Building a Tiny Break-Dancing Robot p. 11 … From Boycotts to Protest “Native science can help provide a to Progress p. 24 … Causes and Consequences of Dirty Air p. 38 … holistic path toward a sustainable Celebrating Tap Dance p. 44 … Data Journalism Goes Global p. 60 planet.” p. 7

SPRING 2021

A New Horizon GiGi Lucas is on a mission to change surfing culture. p. 32 MOMENT

Fragile Figurines In January the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts presented a re-imagining of Tennessee Williams’ 1937 play The Glass Menagerie, told through the lens of a Chinese American family in St. Louis. Alvin Chan, a student in the Master of Fine Arts in Directing program, directed the production, which was originally created for the stage but was adapted into an audio drama because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recorded production featured images of the set and costumes that were designed and constructed by MFA design students.

TKTKTK 2018 NORTHWESTERN PHOTO: JUSTIN BARBIN ’11 2 3 3

SPRING 2021 Vol. 23 Issue 3 Contents Contents 44Split Focus Neuroscience grad FRONT Sterling Harris ’18 1 Moment 11 00 encounters history 4 Talk Back Building an Aquatic Robot Headline Teekay Here through tap. A tiny device could be the Que con cum as dus eictota VOICES future of medicine and sinting. Enti dolup tiores environmental cleanup. dolor tatibus in maore vits 7 Josiah Hester Building on nosam officta qturepro Indigenous knowledge milium que con cum asus. 9 Chris Oh Called to 38 Que con cum as dus eictota heal and teach Airpocalypse Now sinting. Enti dolup tiores 10 The Book Nook Dangerously polluted air isn’t dolor tatibus in maore vits Recent titles from just a problem in places like nosam officta qturepro Northwestern faculty Beijing and Mexico City. It’s milium que con cum asus. a problem in Chicago, across sinting. Enti dolup tiores NEWS the U.S. and around the dolor tatibus in maore vits 14 Athletics Basketball world. We need to act fast, nosam officta qturepro star Veronica Burton say faculty and alumni. milium que con cum asus. follows famous By Amanda Morris By Name Teekay footsteps 16 Discovery New manufacturing 24 00 platform makes shelf- People Power Headline Teekay Here stable vaccines In a time of upheaval in Que con cum as dus eictota 18 Innovation Real-world our nation and our world, sinting. Enti dolup tiores arts management Northwestern faculty discuss dolor tatibus in maore vits experience social movements and how nosam officta qturepro they work — or don’t. milium que con cum asus. “WE WILL” UPDATE By Clare Milliken By Name Teekay 20 Enhancing CS+X Philanthropists revolutionize computer science 23 The Next Virus New gifts to help prevent another pandemic

ALUMNI 48 Class Notes 54 Josephine Lee Chicago Children’s Choir president gets a 32 Grammy nomination 60 Evan Hill New York Times open-source journalist on Pulitzer- ← “I took a surf lesson, winning team 63 Katie Krall Cincinnati and the minute I stepped Reds operations analyst looks to on the board, I thought, change the game 68 In Memoriam ‘This is it. This is what I’ve 72 The Other Cover She sang, she danced, been missing.’ I knew it she was Frau Blücher 46 13 instinctively.” Wildcat Cocktails Addressing Global Challenges — GiGi Lucas ’01, founder and executive director of Make your own with help Doctoral candidate Roberto Rosado-Ramirez is investigating SurfearNEGRA, a nonprofit whose mission is to bring from Twisted Alchemy’s the regeneration of settlements in northern Yucatán, Mexico,

cultural and gender diversity to surfing KEELER STEFANIE GIGI LUCAS: HARRIS: THALIA RAMIREZ STERLING Kim Oster-Holstein ’90 MS. as one of Northwestern’s Global Impacts Graduate Fellows.

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 Cover: Photograph by Stefanie Keeler SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 4 TALK BACK TALK BACK 5

Northwestern THE RECKONING “It’s about invite people from across the UNDERSTANDING Magazine Northwestern community to INCIVILITY VICE PRESIDENT, OFFICE OF Talk Back Timely, relevant, readable time high share their perspectives. We GLOBAL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS — the mag held my interest school and welcome opinions of all kinds. The current polarization Jeri Ward ’01 MEM, MBA from cover to The Other [“Understanding Incivility,” ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT, Cover. As an immigrant, college English Kudos to you for publishing Sound Off, Voices, winter CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER I was especially grabbed the recent article by Gerald 2021] has twin causes. Andy Madorsky ’86 MS and American by the Adrienne Samuels Gabrielse. You deserve the The ideologies of the right EDITOR IN CHIEF Sean Hargadon Gibbs article on teaching literature gratitude of many of us for and the left became more the full context of American continuing to represent extreme, enabled by filter ART DIRECTOR classes Christina Senese history [“The Reckoning Christian faith as a part of bubbles and the abolishing ASSISTANT ALUMNI Is Here,” winter 2021]. As I desegregated the diversity of Northwestern of the fairness doctrine. NEWS EDITOR was sorting out the events University. It was a strong, Often news sources — Lena Elmeligy ’18 their reading of the attempted putsch in timely and courageous social media, conventional DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE January, I kept thinking back Former President Trump’s article. sources, communities — PRODUCTION lists.” Martin Wilson ’10 MS on the unpleasant parts of “1776 Commission Report” — Patricia Endress John C. Wakefield ’91 MMus do not understand their PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR U.S. history, self-taught in my calls for a return to teaching Johnson City, Tenn. roles to be constrained by Anne Egger case, because they had been “patriotic education,” which facts and evidence. If you EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS omitted or skimmed over apparently has been written I applaud what Professor cannot agree on the facts, Mohamed Abdelfattah, Diana when I was a student. by patriotic Americans. But as and holding to your Christian Gabrielse wrote about the it is very difficult to resolve Babineau, Lindsay Beller, Deborah Cassell ’00 MS, George A. Baum ’55 you note, the report excludes worldview. universe of “truth” in conflicts. At the same time, Nancy Liskar, Roseann Mark, FREE TO PLAY Dr. Rogers who are committed Naples, Fla. most events that occurred Marie A. Limjoco ’06 MA 2020–21. I retired as a political leaders resort Clare Milliken, Jeff Strayer to using their brilliance to from 1619 to the present that Skokie, Ill. professor of physics in to oversimplification or DESIGN CONTRIBUTORS Awesome article about help our world! It’s also about time high provide context for those 2015 — the world was quite pandering to their supporters Sarina Benoit, Heather Kathryn Hahn [“Free to Play,” Elise Clerkin ’03 school and college English words. Personal faith is personal, different then — but I regret because of the public Cosgrove, Henry McGill, Mark Meyer, Leslie-Anne Mock winter 2021]! I knew Kathryn Oxford, Ohio and American literature One response to this not public. Faith is a part of that I did not then make attention deficit, the common in high school and am not at classes desegregated their attempted erasure, I suggest, one’s family and personal more effort to clearly state lack of interdisciplinary EDITORIAL INTERNS Lainey Dow ’23, April Li all surprised at her success. What a tremendous reading lists. I remember is community-based learning religious rituals; that is that physics and my Christian thinking and a celebrity- ’24, Sophia Lo ’22, Jacob She was as amazing back presentation about a truly one of my African American for younger students. For where it should remain. faith were allies. obsessed culture’s desire to Munoz ’21, Samantha Pyo then as she is today! amazing and inspirational students saying that a benefit example, help students The Northwestern I applaud his courage to be entertained. ’23, Isaac Sultan ’22, Nathan Timmerman ’21, Fred Miechelle Luna Javitch person. It is great to know of the segregated school discover who or what their alumni magazine is not a claim, again, that truth and R. R. Day Tippett ’22 Westerville, Ohio that there are awesome system was that its students county, town, school or Christian publication and faith, and hope and love, Bridgeport, Conn. EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD pioneers among us! knew the names of African street was named after, does not solicit personal matter more than anything. Krishnan Anantharaman ’91, I had no idea Kathryn Hahn Greg Messina ’76 DDS American leaders and writers. and when. What they learn religious testimonials. It is The same pursuit of truth BIG CITIES STILL MATTER chair; David Beard ’81; Emily went to Northwestern! My Rockford, Ill. It’s time that all students can be engaging enough to offensive to be involuntarily in both physics and in the Chow ’12; Alex Freund ’17, ’20 JD; Alex Garcia ’89; husband and I — both alums knew these men and women encourage more interest and unwillingly subjected pursuit of God is central to I believe that proptech will Adrienne Samuels­ Gibbs ’99; — adore her work and are and their contributions to in local history, which can to someone else’s religious understanding and doing ensure that big cities are Ryan Haggerty ’07, ’16 MS; huge fans. She is genius in history, literature, science and lead to broader and deeper proselytizing when right — “To know Him efficient conduits for talent Jerry Lai ’04; Robert Leighton ’82; Mike McGee ’10; Cate WandaVision! the arts. historical awareness. innocently reading an better.” [“Big Cities Still Matter,” Plys ’84; Gita Pullapilly Kelly Zimmerman ’11 MS Patricia Endress ’54, ’60 MS Patrick Story ’63 MA, ’68 PhD alumni magazine. Tom Nordlund Discovery, winter 2021]. ’00 MS; Christina Rosales ’11; Chicago Sherman, Conn. Portland, Ore. Gabrielse could have Birmingham, Ala. Having options around Joshua Rosenblat ’17; William made his point of publicly Weinbaum ’82, ’83 MS; Steph Yiu ’08; Cat Zakrzewski ’15 What a delightful read! I felt Thank you for the article SCIENCE AND FAITH denouncing right-wing as if I was back on campus about the important topic of IN STRANGE TIMES lies without interjecting © 2021 Northwestern University. myself through Kathryn’s African American history at his personal beliefs. I, too, Northwestern Magazine is published in fall, winter and spring. All recollections of that time. Northwestern. I would like What a breath of fresh air denounce the deliberate Rights Reserved. Produced by the Thank you! to also bring attention to to read the article “Science falsehoods, propaganda Office of Global Marketing and Communications, 1603 Orrington Leila Malekzadeh Northwestern’s long history and Faith in Strange Times” and conspiracy theories Ave., Suite 200, ­Evanston, IL 60201. Walnut Creek, Calif. of teaching and research [Voices, winter 2021]. In perpetuated by Republican Telephone: 847-491-5000 Website: alummag.nu on Africa, as Northwestern today’s world, the news media congressional leaders,

Views expressed in Northwestern STRETCHING THE instituted one of the first tends to only run negative right-wing cable networks Magazine do not necessarily reflect IMAGINATION Fabulous piece. I have an programs of African studies press on people of faith. and delusional social media the opinions of the editors or the University. 8-year-old granddaughter in in 1948. A deeper knowledge Gerald Gabrielse clearly forums. Before reading this article, I Texas who tells us she wants of Africa can only improve is extremely intelligent and Sarah Maxwell ’81 MMus ADDRESS CHANGES Mail to: Alumni News Editor didn’t know anything about to be a scientist. I cannot wait one’s understanding of Black asks many great questions Archbold, Ohio Northwestern Magazine John Rogers’ incredible career to share this with her and her history in our country and of fellow Christians (I ask 1603 Orrington Ave., Suite 200 Evanston, IL 60201 [“Stretching the Imagination,” family. the world. many of the same questions). From the Editor: Thank you winter 2021]. I’m heartened Van King ’73 MS Kathleen Sheldon ’74 Thank you, Dr. Gabrielse, for for writing. In the “Voices” Email: address-change @northwestern.edu to know there are people like Greensboro, N.C. Santa Monica, Calif. JIM PRISCHING DITTMAR/REDUX; HAHN: JESSE JOHN ROGERS: KATHRYN TERZIGNI DANTE BIG CITIES: CALLERY; TAYLOR THE RECKONING: being engaged in our world section of the magazine we

Web: magazine.northwestern.edu /change-your-address SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 6 TALK BACK VOICES 7

KICKIN’ IT bounds. Greater representation starts with SOCIAL MEDIA recognition and respect for Indigenous Kayla Sharples [Class Notes, FEEDBACK history, including many painful episodes page 65, winter 2021] is an that are rarely, if ever, taught in schools. outstanding example of Free to Play For example, the U.S.-supported One day I will get this cover. One a Northwestern student- day. — @zachbraff  overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in athlete — high achieving 1893 caused a wound that has yet to heal. on the field as well as in the There isn’t another actor working FACULTY OPINION Overall, Indigenous people in science, When a mentor of mine at Clemson sat classroom. More important, today who fits into any setting, technology, engineering and mathematics and listened to me talk about this little- she is a strong individual any era, any genre as seamlessly are scarce. When I graduated with my known history, I felt heard. That act of as Kathryn Hahn. It’s not just The World who incorporates her values that she’s an incredibly versatile PhD from Clemson University in 2017, I listening kept me working toward my PhD into her life, a distinctive trait performer, it’s that she tonally was one of only two Indigenous people when all signs said I did not belong. of so many Wildcat athletes. gets the frequency and the vibe Needs Native out of 1,834 computer science doctoral Reciprocity between Indigenous and With a little more experience of every movie/show she’s in. degree recipients in the U.S. that year. non-Indigenous people — the two- at the professional level, One of our best. Scientists Now From pre-K through college, U.S. way exchange of knowledge, data and — ­@eddie_mouradian  this young athlete will be a classrooms and curricula fail to include methods — is also essential. Isabella top-notch professional. NU is I worked with her briefly but or celebrate Native people and Native Abbott’s life story offers a model. She mobility and workplace and proud of you, Kayla. she made a definite impression because she’s just an By Josiah Hester science. As a result, an incredible grew up collecting limu (edible seaweed) office safety will keep the David McCreery ’74 incredible human being on top of being a fantastic actress. wealth of knowledge is going untapped. on the shores of Maui with her mother, advantages of large cities and Prospect Heights, Ill. Love genuinely being able to speak highly of someone in this sabella Aiona Abbott (1919–2010) Especially now, as human-caused climate who taught her how to speak Hawaiian town. — ­@thecalebowski  their dynamism popular with was the first Native Hawaiian change ravages our planet, the world and cook traditional Native Hawaiian employers who seek the best ROBOT QB I was @NorthwesternU Class of ’95 when she performed a woman to earn a PhD in science. A urgently needs Indigenous scientists who seaweed dishes. Years later, Professor talent. monologue from Out of Africa. ... Amazing! We all knew she preeminent marine botanist, she can draw on the sustainability practices Abbott would share her deep expertise Mark Arizmendi ’06 CERT The Seeker is fantastic [“Five was going to do great things. — @reneejlux was the first woman to become and knowledge of their ancestors. The in the Hawaiian names for seaweeds Charlotte Questions with Igor Karlicic a full professor in Stanford University’s world needs Native science to become and their uses with her Stanford The Reckoning Is Here and Bhargav Maganti,” Northwestern was way ahead of its time in this regard. Ibiology department. the coequal partner of Western methods. colleagues and students, diversifying the ALUMNI LEADER Creation, winter 2021]! Every Back in the late ’70s I took American History (required at I owe much to Abbott and other Combined with modern instrumentation department’s teaching of marine botany. team needs one. As a former Northwestern), which was taught entirely from the viewpoints Indigenous trailblazers in science. and data analyses, Native science can Finally, the issues Indigenous Thank you, MaryAnn college football player, I think of Black Americans, Native Americans and immigrants. So Unfortunately, she and I are rarities. help provide a holistic path toward a people care deeply about — such as Ihejirika Marsh [Alumni this would also work for we read all original texts from those sources and none from a I am one of the few Native Hawaiians in sustainable planet. environmental degradation and climate white perspective. — Barbara Mallon  Leader, “Q&A with MaryAnn defensive back training, kick my field (computer engineering) on the Indigenous people’s representation change — must be seen as relevant to Marsh,” Class Notes, winter returners and kick coverage. My Northwestern Direction faculty of a top U.S. research institution. in STEM fields must grow by leaps and everyone. The Anishinaabe people of the 2021], for all you do for the More catches equals better Loved this story of a woman pursuing her passions for Great Lakes region have seen their wild Northwestern University performance. Great workout podcasting, pageantry & science during the pandemic in rice harvests reduced year after year, due Black Alumni Association and as well. my @NorthwesternU alumni mag #WomenInScience to climate change and industrialization. — @social_melanie  the Northwestern University Dave Lumley ’77 MS, ’95 MBA Likewise, Hawaiians are confronting the Leadership Circle and for Santa Barbara, Calif. [Olivia Pura’s] toughness will carry her through the doctorate, devastating effects of ocean warming on sharing your inspiring and her empathy will affect the world. We wish her well. reef ecosystems and fish populations. success story of faith, — Jeffrey Testa  The need to solve these challenges resilience and hard work. is why I became a scientist. Applied to Five Questions Professor Peter Dietz’s A robot quarterback that fires footballs at you. I wish I had practical aims, STEM can be a powerful exemplary demonstration one even though I don’t know how to catch footballs or have complement to the Native science toolkit of goodwill is what makes a football field. — @malcolmmaciver  — and vice versa. I am using computer the world a better place. I engineering to preserve and protect the experienced the Biafran- ‘āina (land) and the people it sustains. Nigerian War as a toddler It is time to value the unique way and quite understand the [In Memoriam, winter 2021], office elections from the Indigenous people experience the grace of God demonstrated we incorrectly stated that presidential cycle. world. It is time to acknowledge how toward your family through he won the governorship in In a Class Note on Medill that experience yields many pathways Professor Dietz, who saw a a special election. The 1976 Hall of Achievement inductee to scientific knowledge. It is time for need and stepped out to save election was a regularly Helene Elliott ’77 [Class Notes, Indigenous representation in STEM your family. I truly applaud scheduled election. The page 52], we misspelled her to grow — not for its own sake, but to him for his kindness to my CORRECTIONS term, per the 1970 state last name. In addition, the increase humanity’s chance at saving the brothers and sisters. constitution, was for two induction ceremony was planet that sustains us all. Maureen Okoli ’19 MS In our obit on James years, a one-time event postponed because of COVID Aurora, Ill. Thompson ’59 JD, ’79 H to separate statewide concerns. We regret the errors. Josiah Hester, assistant professor of computer engineering, is director of Ka Moamoa, a Northwestern research lab that

We want to hear from you:  [email protected]  @NorthwesternU  /NorthwesternU @NorthwesternU SMITH JASON MARSH: MARYANN MICHAEL FRIBERG; PHOTO: HAHN COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BROWN J. ↑ Josiah Hester builds tiny sustainable computing devices.

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 8 VOICES VOICES 9

SOUND OFF SOCIAL FEEDS By K. Chris Oh to the discovery of gravitational Juliet Sorensen, clinical professor of ’93, ’00 MD, waves in 2016, we organized law and director and founder of the Residential colleges are ’04 GME a presentation on the topic to Northwestern Access to Health Project a unique part of so many students at Wilmette’s Highcrest COVID-19 An internist at the Pritzker School of Law Northwestern alumni stories. at Advocate Middle School. We also collaborated Vaccine We asked former residents Health Care on curriculum development “It does appear that state of Chapin Hall to share their and NorthShore for Science Olympiad classes in Mandate and local jurisdictions memories of the Humanities University Wilmette School District 39. have a constitutional Residential College. HealthSystem who The educational path I took at Should people be required to lives in Wilmette, receive a COVID-19 vaccine? basis to mandate Ill., with his wife Northwestern also provided me vaccines. “Chapin was and their two with resources to teach physics “But there’s children concepts to the interns, residents a distinction absolute magic. My and patients with whom I interact between ‘can’ fellow Chapinos on a daily basis. In April 2020 Tina Tan, professor of pediatrics and ‘should.’ And were among the I installed a negative airflow at the Feinberg School of Medicine as a general matter, most inspiring system in my clinic after learning Americans — who are that the novel coronavirus can “Our goal right now is to get as many fond of individual liberties — are people I’ve ever stay airborne for many hours as people vaccinated as possible resistant to the notion that collective met.” aerosolized particles. I used this so that we can control this behavior should be ordered by a as an opportunity to educate every pandemic. But if you try government authority. Nora McCord  patient in our office about how a to mandate vaccines “I think there’s a broad consensus negative airflow system works. We everywhere, you’re among public health officials and ran a computer simulation in the going to have a policymakers that persuasion, public waiting room so patients could backlash because health messaging and, ultimately, visualize how aerosolized particles, you infringe on having people voluntarily seeking the without any propulsion system of people’s autonomy. vaccine is a far better approach than their own, move by simply obeying Of course, everyone ordering them to get it.” laws of physics. Patients found it MY NORTHWESTERN DIRECTION who wants the vaccine easy to understand the importance should be able to get it.” of directional airflow. Kelly Michelson Physics Education Fuels I also used my understanding ’04 GME, Julia and “I lived in Chapin for three of quantitative principles to teach Mercedes Carnethon, Mary Harris David Uihlein years. That’s me in the front Passion to Help and Teach patients about the efficacy of Thompson Professor, professor of Professor of row, fifth from right. Chapin personal protective equipment. medicine and preventive medicine, Bioethics was one of a kind, full of During the early days of the and vice chair of preventive medicine and Medical brilliant, unique people. Best hen I arrived at To better understand this pandemic, when some people at the Feinberg School of Medicine Humanities, part of my Northwestern Northwestern concept, I majored in physics wanted to better protect themselves professor of years.” in 1990 from in addition to my premedicine by wearing an N95 mask, I pointed “A national vaccine mandate should pediatrics and director my family’s program. After being accepted to I was out that they could achieve even Kay Boychuk Fischer  be in place, but it will never work, in of the Center for Bioethics home in the Feinberg School of Medicine driven­ better protection through a series part because we don’t have a national and Medical Humanities at the Malaysia, I was driven by two in 1993, I decided to take a three- of independent activities: wearing by two health care system to Feinberg School of Medicine passions:W to learn science at the year deferral to study nuclear and a regular face mask, washing hands “Chapin became my track who has been most fundamental level and to use elemental particle physics at the passions:­ frequently, physical distancing and home away from vaccinated. But from “I don’t think there’s any value in that knowledge to help people. My California Institute of Technology. to learn avoiding large gatherings. Although the scientific and pushing it down people’s throats right home. Whether I goal was to become a physician. I obtained a master’s degree and science at each activity on its own carries public health now; that runs the risk of creating a On the first day of my organic then returned to Feinberg to earn a much lower rate of protection was studying in the most perspectives, it backlash. If we can’t even get people the war room or chemistry class, I learned that my medical degree. I now run a than the 95% achieved with an N95 would be the to wear a mask, which carries exactly electrons orbit their nuclei only in private medical practice in Niles, Ill. funda- mask, combining all the activities taking seminars right thing to do zero risk, I think we have to tread certain predefined configurations I am a physician, but I am mental results in higher protection. to mandate things lightly. The message has to emphasize with the fellows, and that these configurations also an educator. In 2014 I began level and My training at Northwestern that keep the entire the value of vaccines — and their safety my Northwestern form the basis of all atomic and collaborating with Professor and my ongoing relationships with society safe. We have and efficacy. molecular interactions. I was Vicky Kalogera, director of to use that faculty and staff have provided experience was knowledge people who are dying as a result of “I think there has to be a push to shaped by the RC fascinated by this concept, which Northwestern’s Center for me with tools not only to practice contracting COVID and people who get people to vaccinate, but we also forms the foundation of not only Interdisciplinary Exploration and to help medicine but also to continue to have long-term complications that have to understand why people are system. For Chapin chemistry but also molecular Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), people. My educate patients and teach science. are interfering with their quality of choosing not to vaccinate and then Glory!” biology, genetics and medicine. It is to bring science, technology, Looking back, Northwestern life. We could stop that if we present a educate them about whatever their the action of individual atoms and engineering and math education goal was to encouraged me to examine and unified front.” concerns are.” Mark Ficken  molecules that drives biological to schools in the Chicago area. become a develop all my interests, and that

KELLY MICHELSON; EILEEN MOLONY MICHELSON; KELLY processes at the cellular level. Shortly after her team contributed physician.” has led me to these opportunities.

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 Illustration by Bruce Morser SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 10 VOICES CAMPUS NEWS / STUDENT LIFE / SPORTS 11

FACULTY TITLES Graduate New tech fellows make allows for global impact shelf-stable The Book Nook p. 13 vaccines p. 16 From memoir to history to cultural critique, here are Veronica Alva creates a few selected new books from Northwestern faculty. Burton steals custom the show p. 14 jewelry p. 19

Golem Girl: enduring numerous surgeries while A Memoir helping her mother deal with her own RIVA LEHRER disabilities; the second focuses on how Born with Lehrer’s view of herself and others spina bifida evolved as she began creating portraits in the 1950s, of other artists with disabilities. The when most book includes images from her work, children with which explores themes of gender, the condition sexuality and disability. were not Named by Kirkus Reviews as one of expected to the best books of 2020, Golem Girl was survive, Lehrer endured surgery after also a finalist for the National Book surgery and grew up to be a visual artist, Critics Circle Award for autobiography. writer, activist and teacher. The first Lehrer teaches drawing in Northwestern’s part of her intricate memoir is about medical humanities program.

HEALTH & SCIENCE Stranger in the Memorial Drive: A her own childhood ideas about the social have played in U.S. Shogun’s City: A Daughter’s Memoir in Mississippi, and institutions that enable elections. Though Japanese Woman and NATASHA TRETHEWEY their experiences with wealthy Americans to Hispanic Americans Aquatic Her World Board of Trustees domestic abuse and amass vast fortunes. tend to vote for AMY STANLEY Professor of English racism. Democrats, Cadava Robot Associate professor of Natasha Trethewey The Hispanic shows how the history Amy Stanley explores grief, Veblen: The Making Republican: The post–World War II Powered by light and pulled from a trove memory and identity of an Economist Who Shaping of an Republican Party has rotating magnetic of family letters in the wake of her Unmade Economics American Political had a long-standing fields, tiny robots and records for her former stepfather’s CHARLES CAMIC Identity, from Nixon relationship with can walk, roll and biography of an murder of her Charles Camic, the to Trump Hispanic voters, intrepid 19th-century mother. In this deeply Lorraine H. Morton GERALDO CADAVA especially during times transport cargo. Japanese woman. personal narrative, Professor of Sociology, Associate professor of of political conflict. The book has been Trethewey traces her explores the formation history Geraldo Cadava shortlisted for the mother’s life in the of capitalism critic examines the roles Nicky: A Memoir tiny break-dancing National Book Critics segregated South, Thorstein Veblen’s Hispanic Republicans DOMINIC MISSIMI A robot could be the Circle Award and the This collection future of medicine, PEN Biography Prize. of essays and manufacturing and autobiographical environmental cleanup. Having and scenes by theater Developed in the labs of Being Had professor emeritus Samuel I. Stupp ’77 PhD and EULA BISS Dominic Missimi Monica Olvera de la Cruz, the In her latest book, recounts his journey centimeter-sized robot can English department from 1950s boyhood walk at human speed, pick artist-in-residence to his career as a up and transport cargo to a Eula Biss sheds professor and director. new location, climb up and light on the ways in During his 32 years at down hills and then perform which capitalism is Northwestern, Missimi a spinning break dance to entrenched in our founded and directed release the cargo. lives. The book grew the University’s music Resembling a four-legged out of a diary she kept theater program and octopus, the robot functions after buying a home directed 17 Waa-Mu inside a water-filled tank,

in 2014. Shows. SHANE COLLINS BOOKS: LEHRER; SHTERNA GOLDBLOOM; RIVA making it ideal for use

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 Illustration by Angie Wang 12 NEWS NEWS 13

rapidly to magnetic fields. INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH “By combining walking and steering motions together, we can program specific Global Impacts Fellows sequences of magnetic fields, which remotely operate the FOROOGH FARHANG robot and direct it to follow Lebanon and Syria paths on flat or inclined surfaces,” says Olvera de Foroogh Farhang explores the la Cruz, the Lawyer Taylor political, economic and ethical dimensions of Syrians’ quests Professor of Materials Science ALÍCIA HERNÀNDEZ GRANDE for a proper burial following the and Engineering, Chemistry Spain 2011 mass migration of Syrians to and Chemical and Biological Lebanon. She looks at the ways Engineering. “This feature In fall 2017 Alícia Hernàndez in which the scarcity of burial allows us to direct the robot Grande was on the streets spaces in Lebanon, in conjunction of Barcelona as thousands with increasing restrictions through narrow passages with of demonstrators marched on crossing the Lebanon-Syria complex routes.” in support of the Catalan border, has mobilized legal and ↑ Samuel Stupp, left, and Monica Olvera de la Cruz The Northwestern team independence referendum. She illegal networks of Syrians’ ROBERTO ROSADO- studies the development of traveling dead within Lebanon used chemical synthesis to RAMIREZ program the molecules within Catalan cultural identity and and on the route from Lebanon Mexico independence politics through to Syria. After 18 months of in aquatic environments. Engineering, Chemistry and the hydrogel to respond to theater, spectacle and public fieldwork in Lebanon, she hopes Roberto Rosado- Researchers imagine Biomedical Engineering. “We light. When exposed to light, protest as part Northwestern’s to complete her dissertation by Ramirez, an Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre the end of the year. customizing the robot’s have designed soft materials the robot’s molecules become archaeologist and and Drama. Her work explores movements and locomotion with molecular intelligence hydrophobic (repelling water), doctoral candidate how theater offers a channel for to precisely deliver to enable them to behave like causing the water molecules to in anthropology, Catalans to voice their frustration is conducting his biotherapeutics or catalyze robots of any size and perform escape. This conversion causes with the Spanish government. chemical reactions to yield useful functions in tiny spaces, the robot to “come alive” by dissertation research project at the products. It also could underwater or underground.” bending from a flat position ancient Maya site be designed to recognize Nearly 90% water by to “standing.” The researchers RAHARDHIKA UTAMA of Ake in northern Indonesia and Malaysia and remove unwanted weight, the aquatic robot is discovered that this bending Yucatán, Mexico. microplastics from the made from a first-of-its-kind, enables the material to Rosado-Ramirez’s Rahardhika Utama, a doctoral LIVIA GAROFALO environment or blood clots soft, lifelike material, invented respond rapidly to rotating work investigates candidate in sociology, how humans Argentina studies diverging development from delicate tissues. in Stupp’s lab. Its sea creature– magnetic fields, activating its can regenerate trajectories in the Asian rubber The product of a “Conventional robots are like movements come not ability to walk fast. settlements amid belt. He conducted extensive year and a half of typically heavy machines from complex hardware, “Eventually, we’d ruined cities in archival research at 20 libraries ethnographic fieldwork the aftermath of and archive centers across with lots of hardware and hydraulics or electricity. It is like to make armies of in the intensive care sociopolitical collapse. the globe and 12 months of electronics that are unable activated by light and walks microrobots that could units of Buenos The ancient Maya lived ethnographic fieldwork in Aires, Livia Garofalo’s to interact safely with in the direction of an external perform a complicated in this location from multiple rubber communities in dissertation examines soft structures, including rotating magnetic field. task in a coordinated way,” 300 BCE to about Southeast Asia. Utama’s research the relationship humans,” says Stupp, the Within its water-filled Stupp says. “We can tweak 1550 CE. The site examines the historical factors between intensive was the seat of a that transform and sustain Board of Trustees Professor structure is an embedded them molecularly to interact care, trauma and plantation starting traditionally agrarian societies of Materials Science and skeleton made of aligned, with one another to imitate economic crisis in public in the middle of the like Indonesia and Malaysia. hospitals in Argentina’s ferromagnetic nickel the swarming of birds and 17th century, and A draft of this research won capital. Garofalo is a filaments. The resulting robot bacteria in nature or schools today Ake is a small an honorable mention from “We’d like to doctoral candidate in is a molecularly designed of fish in the ocean. The rural community. the American Sociological anthropology and is Association. make armies of network, with parts that allow molecular versatility of also earning a master’s it to respond to light, hold the platform could lead to degree in public health microrobots.” or expel water and have just applications that have not from the Feinberg School of Medicine. — Samuel Stupp the right stiffness to respond been conceived at this point.” MOCK LESLIE-ANNE ILLUSTRATIONS:

● Northwestern ● Robin R. Means Coleman is Northwestern’s ● Geoscientist Patricia Beddows was named ● A few weeks after Northwestern’s 35-19 The Dining worked with new vice president and associate provost for to the Women Divers Hall of Fame for exploring win over Auburn at the 2021 Citrus Bowl, the 60 nonprofits to diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. caves and karst landscapes, particularly in the University extended its contract with head Ticker provide nearly 10,000 An award-winning scholar of communication and flooded cave systems of the Yucatán Peninsula, football coach Pat Fitzgerald through 2030. boxed, hot meals to African American studies, Coleman will direct the where she developed a system to track Fitzgerald ’97, the winningest coach in the Evanston and Chicago Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and groundwater. She is director of Northwestern’s school’s history, earned his 100th career victory families in January. join the University’s effort to promote equity. Program in Environmental Sciences. in the 2020 season opener.

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 14 NEWS NEWS 15

WILDCAT ATHLETICS

← Veronica Family Ties Burton ranks second in Defensive standout and star guard continues career steals at the Burton legacy at Northwestern. Northwestern

eronica Burton to each other and trying to V is a leader of the maintain our bubble,” she women’s basketball says. “We’re trying to tune ’CAT TALES team’s vaunted “blizzard” everything out and just play defense. The two-time Big the sport we love.” Ten Defensive Player of the It’s something special A Music Year averaged better than four for Burton to play the Theater steals per game this season, sport she loves for Pioneer tops in the nation. the University that And while the junior has been home Kelsey L. Pharr Jr. guard has continued her to her family for attended the record-breaking defensive generations. Her School of Speech play — she was named grandfather, the (now the School of one of four finalists for the late Ron Burton ’60, Communication) in Naismith Defensive Player of was an All-American the late 1930s and was the Year Award in March — running back for the one of Northwestern’s Burton also has elevated her football team. Her first African American offensive game, averaging father, Steve Burton music theater alumni. 16 points per contest. ’85, ’88 MS, played He performed in Burton says that the quarterback for the several campus COVID restrictions allowed Wildcats, and her productions, including her time to focus on scoring. mother, Ginni Vath Burton the 1937 and 1939 ↑ Northwestern graduate student Jeron Dorsey carries supplies at a food and toy drive in Evanston. “During quarantine, one of ’85, was an All-American Waa-Mu Shows. After the only things I could do was swimmer for Northwestern. leaving the University, go to the gym,” she says. “That Three of her uncles also played Pharr performed in gave me a sense of normalcy. football at Northwestern. Porgy and Bess and I used the extra time to do “Being able to wear three other Broadway GIVING BACK conditioning and get more the same jersey, the same shows before joining shots up.” colors that my parents the Delta Rhythm Burton says playing in did — it’s surreal,” Burton Boys vocal group Genuine Generosity a pandemic has been an says. “I’m just so blessed to (pictured above). adjustment, but it’s made her have that opportunity, and The School of Graduate student Jeron Dorsey donated his paycheck to help fire victims. team stronger. “We have really Northwestern is the only Communication emphasized being dedicated place that could provide that.” created the new Kelsey Pharr Jr. ust two days Evanston anti-violence Giving back to his Speaker Series, J before Christmas, organization. But that hometown community is which hosts artists a devastating fire outreach wasn’t enough. So important to the Evanston MILESTONES and scholars who gutted an Evanston family’s Dorsey, a program director native. Growing up, he represent diversity apartment and destroyed at Evanston’s Fleetwood- remembers thinking The Medill School of Journalism, Media, and inclusion in most of their possessions. Jourdain Community Center, that Northwestern was Integrated Marketing Communications the performing and Jeron Dorsey, a graduate donated an entire two-week unattainable. His goal today kicked off its centennial celebration in media arts. This year student in the sports paycheck to the family and is to change that mindset. the series featured administration program, helped the Jacksons move “Northwestern was like a February. Founded in 1921, Medill now provides director, actor and heard about the Jackson donated furniture into their foreign country,” he recalls. instruction on five campuses and has more educator Lili-Anne family’s plight and decided new home. He has continued “Part of going to Northwestern than 18,000 alumni. To commemorate the Brown ’95, director to lend a hand. Initially to connect with the family. for my master’s was to show milestone, Medill will host in-person events Jess McLeod ’14 MFA, he donated cash and “I’ve committed to them the kids growing up here and actor, playwright helped collect gift cards that I’ll always be a part of that we have a tremendous when possible through spring 2022. Learn and composer Brian in collaboration with the their lives,” says Dorsey, who university — and opportunity

more at 100.medill.northwestern.edu. COMMUNICATIONS ATHLETIC NORTHWESTERN BURTON: VERONICA IMAGES PHOTOS/GETTY FOX RHYTHM BOYS: DELTA / PIONEER PRESS/NEWSPAPER/TCA; KARIE ANGELL LUC DORSEY: JERON Quijada. Black Male Alliance, an has two young children. — in our backyard.”

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RESEARCH A Mummy Gets an X-Ray, Fall Colors Might Fade

scientists concluded that OAE1a was directly triggered by the eruption of a large igneous MEDICINE province that released tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Developing Shelf- “We go back in time to study greenhouse Stable Vaccines 1 periods because Earth is headed toward another New manufacturing platform could help avoid X-RAYS REVEAL A greenhouse period now,” waste and expand access. MUMMY’S SECRETS says doctoral student Jiuyuan Wang. In 2017 scientists at ore than 50% of all were able to produce a single Argonne National M vaccines are wasted dose in one hour, costing Laboratory used due to errors in about $5 per dose. The team powerful X-ray beams transportation or storage, immunized mice and exposed to examine the bones according to the World Health them to Francisella tularensis, and objects underneath Organization. A research a pathogenic bacteria that is layers of resin and linen team led by Northwestern deadly without treatment. All on a 1,900-year-old and Cornell universities vaccinated mice survived. mummy. The project has developed a new “We could extend the marked the first time manufacturing platform that platform to other medicines, X-ray diffraction 3 can quickly produce vaccines including viral vaccines or techniques were used at the point of care, ensuring insulin,” says Northwestern’s to examine an intact FAREWELL, they will not go to waste and Michael Jewett, who co-led the mummy. In 2020 the FALL COLORS expanding access to potentially study. “Our cell-free approach, researchers, including lifesaving medications. which alleviates cold-chain Northwestern research Visiting professor Tm qui con estinu fgdm The new method uses requirements, will provide non pa qui dolutam. professor Stuart Stock, Yingying Xie regularly cell-free components that a way to rapidly respond reported their findings, observed deciduous are freeze-dried, remaining to pathogen outbreaks and confirming that the body tree canopies to better shelf-stable for six months emerging threats in the belonged to a young understand seasonal or longer. Once the cell- future.” child who was buried change. Using her free systems reach their By eliminating the need Jewett is a professor of The secret behind the adding water to activate dried sidesteps a lot of these with a scarab amulet of observations and other destination and are ready for for complicated supply chains chemical and biological new manufacturing platform yeast when making bread.” issues,” DeLisa says. “We’re calcite. datasets, Xie and her use, health care workers can and extreme refrigeration, the engineering at the McCormick — called in vitro conjugate Conjugate vaccines attach taking a multistep process colleagues developed rehydrate them with a single platform also will be powerful School of Engineering and vaccine expression (iVAX) — a sugar — that is unique to and compressing it down into models to describe drop of water to make the for low-resource settings, director of Northwestern’s is cell-free synthetic biology. a pathogen — to a carrier a single reaction step.” 2 how phenological vaccine on demand. which often do not have access Center for Synthetic Biology. To make a cell-free system, protein that stimulates the Although viruses are top of dates responded to The researchers used the to expensive facilities and He co-led the work with researchers remove a cell wall immune system. The sugar mind, Jewett and his team are ANCIENT ERUPTION environmental factors. platform to make conjugate refrigerated storage. “These Matthew DeLisa, the William L. and collect the cell’s molecular is like a fingerprint of the focused on conjugate vaccines “In response to more vaccines that protect against issues limit the overall access Lewis Professor at Cornell’s machinery. They then put this pathogen. By learning to as a response to the emerging About 120 million frequent and intensive bacterial infections. They to medicines,” Jewett says. Robert Frederick Smith machinery into a test tube and recognize that protein as a threat of antibiotic-resistant years ago the Earth extreme stressors, School of Chemical and freeze-dry it. Adding water sets foreign substance, your body bacteria. experienced an such as drought or high Biomolecular Engineering off a chemical reaction that knows how to mount an “The rise of antibiotic- extreme environmental temperatures, trees “Our cell-free approach will and the director of the Cornell activates the cell-free system, immune response to attack it resistant microbes is disruption, known as will change the timing Institute of Biotechnology. turning it into a catalyst for when encountered again. something that the entire oceanic anoxic event of leaf coloration,” Xie provide a way to rapidly respond Jessica Stark ’19 PhD, a former making a usable medicine. Unfortunately, conjugate planet will need to address 1a (OAE1a), that choked says. “Leaf colors do to pathogen outbreaks and doctoral student in Jewett’s “It’s like taking an engine vaccines are difficult and in the coming years,” he says. oxygen from the oceans not turn bright yellow or laboratory, was a co-first out of a car and repurposing expensive to manufacture. “Antibiotic resistance is a and led to a minor mass bright red. They just turn emerging threats in the future.” author of the paper. that engine,” Jewett says. “Or MUIR JUSTIN “The technology we created slow-moving pandemic.” extinction. Northwestern brown and then drop.”

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18 INNOVATION 19

INVENTION Alva A few years ago, Kinsey Hart received a and wanted to be able to create it,” says Hart, a promotion and wanted to mark the milestone second-year student in the dual-degree MMM with a new piece of jewelry. She had a simple program, which combines an MBA from the

ENTERTAINMENT design in mind — a necklace with emeralds to Kellogg School of Management and a master’s mark her Irish heritage — but could not find degree in design innovation from the Segal her dream piece. That’s when she hatched the Design Institute at the McCormick School of Building a Fan Base idea for Alva, an online personal jeweler that Engineering. Hart and colleagues tested the Northwestern arts entrepreneurship team allows buyers to customize a base design or idea in Rick Desai’s New Venture Development helps musician Ben Rector adapt to pandemic. create their own unique piece from scratch. course in winter 2020, and then the Alva team — “In talking with women about this concept, I including Northwestern junior Riva Akolawala found that a significant number had a strong — participated last summer in The Garage’s 10- ive music Aware Records in 1993, has vision of what they wanted in a piece of jewelry week accelerator, now called Jumpstart. L performances might worked with artists including not be possible Brandi Carlile, Train, John because of the COVID-19 Mayer and the Fray. He began pandemic, but for Kellogg working with Rector in April MADE FOR YOU School of Management 2020, and Hernandez joined ↑ Olivia Hernandez adjunct lecturer Gregg the team in the fall. Latterman Customers can craft a piece to match their vision. Alva’s website Latterman ’96 MBA and School teaches the NUvention: features base designs for earrings, of Education and Social Policy Arts course, which gives rings and necklaces, which senior Olivia Hernandez, the students like Hernandez the In response, the team in-person concerts return. customers can personalize by show must go on. foundational skills to build a focused on Rector’s design For Hernandez, her selecting the type and color of the The two are creative arts company. and branding, especially on experiences at Northwestern metal and adding gemstones — lab grown or mined. They can also see part of singer- At Northwestern, social media. Hernandez have given her the training how those options affect the price. songwriter Hernandez has immersed pitched a Thanksgiving e-card she needs to enter the music In the future, customers will be able Ben Rector’s herself in the study of music, to promote holiday music industry, even amid the to customize the number and size of management audio engineering and and helped create visuals for changing landscape brought the gemstones. team. Together, entrepreneurship by joining songs on Rector’s holiday on by the pandemic. they’re The Garage and founding album. Rector has played “I’ve been taught to read CUSTOM DESIGN finding its artist-in-residence music for fans via livestream my environment, understand If Alva does not have a specific innovative program, an incubator on Instagram Live and other who my customer is and go design, Kinsey Hart and her team ways to adapt designed to foster a strong platforms. from there,” says Hernandez, offer an interactive customization to a virtual artist community and teach Latterman, who is Rector’s who plans to pursue a career process that allows buyers to entertainment students how to transform manager, sees this time in arts and entrepreneurship collaborate on creating the exact industry. their passions into a business. as an opportunity to learn in Nashville. “[My professors] piece. Alva offers “the ability to personalize online in a way that is Latterman, As lockdowns began, how to use digital platforms really helped me build that not mainstream,” says Hart. who founded Latterman asked, “How do we to connect with fans and skill set and helped me still connect Ben with his fans continue building on those understand that everything I LOCALLY CRAFTED ← Ben Rector and allow him to be creative?” connections, even when do is leading to the next thing.” Alva’s pieces are made by a local Chicago jeweler. To bring the designs to life, Alva and partners digitize the PODCAST designs into a 3D computer-aided design file, create the molds, cast the Connor Regan ’16 pursued 11 internships during his time at pieces and set the stones by hand.

Northwestern. Those experiences gave him the knowledge, SLEEK, SIMPLE INTERFACE skills and relationships to land in Google’s rotational program Alva’s website is driven by logic after graduation. His story is part of How I Got Here, a new mapping on the back end that podcast from The Garage that traces the journeys of young combines pricing matrices and hundreds of different image professionals, including the lessons they learned and how combinations to show customers the right stone and the right price. entrepreneurship helped them land their dream jobs. ANZALDI HERNANDEZ: STEVE ’10 MS FATKE; COLLIN RECTOR: OF ALVA COURTESY

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20 “We Will” Update 21

← Computer science students in Mudd Hall after its renovation The Future of Artificial Intelligence and reopening in 2018

“I am delighted to see the Data is everywhere, and tremendous progress that it is being created at a has already been made in the scale beyond the capacity department and look forward of human understanding. to continued success,” says Researchers are pushing University Trustee and the boundaries of artificial McCormick Advisory Council intelligence to help member Peter Barris ’74, who, harness and use this data along with his wife, made a to help solve the world’s gift to endow the chair. most pressing problems. CS+X brings together At Northwestern, disciplines that may seem where interdisciplinary like they have little in collaboration is a goal, common with each other. For faculty are exploring example, the CS + Humanities the use of AI in fields Postdoctoral Fellows program such as drug discovery, funded by McCormick equality and social justice, ↑ Artificial intelligence research explores the nature of intelligence and the ways in which computation can be Advisory Council member material and process used to explain and engineer it. Bob Shaw ’70, ’81 MBA and design, social media Weinberg College Board of analysis and astronomy. Advisors member Charlene One of the University’s out of a collaboration occasion of Bill’s Shaw ’70 provides for two leading AI scholars is between Hammond, retirement as board chair. emerging scholars who are Kristian Hammond, Birnbaum and students “We are delighted harnessing the power of who is working on from the Medill School that our family will computer science to offer the cutting edge of of Journalism, Media, be associated with insights into human behavior language and narrative Integrated Marketing Northwestern’s quest medicine, economics, law and written language. One generation, among other Communications. to transform the CAMPUS and international affairs, fellow is building machine specialties within the In recognition of his next generation of while potentially creating new learning systems to predict field. Hammond, along scholarship and teaching, computer scientists,” branches of learning. high-risk mental health with fellow professor Hammond was named Bill Osborn said. Computer Science Enhances Leading the initiative behaviors, while the other is of computer science the inaugural Bill and As AI and computer and the computer science on a team that’s converting Larry Birnbaum, founded Cathy Osborn Professor science evolve together, Interdisciplinary Learning department is Samir Khuller, 60,000 books printed Narrative Science, a of Computer Science they are expected to play the Peter and Adrienne Barris between 1473 and 1700 into company that converts in 2018. The endowed an even greater role in our Northwestern’s CS Transformation Initiative is preparing faculty Chair of Computer Science, searchable text optimized for raw data into stories professorship is one of lives — the Osborn Chair and students to lead in a data-driven world. who joined the Northwestern data visualization. that feature natural two established by the helps ensure that the Engineering faculty in To support the CS language. Companies Northwestern University University’s prominence in 2019 from the University of Transformation Initiative, and organizations use Board of Trustees to these fields will continue nterest in computer science the Computer Science among its peers for Maryland, where he helped Northwestern Engineering Narrative Science to honor the service and well into the future. has skyrocketed over the Transformation Initiative in interdisciplinary build one of the top computer embarked on a project to quickly create customer generosity of William A. “There is no better Ipast few years, fueled by 2016 and announced plans to collaboration. Computer science departments in the re-imagine the third floor of communications, reports Osborn ’69, ’73 MBA, time than today to be a surge of available data, hire 20 new faculty members: science faculty have held joint nation. Seeley G. Mudd Hall. Opened and other content. ’18 H and Cathleen in computer science,” enhanced computing power 10 in computer science and appointments in journalism, in 2018, the 22,600-square- Narrative Science grew Osborn ’72 on the Hammond says. and advances in artificial 10 with joint appointments music and education — fields foot facility unites intelligence and machine across the University (referred in which the University is a Northwestern Engineering’s learning. At Northwestern to as CS+X). To date, 11 new global leader. CS+X builds computer science faculty the number of undergraduate faculty have been hired, plus on this tradition by using all in one place and is students majoring in the a department chair. And computer science and located on Evanston’s North Northwestern: Actively Engaged in AI field has tripled, and course with the support of visionary computational thinking Campus. The space promotes enrollments have doubled — philanthropists, the program to push the boundaries of purposeful and spontaneous even non-majors are taking is revolutionizing learning discovery in areas such as collaborations between advanced classes. across disciplines at engineers, entrepreneurs, 8 200+ 11 With an eye on the future, Northwestern. → Samir Khuller, the Peter management experts and schools faculty educational the McCormick School The University has long and Adrienne Barris Chair of computer scientists in one of Engineering launched had an outstanding reputation Computer Science innovation ecosystem. programs

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← Tanya Simuni, right, director Stein Roe & Farnham before GLOBAL HEALTH of the Parkinson’s Disease and becoming founder and Movement Disorders Center at Northwestern University president of Fundamental Feinberg School of Medicine, Equities International. Prior with colleagues Danielle Larson Preventing the Next Pandemic to his passing in 2019, he and Neil Shetty said, “When I think about The Flanagan Foundation’s recent philanthropy focuses philanthropy, I always on critical infectious disease research. remember where I started. My family had limited means. I worked four jobs at once “While a number of or more than 40 years, with Dr. Murphy,” says John earlier this year when it in college. Now that I have diseases routinely use the late John R. Flanagan Boyle ’11 MD, a member of the committed to providing some modest wealth, and biomarkers in research and F ’58 MBA generously foundation’s board. need-based scholarships for I know I can’t take it with me, clinical practice, Parkinson’s supported Northwestern Prior to the creation of underrepresented students I want to do something disease still does not have through major gifts for medical the foundation following his or those pursuing a degree good with it.” such objective measures,” research at the University. death, Flanagan himself made in finance at the Kellogg says Simuni, who also is A recent gift from the a gift in 2018 to establish the School of Management. ↓ Northwestern’s global chief of movement disorders John R. Flanagan Charitable Neil J. Stone, MD, Professorship A 1958 Kellogg graduate, health outreach programs aid in the Ken and Ruth Davee Foundation seeks to prevent — named in honor of Neil J. Flanagan was a partner at underserved populations. Department of Neurology. the spread of infectious Stone ’66, ’68 MD, ’74 GME, “PPMI data are essential to diseases, like COVID-19, ’75 GME and currently held developing better tools to around the world. by Sanjiv J. Shah — in the advance and accelerate novel In 2020 the Flanagan cardiology division at Feinberg. therapies for this increasingly Foundation made a The professorship was common disease of aging.” commitment to establish supported in part by the Ryan RESEARCH In early 2020 Simuni and the Dr. Robert L. Murphy Family Chair Challenge. colleagues published research Professorship in Emerging The Flanagan Foundation findings for PPMI that revealed Infectious Disease, in honor of also supports future Grant Supports Landmark people who carry genetic the current executive director generations of Northwestern- mutations associated with an of the Institute for Global educated leaders in medicine. Parkinson’s Study increased risk for Parkinson’s Health at Feinberg School of The recently established disease may exhibit minor Medicine — a longtime friend John R. Flanagan Charitable Northwestern Medicine’s partnership with The Michael J. Fox symptoms before the disease of Flanagan’s. This position Foundation Medical Foundation is advancing critical research on the disease. progresses and affects a will fund the research Scholarship will go to a patient’s daily life. priorities of a faculty member fourth-year medical student PPMI now plans to enroll in the institute’s Center for who has matched to a ore than 6 million Over the last decade, the School of Medicine, received 4,000 participants — including Global Communicable and residency program. The people worldwide are Parkinson’s Progression the award to continue her individuals who recently were Emerging Infectious Diseases. Flanagan Fellowship Fund in Maffected by Parkinson’s Markers Initiative has created PPMI work in August 2020. diagnosed with Parkinson’s “The John R. Flanagan the department of physiology disease — a lifelong movement a longitudinal clinical and The latest grant from disease, carry Parkinson’s- Charitable Foundation is at Feinberg helps advance disorder with symptoms that biomarker dataset involving The Michael J. Fox Foundation associated genetic mutations privileged to make this educational programs for slowly worsen over time. more than 1,400 participants will support Simuni and her or have clinical risk factors. gift in celebration of John’s trainees focused on Thanks to a new multimillion- worldwide. The project also team’s efforts in recruiting These individuals will be life, his commitment to Parkinson’s disease research. dollar, multiyear grant from has compiled standardized and following study observed by investigators for Northwestern Medicine and The foundation expanded The Michael J. Fox Foundation protocols for acquisition, volunteers from diverse a period of five to eight years. his personal relationship its support of Northwestern for Parkinson’s Research, transfer and analysis of cohorts to gather valuable As a member of the Northwestern Medicine will clinical, imaging, genetic clinical and imaging data Parkinson’s Progression continue to participate in the and biospecimen data that and biological samples. Markers Initiative leadership MJFF-sponsored Parkinson’s is available for use by the team, Simuni will be involved Progression Markers Parkinson’s disease research with data analysis and “One of the Institute for Global Health’s core missions Initiative (PPMI), which community. operational management of is to prevent the next pandemic. That’s why we are aims to identify biomarkers Northwestern Medicine’s More than the study globally and for for the progression of Tanya Simuni, the Arthur C. Northwestern’s study. very fortunate and so grateful to receive funding from Parkinson’s disease for use Nielsen Jr. Research Professor 6 million people “PPMI is an incredibly the Flanagan Foundation for a full-time position in in clinical trials for novel of Parkinson’s Disease and worldwide are complicated study, and molecular epidemiology. The person ultimately filling therapies. Northwestern Movement Disorders and affected by I really have to thank multiple is one of 50 international director of the Parkinson’s centers and programs at this role will help us study how viruses like COVID-19 sites participating in the Disease and Movement Parkinson’s Northwestern for making it transmit and how to stop them.” observational study. Disorders Center at Feinberg disease. happen at our site,” she says. — Robert L. Murphy

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How Do People Make Change?

Social movements mean street protests — and so much more. Northwestern experts share the keys to an effective movement.

by clare milliken

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already-established Black-led organizations were willing to invest in and support the activists. PEOPLE POWER ONLINE “That was extremely sustainable because churches aren’t going anywhere,” says King, the Max McGraw Chair of Management and the Environment and a professor of management and Online action can be used For example, so that users are organizations. “I’m not saying that all activists need to effect change in powerful spared the work of researching churches to sustain them, but you need some kind ways, says computer science Amazon’s vast network of of infrastructure that is enduring to ensure the associate professor Brent subsidiary companies and movement doesn’t wither away as soon as it faces a Hecht. Hecht researches brands, Hecht’s tools would challenge.” “data leverage,” a new way warn consumers before they Even with a sound infrastructure, a movement for people to take collective click on any Amazon-affiliated eyond the pandemic, social can lose momentum due to the limits of public action against tech giants like links — or hide the links unrest defined 2020. attention. King cites the recent protests in Hong Amazon, Facebook and Google altogether. It started on the very Kong as an example. to force them to change their Because tech companies’ first day of the year “The protesters were trying to create enough practices regarding privacy, algorithms depend on in Hong Kong, where of a scene to get the international community to misinformation and other consumer data, when large protesters filled the streets put pressure on China to change its relationship issues. numbers of people stop sharing in opposition to China’s with Hong Kong,” King says. “And in some ways it Data poisoning is a form their info through clicks and proposed extradition was working: The protests were creating negative of data leverage whereby searches, the algorithms B law. Throughout the media attention for China and causing China’s allies online users intentionally become less accurate and year — across the U.S. and around the world to distance themselves from the country. But then provide false data by posting targeted. Ultimately, they — protesters filled the streets to call for racial COVID happened.” fake reviews, clicking links don’t work as well. justice, challenge Big Tech, oppose COVID-19 The issues in Hong Kong were eclipsed — but unrelated to a search term Hecht says his work, and lockdowns and fight for democracy. far from eliminated — when the public’s attention or tagging people in photos data leverage itself, can be a But to consider protests the whole story would shifted to the pandemic. incorrectly. Another form boon to consumers and tech be missing the point. “It’s easy to focus on the King’s research shows that concurrent is a data strike, in which firms alike. sudden, dramatic moments of activism,” says movements can compete with each other, diluting people stop contributing to “The goal is to allow more anthropology associate professor Ana Aparicio. their potential impact. “Well-meaning and in many an online platform altogether. democratic input into the “However, sometimes activism isn’t overt or in ways ideologically aligned social movements can For instance, users could, decisions that are made about big public spaces.” cancel each other out,” he says, “because they’re all en masse, stop searching for technology,” Hecht says. “The From boycotts and marches to teaching and fighting for a very limited amount of attention.” and reviewing products on tech companies can then community building, social movements are Amazon, thereby starving focus on what they’re good at, multifaceted, organized activities that can bring FROM PROTEST TO POLICY the company of critical data which is building technology, people together to change the world. A movement, King says, should be multifaceted. on consumer browsing and and the public can contribute Aparicio and her Northwestern colleagues have Ideally it would be “a broad, diverse coalition of buying habits. to decisions about how that studied social movements past and present, across people and organizations promoting change” Hecht and his team are technology impacts society.” contexts and continents, and their work shows whose strategies are similarly varied. Movements now building tools to make it — C.M. what makes a movement powerful and effective. provide it with resources. That’s what gives power to must put pressure on as many institutional levers easier to pull off a data strike. It takes organization, infrastructure, partnership a movement.” and, ultimately, passionate activists to sustain a This was true of the U.S. civil rights movement movement. of the 1950s and ’60s, which was “funded largely by “The regular people are really the engine,” says the Black community. The leadership, the strategy sociology professor Aldon Morris. “Ordinary people and the genius of the movement came from the can do extraordinary things in the context of social Black community,” says Morris, author of the 1984 movements.” book The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE A clear infrastructure is also key to sustaining Morris has dedicated his life and career to any movement beyond its genesis, says Kellogg social movements. The Leon Forrest Professor School of Management professor Brayden King, of Sociology and African American Studies at who studies how social movements influence Northwestern has been arrested while protesting corporations and legislative policymaking. He says South African apartheid, risked his academic infrastructure enables a movement to “ride waves of career by opposing segregation in higher relevance in the media and in broader public culture. education and helped labor unions organize And there’s always a core group of people working Aldon Morris examines Chloe Thurston studies Brayden King explores how Ana Aparicio studies how across the United States. to seize upon the next opportunity.” social movements, civil the role of movements in social movements influence Latinx communities develop “Movements do not arise spontaneously,” A sustained movement may depend on rights and social inequality. shaping policy. corporations. local politics. he explains. “The oppressed must organize the what Morris calls “indigenous resources.” In the movement, must provide it with leadership, must civil rights era, he explains, Black churches and

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as possible, including the legal system, corporate group,” says King, who co-edited Protestors and Their practices, policymaking and public consciousness. Targets. Buzz increases the chances that a targeted Political science assistant professor Chloe entity will engage with activists and subsequently Thurston, who studies the role of social change their practices, he adds; that engagement can movements and organizations in shaping help enlist “movement allies” who work inside the policy, says movements can spotlight individual targeted entity. Allies could be police officers who grievances, increase their visibility and then support Black Lives Matter or ExxonMobil scientists connect them to a broader context. who support legislation to combat climate change. Thurston says that the case of credit Thurston points out that, in the 1970s, a group discrimination illustrates this tactic. Until the of more than 100 economists, including some 1970s it was standard practice in the U.S. to deny from the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, signed women access to various forms of credit. But then a statement disavowing the use of sex or race in groups like the National Organization for Women lending decisions. She says their statement “helped and the Women’s Equity Action League began to lend credibility to the claims of the women’s connect women’s individual experiences of being organizations and also helped bolster the argument denied credit to show a broader pattern. They for concrete regulatory change.” also upended the assumptions about why women Activists need organization insiders on their side, couldn’t get loans or bank cards, making clear that King says, to “open the door for further engagement the restrictions were baseless, discriminatory and and deeper conversations about how to implement unfair. processes that could lead to meaningful change. “NOW and other groups raised the issue to Activists need those insiders to help adapt and national public consciousness, and it was legislated translate their ideals within an organization.” on as a result,” Thurston says, referring to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, which prohibited lending discrimination based on sex, race, religion and other factors. She adds that racial and social equality movements — Black Lives Matter and THE IMPACT OF AESTHETICS #MeToo included — commonly connect experience to policy. Raising public awareness alone is likely not When it comes to the military and state enough to effect change, Thurston says, “but motivating people to security officials,” she it’s certainly part of keeping these issues on the support a cause, aesthetic says. “They portrayed agenda.” choices — the type of them as people who had no According to Morris, disruption is a key strategy language that is spoken, morals, who were greedy for advancing a cause. “Social movements are not the style of dress that and corrupt.” successful because they are polite,” he says. “They is worn, the symbols Secular-oriented are successful because they shake up the status quo.” that are used and the revolutionaries also leveled Black leaders and organizers in Birmingham, overall vibe surrounding insults against the Muslim Ala., had long fought to change the system of Jim the cause — play a big Brotherhood, criticizing its Crow in the city, Morris says, “and each time they role. They help define a adherents as dirty, vulgar, made very little progress. And so the civil rights movement’s identity for its unbathed and uncivilized. movement said, ‘OK, we’re going to have to disrupt members, who in turn can At the same time, the those institutions that segregate us.’ ” When the use aesthetics against the state forces portrayed all movement initiated boycotts of Birmingham opposition. revolutionaries as immoral, businesses, organized daily street marches, staged Anthropology professor bad Muslims, uncouth, sit-ins at restaurants and department stores and Jessica Winegar was in dirty and uncivilized. filled up all the jails, the city was paralyzed. Only Egypt’s Tahrir Square “Aesthetics play a role then, he says, did Birmingham’s white leaders say, in February 2011 when in galvanizing people to “ ‘We can’t go on like this. We’re going to have to citizens took to the streets join a social movement meet with the leaders of the movement and make to demand the ouster of as well as creating the some concessions.’ ” the country’s authoritarian movement’s opponent,” president, Hosni Mubarak. Winegar says. “In a way, PROGRESS AND PARTNERSHIP Winegar observed how what people can see, hear, Boycotts are a proven tactic of social movements. aesthetics were deployed smell, taste and feel at King says roughly 25% of boycotts that receive to further the movement. a very deep level can be national media attention lead to some form of “The revolutionaries much more powerful than a concession. used vulgar insults against political platform.” — C.M. “Boycotts create buzz for the movement and pose a reputational threat to the targeted company or

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Those potential allies, however, tend to reject a politics, and some of her recent work focuses on a and Black communities, Aparicio says, sustaining Additionally, a movement that seems to have movement that is expressing hostility. King cites community garden in a Long Island, N.Y., suburb. the garden is a political act unto itself. failed may contribute to changes that come a research showing that many finance industry Since it was planted in an abandoned lot a decade “Claiming public space by having a Latinx decade later. Occupy Wall Street, she says, is a good workers supported the goals of the Occupy Wall ago, the garden has grown into much more: It festival, for example, is fun,” Aparicio says, “but example. Street movement (begun in September 2011) but is the site of monthly community meetings and there’s also another point to it. It’s not necessarily to “Many people thought Occupy failed after just a were unwilling to become real allies. has inspired community events and even a radio organize for or against something. Coming together few years,” Thurston says, “but when we look at the “They felt it was an angry movement and show. Through their involvement in the garden, is in and of itself as critical as anything that comes 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, issues of bringing that anger into the workplace would make community members share resources and discuss out of it.” inequality were really high on the list of things that them a target among their co-workers and the issues they’re facing. most candidates were willing to talk about.” people they depended on for career advancement,” “It’s not a movement of overt dissent but THE WORK CONTINUES “For many movements, the No. 1 goal is to King says. “That anger turned them off from one where people create a political and social Just as there are many ways to define and propel a change the conversation — to grab the attention of becoming real allies.” community,” Aparicio says of the garden. “The movement, there are innumerable ways to assess its the public and get them to think differently about daily convivencia — everyday practices — bring role and impact. a certain issue,” King says. “If you’re able to get THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL people together, engendering a sense of care and “Should success be defined as policy? Should it politicians to talk and think differently, that’s a When it comes to social movements, community- hope that is critical for people and critical for a be defined as changing the way people talk about big change.” building activities can help create a foundation for movement to be sustained over a longer period.” issues or whether certain things people used engagement around particular issues. Ana Aparicio And because places like the suburbs of Long to overlook are now considered problematic?” Clare Milliken is senior writer and producer in the studies how Latinx communities develop local Island were originally designed to exclude Latinx Thurston asks. Office of Global Marketing and Communications.

Movements at Northwestern Northwestern students have often made their voices heard in support of causes CIVIL RIGHTS A SHOW OF SOLIDARITY RACIAL JUSTICE they care about. Here’s a look After the University opened so-called international houses for After four Kent State University student protesters were Following the police killings minority women and men in 1947 and 1949, Northwestern’s killed on their campus by National Guardsmen, thousands of of George Floyd and Breonna at a few examples of campus first multiracial civil rights organization, the Quibblers, wrote Northwestern students took part in a peaceful strike — the Taylor, students joined activism over the years. in a letter to the Daily Northwestern that such a move was largest political gathering in University history — that included protests occurring across not a solution but “in itself an act of segregation.” Other blocking Sheridan Road and causing classes to be canceled for the country in support of student groups called for an end to discrimination across days. Ten days after the Kent State killings, two students were Black Lives Matter and racial the University during this time as well. (Full integration of killed by police at Jackson State University. All six students were justice. DAILY NORTHWESTERN DAILY BUCHANIEC, CATHERINE University-owned housing occurred in 1953.) UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES NORTHWESTERN eventually memorialized on Northwestern’s Deering Meadow. 1947 ↑ 1970 ↑ 2020 ↑ 1924 ↓ 1968 ↓ 1995 ↓ POSTWAR PACIFISM BURSAR’S OFFICE TAKEOVER HUNGER STRIKE Following World War I, a group of More than 100 students peacefully In their push for the creation of an Asian 38 students gathered at a student occupied the Bursar’s Office for American studies program, students on conference and voted against U.S. 38 hours to protest the Black the Asian American Advisory Board helped participation in another war. The student experience at Northwestern. organize a hunger strike that lasted more students were mocked by the alumni The takeover ended with the than three weeks and garnered national association president as “spineless, May 4th Agreement, a resolution attention. Asian American studies was pusillanimous pacifists” at a campus in which the administration agreed established as a Weinberg College of Arts patriotism rally and denounced in a to respond to a list of student and Sciences minor in 1999 and a major Daily Northwestern editorial. demands. in 2016.

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BREAKING NEW WAVES

Gwenna “GiGi” Gainer Lucas ditched the corporate rat race and took up surfing. Now she wants to make the lineup more accessible for the next generation of surfers of color.

by elliott smith

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he crash of the waves is a consulting work when not riding the tides and swells. clarion call. For Gwenna “GiGi” Eventually, she felt called to get more young girls of Gainer Lucas, the pull of the sea color into the sport — one that, in the United States at is a low-thrumming signal that least, has been historically dominated by white men. reverberates through her being. The Lucas is the founder and executive director of surf brings reflection and rebirth. SurfearNEGRA (which roughly translates to “Black “I am very aware of the joy and female surfer” in Spanish), a nonprofit whose mission peace that surfing brings to me,” says is to bring cultural and gender diversity to surfing. Lucas ’01 from her oceanside home in The organization helps pay for girls who live near the Jacksonville Beach, Fla. water to attend surf camps and, for those landlocked or It wasn’t always this way. For a uncomfortable swimming, opportunities to learn the Twhile, she stepped away from the water that helped fundamentals of the sport on terra firma. It’s all part shape her childhood. She never even considered of her effort to diversify the “lineup,” the place in the dipping her toes into Lake Michigan when she was a water where surfers sit on their boards to ensure the student at Northwestern. And the sea was the furthest best access to breaking waves. thing from her mind when she worked in retail Lucas is also a founding member of Textured Waves, development for Nike and Kate Spade in New York City. a collective of Black women who want to increase “There was a long period when I lost my identity,” the visibility of diverse surfers. In 2020 the collective Lucas says. “I was building this facade of ‘I have to created the short film Sea Us Now, which re-imagines have the VP title and make X amount of money to classic surfing scenes of the 1960s with Black women be successful.’ But I knew at my core that something surfers. needed to change.” “This initiative created beautiful imagery of women The epiphany occurred in 2012 at the wedding of of color who thrive in their aquatic lifestyle — imagery her college roommate Crystal Clark ’01 in Costa Rica. that was nonexistent in mainstream media,” says Lucas. (Clark is now an associate professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine.) OVERCOMING HISTORY “I took a surf lesson,” Lucas recalls, “and the minute Lucas grew up on the Gulf Coast in Tampa, Fla., where I stepped on the board, I thought, ‘This is it. This is the water was a natural part of her life. Her parents, what I’ve been missing.’ I knew it instinctively.” Alfred and Marion Gainer, took part in catamaran races, She spent the next 15 months figuring out how to but they were often the only Black family at the regattas. get back on the board. She quit her job and returned Lucas acknowledges that African Americans have to Costa Rica, where she spent a year doing contract a complicated relationship with water. According to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, before the slave trade, West Africans were known as some of the best swimmers in the world. Enslavers, however, saw swimming as a means of escape and prevented “I took a surf lesson, and the enslaved people from learning to swim. During the minute I stepped on the board, Jim Crow era, Black people were barred from most swimming pools and beaches, particularly in the South. I thought, ‘This is it. This is what The long-term effects of those actions resulted in I’ve been missing.’ I knew it a cultural divide when it comes to watersports in the U.S. And statistics reveal that more than half of African instinctively.” — GiGi Lucas ’01 American children don’t know how to swim. A 2017 study found that more than 65% of African American children couldn’t swim safely in the deep end of a pool.

Only 36% of white children lacked the same skill. NICK LAVECCHIA

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Black surfers and Black women surfers are not as rare in “She’s creating a model that inspired by her transition from being in a while that they have been able to other parts of the world, Lucas notes. But representation of a global corporate executive to now disconnect from the pressures of the people of color in surf media and sponsorship remains a global can be replicated throughout all building a cause and leading impact world and just be present.” issue. And there are no Black surfers among the leaders in the sports to foster inclusivity and throughout local communities.” women’s or men’s professional rankings. During its first two years, and despite THE NEXT SET “The ocean is the largest natural resource on the planet,” positive outcomes with diverse the pandemic, SurfearNEGRA’s ¡100 Lucas recently completed the short HIT THE WAVES Lucas says. “For a whole people in our nation to have developed youth.” — Ethelbert Williams ’01 Girls! program has placed 64 girls on the film On the Side of Right with surfwear a complex or fear around water is very unnatural. We know what water by partnering with a network of 74 We asked GiGi Lucas for maker Seea, and she participated in has led to this point. To be able to deconstruct that narrative and surf camps in 24 states. The nonprofit’s some tips to get started a civil rights–focused exhibit that be on the water helps us reconnect with who we are.” ¡Surf the Turf! program provides access in surfing. runs through May at the Museum of The summer of 2020 was filled with upheaval. In the spirit of surfing. Such collaborations with forward-thinking, to the fundamentals of surf for kids who Learn the basics. Contemporary Art Jacksonville. aftermath of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, women-owned businesses are intentional. aren’t near the water or are afraid to be She’s also reconnecting with her Invest in learning the Lucas’ efforts to change her sport came into sharper focus. She’s received inquiries from “quite a few organizations in in the ocean. “Many of them have never fundamentals from a reputable Northwestern roots, realizing that her “Not only are [Black people] capable of being anywhere we the surf industry who have been guilty of repeating monolithic seen a surfboard in person and don’t surfer or certified coach. experiences on campus have played a want to be — we don’t need permission,” she says. “Sometimes aesthetics about the sport,” she says. But Lucas is not eager to know what a tide is or how waves are role in her current success. we have to build the opportunities for success ourselves.” work with them. created,” says Lucas. “Some have never Get comfortable being “Northwestern taught me how uncomfortable. Lucas has formed strategic partnerships with brands to “What I’m conscious of is tokenism. I refuse to lend an been to the beach.” to consistently navigate unfamiliar help spread her mission and raise money to send girls to surf image of the girls to a brand without a real investment in the ¡Surf The Turf! breaks down the Surfing challenges you in ways spaces,” Lucas says. “I developed a ‘dive that would never be possible camps. SurfearNEGRA partnered with Jacksonville, Fla.-based culture.” basic movements of surf into physical on land. Practice letting go and in head first’ mentality.” textile manufacturer Anact to create a Black Lives Matter Lucas’ drive to grow SurfearNEGRA has impressed those education activities that are familiar being present. Just go with the Lucas admits that her Northwestern tote bag, which features an image of Lucas (by photographer around her. to them, such as standing on a balance flow — literally. experience was not always easy, but Malcolm Jackson) on American Beach in Amelia Island, Fla., “She has worked tirelessly to amplify a platform and board or paddling while laying on a she’s grateful for the challenges. Laugh at yourself. one of the few beaches in the South where Black people could represent what is good in this world — especially in this skateboard. “We also replace typical “Northwestern was the first time that For the first 6 to 12 months, you swim during Jim Crow. moment,” says SurfearNEGRA board member Ethelbert PE terminology with surf phrases and will look like a newborn fawn I got any grade below a B,” she says. “I Lucas’ organization also teamed up with accessory designer Williams ’01, director of e-commerce for the Boston Beer storytelling that brings them into the that hasn’t found its legs. So was actually on academic probation at Raven + Lily to curate a collection of jewelry inspired by the Company. “As someone working in the private sector, I’m world of surf — without the need for relax and find the humor and one point because I didn’t know how to water,” Lucas says. joy in doing something new and apply myself. Once the sting of sitting exciting. You’ll build a healthy “She’s creating a model that can be habit that will migrate into in the dean’s office wore off, I got laser- replicated throughout all sports to foster other parts of your life too. focused on learning as much as I could. Left, GiGi Lucas, inclusivity and positive outcomes with That clearly has translated many times fourth from left, diverse youth,” Williams says. over throughout my life.” poses with campers Lucas has recently started to explore after a day of water safety education and SHOWING GIRLS THAT THEY CAN the heritage and legacy of Black students surf instruction at Surfing is an acquired taste, and Lucas knows at Northwestern. “It’s great seeing places like Jacksonville Beach, that not all the participants are going to be converts — but the Black House finally get the awareness they deserve,” she Fla. Below, surfers that’s not the point. says. “I am grateful to be a part of the collective evolution of Jaylah and Deyona “I like to keep it real,” she says. “There have been mixed Black Wildcats. finish the first day of their weeklong responses from the girls, from ‘I’m not getting in past my knees’ “It’s really cool reconnecting with the Northwestern surf camp at Atlantic to ‘I’m not getting my hair wet’ to ‘It’s the best experience I ever community at my age,” she adds. “When I was younger, I didn’t Beach, Fla. In its had.’ But what makes me happiest is that they tried it. In life, feel like I could meaningfully engage unless I had something first two years, the so many times we have in our head what we can and can’t do. to show that would impress people. Now I’ve entered into a SurfearNEGRA We’re showing girls that they can.” season of my life where purpose is pinnacle. And if anyone is program has placed 64 girls on the water Deyona Burton attended surf camp at the urging of her blessed to be able to live with purpose and offer that gift to the by partnering with mother. After her initial hesitation, the 17-year-old from world, it should absolutely be celebrated.” 74 surf camps in 24 Jacksonville, Fla., found herself starting to enjoy it. The roar of the ocean now defines Lucas’ perception of states. “At first, I didn’t like it,” Burton says. “But seeing GiGi surf success, both personally and professionally, and she couldn’t be gave me the confidence to keep trying. The next time, I was able happier. She reflects on the diverse lineups she’s seen abroad to stand up on my board. GiGi was excited for me, and I saw and hopes that one day it won’t be a big deal for women of Black women around me, cheering me on. It was really cool.” color in this country to be part of the sport she loves. For Burton, going to surf camp and working with Lucas “Ten years from now, I hope we are able to drop the went beyond trying a new sport. “GiGi continues to stay in adjectives ‘Black’ and ‘girl,’ ” she says. “They can just be known touch,” she says. “She’s like a mentor and a big sister.” as surfers. Lucas sees the camps as an opportunity for girls to escape “I don’t know if I will be able to change everything. But this the pressures of society and be themselves. is not about being accepted. It’s about empowering women of “The girls who took to surfing felt a freedom to be exactly color to do whatever the heck they want.” who they are, with their hair, their body, their ability,” Lucas says. “For this age range, 7 to 17, that’s extremely important. Elliott Smith ’97, a proud alumnus of the Daily Northwestern, In everyday life, they often feel awkward. But in the water they is a freelance writer and children’s book author. He lives in Falls

BOTTOM PHOTO: ALFRED GAINER III PHOTO: BOTTOM are completely themselves. And for many, it’s the first time Church, Va., with his wife and two children.

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 38 39 AIRPOCALYPSELorem

Agnatium excestrum ium corporempor ma aut praes sensto volorestiis quissin First Lastname re santibea quo beaquatiis re voluptat exererum quias essi lorem. NOWIps by first lastname Franz Geiger stood in the middle of Mexico City’s Plaza de la Constitución in June 1990, watching the traffic chug around the city’s epicenter. It was the first day of the rainy season, but cloud cover was sparse. Then suddenly the skies opened and rain deluged the plaza. The abrupt downpour soaked through Geiger’s clothes and turned his crisp, white T-shirt a grimy, streaky black. “During that time, Mexico City was experiencing the worst air pollution Northwestern alumni and faculty from across the University seek to in its history,” says Geiger, a Northwestern chemistry professor. “It was understand the deadly consequences ­amazing. I remember the rain feeling sticky on my skin. It was a mixture of outdoor air pollution. of rain, road dust, combustion engine exhaust and rubber from tires, all by amanda morris stuck together.”

NORTHWESTERN SPRING 2021 Sunset in MexicoPhotograph City by First Lastname DolorPhotograph by Miguel Megevand/Dreamstime SPRING 2021 NORTHWESTERN 40 41

Air pollution is everywhere. According “Just informing people about these By the Numbers: to a recent study led by Harvard Air Pollution in Chicago University, 8 million people died in 2018 risks could have a really big impact. from fossil fuel air pollution. Other recent While overall air quality in the Chicago studies have found air pollution is also It’s the consumers themselves who produce area has improved, there is still linked to lost pregnancies and mental this pollution on a daily basis.” progress to be made, according to the health crises, as well as increased risk for 2020 “Air Quality and Health Report.” dementia and sight loss. According to the ­— Hannes Schwandt American Lung Association, nearly half of all Americans live in counties that have 15 Yearly average of “unhealthy unhealthy levels of air pollution. Vehicles’ high-temperature engines attack and stroke. This was most famously ozone days” from 2016 to 2018, Northwestern researchers and alumni burn fossil fuels, generating nitrogen demonstrated during the London smog making Chicago the 16th most in various fields are working to better oxides, which are harmful to human events in the 1950s. Whenever levels of polluted city in the U.S. for ozone understand how air pollution travels health. Nitrogen oxides also can mix smoke — generated from coal-burning from smokestacks and tailpipes into the with other gases in the atmosphere and power plants and coal furnaces in homes atmosphere, how it affects our health and — when exposed to sunlight — form — increased, mortalities spiked two 40% Reduction since 2000 why it impacts some populations more ozone. Not to be confused with “good” days later. Subsequent studies found in fine particulate matter pollution in than others. Their ultimate goal is to find ozone in the stratosphere — the kind that all air pollution–related deaths after a Chicago, yet concentrations are still solutions that could protect our health protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays smog event were from heart attacks and among the highest in the nation and the environment. — ground-level ozone can damage lungs strokes. Similarly, when a poisonous haze and constrict airways, making it difficult blanketed Beijing for nearly a week in Center at the Pritzker School of Law’s “Suddenly, pollution increased among What Is Air Pollution? to breathe. It also worsens respiratory 2013, hospital admissions surged by 30% Bluhm Legal Clinic. Because the hazards economically advantaged population 9 Life expectancy gap in years Air pollution is primarily made up of three diseases such as asthma. during the city’s so-called “airpocalypse.” of air pollution exposure are tangled with groups in areas with many cheating cars,” between Chicago’s Black and white substances: ozone, fine particulate matter From a health perspective, ozone is But how does inhaling polluted the other issues that face low-income Schwandt says. “We had this once-in- residents due to chronic disease (or soot, dust and smoke) and nitrogen problematic but less life-threatening air affect the heart? Budinger, who populations — including reduced access a-lifetime setting to study the effects oxides. All three are byproducts of than other pollutants. “If you’re looking studied chemical engineering as an to affordable health care and higher of air pollution on more advantaged mining operations, electricity generation for the cause of early mortality, poor undergrad at Northwestern and is now levels of stress — it becomes difficult to populations that didn’t live near 5% Percentage of premature and agricultural activities, but vehicles lung development in children or the chief of pulmonary and critical care tease apart how air pollution specifically highways or power plants.” deaths in Chicago each year that with combustion engines are among exacerbation of chronic obstructive at Northwestern Medicine, set out to affects the human body. In areas with more of these particular can be attributed to exposure to the worst contributors. “In the U.S., the pulmonary disease, by and large that will determine the pathways that particulate “Lower-income communities do Volkswagen models, Schwandt’s team fine particulate matter transportation sector is the No. 1 source be particulate matter air pollution, which matter travels to affect heart health. His experience more health issues and found lower infant birth weights. of air pollution and greenhouse gas comes from burning fossil fuels,” says team discovered the cascade begins with higher instances of certain illnesses,” Wealthier and healthier groups, such emissions,” says Daniel Horton, assistant Scott Budinger ’85, the Ernest S. Bazley the alveolar macrophage, or “dust cell,” says Loeb, a clinical professor of law. “It’s as married white mothers with college professor of Earth and planetary sciences. Professor of Airway Diseases at the in the lungs. Responsible for cleaning hard to say there’s a single contributing degrees, particularly felt these effects After gathering and reviewing air “Car pollution is particularly Feinberg School of Medicine. up particles that enter the lungs, these factor, but there’s a good indication that because “clean diesel” Volkswagen cars quality data, the duo was shocked to threatening for population health cells activate when they encounter soot. air pollution contributes.” were marketed to those groups. find ethanol, which is often considered a because, by definition, cars drive and Clotting Consequences This induces a cascade of signaling that Human behavior provides another “Just informing people about these “green fuel,” increased ground-level ozone. pollute where people live,” adds Hannes Perhaps surprisingly, air pollution– ultimately releases a group of proteins tricky variable. “If you live next to a risks could have a really big impact,” he The team dug into air chemistry Schwandt, assistant professor of related deaths aren’t caused by lung and small molecules that cause clotting. highway, you might try to keep your says. “It’s the consumers themselves who to explain the process. They found human development and social policy. damage or respiratory failure alone. Since “Once those molecules get into windows closed or avoid sitting outside,” produce this pollution on a daily basis. nitrogen oxides actually curb ozone “It’s pollution in the middle of society, the 1930s, researchers have linked air circulation, you are more prone to Schwandt says. “It’s difficult to measure And we care about the impacts we have on concentrations. When vehicles use including dense population centers.” pollution to an increased risk of heart clotting,” Budinger says. “So we think how pollution affects people because we our and our neighbors’ health.” ethanol, nitrogen oxide concentrations inflammation in the lung increases the might underestimate how much people decrease, leaving ozone unchecked. risk of blood clots forming in heart shield themselves from pollution sources.” Tricky Trade-Offs “The benefit is reduced nitrogen arteries, causing heart attacks and To help unravel these complex In another natural experiment, Franz oxide and ultrafine particulate matter, Environmental Evolution strokes.” By understanding this cascade, relationships, researchers look for Geiger and former Kellogg School of but that comes at the price of increased Budinger and his team were able to “natural experiments.” For Schwandt, Management assistant professor Alberto ozone,” Geiger says. “Ethanol also Although our lungs struggle to clear particulate matter, or soot, from pinpoint already-approved medications Volkswagen’s emissions scandal Salvo, now an associate professor of carries heavy metals because it comes our bodies, they are much more adept at dispelling dust. So while inhaling that could decrease premature deaths. presented a perfect opportunity. economics at the National University from corn and sugar that are grown smoke from a wildfire or bonfire isn’t healthy, it’s not nearly as dangerous as breathing in car exhaust. In 2015 Volkswagen sold cars that of Singapore, spotted an opportunity to using low-quality water. Because the “Humans evolved in dusty environments,” Scott Budinger explains. “Our Pollution in Our Backyard could detect when their emissions compare the effects of ethanol versus crops aren’t going to be fed to humans lungs are good at clearing dust from fires, deserts and volcanic eruptions. But These health issues typically strike were being tested. When sensing a test petroleum-based gasoline on air quality. or animals, wastewater is used and when dust particles contain chemical constituents from fossil fuels, those disadvantaged populations more scenario, the car automatically switched Vehicles in Brazil can switch between the emitted when the ethanol is burned. We particles do real damage.” severely, as their neighborhoods are on a set of devices to lower its emissions. two fuel types. think ethanol is sustainable, but there’s The chief pulmonologist at Northwestern Medicine, Budinger uses often disproportionately overburdened Once the car was on the road again, the “São Paulo is a natural laboratory a complex story behind it.” volcanic dust as a control particle in his laboratory experiments. In studies of with pollutants. “Housing is much devices switched off, enabling the vehicle because it has the largest flex-fuel the effects of particles on lung health, natural dust doesn’t cause the same cheaper in areas where the land and air to emit nitrogen oxide pollution 40 times vehicle fleet,” Geiger says. “We looked Canning Combustion biological responses as industry-induced particles. — A.M. are contaminated,” says Nancy Loeb, higher than the U.S. Environmental at the choices consumers made at the Although the problems associated with BRUNO PASSIGATTI/DREAMSTIME.COM BRUNO

who directs the Environmental Advocacy © Protection Agency’s limit. pump and how that affected air quality.” air pollution feel overwhelming, solutions

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on the road, the U.S. would save technologies and introduce more approximately $17 billion annually by regulations,” he says. avoiding damage from climate change To approach the COVID emission and air pollution. In a much more question, the CIRES team compared aggressive scenario — replacing 75% two models: an emissions dataset that of cars with electric vehicles — savings reflects reduced traffic during COVID could reach as high as $70 billion a year. lockdowns and an identical simulation “Vehicle electrification could prevent that shows what 2020’s emissions would hundreds to thousands of premature have been without lockdowns. However, deaths annually,” says Peters, who now the results are not straightforward. With The Benefits of works for the Environmental Defense fewer cars on the road, nitrogen oxide Vehicle Electrification Fund. “It would not only curb greenhouse decreased across the board. Ground-level gas emissions but also reduce the health ozone also dropped in most parts of the According to professor Daniel Horton’s burden of harmful air pollution.” country. But without nitrogen oxide to research, replacing just 25% of gas- While electric vehicles might be “eat up” the ozone, ground-level ozone powered vehicles with electric vehicles unaffordable for many Americans, actually increased in some urban areas. in the U.S. would avoid: Horton believes that recent commitments Particulate matter also mostly decreased, by automakers to manufacture more depending on location and time of year. electric models — in conjunction $16.8 billion annually in with a renewed push for federal and What Can We Do? climate and public health damages state governments to offer tax breaks, While driving an electric vehicle can subsidies and incentives — should decrease one person’s greenhouse gas make widespread adoption possible. emissions, Geiger, Horton, Schwandt 252 megatons of carbon Cities also could encourage adoption by and Loeb all agree that air pollution is an dioxide emissions annually installing more vehicle charging stations enormous problem that requires local, and electrifying their public transport national and global regulations. systems. “Government can also subsidize 535 premature deaths “Because they save on gas and electric cars, public transportation and annually, due to reductions in maintenance, modern electric vehicles car sharing,” Schwandt says. “There are particulate matter and ozone are simply a better value than internal many ways to respond to this problem.” combustion engine vehicles,” Horton says. Loeb maintains that governments Electric vehicles also are much simpler should rethink local zoning laws, which to build, Geiger adds. “They don’t need a often push industrial businesses into already exist. According to research from transmission or complicated valves. They lower-income communities that “are Daniel Horton’s group, switching to require significantly fewer components unfairly overburdened with pollution.” electric vehicles could massively benefit on the assembly line.” “We need systemic change,” says society, saving billions of dollars and Horton, who felt optimistic after thousands of lives. Horton’s group creates Air Quality in the COVID Era President Joe Biden’s inauguration. high-resolution air-quality simulations The novel coronavirus pandemic has Within his first days in office, Biden based on atmospheric chemistry, demonstrated how electric vehicles signed multiple executive actions focused emissions data and meteorology. could positively affect air quality. As on climate change and air quality. Among “If you have an electric vehicle, you’re people drove less, U.S. greenhouse gas these initiatives, Biden committed the no longer emitting pollutants from the emissions decreased by 10% in 2020. federal government to buying only zero- tailpipe,” he says. “However, emissions can “The COVID emission changes are emission vehicles. be generated from the electricity source similar to replacing a large fraction of “These commitments are no- used to charge the battery.” combustion vehicles with electric vehicles brainers,” Horton says. “Study upon study That said, electric vehicles have a powered by renewable energy,” says has demonstrated that the switch to net benefit in the U.S., where electricity Jordan Schnell, a former postdoctoral electric vehicles will reduce greenhouse is generated from diverse sources, fellow in Horton’s laboratory. emissions. My group’s research also has including wind, solar and geothermal. Now a research associate at the shown that the switch to electric vehicles FROM THE ARCHIVES The story is more complicated in China, Cooperative Institute for Research will reduce harmful air pollutants, where electricity is predominantly in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), lowering the public health burden The student-run Northwestern Community Ensemble performs generated from burning coal. Schnell works to discover how pandemic attributable to transportation emissions. at the Bursar’s Office Takeover When looking at the U.S., Horton lockdowns have affected air quality, which By embracing electric vehicle technology, Commemoration at Alice Millar and former student Daniel Peters ’19 could provide a glimpse into the future. the Biden administration gives us hope.” Chapel in May 2018. This year combined their climate model with “It’s like a real-world experiment the NCE is celebrating the public health data. They found that showing how places will respond to Amanda Morris ’14 MA is senior editor of 50th anniversary of its founding in May 1971. if electric vehicles replaced 25% of emissions reductions that will likely science and engineering in the Office of combustion engine vehicles currently occur as we move toward cleaner Global Marketing and Communications.

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SHOEBOX NEGATIVES

Joan Tortorici Ruppert ’94 wasn’t sure she could do anything with a 2 4 box full of film negatives How have you pursued tap at What connection do you her mother gave her in the 1990s. But when Northwestern and beyond? see between dance and Ruppert scanned At Northwestern I joined neuroscience? the images in spring Tonik Tap. Rehearsing and When I’m dancing at my best, 2020, she discovered a performing with Tonik are I’m more than just happy — glimpse into the life of among my favorite memories. I’m physically connected to the photographer: her father, Joe Tortorici, After graduating, I began the music and emotionally who died when Ruppert training and performing with connected to the audience was 8 years old. The Chicago Tap Theatre and and the people I’m performing images depict Chicago M.A.D.D. Rhythms. I have with. Studying tap through in the late 1930s and collaborated with former neuroscience could provide early ’40s, between Tortorici’s high school Northwestern students on insight into what is happening graduation and his their projects, including work in our brains when we dance entry into the Navy. directed by Lucky Stiff and could lead to discoveries “It’s a narrow window ’19 MFA that was performed at about how to share this into his life,” Ruppert the Museum of Contemporary experience with others. says of the more than 300 black-and-white Art Chicago and the Prop photos. “Even if I don’t Thtr. I also debuted a piece know all the details, the I co-choreographed with collection is a snapshot tap dancer Case Prime of what mattered to him. in Something’s Afoot, a I feel like my dad told me a story.” A television showcase presented by 5 producer and director the American Tap Dance Why should dance or tap in Chicago, Ruppert Foundation in New York City. education be considered shares the images at public health? shoeboxnegs.com. I’ve worked with Northwestern professor Billy Siegenfeld, director of the performing and teaching company 3 Jump Rhythm. His approach ENTREPRENEUR spirulina, is introducing a daily dog food What have you recently to mind-body integration made from silver carp, which pose a threat discovered about tap? resonated with me. Through to the biodiversity and water quality of I’ve developed a desire to training with Billy, I’ve gained The Carbon the Great Lakes and its $7 billion fishing showcase all the possibilities the confidence to embrace industry. that tap can be, thinking as how my body wants to move Pawprint both a dancer and a musician and make music rather than to fully embody a piece of superimposing external Most of the nation’s 90 million dogs are music. standards or rules that fed a diet of beef, chicken and pork. The I’m also learning about determine what “looks good.” ART & SCIENCE production of those foods contributes the history of the dance. Following this approach, to greenhouse gas emissions. With a Learning history through we work to listen to our desire to create a food system that works Five Questions with tap — the passing down of bodies and relate the physical for people, pets, wildlife and the planet, 1 the movements — feels like principles we work on to Haley Russell ’12 launched a new kind of Sterling Harris ’18 When did you discover your its own area of study. The emotional concepts and dog food company. Chippin creates dog love for music and dance? history of tap runs parallel to behaviors. When embraced, foods made from underutilized protein The neuroscience grad I was born and raised on the the history of jazz, and both those behaviors can lead to sources, such as insects, overpopulated South Side of Chicago, and as have had a huge impact on communal growth, a better fish and algae. “There has been a massive and rehearsal director a kid I played trombone and American culture. As we’re connection with your body shift toward eco- and socially conscious tap danced. I would often put addressing the erasure of and those around you, and an consumer products, but pet food — a for Chicago Tap Theatre on full concerts at holiday the contributions of Black overall improved quality of life $37 billion U.S. market — was left behind,” gatherings. I never seriously folks in America, I want my — all cornerstones in the field says Russell, who was one of Forbes’ 30 talks about the cultural considered making a career community to know that tap of public health. Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs for 2020. out of performing. It was just is our art form. Black people Chippin, which initially launched a line importance of tap dance. something I loved to do. created tap dance. KAHNS KRISTIE Interview by Lena Elmeligy ’18 of dog treats made from crickets and

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CHILDREN’S LIT built for these towns,” he says. and camaraderie in our “I love [these] communities neighborhood-driven hotels,” Some Pigtails — the culture, commerce, says Weprin. creative spirit.” He wanted Graduate Tucson, by Jonathan Eig to capture that spirit in his for example, features a hotels. restaurant with Southwestern Best-selling author Jonathan Weprin says he got his fare and rooms with cactus- Eig ’86 has written acclaimed start in hospitality through shaped lamps, while Graduate biographies of Muhammad Larry Levy ’66, ’67 MBA, Nashville features a Dolly Ali and Jackie Robinson, but who founded the Larry Parton–inspired room. his latest subject is 8-year-old and Carol Levy Institute for Graduate Evanston, Lola Jones, the protagonist Entrepreneurial Practice at which opened in October of the new children’s books Kellogg. “Larry acquired a 2020, holds a special place in Some Pigtails (the first in hotel operating company, and Weprin’s heart. Guests can the series) and Score for I helped manage that on his “spend the night like Kevin Imagination. “I’ve been trained behalf,” Weprin says. “[Later,] McCallister” by booking the since my days at Medill to I went to Kellogg with his Home Alone room — a replica never make anything up,” encouragement.” of the parents’ bedroom from Eig says of his first foray into By the end of 2020, Weprin the 1990 Christmas classic, fiction. “It was fun to start had launched 28 hotels in which was filmed a few miles with a blank page and a title 28 cities across the U.S., from the Evanston campus. and make up a story.” Inspired including 10 towns that are “Our team is so passionate by Eig’s own daughter, the HOSPITALITY home to Big Ten institutions. about the details,” Weprin books tell the tales of Lola One might expect Graduate says. “We incorporated standing up to authority, first Hotels to be decorated with different pieces of the [Home leading a rebellion against Hotel Alma Mater school pennants and Alone] story, like the escape her elementary school’s mascots. Instead, plan and the black-and-white ENTREPRENEUR Ben Weprin created Graduate Hotels, dress code and then battling the hotels draw movie playing on the TV. It’s for gender equality on the a line of locally inspired properties. inspiration from just so much fun!” playground. “A lot of my the surrounding This year Weprin will open Building a Better Cocktail grown-up books have been In 2014 Ben Weprin ’10 MBA in Nashville, conceived the region, featuring four more hotels: one on about rebels, and that’s launched Graduate Hotels, Graduate Hotels project while local artwork, food Roosevelt Island near Cornell Kim Oster-Holstein ’90 MS and her Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way what Lola is,” Eig says. “I try a hotel collection providing he was a student at the Kellogg and drink. “We’re Tech, one in East Lansing husband, Scott, traditionally celebrate to Transform Everyday Routines into to teach my kids that you affordable lodging in college School of Management. “I passionate near Michigan State and two their May birthdays with margaritas. One Workplace Magic, Twisted Alchemy kits don’t have to always accept towns for alumni, prospective started studying university- about in the United Kingdom, near year they noticed how much better their and a virtual conversation with Keswin an answer. If you disagree students and other visitors. anchored markets around the reflecting the University of Oxford cocktails tasted with fresh-squeezed on entrepreneurship and leadership. with something, you should Weprin, founder and country and found that there community and the University of juice. The two began exploring the idea Twisted Alchemy recently partnered challenge it.” The D.O.G. and CEO of AJ Capital Partners wasn’t anything purposefully spirit Cambridge. of creating a line of healthy, cold-pressed with the Northwestern Alumni Everybody’s Home, the third juices that would elevate spirits. Association for a happy hour, which and fourth installments, are Twisted Alchemy was born. featured a Purple Power cocktail and a set to be published this year.

With customers that included conversation about the entrepreneurial ENTERTAINMENT stadiums, hotels, hospitality groups, journey. “My advertising master’s bartenders and mixologists, the program at Medill helped me harness Wilmette, Ill.-based company was my creativity and build ideas with strong projected to double its revenue in 2020. strategy,” says Oster-Holstein. Gayest Episode Ever But when the pandemic hit in March, the company lost nearly all of its Purple Power Glen Lakin ’03 never realized how important sitcoms had been in shaping his thinking customers in a matter of days. To address — and his identity — until he took a radio/TV/film course at Northwestern. Now a the abrupt interruption, Oster-Holstein 1 ½ ounces Empress 1908 Gin screenwriter, Lakin co-hosts the podcast Gayest Episode Ever with journalist Drew developed online cocktail classes and ¾ ounce Twisted Alchemy Eureka Mackie. The hosts discuss the rare LGBTQ+-themed episodes of classic sitcoms and how mixology sessions. The company also Lemon Juice those episodes hold up or fall short years later. The podcast aims to provide commentary created home mixology sets, with kits ¾ ounce simple syrup on the evolution of queer representation, gay rights and how culture can both affect delivered to the consumer’s door. ¾ ounce egg white and be affected by what is portrayed on TV. “So much of my gay identity came of age in “Our kits and virtual experiences In shaker, combine ingredients without this era of sitcoms where the only representation of gay men in my life was on TV,” says help bring people together,” says Oster- ice and shake for 15 seconds. Add ice Lakin. “Whatever joys or fears were triggered through these TV shows had an effect on Holstein. She also teamed up with Erica and shake for 20 seconds. Strain into me, whether that delayed me coming out or helped me identify what about gay culture Keswin ’95 MBA to offer a corporate coupe glass. Garnish with dried citrus spoke to me.” Lakin says he sees progress. LGBTQ+ characters now appear on screen

package that includes Keswin’s book, wheel. Cheers! FRENCH BEN WEPRIN: LYNDON more often, he says, and their story arcs encompass more than just their identities.

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$70,000,000,000 Reduction in the cost of climate and public health damages if the U.S. replaced 75% of gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles, according to research by Daniel Horton, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences. Read more on page 38.