Alumni
The Northwestern Alumni Association Travel Program offers more than three dozen trips annually to alumni, with itineraries and travel experiences that cater to all interests. For more than 50 years, the program has led trips to all seven continents, across land and sea.
Maria Atanasov, an accomplished business journalist and current president of the NU Club of Southeast Florida, reflects on her time at Northwestern and how she came to be involved with Northwestern’s alumni network.
For Lindsay Vahl Dean, the opportunity to shape how Northwestern interacts with its global alumni community was too good to pass up. “I am thrilled by the chance to create spaces where alumni can deepen their experiences with the University and one another,” says Vahl Dean, who became assistant vice president of alumni engagement and executive director of the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) in July after a national search.
Recently elected president of the NAA Board of Directors, Kristin McDonnell is excited to lead an organization dedicated to the personal and intellectual growth of a diverse, international community of more than 260,000 alumni. A graduate of the McCormick School of Engineering, McDonnell mentors student entrepreneurs and serves on the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Advisory Board and Kellogg Tech Council.
Traditions for the graduating class create a bridge to the alumni community.
Since 2019 Marc McClellan ’81, a resident of Palm Springs, Calif., has served as president of the NU Club of Coachella Valley, a small but active group that has hosted game watch parties and cultural events, receptions for the Northwestern softball team and alumni filmmakers, and joint gatherings with other Northwestern groups to expand the club’s reach and unite Wildcats in the area.
What do a biography of Martin Luther King Jr., an award-winning poetry collection and a bestselling mystery about the dark side of love have in common? They were all written by Northwestern alumni.
It appeared the NU Club of Switzerland might disintegrate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but Barbara Pereira Rübel ’93 MBA refused to allow it. As President of the club, Rübel has worked tirelessly alongside a dedicated board to bolster membership, plan events and form partnerships with other organizations.
Annie Krall became co-president of the Northwestern Club of Chicago in 2021. A third-generation Wildcat, Krall shares what she loves about her Northwestern bonds.
As members of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA) mingled at the Black House during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in 2022, Charla Wilson hoped the alumni would find some familiar faces in her photo display of Black student life at the University. Wilson, who is Northwestern’s archivist for the Black experience, had recently launched a crowdsourcing campaign called “I know them!” to learn more about 1,400 images from the past six that depict Black student life on campus.
