electoral success the business of predicting research. “It looks like a for president can be reversed in situations candidate was unchanged, in data it was much more likely in politics goes down in times elections, but he says it would nice little fatty acid, so keeping with the stereotype to be men who held those of economic crisis. be an interesting test case if the tumor’s receptors see that may lead people to question that men are more capable at stereotypes and applied those In the aftermath of the the economy is slumping and it and invite it in. Then the suitability of women for addressing economic issues. stereotypes to female leaders.” 117 2016 election, there were two there’s a woman on the ticket the drug starts getting Certain conditions Bodenhausen, whose Women appointed or primary schools of thought on against President Trump in metabolized and kills leadership.” — Galen Bodenhausen can trigger latent biases, research focuses on intergroup elected to Congress in 2018 what led to Hillary Clinton’s November 2020. the tumor cells.”

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 Illustration by Doug Chayka FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 18 INNOVATION 19

USB PORTS

Located in the Power Hub, the two USB-C ports allow SMART POWER HUB riders to constantly use The brains of the system, the electricity during their rides. Smart Power Hub allocates The high-power port is used how the generated power is for phones or GPS. The slower used via PedalCell’s patent- charge port is good for lights pending technology. An onboard and other safety devices that microcontroller reads rider speed need less power but stay on and other data to decide how MATERNAL HEALTH for longer periods. much power to distribute so that there is always power available A Healthy Start on a ride with minimal drag. HIGH-EFFICIENCY Sahar Jamal is creating a battery-powered GENERATOR breast pump so new mothers in East Africa Attached to the can return to work. front fork of the bicycle, a custom- designed brushless uring an internship risks for both mum and baby,” DC generator creates at Jacaranda Health, a says Jamal ’19 MBA. → energy from the D Maziwa founder spinning of the maternity clinic and Jamal, who spent time Sahar Jamal wheel. Its output can nonprofit outside Nairobi, in maternal and newborn reach up to 20 watts, Kenya, in 2018, Sahar Jamal health-related work at six times more power began to notice barriers to Johnson & Johnson before than most other breastfeeding faced by middle- attending the Kellogg School dynamo generators. income new mothers. Many of Management, sought a powered cooler and pump before earning her MBA last had to make the difficult solution. so that women can collect June, she received Kellogg’s decision to either stop working Though only 7% of new and store breast milk even Social Entrepreneurship Grant, — often financially infeasible mothers in Kenya use a breast if they have no access to which provided $70,000 in — or give up nursing their pump, Jamal found in focus electricity or refrigeration seed funding. Jamal also won newborns, which can have groups that women would — say on a worksite or in a the Audience Favorite award dire health implications. be willing to pay for a more factory restroom. The pump’s at Northwestern’s VentureCat In developing countries, convenient, discreet, battery- sleek, compact design also competition. the risk of infant death is powered model built for allows women to pump more Jamal, whose parents are 14 times higher for babies developing markets. “They’re discreetly. from Tanzania and India, is who are not breastfed than already spending almost Jamal worked with a team working with Mark Fisher, for those who are breastfed $250 over six months on baby of Northwestern biomedical clinical associate professor exclusively for the first six formula, so this could be more and mechanical engineers of biomedical engineering, months. “This is especially affordable and effective at to develop a basic prototype to refine the prototype and challenging for mothers who providing critical nutrients out of “tubes and funnels” at develop the final design. She need to return to work as early for their baby,” explains Jamal, The Garage. She returned to moved to Kenya full time ON IN MINUTES, as one month postpartum who launched Maziwa Breast Nairobi several times with in October to continue her INVENTION OFF IN SECONDS and resort to substitutes like Pump while at Kellogg. the help of Kellogg’s Zell market research and develop CadenceX can be added onto baby formula with tea or cow’s Maziwa’s design includes Fellows Program to market partnerships with local clinics, almost any existing bicycle in milk, which pose major health a rechargeable battery- test different designs. Shortly NGOs and distributors. minutes with an easy-to-use PedalCell lockable clamp. And riders can Vishaal Mali, a McCormick School of Engineering senior, easily turn the product on or off via a built-in decoupling INNOVATION SPACE understood that more people might ride bikes if there was a mechanism. reliable source of power onboard. So he started PedalCell with The Garage at the Sardine Bar, located near his University of Michigan–based co-founder, Adam Hokin. The Northwestern’s Chicago campus, is a new space for a two developed technology to convert the kinetic energy from a small community of students and alumni working on bike into stable and continuous electricity. PedalCell’s CadenceX entrepreneurial projects to meet, co-work and learn. It serves product can power a rider’s devices, including a smartphone, bike as an extension of The Garage. The original 1,000-square- lights and GPS. Chicago-based Future Founders named PedalCell foot venue, the Gold Star Sardine Bar, hosted such famed one of its 2018 Outstanding Student Startups of the Year at its

singers as Tony Bennett and Liza Minnelli. IMA MFON © 2017 REDFERN/REDFERNS; JAMAL: BENNETT: DAVID KEAY NATHAN EntrepreneurshipU Awards last spring.

NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 20 “We Will” Update 21

$196 million to the University, RESEARCH $90 million of which went toward the research center. Their generous gifts have New Chicago Facility Spurs supported the Simpson Querrey Institute, endowed the Collaboration and Discovery Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professorship held The Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical by John Rogers and created the Research Center unites physicians and scientists under one roof. Simpson Querrey Center for Epigenetics at Feinberg. In addition to the research t a ribbon-cutting Research Institute. Designed Northwestern Memorial floors, the Simpson Querrey ceremony on June 17, to maximize collaboration, Hospital, Ann & Robert H. Biomedical Research Center’s A Northwestern each floor accommodates Lurie Children’s Hospital of public spaces — such as the benefactors, trustees and 23 principal investigators Chicago and the Shirley Ryan Potocsnak Family Atrium, the administrators joined with and their teams in a flexible AbilityLab. Together, these 160-seat Simpson Querrey other Chicago and Illinois research neighborhood that institutions form one of Auditorium, the Judd A. and dignitaries to officially focuses on a particular disease the top medical districts in Marjorie Weinberg Gallery, the open the Louis A. Simpson or therapy. By concentrating the world. Kabiller Student Commons and Kimberly K. Querrey so many scientists in the Throughout We Will. The and the Senyei Conference Biomedical Research Center same space, the building Campaign for Northwestern, Center on the mezzanine — the largest biomedical enhances opportunities for Simpson and Querrey have level — will serve researchers, academic research building in interdisciplinary interactions committed more than students and visitors for years the United States. and breakthroughs in cancer, to come. About 300 Northwestern Alzheimer’s, heart disease “It’s a very exciting time supporters heard from several and diabetes, among other for biomedical research at of the facility’s visionary maladies. “The work that Northwestern,” Simpson said. philanthropists, including Located in Chicago’s will be conducted “Kimberly and I are proud University Trustees Louis A. Streeterville neighborhood, to be associated with the high school students with Simpson ’58 and Kimberly K. the center is right next door here is mind- discoveries and the research SCHOLARSHIPS academic and leadership Querrey. to many of Feinberg’s major boggling.” that will come as a result of potential for admission into a “The work that will be clinical partners, including — Kimberly K. Querrey this building.” partner college or university. conducted here is mind- Northwestern Receives Its He was instrumental in boggling,” Querrey said at developing Northwestern’s the building dedication. “Lou Largest Gift to Financial Aid partnership with Posse. and I are fortunate to be able The Ubbens’ past Campaign to support the biomedical University Trustee Jeff Ubben and Laurie Ubben have committed gifts to Northwestern have research community. And $50 million for student scholarships. benefited the Kellogg School we’re humbled by the brilliant of Management, Athletics collaboration of the many and Recreation, the Bienen scientists and physicians transformative gift count toward We Will. The of undergraduates and 47% School of Music and the working together to from two longtime Campaign for Northwestern, of graduate and professional Ubben Program for Climate transform human life.” A donors will help which has fueled 424 new students. Northwestern also and Carbon Science within The 12-story, 625,000- generations of highly endowed scholarships and has eliminated loans from the Institute for Sustainability square-foot facility will be qualified students obtain fellowships to date, and the financial aid packages of and Energy at Northwestern. a home for researchers a Northwestern education. support the Thrive at qualifying undergraduates. Jeff and Laurie Ubben from the Feinberg School of Trustee and alumnus Jeff Northwestern initiative, which “Laurie and I can think of have three children: Charlotte, Medicine, the McCormick Ubben ’87 MBA and his wife, aims to enhance financial aid nothing more worthy than Theo and Josephine ’20 MBA, School of Engineering and Laurie, have made an estate resources and services for to make a Northwestern who currently attends the Stanley Manne Children’s commitment of $50 million students from all backgrounds. degree accessible to as many Kellogg. Jeff Ubben’s father, to support scholarships for Over the past 10 years, outstanding students as Timothy ’59 MBA, also undergraduate, graduate and the University has gone possible,” Jeff Ubben says. attended Kellogg. professional school students. from enrolling 12% to 20% In 2017, Jeff Ubben → Northwestern professors It will be the largest gift Pell Grant–eligible students completed a 10-year tenure Amy Paller ’83 GME and John Rogers spoke at the Louis A. made to financial aid in the in incoming classes. In the as chair of the national board ↑ Scholarships and other Simpson and Kimberly K. University’s history. 2018–19 academic year, of directors for the Posse forms of support help students Querrey Biomedical Research The Ubbens’ bequest will financial aid benefited 61% Foundation, which identifies thrive at Northwestern. Center dedication.

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

← Kimberly K. Querrey with faculty Milan Mrksich, left, and “It’s important to me to support Chad Mirkin at this summer’s Northwestern because Northwestern dedication of the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center has supported me in so many ways.” — Paula Pretlow

from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Northwestern Donors often are inspired visit people in their homes.” Alumni Association’s Alumni to give by others, such as Pretlow earned her Medal in 2013 and received University Trustee Paula bachelor’s degree in political an honorary degree from the Pretlow ’77, ’78 MBA, who science from Weinberg College University in 2019. travels across the country to and is now a member of “I was inspired by the engage alumni and friends its Board of Visitors. She education I received at in the “We Will” Campaign as supports several areas of Northwestern, which made its co-chair for participation. the University, including the me ready to face a rapidly A member of the Campaign College, Student Enrichment changing world and try my Steering Committee, she also Services, the School of best to make a difference co-chairs the San Francisco Education and Social Policy for others,” she says. Regional Campaign and the Kellogg School of Through her generous ↑ As the “We Will” Campaign’s co-chair for participation, Committee. Management, where she support, Kimberly K. Querrey Paula Pretlow inspires others to give to Northwestern. “My view of philanthropy earned her MBA. has propelled Northwestern’s was shaped at a very young “It’s important to me to prominence in scientific and age,” Pretlow says. “Even support Northwestern because medical research. Simpson Querrey Institute, It was Elliott’s dedication though I grew up in a Northwestern has supported INSPIRED GIVING When she and her husband, the Simpson Querrey Center to her alma mater that led her household without the me in so many ways,” Pretlow Louis A. Simpson ’58, both for Epigenetics and the to give back. A graduate of financial means to give explains. “I arrived on campus University trustees, were Simpson Querrey Biomedical Weinberg College with money to certain causes, my with very little. I left with a Women Philanthropists considering where to direct Research Center. This year a degree in history, she looks mother would bake goods to ton more knowledge and with their philanthropy, “We they made an additional gift back fondly on the “wonderful distribute to neighbors and the tools and opportunities Pay It Forward felt like the transformative to advance research through four years” she spent as a take to people who were sick, to make the best of my life research taking place at the University’s Center for student. “I had gone to and my grandmother would that I could.” As Northwestern marks the 150th anniversary of coeducation Northwestern was something Bio-Integrated Electronics. a smallish high school in at the University, we recognize our generous women donors. we wanted to support, as “We’re on the cusp of many Omaha, and Northwestern it will change the future of exciting discoveries in just opened my eyes to the human health and disease,” biomedical research,” Querrey world. It changed my life.” nspired by their families, arena underwent extensive “Impact is marked by Querrey says. Querrey and says. “What was once science While co-chairing her a love of Northwestern renovations and is now empowering others to use Simpson’s contributions fiction is now becoming 50th class Reunion, Elliott I and the desire to make the one of the most accessible their skills, their creativity during We Will. The Campaign reality through some of the made her first major gift University and the world facilities in college athletics, and their education to live a for Northwestern represent brightest minds collaborating to the University, setting a better place, women thanks in large part to good life and to contribute to the highest total giving from across disciplines.” up an international visiting philanthropists have created Shirley Ryan’s influence. making America even better,” an individual family. A former athlete, Querrey professorship program, exciting new spaces, programs In addition to the many says Ryan, who earned a They have supported honored the two women followed by several other gifts and opportunities for students. other Northwestern facilities bachelor of arts in English initiatives such as the who raised her when she benefiting global research. There is no denying the that bear the Ryan name, and Simpson contributed In 2015, she made a historic unprecedented leadership she and her husband have to the Walter Athletics $101 gift million gift to Shirley Welsh Ryan ’61, ’19 H supported numerous endowed Center. The facility’s Querrey create the Roberta Buffett has brought to Northwestern, scholarships, fellowships Simpson Wing includes Institute for Global Affairs. in everything from the musical and professorships. She also Nona Jo’s Dining Center, “It’s exciting helping arts and groundbreaking founded and remains involved named for her grandmother students, from our country research to athletics excellence in the University’s Learning Nona and Aunt Jo. and other countries,” and continuing education. for Life Lectures series. Roberta Buffett Elliott ’54 Elliott says. She and her husband, has expanded opportunities University Trustee Patrick G. for international studies and Ryan ’59, ’09 H, made their research at Northwestern first major gift to Northwestern through her exceptional → Shirley Welsh Ryan’s generosity → Roberta Buffett Elliott visited made possible the 2018 renovation in the early 1980s — Welsh- with students and faculty at generosity — including the of Welsh-Ryan Arena as well Ryan Arena is named in honor the Roberta Buffett Institute for largest single gift in the as the previous renovation in the of their parents. In 2018 the Global Affairs earlier this year. MICHAEL BACOS University’s history. early 1980s.

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150 YEARS OF WOMEN

Northwestern celebrates the remarkable alumnae, faculty, staff and students who have faced obstacles, broken barriers and forged ahead to make a difference in the University community and the world at large.

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t was a century and a half ago that winning 35.2% of the vote. Her four-year term begins Jan. 1. mere presence could damage the University’s López’s energetic, upbeat campaign appealed especially women were first given the opportunity to reputation. to young, urban voters eager for change and not yet weary enroll at Northwestern as undergraduates. It would take a conflagration and major from decades of corruption and violence. Since 1964 a civil To mark the 150th anniversary of war between the government, deadly right-wing paramilitary reorganization before Sarah Rebecca groups, organized crime and leftist guerillas has left hundreds coeducation we are championing our Roland became the first woman to receive a of thousands of civilians dead and much of the country outside remarkable community of individuals, Northwestern diploma in 1874 — and many major cities ungoverned. A November 2016 peace accord ended a half-century of war who have taken risks, charted their own course more years until women were fully accepted I between the government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed and inspired change throughout our history by the University community (see “The First Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Yet, last August, the historic peace and today. We also recognize a new generation of Woman Graduate,” page 30). agreement was in trouble from opposing forces both inside and catalysts who continue the journey to transform outside the government. Today, challenges remain to achieve equity Despite the precarious state of her country, López infused our community and our culture, by challenging across gender identity and expression, racial her campaign with her signature optimism, warmth and conventional norms and working to ensure identity, sexual orientation and economic tolerance. Northwestern — and the world — is a more “Claudia’s approach is celebratory and exciting,” says status. As we reflect on 150 years of women at Northwestern professor Edward Gibson, López’s dissertation equitable and inclusive place. We celebrate the Northwestern, we can take lessons learned from adviser. “As a gay woman she will be culturally transformative brave and bold women, womxn and gender- these inspiring catalysts to focus on creating and motivating to a lot of people who have felt left out of diverse individuals who have led — and continue mainstream politics.” a more positive future where all individuals López now applies the ideas she learned at Northwestern to to lead — the struggle to open doors, creating have the same opportunities to flourish. The the often dangerous world of Colombian politics — a warrior greater access and opportunity for all who follow. forward thinking and fierce determination of our bolstered by intellectual rigor. We applaud their contributions, achievements An ardent defender of constitutional rights since her Northwestern community challenges us to make university days, López’s defining moment came during a and resilience. the next 150 years more inclusive and equitable. televised panel discussion in 2010, when she confronted then- It has not been an easy journey, and myriad Here, in the following pages, are 11 outstanding President Álvaro Uribe about his connections to paramilitary challenges remain, but Northwestern has long groups, mass murders and drug trafficking. Uribe had been a graduates who are driving positive change in our formidable force in Colombian politics for decades, and López’s been a leader. The University was one of more world and motivating others to take the lead, takedown of him was epic. than a dozen Midwestern institutes of higher from politics to comedy to biopharmaceuticals Her attacks in the press against Uribe and violent groups led education to accept women undergraduate to the loss of her job at the newspaper El Tiempo and so many and many other fields. What is especially “We have nothing to death threats she was forced into exile twice. Eventually she left students in the 1860s and ’70s, more than 100 inspiring about these Northwestern alums is that journalism for politics. years ahead of some of our Ivy League peers, not only have they followed their passions and lose and everything “I was frustrated,” López recalls. “The people in paramilitary groups and drug cartels are so powerful. Instead of reporting including Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. found fulfillment and success, they’ve mentored to win.” endlessly I went to work so we can change it.” But even in the seemingly more progressive others along their journey and are helping to At Northwestern, López studied methods of modern Midwest, women faced hurdles and resistant create a more just society for all of us. CLAUDIA LÓPEZ ’19 PHD, state-building — particularly those that could be applied in attitudes to getting into college. MAYOR OF BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA Colombia’s essentially lawless rural areas. Her dissertation focused on countries that had tackled similar challenges. The minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting Northwestern Library’s exhibition On the Same hen Claudia López began her doctorate in political “Other countries have been able to build a vibrant society on June 23, 1869, could not have been simpler: Terms: 150 Years of Women at Northwestern science at Northwestern in 2011, she was already with an inclusive capitalist market,” she says. “We have to “Resolved that we approve of the admission of well known in her native Colombia as an activist, understand how others made it and stop making excuses.” runs through June 20, 2020, at Deering Library. political researcher and fearless investigative López has become the voice of a new center-left coalition young women to the classes of the university reporter. working for anti-corruption agendas, political reform, upon the same terms and conditions as young WBefore López was awarded her degree last June, she had environmentalism, education and gender issues. men.” also served four years as a Colombian senator, beat cancer, run Although she has seen the worst of humanity, López as the vice presidential candidate for the Green Alliance Party believes that the key to a thriving, stable society comes down As in any significant change, of course, the in 2018, triumphed over stereotypes as a proud lesbian and to one quality: “The 21st-century citizenship needs empathy. truth was much more complicated. The Chicago inspired a new generation of voters. Adaptation will be the constant change — we have to foster To learn about Northwestern’s Tribune reported the next day that several board And the astonishing truth is, she’s just getting started. empathy and self-esteem so people have the capacity to adapt 150 years of women and the more In the months before and after Northwestern’s without fear.” members had resisted passing the motion for than 200 remarkable individuals — Commencement, López was in the middle of campaigning When asked how she remains confident despite so many hours. At the very least, they argued, women past and present — who’ve left their for mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city. The challenges, she replies, “We have nothing to lose and everything mark on the University and the world, would require extra supervision to keep position is akin to the mayor of New York City and is seen to win. We have a planet to save. We have democracy to save. visit the 150 Years of Women website at as a steppingstone to the Colombian presidency. On Sunday, And we have a generation to lead.”

them out of trouble, and even worse, their www.northwestern.edu/150women QUINTERO ALEJANDRA Oct. 27, she became the first woman elected mayor of Bogotá, —Lisa Stein ’94 MS

FALL 2019 NORTHWESTERN 28 29

on Full Frontal or from her viral tweets with Elizabeth Warren, “I was speaking a she has certainly become a multiplatform powerhouse. Alongside fellow Northwestern alumna Robin Thede, Black language that no one recently made the leap to HBO, where she writes and stars in A Black Lady Sketch Show, a buzzy comedy that was quickly in the comedy world renewed for a second season. But her road to TV stardom was not nearly as rapid. Growing was speaking.” up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Black idolized actors Camryn Manheim and Gina Torres. “They stood out to me because they ASHLEY NICOLE BLACK ’08 MS, were alone,” she says. “There weren’t a ton of plus-size women ACTOR AND WRITER on TV. There weren’t a ton of black women on TV. So, whenever there was one, I honed in on her.” hen I started out acting, I got a lot of Black went to college to study acting, but after getting cast messages like, ‘Well, obviously a plus-size only in smaller supporting roles, she assumed she would black woman can’t do this,’ ” says Ashley never fully achieve her dream. “So I went into the graduate Nicole Black. “ ‘Maybe you can write or maybe performance studies program at Northwestern to get the you can teach.’ Then, my first job in television theoretical background,” she says. “was onW Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. I applied as a writer. I After taking an improv class at Chicago’s famed Second City got the job, and pretty quickly Sam offered me an on-camera theater, Black knew it was time to free herself and unleash said, ‘Looking for single-gene mutations will never work in role. It was exactly the thing that so many people had told me her full, comedic vision as a writer and performer. She left the “I had a full-on freak mammals; they are way too complicated.’ ” would never happen — and it happened immediately.” doctoral program, having earned her master’s in performance But Vitaterna, whose parents were also academics, was not Whether you know Ashley Nicole Black as a correspondent studies. After working at Second City for five years, Black out. I realized the Clock one to get discouraged. “I grew up knowing that women are as landed at Full Frontal. In the end, she says her experience at intellectually capable as men,” Vitaterna says, “and confident Northwestern probably helped her stand out in a crowded defect was genetic.” enough to ignore someone who dismissed my ideas.” field. “People took an immediate interest in me because She pursued a doctorate at Northwestern, where Professor my point of view and my voice were so defined and MARTHA HOTZ VITATERNA ’92 PHD, RESEARCH Fred Turek encouraged her to look for clock genes in mice. so different,” she says. “That’s partly because I was PROFESSOR OF NEUROBIOLOGY, NORTHWESTERN Vitaterna provided mice with running wheels and exposed coming out of academia, speaking a language them to normal light/dark cycles for a few weeks. Then, she nobody in the comedy world was speaking.” s the morning sun peeks over the edge of Lake Michigan, turned off the lights entirely. “When I was starting out, I couldn’t point 41 mice in a pitch-dark laboratory climb off their wheels “By running on their wheels, the mice could tell me what to any one person and say, ‘I can do that,’ ” and nestle into their bedding. The lab is quiet. And then, time of day they thought it was,” she says. adds Black. “Now the idea that people can there is a clicking. Click, click, slide. Click, click, slide. Typically, a mouse’s internal clock is about 23.7 hours a day. point to Full Frontal or A Black Lady Sketch Mouse No. 25 is still awake. As he clicks along his But mouse No. 25 experienced a 24.7-hour day. After getting the Show and go, ‘Oh, there’s a place for me, Arunning wheel, a pen spastically jolts up and down a rotating mouse to breed, Vitaterna found the same pattern in some of there’s a finish line for me’ — I think that’s strip of paper. Martha Hotz Vitaterna, a doctoral student in the the mouse’s offspring. really great. Hopefully these shows provide lab, will find the recording the next day. “I had a full-on freak out,” she says. “I realized the Clock that finish line for people to keep those “Mouse No. 25 was the founder mouse for the Clock mutant defect was genetic. It was one thing to be allowed to do this diverse voices in the pipeline.” line,” says Vitaterna, a research professor of neurobiology at far-out, long-shot project, but then to have it work was an —Martin Wilson ’10 MS Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. “At the incredible experience.” time, I didn’t know what I had on my hands.” In 1994 Science journal published the results of Vitaterna’s Before Vitaterna started her work, researchers did not think experiment, which was the first molecular piece of the it was possible to find the genetic basis for circadian rhythms in mammalian clock. Since then, research with Clock mutant mice mammals. When she applied to graduate school, three labs had has shown that circadian rhythms are important to almost just cloned the gene at the heart of flies’ circadian rhythms. every physiological process — from sleep to digestion to mood “Genetics as a tool to understand clocks was fascinating and more. to me,” Vitaterna says. “But a professor at another school —Amanda Morris ’14 MA

Women-Focused Research from Northwestern 75% 86% $94K Percentage of female Percentage of respondents The average grant for leaders who maintain an in 2018 poll who report that female first-time principal inner circle composed men and women are equally investigators, $41,000 less intelligent. MICHAEL GOSS

JESSICA PRATT/TBS JESSICA primarily of women. than the average for men.

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laze Pizza started with a trip to Chipotle in “I learned firsthand 2011. Looking for a no-wait pizza lunch, Elise Wetzel and her husband, Rick, ended up eating burritos, but the made-your-way the power a team can format sparked an idea. BThey immediately started sketching out plans have when bringing for a build-your-own pizza shop. A year later, Blaze Pizza was born. It started with two California ideas to life.” locations and has expanded to become one of the fastest-growing franchises in the U.S., with more ELISE WETZEL ’87, ’92 MBA, than 340 restaurants in 41 states and five countries. CO-FOUNDER, BLAZE PIZZA Now Blaze is gunning for the pizza delivery giants, introducing larger, shareable sizes. Wetzel first learned to think about consumer behavior when she studied economics as an undergrad and earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, where she was part of the “28% Club,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to the percentage of women students at Kellogg when she attended. “We would say membership has its privileges, like the line in the women’s room wasn’t very long.” (The Kellogg Class of 2020 is a record- high 46% women.) “My time at Northwestern was foundational,” she says. “I learned firsthand the power a team can have when bringing ideas to life. In one advertising class, I was part of a group charged with creating a campaign for the National Egg Commission. That shared endeavor gave me a more layered learning experience than working in an individual silo and was a great lesson in the value of teamwork.” Elise and Rick have been launching brands as a team for 25 years, starting with Wetzel’s Pretzels members might feel like they failed to protect her. Some people in 1994. They have a daughter, Madison, and a son, “Everything for me is might even see her as a victim first and foremost. But here, as Jack, who is a sophomore at Northwestern. with the campaign, she refused to be guided by fear. —Sean Hargadon about service.” “I had been given a gift to be able to use my voice to tell stories, and so much of that was shaped by my Medill experience JOLENE LOETSCHER ’01, CEO, MUD MILE and my subsequent newsroom experience,” Loetscher says. “I COMMUNICATIONS; PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP witnessed the power of vulnerability and the cascade of change SCHOLAR it creates. I felt a calling to put purpose to my pain.” A state legislator reached out to Loetscher after seeing her olene Loetscher decided to run for mayor of Sioux Falls, TEDx Talk describing her abuse and its impact. The two worked The First he was a true prophet.” 86, the Pasadena chapter S.D., while feeding her newborn daughter at 3 a.m. “I just together to revoke the statute of limitations on criminal rape in Born in Cedarville, Ill., of the NAA organized her had this epiphany as I’m holding this little nugget: If I South Dakota. In 2014 the state passed Jolene’s Law, but there Woman Roland started attending funeral service. Her two don’t run, my daughter will learn that it’s OK to give into was an attempt to kill it by a legislative committee that objected Graduate Northwestern’s College of daughters also attended your fears and let doubt take over.” to its $21,000 cost when the law came up for renewal in 2015. Liberal Arts in 1870. (She Northwestern. JLoetscher and her husband, Nate Burdine, had talked about Jolene’s Law was saved by an executive order signed by was not the first woman In 1922 Northwestern her running for mayor for months. Gov. Dennis Daugaard ’78 JD. The resultant Jolene’s Law Task In 1874 Sarah Rebecca to enroll; Rebecca Hoag named Roland Hall, a At the time, the couple was creating a sports marketing arm Force, led by the University of South Dakota’s Center for the Roland became the enrolled in 1869 but did women’s infirmary at the of the agency they run together, Mud Mile Communications. Prevention of Child Maltreatment, outlined six major goals first woman graduate of not complete her studies.) intersection of Clark Street That work, paired with first-time parenthood, made a campaign and 48 supporting objectives that address a comprehensive Northwestern University. After Roland graduated and Orrington Avenue, in a daunting task. approach toward ending child sexual abuse in South Dakota. Years later, Roland with a bachelor’s degree honor of its first woman She lost in a runoff, but the experience proved she could Loetscher was named a 2019 Presidential Leadership remembered that “when in philosophy, she married graduate. Roland Hall overcome her fears — again. Scholar in recognition of her service through storytelling. President [Charles] Fowler John Aiken Childs, the later became a women’s Born and raised in Nebraska, Loetscher was sexually abused “Everything for me is about service,” Loetscher says. “When … presented me my diploma owner and editor of the Roland participated in dormitory; it was razed in by a family friend as a teen, and she decided years later that she I went into journalism, I wanted to serve the community that I on Commencement Day, he Evanston Index newspaper, the Northwestern Alumni 1974. The Sarah Rebecca could no longer ignore her pain. In 2011, as a former local news reported on and lived in. With Jolene’s Law, I’m trying to make said, ‘You are the first of a in 1878. They later moved Association. After Roland Roland Professorship reporter in Sioux Falls, Loetscher knew that publicly sharing the world safer for kids and families and for my daughter.” BLAZE MARKETING long line, Miss Roland,’ and to Pasadena, Calif., where died on June 14, 1937, at age honors her legacy. WEERHEIM SPARTZ EMILY her story might change public perception of her. Her family —Clare Milliken

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of resources in schools that were teaching the arts were just getting out of her way and letting her do “Change the and digital media in lower-income communities — her thing.” just as Silicon Valley was beginning to explode. Northwestern’s win signaled the beginning of storytellers, “We’re in one of the wealthiest, most innovative the Wildcats’ reign over the lacrosse world, and technology cities in the world, and I remember Kristen Kjellman Marshall led the charge with her change the world.” walking into one classroom that was a trailer, and intensity and work ethic. She helped Northwestern part of it was burned down, and there were not even earn its first three national championships, from VILLY WANG ’90 JD, FOUNDER, outlets for computers,” Wang says. “This is what we 2005 to 2007. PRESIDENT AND CEO, BAYCAT were dealing with, the gigantic contrast between Marshall, who twice won the Tewaaraton Award, that and how wealthy the Bay Area is. Solutions to given to the best player in men’s and women’s aised by an immigrant single mother in equity and racial justice start with access.” college lacrosse, stays involved with collegiate the projects of New York City, Villy Wang Today BAYCAT youth learn what the pros sports as vice president of business development longed to tell her mom’s story. That longing learn — training on the latest technology in video at WePlayed, a community-driven sports video forged a passion for media because of its production. platform for all college sports. power to share and shape narratives. So “These skill sets are transferable to anything,” A mother of two with another baby on the way, RWang founded the Bayview-Hunters Point Center Wang says. “We don’t expect every kid to want to be Marshall also remains active in the lacrosse world. for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT), a nonprofit a filmmaker when they grow up, but we have created She is an assistant coach for the varsity girl’s social enterprise in San Francisco that helps young this pathway from education to employment.” lacrosse team at New Hampshire’s Phillips Exeter people from low-income communities capture and Women and people of color are highly Academy. She also hosts pro lacrosse camps, serves tell untold stories and create social change. underrepresented in the media industry. Their as a director on the US Lacrosse Foundation board After 15 years, BAYCAT has educated more than stories are not being told, Wang says, which results and co-wrote The ABCs of Girls’ Lacrosse. 4,000 students, and its recent graduates have in further underrepresentation in all forms of media. “The game has given me so much and had such gone on to work at Netflix, Lucasfilm, Pixar, HBO, “Change the storytellers, change the story” is an impact on the trajectory of my life,” she says. Universal Studios and other production companies. BAYCAT’s motto, and Wang says the organization’s “Being a mentor to young women and girls on a “I had this crazy idea: What if I could have this mission also is about breaking the cycle of poverty personal level is very important to me. It’s part of my place where we teach young people the value of and helping to end racism and sexism. purpose to share the lessons I’ve learned with the how their story matters and who they are matters?” BAYCAT has employed and placed more than younger generation and help make others better.” recalls Wang, a Northwestern Law alumna. “Nobody 200 young adults in digital media, including Iman —Jacob Muñoz ’21 ever told me that as a kid. And it’s certainly not Rodney, now a 26-year-old three-time Emmy represented in media — even today.” winner and cinematographer for the San Francisco As she contemplated creating what would Giants, who started in the program when he was become BAYCAT, Wang observed firsthand the lack 13 years old. “Thank God I had BAYCAT,” says Iman’s mother, Regina Rodney, of San Francisco. “The forces of the Women Student street were calling him. As a mother, I didn’t know what to do. Athletes “Villy was able to pull out Iman’s potential,” Regina adds. “She was able to say, ‘This is not your best. You can do better.’ I saw his maturity and growth. “They say, ‘It takes a village.’ I say, ‘It takes 7 NCAA championships won by a Villy.’ ” “It’s part of my Northwestern women’s teams —Hilary Hurd Anyaso purpose to share the lessons I’ve learned.” 267 KRISTEN KJELLMAN MARSHALL ’07, VICE Women student-athletes who play PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT in 11 women’s varsity sports AT WEPLAYED

“I had this crazy idea: What if I arah Albrecht remembers how the dynasty began. could have this place where we It was the 2005 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse National Championship in Annapolis, Md. Northwestern faced 58 teach young people the value of Virginia. Number of women’s sports how their story matters and who With the team’s first title in their sights, Albrecht athletes and coaches in the Sremembers that her teammate Kristen Kjellman wasn’t blinking. Northwestern Athletic they are matters?” “She just came out firing,” recalls Albrecht ’06, now head Hall of Fame BAYCAT RAYA AL-HASHMI RAYA coach for University of New Hampshire women’s lacrosse. “We

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“I look for artists who don’t have a plan B.” JODY GERSON ’83, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP

ody Gerson wields enormous influence in the entertainment industry. She has overseen the signings and publishing-contract extensions of songwriters Rosalía, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Elton John, Post Malone, Prince, Quavo, Carly Simon, Bruce Springsteen, JSZA, Jack White and many others. “In the music business, you’re defined by the success of the talent you find,” explains Gerson, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. “And in turn, my relationships with talent are what led me to this job at UMPG.” Music publishing companies administer the copyrights of artists’ compositions, collecting royalties when recordings are sold or streamed and when songs are performed live or licensed for film and television (also known as sync). “I look for artists whose music and influence will make an impact on global culture,” she says, “someone who doesn’t have a plan B.” Gerson, who grew up watching Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin at the Philadelphia nightclubs owned by her family, majored in communication studies at Northwestern. She began her career in music publishing at Chappell, then joined EMI, where she signed Alicia Keys and Norah Jones. In 2008 Gerson became co-president of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where her first signing was the then-unknown Lady Gaga. In 2015 Gerson became the first woman to be named CEO of a major music publishing company. She has transformed UPMG into a billion-dollar–plus company, and its revenue has increased 40%. Last year Gerson, along with Grammy winner Keys and two other music industry veterans, co-founded the nonprofit She Is The Music to increase the number of women working in the business. “We champion equality, inclusivity and opportunity for women in our industry,” she says. Its programs — all-female songwriting camps, a global database of women creators and a mentorship program to educate and develop the next generation — are “all focused on moving the needle to change the numbers.” “In my role, it’s really important to help other women achieve this kind of success,” Gerson told Billboard in 2018. “Being the only one is not OK anymore. I won’t be satisfied until there are more of us.” —Jacob Arnold

“It’s really important to help other women achieve this kind of success. Being the only one is not OK anymore. I won’t be satisfied until there are more of us.” RAINER HOSCH/ RAINER HOSCH/ ARCHIVE TRUNK

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Maze, who lives in Westchester, Ill., says getting an education was the “Dreaming is turning point in her life. A former straight-A student, she went back to school, earning her GED in her late 30s and then an undergrad degree from required the University Without Walls program at Northeastern Illinois University. Thanks to a partial scholarship, Maze studied voice with Bienen School for living.” of Music artist-in-residence Nancy Gustafson ’80 MMus and earned her master’s degree at Northwestern. Within days of graduating, she received a JADE MAZE ’08 MMUS, MUSICIAN, call from the Merit School of Music, a community music school in Chicago AUTHOR AND EDUCATOR that serves talented youth in its tuition-free college-prep conservatory. “It is my duty to push these students hard toward excellence by making ade Maze remembers one of the times that she them aware of how talented they are and what a responsibility that is,” Maze hit rock bottom: It was the late ’80s, and she says. “I give my students — from all walks of life, rich or poor — a reality was trying to start a band in Santa Barbara, check, sugar-coating nothing. And if I think they have what it takes to go Calif. far, I back up my encouragement by doing my best to infuse them with On a creative kick, she rented a garage fearlessness and brazenness that is necessary to pursue a solo performance Jwhere she planned to live and write music full time, career. And their efforts are reaping fruit.” but she fell victim to a bait-and-switch scheme. —Sean Hargadon Instead of a tidy garage with a concrete floor, like the model she’d been shown, she was given the keys to a dilapidated, mouse-infested, dirt-floor garage. Before long, she was couch-surfing. Then all her belongings and equipment were stolen from her car. Women’s “Everything was gone,” she says. “It put me in a bad place mentally.” Rights — NOW When a friend found her walking aimlessly on the beach and asked if she was OK, Maze realized After Karen Lipschultz she needed help. “I did not want to fall through the DeCrow ’59 came across cracks,” she says. “I immediately went to this crisis an interview about the center and said, ‘Help me!’ National Organization for “It was a life-changing moment. If I hadn’t Women (NOW), the largest realized that I needed help, that I was not in organization of feminist control, I don’t know where I would be today.” activists in the U.S., the It wasn’t the first time Maze had to overcome a former journalist joined the personal crisis. She walked away from a troubled organization and quickly home in Oakland, Calif., at age 15. rose through the ranks. The harrowing journey that followed — DeCrow established including periods of homelessness and incidents of NOW’s Syracuse chapter rape, manipulation and isolation — shaped her life, and coordinated the but it did not define or defeat her. national Women’s Strike the first Take Back the Night Maze eventually landed on her feet back in her for Equality while working march. (She died in 2014.) hometown of Minneapolis and devoted herself to toward her law degree at Three decades after music. She toured Germany and France with the Syracuse University in DeCrow’s reign, Terry Minneapolis Jazz Machine. After going through a 1972. She ran for mayor as a O’Neill ’74 was named divorce and dropping out of college in California, student in 1969, becoming president of NOW in 2009. Maze moved to Boston in 1992 and became a jazz the first female mayoral Also a feminist attorney, and pop headliner. She moved to Chicago in 1994 candidate in New York. O’Neill guided NOW’s but stopped playing music altogether in 1998. Though she lost, DeCrow updated multi-issue agenda “I was all over the club scene and touring used the experience to until 2017 and oversaw nationally,” Maze says, “but I was not happy being organize a program to train the organization’s battle in circumstances where you don’t see the best of women for politics. against Donald Trump’s people’s behavior.” An advocate for gender travel ban. NOW also That’s when she started writing her memoir, Walk equality and representation campaigned for awareness Until Sunrise (2017), about her runaway experience. of women, she served as of voter suppression and “The story just kept nagging at me,” Maze says of the organization’s president worked to eliminate the her award-winning debut. “I didn’t want to write the from 1974 to 1977. Under culture of domestic violence book, because they’re not pleasant memories, but DeCrow’s leadership, in the NFL. Today O’Neill I felt compelled to. Within the last five years, I was NOW campaigned for the is executive director of objective enough and healthy enough to really write Equal Rights Amendment, the National Employment

GLORIA ARAYA GLORIA BETTMANN the story as it ought to be written.” defended Title IX and ran Lawyers Association.

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than 700 girls have participated in Brave programs around the In co-founding and building Gossamer, Gujrathi says, it was “The most important world, and nearly 90% continue to code. essential to use a different business model from the big pharma After receiving encouragement from a female mentor to get companies. her doctorate, Harburg came to Northwestern to learn how to “I wanted to have the ability as a small, nimble biotech thing you can do as design technology that supports learning in the Technology & company to push the envelope every day and take risks,” she Social Behavior doctoral program. explains. “My thinking here is that we will have these successes, a leader is to lift up As a test of her learning, Harburg developed a mobile app and where we don’t have successes, we’ll want to make those called Pairachute that pairs newcomers with mentors in the decisions quickly to stop programs and move on to what’s next. others.” tech industry. The app is used today by Brave Initiatives, and Our ability to do that and then understand where the science is Harburg updates it frequently by adding mentors she meets going and make new discoveries and keep furthering the field EMILY HARBURG ’18 PHD, DIRECTOR OF through networking to support aspiring female coders. is so exciting for all of us.” EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION “For me, the most important thing you can do as a leader is When Gujrathi ended her stay at the ashram, she returned AT EF EDUCATION FIRST to lift up others,” she says. to Northwestern to finish medical school, completing the Harburg, who lives in Boston, currently manages a team of seven-year Honors Program in Medical Education, in which hile working at Walt Disney Imagineering as a programmers as director of emerging technology and innovation she had also earned a bachelor of science degree in biomedical behavioral sciences researcher, Emily Harburg at EF Education First, an international education company. She is engineering. After her residency in internal medicine at didn’t always feel comfortable speaking up. working with her team to design technology to support learning, “I do believe that Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, she did a fellowship “Every day I’d be in meetings where I was the connection and exploration as students travel the world with EF. year in allergy and immunology at the University of California, only woman in the room,” she says. “It took a while “Designing technology that helps people better connect we’re here for a San Francisco, and Stanford. Wto get over the feeling that I didn’t belong in that space.” with the world and look out rather than down, these types of “I always thought I’d be a physician,” Gujrathi says. “But I Experiences like that one inspired Harburg to team up with projects — the ones that can totally change our relationship higher purpose.” wanted to see if I could have a broader impact.” Coming into Anna Bethune ’19 MA and Jen Kamins to build Brave Initiatives, with learning — are the ones I’m most passionate about and contact with entrepreneurial clinicians in the Bay Area and a series of workshops and camps for girls designed to promote why I decided to do the work that I do,” she says. SHEILA GUJRATHI ’92, ’96 MD, seeing the vibrant interaction between industry and academics, self-efficacy and develop confidence in coding. To date, more —Monika Wnuk ’14 MS CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND she made the decision to go into management consulting at CEO, GOSSAMER BIO McKinsey & Company. “It was terrifying to leave medicine, but I learned a hen Sheila Gujrathi was a student at the tremendous amount about communication and analytical and Feinberg School of Medicine, she took a project management skills,” she says. year off between her second and third Eventually Gujrathi went back to clinical research within the years to live in an ashram in the south biotech industry, focusing on science as a physician executive. of India. Her mother, a pediatrician, was From there she progressed to high-level management Wso worried about Gujrathi that she called the ashram positions, eventually becoming the chief medical officer at and asked them to send her daughter home to finish Receptos, a drug discovery and development company, and school. then moved on to start Gossamer. But Gujrathi, a second-generation Indian Gujrathi credits the year she spent in the ashram for giving American, wanted to lead a more centered life. Her her a holistic perspective on running a company. father, a psychiatrist, had encouraged her to study “One of my motivations for forming Gossamer was that I sacred Hindu philosophies and scriptures. He passed wanted to bring those spiritual values to work and continue away when she was a teenager, and Gujrathi was still to grow myself, professionally and personally, but also help grieving. At the ashram, she says, she was able to anyone around me who would like to also take that journey work through her grief and explore a spiritual path. with me,” says Gujrathi. “You want to bring your authentic, “It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my whole self to work. It’s transformed my life and for the better. It life,” says Gujrathi of her gap year. “It gave me the is at the core of how I think and what I do. And I do believe that strength, values, resilience and courage to continue we’re here for a higher purpose. We’re all doing our part in this to move forward in my life and follow my dreams.” universe to achieve that.” Her dreams have taken her far — on an —Stephanie Russell unconventional journey from becoming a doctor and treating patients to leaving the practice of medicine to becoming a management consultant to doing research in biotechnology to co-founding a “I wanted to bring those spiritual biopharmaceutical company. Her goal was to create a next-generation, innovative biopharma company values to work and continue to grow to do cutting-edge science and help as many patients as possible. myself, professionally and personally, Today, as president and CEO of Gossamer Bio but also help anyone around me who in San Diego, Gujrathi leads a company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics in would like to also take that journey the disease areas of immunology, inflammation and with me.”

LISA BETH LISA ANDERSON JACOBS MELISSA oncology.

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Soul Restoration

Natasha Trethewey believes in the healing power of poetry as she confronts a family tragedy and the misapprehensions of American history. by adrienne samuels gibbs

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ulitzer Prize–winning author No one was hurt. And the books — her books, her husband’s books, her and Northwestern professor of father’s books — emerged unscathed. The volumes were packed so tightly English Natasha Trethewey’s on the shelves that no oxygen could get to them, and they did not burn. beloved mother died decades The couple’s individual working documents had already been uploaded P ago, and yet her grave, down in to the cloud. And the fire somehow skipped over the family photos and her Mississippi, remains unmarked father’s beloved Alpha Phi Alpha wooden pledge paddle. by a headstone. Trethewey and her husband, Northwestern history professor Brett The reasons for this are varied and complicated, Gadsden ’99 MA, ’07 PhD, gutted the entire house and moved into an and they speak to the essence of Trethewey, one of apartment for two years. They are finally, just now, moving back into their the most acclaimed poets of our time. Or perhaps the refurbished home. reasons are also singular and simple — alluded to in wrote poetry, taught at several universities and became a Guggenheim and “The house reminded me of my mother,” says Trethewey, dabbing her Trethewey’s latest collection, Monument: Poems New Rockefeller Foundation fellow. In 2007 she won a Pulitzer Prize for Native eyes while mentioning the fleur-de-lis etched into a stained-glass window and Selected (2018). Line by brilliant line, she details Guard: Poems, her collection about a regiment of black, Louisiana-based and the daffodils and narcissus that line her garden in the spring and also Early Evening, uncomfortable truths about growing up biracial Union soldiers whose history was largely unsung. She has written six make appearances in her poetry of Mississippi. “The fire was just terrible. and black in Mississippi, the insidious nature of books and was appointed U.S. poet laureate in 2012 and 2013. And then, in But there’s growth in how it didn’t break me. It felt like the house did a Frankfort, Kentucky racism, the forgotten history of black laborers and fall 2017, a few decades after her own mother lived in Chicago, she came to cleansing, you know? The fire got rid of everything that needed to go. And the murder of her mother. Northwestern, where she is a Litowitz now we get to start over.” by Natasha Trethewey The epigraph, a line from Creative Writing Graduate Program ••• Walt Whitman’s “The Great “The act of making poetry faculty member who also teaches City,” provides context for undergraduates. In “Pastoral,” a poem reprinted in Monument, Trethewey speaks about It is 1965. I am not yet born, only the entire tome: “Where no is an act of hope.” Upon arrival, she knew she her beloved father. It’s a piece that on the surface is about a dream: taking a fullness beneath the Empire waist monuments exist to heroes belonged. a group photo with the famous “Fugitive poets” of the South. In the end, of my mother’s blue dress. but in the common words The realization came on though, the poetry sears. and deeds … .” Halloween, when a little boy rang the bell and said, “Trick or treat.” The In part, she writes: Trethewey’s monument to her mother — and to sight of a dimly lit child in a Civil War uniform was troubling; in her native The ruffles at her neck are waves other forgotten Americans — is this book, a work Mississippi, the Lost Cause is still very much a cause and a Confederate We’re lining up now — Robert Penn Warren, of light in my father’s eyes. He carries that illustrates how leaning into memories, and costume is still a holiday dress-up option. She opened the door to find a his voice just audible above the drone a slim volume, leather-bound, poems memorializing the marginalized, delivers the soul. 10-year-old wearing a Union uniform. of bulldozers, telling us where to stand. The two-term U.S. poet laureate, who laughs just as “I was born on Confederate Memorial Day and now? I feel like this is Say “race,” the photographer croons. I’m in much as she cries when discussing how sorrow led a place I was supposed to be,” she says. “It seems like I have chosen the blackface again when the flash freezes us. to read as they walk. The long road to a Pulitzer, is sharing that restorative path with geography in which I want to place myself.” My father’s white, I tell them, and rural. past the college, through town, her students at Northwestern. She pauses. You don’t hate the South? they ask. You don’t hate it? rises and falls before them, “When I am in the process of making, of being “This just feels like destiny.” generative, that is when I am happiest,” says People often ask questions when they really make statements, says Trethewey, the Board of Trustees Professor of ••• Trethewey, who underscores this communication style within the words the blue hills shimmering at twilight. English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. f Trethewey were a different person, a person with less of “Pastoral.” The stacks at the distillery exhale, Though the story she is researching might be grit and resilience, her mother’s death might have ended But more than that, the piece illustrates Trethewey’s connection to and my parents breathe evening air about a biracial woman forced into prostitution in her. But it didn’t. She is matter-of-fact when discussing her father, Eric Trethewey, a young white poet who met his future wife, 1800s New Orleans or about how Hurricane Katrina the tragedy that occurred when she was 19, and though Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, while both were students at Kentucky State impacted thousands, Trethewey finds inspiration in I she tears up, she pushes through. “Domestic violence is a College. He stood out from the crowd and, despite being in the Deep South, heady and sweet as Kentucky bourbon. sorting through the pain. “I am happy when I am in not-explored-enough problem,” she says in an interview was invited to join the historically black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha in 1963. They are young and full of laughter, that zone, giving a kind of order to chaos, making a with this reporter, on the day that her mother’s second Her parents divorced when she was 6, but a young Natasha often visited the sounds in my mother’s throat pattern.” ex-husband was released from an Atlanta-area prison after serving 34 years her father at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he was in graduate These patterns swirl about Trethewey, whose for the murder of her mother. Trethewey is angry but school, and years later would write of her visceral memories of being a very life seems set up as if it were a book. The nowhere near defeated. child able to “pass for white” even while her mother and grandmother rippling down into my blood. child of a marital union considered illegal in 1960s That’s because she comes from sturdy, were unmistakably black. My mother, who will not reach Mississippi, she experienced great personal tragedy, hurricane-stock people who know how to Trethewey has always been interested in historical memory and forty-one, steps into the middle build and blossom after a storm. Her family is historical erasure. She says that her poetry comes from two existential from Gulfport, Miss., which was nearly wiped wounds, the wound of history and the immeasurable loss of her mother. off the map during Hurricane Katrina. But “W.H. Auden, in his memorial to William Butler Yeats (In Memory of W.B. of a field, lies down among clover her family land, and mother’s grave, stayed Yeats), wrote, ‘Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry,’ ” she says. “Mad Mississippi, and sweet grass, right here, right now — put. And then, having left Emory University with its history of racial violence and oppression, inflicted my first wound. dead center of her life. to head to Northwestern, her beautiful new My mother’s death was the second. This is what hurt me into poetry.” home caught fire and nearly burned to the In the 2006 collection Native Guard, Trethewey dug deep to find materials ground — with all her boxes of memories about the Union regiment that was housed at Ship Island, near her native Reprinted from Monument: and notes for a new book inside it — within Gulfport. These soldiers were named the Louisiana Native Guards and Poems New and Selected months of moving in. were one of the Union’s first black divisions, mustered in late 1862 and But all was not lost. charged with guarding Confederate prisoners during the Civil War. One of

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a handful of “colored” regiments, the Native Guards the country and gave more readings than she can remember. fought for their own freedom, and the freedom of the She also wanted to make poetry more accessible and to show country, but many suffered the indignities of dying how people are already making use of poetry in their daily lives, without acknowledgment or even a grave. That is, which is why she taped Where Poetry Lives, a PBS NewsHour until Trethewey and others from her area began to series with senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown. celebrate the contributions of those soldiers. “I think there’s a poem out there for everyone,” she says. After Native Guard’s release, Mississippi honored “It starts with enthusiasm, and I try to find poems that will be the regiment’s memory with an actual monument meaningful to people, that will get them interested, get them near the dock where people board the boat to hooked.” National Book Award finalist Jericho Brown, who was in graduate school when Trethewey won the Pulitzer, has seen this teaching in action as a student of poetry. The two first “Poetry’s a thing that met when she taught a class at the Callaloo Creative Writing belongs to everyone.” Workshop at Texas A&M. He knew years ago that Trethewey’s talent was something special. “She’s a brilliant teacher — not just about poetry, but about Ship Island. Trethewey’s words helped manifest a life. She’s proof that when you are true to who you are and what miracle: She wrote those dead soldiers back into you do, you have a kind of confidence about yourself that you their rightful place in American history. can get beyond yourself,” says Brown, who is now director of Trethewey has published six books that blend the creative writing program at Emory University. historical research with poetry. One, Bellocq’s “We try to write the poems that we need to write for Ophelia (2002), is about the life of a biracial, ourselves,” Brown explains, “and it turns out that other people antebellum-era New Orleans prostitute who lived need those poems too.” in one of the “octoroon” brothels. Another, Domestic Work (2000), is the result of creating poems inspired ••• by historic images of African Americans at work in he state of Mississippi is soon to honor the pre–civil rights era of the 20th century. Natasha Trethewey with her own monument When Trethewey was named poet laureate, James on the Mississippi Writers Trail, a series of Billington, then the librarian of Congress, said this cultural markers similar to Boston’s well- about her work: “Her poems dig beneath the surface T known Freedom Trail. For Mississippi this of history — personal or communal, from childhood has resulted in a series of markers or from a century ago — to explore the human commemorating the lives of writers such as struggles that we all face.” William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Margaret Walker ’35, ’74 H. Trethewey’s plaque will lead visitors down a path of ••• historical discovery as they read her catalog. And that’s t Northwestern, in her class exactly the point, says Kevin Young, director of New York City’s Poetry and the Historical Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and a primary Imagination, Trethewey asks reader for Trethewey’s first book of poetry, Domestic Work. students to investigate the “Natasha has always had grace and power in her writing,” A intersections between public says Young. “She’s always had a vision for what she wanted history and their personal history out of a poem. She writes out of a passionate place. She writes in the places they come from. about memory, loss and land. You will be moved when you She says that when they consider family stories encounter her monument.” and place, they begin to see deeper truths. After But Trethewey has not yet settled on a location. Should it such an assignment, the process often leads be next to the newly erected monument to the Native Guards? students to expose their own hidden layers. Should it be in Gulfport on family land that sits fallow and has “I tell them also that unless they’re willing to for years? write about things that are frightening to them, The poet ponders the question. “I could have it on my unless they are really trying to tell a truth — an mother’s grave,” she says. “I can have it on my grandmother’s emotional truth — then they’re not really writing,” property. It needs to be somewhere where the act of says Trethewey. “I try to make a space in my remembrance leads people to more remembrances — not just classroom where students feel like they can reveal of me but of the larger web of history that we’re all a part of.” parts of themselves — where they can reveal that emotional landscape without judgment. Even the Adrienne Samuels Gibbs ’99 is a graduate of the Medill School most traumatic events in our lives can be changed of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. — be transformed — in the language of a poem.” As poet laureate, Trethewey was tasked with See video of Natasha Trethewey reading her poem “Waterborne” bringing more poetry to the masses. She traveled at numag.nu/Trethewey. FROM THE ARCHIVES

The Entre Nous women’s NORTHWESTERN FALL 2019 FALL 2019tennis NORTHWESTERN club, circa 1896 46 ALUMNI ALUMNI 47

Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones didn’t recognize it. I set out and Sir Mix-A-Lot called to understand how people this once-thriving African in Seattle are reacting to American community home. the changes around them. This rich history also Seasons of the podcast have includes racial covenants focused on homelessness, that formed the community the music scene and finding and disinvestment in the community. neighborhood through redlining. Knowing how these communities were formed and starved of resources gives context to why displacement happening now is not just 4 about simple economics. I’ve How do Seattle’s changing been struck by the reaction demographics fit with from audiences in cities from your role at UW’s Foster LA to New York who relate to School of Business? I what’s portrayed in the film. teach, research and engage Seattle’s Central District story in service. My research RAP REPORTER is truly an American story. primarily focuses on using game theory to look at Omar Jimenez ’15, a Chicago-based national correspondent for CNN, moonlights as the rapper pricing, product returns and OJ Trop. On Oct. 18 he released The A-Block, a six-song EP. “I make a living telling other marketing implications of people’s stories every day,” Jimenez says. “This is a chance for me to tell a little bit of my own cloud computing. Seattle story.” Growing up in the Atlanta suburbs, Jimenez followed such hip-hop stars as OutKast and Ludacris. But he credits the offbeat work of Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, for inspiring Growth Podcast and On him in high school to pave his own musical path. “He wasn’t the gangster type of rapper that I 2 the Brink were acts of grew up listening to and watching,” says Jimenez. “That helped me with my creativity and gave What do people need service, looking at what role me confidence in thinking that I don’t have to fit this certain type of mold.” to understand about business can play in serving gentrification? What many the needs of the community people see as progress in a way that leaves fewer means loss to community people behind. It’s coming members who made big from an interest in how we contributions to their as a public business school Her exhibit, Bushel of Tomato neighborhood. A takeaway can be a positive force in a Fun, was featured on local Nashville is that there’s a real human transforming the city. television news. “I’m sure all the impact of “progress.” My Northwestern alumni would be proud hope is that by bringing to know that one of their own is making URBAN AFFAIRS attention to people who are giant stuffed tomatoes,” Reitmeyer joked struggling in an economic in her interview. Five Questions with boom, we can find solutions Her art has been featured at the 1 that can include them in 5 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Frist Jeffrey Shulman ’01, What did you learn about building a positive shared How has your career Art Museum in Nashville, the Elizabeth the Central District from future. been guided by your time Foundation for the Arts in New York City ’04 MS, ’06 PhD producing and directing at Northwestern? Being and the Institute of Contemporary Arts On the Brink? I was struck exposed to different people in London. by the intense feelings of and ideas at Northwestern VISUAL ARTS Reitmeyer, who grew up Louisville, is In his documentary On trauma, tragedy, and loss sparked a curiosity that trained in applied behavior therapy for the Brink, the University that residents in the Central has guided me through all An Artful autistic children. She lived in Chicago District are feeling while 3 these different projects. I for 15 years, then returned to the South of Washington business the city is experiencing an How did your award- also learned the importance to be close to her sister who is raising economic boom. I lived in winning Seattle Growth of community and looking Harvest three children, including two sons who professor evokes Seattle for 10 years before Podcast develop? Seattle out for one another at the Nashville-based visual artist Beth are on the autism spectrum. my work with Seattle Growth is a dynamic city. I lived University. Reitmeyer ’98 MFA likes to make people Reitmeyer is an art instructor at the human impact Podcast opened my eyes in the South Lake Union happy with her colorful and often Nashville State Community College and to a rich history that’s in neighborhood, which has Interview conducted by playful installations. an artist mentor at Nashville’s Frist Art of gentrification in danger of becoming history changed dramatically. Three Jacob Munoz, a junior from In August her giant plush tomatoes Museum and for the Metro Nashville forever. Nationally renowned years after moving away Ingleside, Ill., who is studying were featured at East Nashville’s 16th Public Schools.

Seattle’s Central District. talents such as Ray Charles, from the neighborhood, I UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON journalism and psychology. annual Tomato Art Fest.

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CANINE COMPANIONS kitchen, experimenting with proportions to create NEW VENTURE Doctor Dogs by MustKetch, a proprietary recipe that mixes the two SOMEWEAR LABS Maria Goodavage staple condiments with James Kubik lost a spices, seeds and other childhood friend in a New York Times best-selling ingredients for added flavor. tragic accident on Lake author and veteran journalist Todd, who lives in Trout Michigan, when the girl Maria Goodavage ’84 looks Valley, Ill., and his brother and her father and sister at the remarkable disease- Scott Somers ’75 MBA, a Los became separated from detecting abilities of dogs in Angeles–based entrepreneur, their sailboat. Kubik ’14, her new book, Doctor Dogs: formed the company Somers ’14 CERT often wondered How Our Best Friends Are Family Specialties to develop how their lives could have Becoming Our Best Medicine. the brand. With help from his been saved. He worked Goodavage, who lives in San friend and fraternity brother to design a compact Francisco with her family Michael Sapienza ’74, ’76 MBA, satellite emergency and their yellow Lab, Gus, ENTREPRENEURS Todd secured a connection beacon in Northwestern’s explores the cutting-edge with Chicago chef Charlie Manufacturing & Design science of how dogs are able Baggs, who serves as the Engineering program with to detect and alert humans The Ultimate company’s chief innovation the help of Segal Design to health crises like diabetic officer. Institute director Greg lows, impending seizures, Condiment Combo The non-GMO and Holderfield. Kubik co- cardiac issues, migraines A former Wildcat quarterback and preservative- and gluten- founded Somewear Labs Hank Adams and serious sleep disorders. free condiments are alongside Alan Besquin She also delves into the his startup team launched a new manufactured in Melrose ’14 in 2017 in an effort to world of dogs working with make this college project a GARDENING mustard-ketchup concoction. Park, Ill. MustKetch comes scientists to uncover the in three flavors — Original, reality. Today, Somewear’s scents of myriad diseases, Zesty and Smoke — and is global hotspot turns any Sports Broadcast Innovator including several types of Todd Somers ’73 helped Standing in a long line available in grocery stores smartphone into a satellite cancer and Parkinson’s, in direct Northwestern football’s for mustard and ketchup at a throughout the Chicago area communicator — able Focuses on Food Technology addition to deadly pathogens offense as a quarterback sporting event, Somers had a and nationally on Amazon. to support messaging, like antibiotic-resistant for parts of three seasons thought: “Why hasn’t anyone “It’s been both invigorating location sharing and bacteria. “Dogs are so in the early 1970s. Now, as combined these two tasty and fun,” Somers says of the emergency signaling off The chipmunks were giving Hank Adams and herbs as well as tomatoes and beautifully attuned with a longtime Wildcats season condiments before?” MustKetch launch. “There’s grid. Its customers include ’99 MBA a headache, tearing up the climbing crops like peas and cucumbers. people,” Goodavage says. “It’s ticket holder cheering from So Somers, former nothing better than hearing the U.S. Air Force and the garden in his Evanston backyard. So he Adams is now exploring adaptations that like we’re extensions of each the stands, he’s created a new president of the N Club, people who have tried the Department of Homeland started looking for an indoor alternative make it possible to grow root vegetables. other.” This is her fourth book game-day condiment combo: and his wife, Ann Cooney product say that they really Security. but was not impressed by the options. Users can purchase small seed pods about working dogs. MustKetch. Somers ’74, went into the like it.” Adams had just sold Sportvision, a and their nutrients separately or subscribe tech firm known for sports television to a monthly plan. The Wi-Fi–connected Read more about Maria innovations like the first-down yellow system also includes ultrasonic sensors Goodavage and her book at numag.nu/Goodavage. line on football broadcasts. “I spent my that tell gardeners via an app when to LITERATURE career in technology,” Adams says, “but water and add nutrients. Adams says his I really wanted to do something that gardens can provide as much as 3 pounds would have an impact. I wanted to make of fresh lettuce a month per level. Last Words of Bette Howland it simple for people interested in eating The Rise Gardens kits aren’t only for better to be able to grow things like salad use in the family home. Schools and A chance encounter at a used-book store sent Brigid Hughes ’94 on a mission to rescue greens, kale and tomatoes indoors.” universities, including Cornell, have the forgotten work of a once-celebrated Chicago author. Bette Howland was “one of the With this inspiration, Adams in 2017 shown interest in using the gardens for significant writers of her generation” in the words of Saul Bellow ’37, ’62 H, but her work launched Rise Gardens, a hydroponics educational purposes. And retirement had nearly been lost to history when Hughes came across her 1974 memoir, W-3. “How company in Skokie, Ill., that makes communities, high-rise apartments and did a writer of such talent disappear? The story of her career is so resonant with current innovative and attractive indoor garden the co-working spaces 1871 and WeWork questions about anonymity and public attention in art,” Hughes says, describing how kits. With help from Northwestern have embraced the indoor gardens. the memoir inspired a recent issue of A Public Space, the magazine she founded in 2006 alumni Diego Blondet ’19 MS, ’19 MBA “I want people to have a platform after succeeding George Plimpton as editor at the Paris Review. “I wanted to recognize and Brandon Bay ’18 and Segal Design for growing that they can hack and play a generation of overlooked women writers and explore how vital work gets erased.” Institute adjunct professor Craig around with,” Adams says. “There’s This year Hughes launched A Public Space Books with Howland’s selected stories, Calm Sampson, Adams and his team developed something like 20,000 varieties of edible Sea and Prosperous Voyage. The title story was originally published in Northwestern’s a modular, multilevel system that can food in the natural world, and yet 20 TriQuarterly, and the collection has been acclaimed for restoring Howland, who died in Brigid Hughes grow lettuce, kale, arugula, microgreens species now provide 90% of our food.” 2017, to the literary canon. A new edition of W-3 is planned for next year.

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Storytelling at Its Best Veteran newspaperman and author Mike Stanton brings colorful characters to life.

In the mid-1990s Mike and I would sit by the side of Stanton ’82 MS shared a the field and write stories in Pulitzer Prize as a member my notebook. of the Providence Journal investigative team, a role that Being at Northwestern for put him in constant contact a year was a transformative with one of America’s most experience. I have rewarding notorious mayors, Buddy memories of being the Cianci. The charismatic but editor of the first magazine felonious architect of the that [journalism professor] Providence renaissance Abe Peck had his magazine became the subject of students produce in what has ↑ Author and former investigative reporter Mike Stanton Stanton’s debut book, New become such a renowned York Times best-seller The program. I also studied urban Prince of Providence (2003). politics and worked out of over a breathtaking array of the two of them — a radio In the fall, Trinity Repertory Medill’s downtown Chicago corruption, in not one but promoter’s really hokey idea Company adapted Stanton’s newsroom with Donna two administrations. He had — and they sparred several book to the stage with a Rosene Leff ’70, ’71 MS to resign after beating up his rounds. This was 1969, and he script written by playwright and David Nelson ’67, ex-wife’s lover and holding and Ali really bonded. They George Brant ’91. It had an ’68 MS. And I spent a lot him hostage in his house on talked about the race riots extended, sold-out run in of time at Wrigley Field, Power Street. Buddy became in America, and they had an September and October. including with one professor the longest-serving mayor in idea: “What if you and me, a January 23, 2020 Stanton’s second book, who would take his students America. Then the FBI came white man and a black man, Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano’s there and grade papers in, and he was convicted of two champions, got on a bus Fight for Perfection in a in the bleachers. Chicago racketeering conspiracy. and went to Detroit and went Crooked World (2018), earned was certainly a wonderful to Watts and we talked about best of 2018 nods from laboratory for studying Boxing was a very colorful how blacks and whites can the Boston Globe and the urban journalism, political world, and even if you’re not a get along?” They were sitting Library Journal. Stanton, who corruption and baseball. boxing fan, Rocky Marciano’s by the side of the ring eating teaches journalism at the story is a great window into grapefruit, talking about this University of Connecticut and I wrote my first book about what America was like in the idea. A few weeks later Rocky is working on an investigative Buddy Cianci, this larger- middle of the 20th century. got on a plane in Chicago project as a Boston Globe than-life, colorful, roguish Here’s a guy who was born to fly to Iowa to the opening Spotlight Fellow, has reached mayor who transformed the in the 1920s, when there of a mob pal’s nephew’s an agreement in principle city. But he also presided was a lot of anti-Italian steakhouse, and he died in with a Hollywood producer of immigrant fervor, like you a plane crash. a recent Oscar-winning film see with immigration today. to develop a movie based on He came of age during the The fact that both of my Unbeaten. He says the stage Great Depression. He fought books have been successful, and screen success of his in World War II. And then he and also drawn movie and works shows the power of became the boxing champion. stage interest, speaks to the storytelling. power of storytelling — and Northwestern Connects networking events will be held on the same night in approximately 100 I uncovered this really journalism as the foundation cities across the globe. Meet fellow alumni, expand your personal and professional network, I knew I wanted to write fascinating episode where for stories that people want since I was a little kid. We Rocky became friends with to hear. and show your Purple Pride. Learn more at alumni.northwestern.edu/NUConnects2020. used to go strawberry picking Muhammad Ali. They met in the fields of northern in a secret studio in Miami Interview by senior editor Connecticut, where I grew up, to film a fake bout between Sean Hargadon. Registration begins December 12

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309 All-American Awards for Wildcat women athletes, including lacrosse star and four-time honoree Kristen Kjellman Marshall ’07. Read about Marshall, one of 58 women in the Northwestern Athletic Hall of Fame, in our coverage of 150 Years of Women at Northwestern. See page 31.