Northwestern Intersections

Heather Foster '03 joined the Obama Campaign early on in her career and she stayed with the Obama Administration for over ten years, growing her career throughout that time. She held a number of different philanthropic and political roles, where she both learned valuable skills and also left a lasting impact on this nation. Foster shares her perspective on the learning curve of making career chang...

Sarah Powers '02 worked in restaurants after graduating from Northwestern so that she could pursue her passion in dancing. Although this may not be a stereotypically traditional career path, she became a successful dancer before moving into the corporate space where she was able to hone a different set of skills. She didn't know it then but Powers' combination of experience in a creative space as...

Thaddeus Tukes '16 came to Northwestern knowing that there wasn't a program for what he wanted to do but he had the faith he could work with Northwestern to create one. Although it wasn't always easy, Tukes worked with leaders at the Bienen School of Music to create a major that worked for him, just as he is now working with community leaders in Chicago to create a lifestyle that works for him. He...

Alexis Alexanian '85 started her career in advertising before quickly moving into the entertainment space where her career took off. She is currently an independent feature film and television producer, production executive and consultant. She has accomplished a lot in her career from working on major feature films to becoming the Board Chair of New York Women in Film & Television, where she has e...

Peter Schoenke started his career in financial journalism in New York and has long since moved back to the Midwest after making a career shift. He launched a website in 1997 in the tech boom that later became a successful business, RotoWire.com, in an industry he didn't originally know much about. RotoWire.com is the largest independently-owned fantasy sports website that syndicates content to esp...

Amanda Litman went into politics right after graduating from Northwestern, starting out her career in the Obama Campaign. She may not be working in campaigns now, but her passion for politics has grown even stronger. After working for Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 as the Email Director (the other emails, as she would say) she went on to start her own organization (runforsomething.net). Her mi...

Dr. Don Martin '94 PhD cherished his six years earning his doctorate at Northwestern, which played into him pursuing his passion for helping others find their personal fit in a grad school. But, before Martin discovered his passion for helping people through the grad school process, he became an expert in the fields of enrollment management, student affairs, and higher education administration at...

Natasha Lindor '09 MS, the daughter of parents who immigrated to the United States from Haiti for a better life, grew up believing that a world class education and her unrelenting work ethic would be the keys to her success. Lindor climbed the corporate ladder for years before coming to campus for her Masters in Integrated Marketing and Communications. She wanted to be a global brand manager but r...

For the award-winning journalist and author, Jonathan Eig '86, his first job delivering newspapers on his bike throughout his neighborhood was only the beginning of his long career in journalism. From his junior high and high school newspapers to his most recent book, Ali: A Life, Eig has been writing for his entire career, including three New York Time's bestsellers. He spoke with us about moving...

Apryl Schlueter started her career in IT consulting but later learned that her calling was in a completely different industry. Schlueter is now the Chief Energy! Officer of The Cheerful Mind, Inc. -- a happiness and productivity coach, speaker, and the author of Finding Success in Balance: My Journey to The Cheerful Mind. After years of working in various industries, Schlueter realized her true pa...

Carlos Paret came to Northwestern for his MBA and soon moved from Chicago to Southern California. He quickly got involved in Northwestern Alumni Association activities; Paret is the current president for both the Kellogg Alumni Club of Orange County and the NU Club of Orange County. He has been successful in a variety of leadership roles from early on in his career. Paret is fortunate enough to be...

Daniel H. Pink graduated from Northwestern in 1986 and later became a New York Times bestselling author. Pink is the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, and most recently, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. In this episode, Pink talks to the NAA not only about his research on timing and motivation a...

Dr. Alexandra Solomon started out in pre-med as an undergraduate but she went on to become a different type of doctor than she initially intended. Dr. Solomon came to Northwestern for her Masters and PhD programs in clinical psychology and she never left. Solomon is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern and she is the professor for one of the most popular courses...

The NAA wanted to celebrate reaching the tenth episode of Northwestern Intersections by curating some special content for our listeners. Our podcast team went back and listened to our first nine interviews and pulled out some of the advice and insights that stuck with them, ranging from seeking out mentorship to ways you can figure out what you most enjoy doing in your day-to-day. We hope you enjo...

Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow is the definition of a successful career changer with three different and successful careers throughout the span of her lifetime. Her first career was as the Founding General Manager of WYCC-TV, a PBS affiliate. She later went back to a true passion of hers and became a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Wright College in Chicago. As she retired, her husband provided some w...

Daniel Moser began his career as a stock boy but quickly learned that he was destined for something very different. Moser started his creative career in music playing the trumpet and soon after that, moved into acting. After successfully working in the theater world for many years he came back to Northwestern to pursue a doctorate in performance studies. Now he is using his theater background to t...

Dave Collins graduated from Northwestern and went straight to work in a large corporate consulting firm before later branching out on his own. He discusses the profound impact that his work in student theater and improv groups on campus have had on his personal professional development, as well as on his career as a whole. After a few lessons learned along the way, one of which made him think he m...

Ali Russo came to Northwestern for her LLM in taxation after she had been working in the legal industry for years. Russo started her own firm in the suburbs of Chicago in just a month's time and now she helps the community with their estate planning needs. Russo discusses some of the career decisions she has made over the years because of her family. She is open about how having a family and a car...

Connor Regan knew that he wasn't going to be the valedictorian at Northwestern so he found his niche in collecting real world work experience with 9 internships while a student in Evanston. One of those internships was at Google where he went back to after graduation and has not left since. Although it is rare for a millennial to stay at the same organization for long, Regan talks about how he cou...

Emily Klear '12 MS started her career in corporate America at Coca Cola selling fountain soda in the Bay Area. Klear went back to school for her Master's in Marital and Family Therapy after a few very challenging personal experiences made her want to help couples through traumatic events and tough relationship situations. Klear changed industries and quickly advanced her career to become the Direc...

Emily Drewry has learned a lot since her first job at the local Piggly Wiggly and she has continued to grow in her current role as the Senior Social Content Manager at Forbes. She recently interviewed Arianna Huffington for a live Twitter interview series, a project that she recently developed from scratch. She moved to New York City a week after graduation from Northwestern and she has not looked...

Ishan Daya graduated from Northwestern where he studied flute performance and his career path has been far from traditional since then. He has a great perspective on learning something new from every experience, stemming from his first job at Summerfest in Milwaukee but he has come a long way since then. Daya worked for a few years in consulting at McKinsey before starting his own business with th...

Carter Cast is a successful professor, venture capitalist, and now author, but his career did not start out that easy. Cast talks to the NAA about his career path from working in marketing on Tostitos, to becoming the CEO of Walmart.com, to becoming a professor at Kellogg, and now he is the author of The Right and Wrong Stuff: How Brilliant Careers are Made and Unmade . Cast talks about the five a...