People & Profiles
RAND MEYER While studying communication studies and political science, Rand Meyer took part in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and Northwestern’s Mock Trial team (NUMT).
President Michael H. Schill reflects on his belief in and commitment to the mission of higher education.
Barry Joseph ’91 has a long-running fascination with fizzy drinks, particularly seltzer, and he wants others to learn all about its effervescent history. In summer 2024 Joseph launched the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum, a partnership with the oldest seltzer factory in New York City.
At just 28, Selina Fillinger became one of the youngest woman playwrights in Broadway history, and her 2022 show, POTUS, received three Tony Award nominations and has since been produced in theaters across the nation and internationally. Fillinger ’16 came to Northwestern to pursue acting, but a playwriting class with theater professor of instruction Laura Schellhardt ’97 changed her trajectory.
Veteran Lauren Wright Kimball ’05, ’05 MS says it’s been the “privilege of a lifetime” to help create the Military and Family Helpline, a new resource for military veterans and active-duty personnel who live in Nebraska and Iowa. Kimball, who is chief strategy officer at United Way of the Midlands, helped establish the support line in collaboration with the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs and Offutt Air Force Base.
By day, Amanda Dunlap edits film trailers for Disney, but by night, she’s a true-crime junkie. Dunlap ’06 took inspiration for her debut novel from stories of real-life “resurrection men,” grave robbers who sold stolen corpses to medical schools in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the early 19th century.
Uncover more about Dunlap’s novel and the history of body-snatching.
Melissa Harris ’02 had just joined the Chicago Tribune as a columnist in 2009 when a colleague recommended she read the 1967 Division Street: America, a book which contains oral histories from 71 Chicagoans interviewed in the late ’60s. Years later, when Harris learned that the audio tapes of the original interviews were being digitized by the Library of Congress, she reached out to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mary Schmich, and after some consideration they decided to make a podcast.
The first in his family to go to college, Adam Karr ’93 gained a foundation in behavioral economics at Northwestern and now serves as president and portfolio manager at Orbis Investments and vice chairman of the Northwestern Board of Trustees. He shares why empowering young minds is one of the best investments for the future.
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.
As an undergrad, Julia Starzyk Kersey ’99 raised money for the American Heart Association through Radiothon, an annual fundraising event in honor of an undergraduate student who died of cardiac arrhythmia. Kersey carries campus tradition with her today as a national marketing and communications director for the American Heart Association.
