People & Profiles
Kyra Kyles ’98, ’98 MS is CEO of YR Media, an educational center for aspiring music producers, podcasters, journalists and multimedia content creators. Kyles opened a new YR Media regional facility in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, offering training programs, paid internships and state-of-the-art audio and video production technology to young people from Chicago, Detroit and other Midwestern cities.
On June 26, ultrarunner Jamie Aarons set a world record for scaling all 282 Munros (mountains in Scotland that are taller than 3,000 feet), traveling only by foot, bike and kayak. She compressed what many hikers set as a lifetime goal into just one month, completing the self-propelled circuit in 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes.
One of the first “backpack journalists,” Kevin Sites ’89 MS covered conflicts and disasters across the globe, including a yearlong endeavor to cover every conflict region in the world. Those experiences informed his debut novel, The Ocean Above Me, about an emotionally traumatized war correspondent who finds himself fighting for his own life — and confronting his past mistakes — during a harrowing shipwreck.
THE ADVOCATEBorn and raised in Los Angeles, Ramzy Issa came to Northwestern as a Posse Scholar. Issa’s family is from Palestine, and during his time on campus he served as a co-president of the Middle East and North African Student Association.
Mark Goldman, a corporate communications executive and recreational triathlete, is completing an Ironman or half-Ironman for each of the service members who were killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, in September 2021. Goldman has completed six of the 13 races for the fallen heroes, dating back to April 2022.
Members of the Northwestern community share the works of art — from classic American theater to a hit rock song — that have changed their outlook on life.
In May 2022 Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History renovated its outdated Native North America exhibit hall and opened Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories, a permanent exhibition. Doug Kiel, assistant professor of history at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a citizen of the Oneida Nation, served on the Native American advisory committee that spent 4 ½ years setting the agenda for the renovation and bringing it to life.
What does it mean to leave a legacy? For Rosemary Bruzek Schnell ’54, it meant creating ways for Northwestern researchers to push the frontiers of science and technology, and for businessman Stan Gradowski ’60, ’62 MBA, it meant investing in programs across the University to benefit future students and faculty.
Softball stars Danielle Williams, Jordyn Rudd, Skyler Shellmyer, Maeve Nelson and Nikki Cuchran return to lead Wildcats’ bid for another trip to the Women’s College World Series.
Northwestern alumni and friends who want to make a lasting impact on students for years to come direct their philanthropy toward endowed scholarships.
