Northwestern Intersections

Ayun Halliday is a writer, illustrator, and actor based out of New York City. She is a creative jack-of-all-trades, serving as the architect for plays, books, and her own zine, the award-winning East Village Inky. Halliday's unique comedic style has won her acclaim for her creative projects, and she’s taken the road less traveled to her current work. Join us as she discusses her new book, creative...

Mary Jo Bang is an award-winning poet and professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. After finishing her sociology degree at Northwestern, she took a winding road to becoming a poet, working in medicine and photography before her first teaching job. Her path to poetry paid off: she's now published eight books of poetry, earned fellowships from Princeton University and the Guggenhe...

Award-winning author, blogger, podcaster, and proud Northwestern alumnus, Phil Yu '00 first came to prominence as the author of the popular entertainment website Angry Asian Man. In this special episode, Phil is interviewed by author and Northwestern Asian and Asian American Alumni Association (NU-A5) member Kathy Khang '92. Phil shares how his experiences at Northwestern and beyond helped to deve...

Akubuiro, partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm with locations in Chicago and Washington, DC, has had many experiences made possible by taking the initiative to seize opportunities even when they outpaced his experiences. That includes meeting Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. outside of a press conference and making a case to Jackson to join the Reduce the Rate campaign, a movement to lower...

It started with the first Women in Medicine Tea hosted at The Drake Hotel in Chicago in 2017. It was a chance for Feinberg School of Medicine alumnae across generations to come together in one place to freely share their stories, their challenges, and their victories. Ghoshal recalls asking, “How do we bottle this moment?” The mission of the Women in Medicine (WIM) subcommittee of the Medical Alum...

It started with the first Women in Medicine Tea hosted at The Drake Hotel in Chicago in 2017. It was a chance for Feinberg School of Medicine alumnae across generations to come together in one place to freely share their stories, their challenges, and their victories. Ghoshal recalls asking, “How do we bottle this moment?” The mission of the Women in Medicine (WIM) subcommittee of the Medical Alum...

Northwestern Intersections records for the first time from Northwestern San Francisco! Learn from a panel of recent alumnae in a range of tech specialties as they share how they navigated early career decisions. Panelists Moy, Turner, and Wu will offer insights on pursuing advanced degrees, changing industries, recognizing your transferrable skills, and how they’re navigating a rapidly evolving fi...

Iga Kozlowska ’14 MA, ’17 PhD graduated from Northwestern with a doctorate in sociology and now is the program manager of Responsible AI at Meta. How did she make the transition? And how is sociology relevant to technology? Kozlowska joins the podcast to highlight the transferrable skills she learned as a student and share the process behind her transition into tech with zero previous experience....

Terry Franklin—an attorney, writer, and storyteller—shares how finding the will of his fourth great-grandfather, John Sutton, revealed the emancipation story of his fourth great-grandmother, Lucy Sutton, and their children, which included a legal battle over John’s intentions in freeing his family. Franklin describes the deeply personal journey of discovering his family’s history and how he is usi...

Kevin Yu ’19 MS joins Northwestern Intersections to share the personal story of how he pivoted from a career in finance to a licensed marriage and family counselor and founder of Soulstice Therapy, and how an increased understanding of his relationships led to this unique transition. Additionally, Yu explains how social media and content creation are changing the ways we discuss and perceive menta...

Dr. Inger Burnett-Zeigler shares how she is working to provide mental health resources—including accurate information, access to identity-based providers and treatments, and psychotherapy in community-based settings—to underserved populations in Chicago. Author of Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women, Burnett-Zeigler also reveals the inspiration behind her book, i...

The Northwestern Alumni Medal celebrates alumni who have had a transformative impact on their field, who have performed exemplary volunteer service to society, or who have demonstrated an outstanding record of service and support to the University.  Cindy Chupack ’87 is a prolific storyteller whose work across television, film, and other media has been recognized with several accolades, including...

The Northwestern Alumni Medal celebrates alumni who have had a transformative impact on their field, who have performed exemplary volunteer service to society, or who have demonstrated an outstanding record of service and support to the University.  Until his recent retirement, David Louie ’72 was the business editor and technology reporter for ABC Disney’s KGO-TV San Francisco, for which he becom...

The Northwestern Alumni Medal celebrates alumni who have had a transformative impact on their field, who have performed exemplary volunteer service to society, or who have demonstrated an outstanding record of service and support to the University. Jeff Ubben ’87 MBA (’20 P) is founder, managing partner, and portfolio manager of Inclusive Capital Partners, a San Francisco–based investment manageme...

Melissa Dawn Simkins ’01 MS shares how her experiences in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications’ IMC master’s program gave her an edge when the field of marketing was starting to shift. Her multidisciplinary approach led her to pioneer celebrity and influencer branding, which in turn helped transform the field of marketing and branding into what we know today....

What's Next Live from Chicago is back! In this episode of Northwestern Intersections recorded live from Medill Chicago, learn from a panel of recent alumni about their postgraduate journeys. Alumni from the fields of user experience research, conflict resolution, and biomedical engineering share how they navigated early career decisions. Panelists Jennifer Siedjak, Jim Alrutz, and Ameen Kishta off...

In this episode of Northwestern Intersections, Suchi Sethi Tuli—head of recruiting for Google Cloud in the Japan and Asia-Pacific region and a member of NU-Kellogg Club of Singapore and the Alumni Admissions Council—shares how she first stumbled into recruiting as a student at the Kellogg School of Management. She offers her insights on the lessons she’s learned about leadership and how the connec...

What do public affairs specialists and mental health practitioners have in common? The ability to listen and the desire to help someone tell their story. In this episode of Northwestern Intersections, Ranade shares the deeply personal story that inspired her career pivot into mental health and wellness with a focus in helping women navigate grief, anxiety, and depression. She also highlights the t...

In this special bonus episode of Northwestern Intersections, join us for an account from Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter, Cody Keenan ’02, of the 10 most dramatic days of the presidency, when a hate-fueled massacre and looming Supreme Court decisions put the character of the US on the line and a president’s words could bring the nation together or tear it apart. Authored by Keenan, GRACE is an i...

Ameet Mallik, the new CEO of ADC Therapeutics—a commercial-stage biotechnology company improving the lives of those affected by cancer—joins the podcast to reflect on what leadership means to him. He speaks about the foundational moments during his Northwestern and post-graduate experiences that shaped his career trajectory. He also offers his insights on building diverse teams of experts and crea...

The Northwestern Intersections podcast joins the Northwestern Law Alumni Fireside Chat Event Series for a live interview with Phillips, one of the most experienced Supreme Court and appellate lawyers in the country, co-director of the Northwestern University Supreme Court Clinic and an adjunct professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law as well as a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. Phillips will...

In 2018 Yari Gallegos joined the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) as a young alumni/Homecoming intern. Now she’s returned to the NAA as assistant director of alumni engagement for student to alumni transitions. In her new role she’s helping to organize programs like New Chapter. NU Neighbors and staple events for Homecoming. In this episode of Northwestern Intersections, Gallegos shares how h...

Since she was a student at Northwestern, University Trustee Jane S. Hoffman ’86 (’21 P) has been interested in how messages and media are constructed and consumed. And found she could help others understand complex subjects through storytelling and accessible language, and through public service. As Commissioner of Consumer Affairs in New York City, Hoffman found herself never tiring of hearing pe...

It's empowering to tell your story, but even more so to empower others to share their own. As a student in Performance Studies at Northwestern and throughout her time at Piven Theatre Workshop, Rebecca Kling ’07 gathered the tools of performance: movement, storytelling, adaption, audience, lighting. After graduation while in Tim Miller's paradigm shifting workshop at Link's Hall, "Charged Bodies",...

Who are the alumni behind Northwestern University Pride Alumni Club’s podcast Who NU?? And what is Who NU? all about? Host Len Iaquinta ’66 and producer Marc Staros ’09, share stories about their respective Northwestern experiences and their career paths after graduation. Iaquinta details how he pursued a career in broadcast radio and eventually philanthropy that led to a seven year position at No...