People
As dean of career programs and continuing education and director of apprenticeship partnerships at Olive-Harvey College, Cheryl Freeman-Smith ’92 creates opportunities for students from low-income communities to gain the specialized skills required for the modern economy.
Erica Bethe Levin ’05 founded Globowl, a company that creates baby and toddler food featuring flavors from around the world. Diversifying babies’ palates early on can help stave off picky eating and mitigate food allergies down the road, she says.
The Metzger family’s efforts to cut down on household waste led Ryan Metzger ’01, ’09 MBA to co-found Ridwell, a multicity recycling operation. Since 2018, Ridwell has helped divert more than 21 million pounds of plastic and other hard-to-recycle materials from the waste stream.
Music is integral to the plot of Down Below, an in-progress feature film by independent filmmakers Collin Davis ’11 and Matthew Valdez Litwiller ’11. In October 2023, Davis and Litwiller called upon Northwestern student musicians to record two original works for the film in Galvin Recital Hall.
Maya-Camille Broussard ’04 MA is the owner of the Chicago-based bakery Justice of the Pies and a star on the Netflix show Bake Squad. In this Q&A, she discusses the inspiration behind her pie flavors, the social issues close to her heart and how she’s worked to make her bakery an accessible place for people living with disabilities.
After attending a ’Cats Wellness Chat over Zoom during the pandemic, a group of alumni have continued to meet regularly online, forming a lasting connection that spans time zones and continents.
After reporter Lauren Chooljian published a story on a COVID outbreak at New Hampshire’s Granite Recovery Centers (GRC), clients and employees of GRC began reaching out to her, alleging that GRC CEO and founder Eric Spofford had been sexually harassing and assaulting clients and colleagues — and paying people to keep quiet. Reported and produced by Chooljian, The 13th Step podcast delves into the allegations against Spofford and why sexual misconduct is pervasive in recovery settings.
When the Northwestern alum left journalism in 2018, he joked to a friend that he would only come back to news if he could report on Taylor Swift every day. Five years later, his dream is a reality.
Chicago has welcomed more than 35,000 migrants since the state of Texas began busing migrants to “sanctuary cities” as part of his border security initiative Operation Lone Star. A longtime knitter, Margie Chan knew she could rally the crafting community to help keep Chicago’s migrant population warm this winter.
Northwestern alum Aspen Buckingham ’23 and senior economics major Steven Jiang are the creators of Intervallic, a new video game changing the way aspiring musicians can practice their skills. Both musicians, Buckingham and Jiang are making practice into entertainment.
