People & Profiles
Northwestern alumni are applying their journalism training to podcasting. Whether they’re transporting us to faraway places, helping us understand all sides of a complex situation or digging into a single story to shed light on broader social issues, these alumni are delivering diverse, compelling experiences straight to your earbuds.
After honing his acting and vocal skills at Northwestern, Lukas Arnold ’17 went viral on TikTok for his spot-on celebrity impressions. Now he’s pursuing a career in stand-up comedy — and leaving his 2.4 million TikTok followers in stitches.
At Northwestern, Eric Huang was finally surrounded by people with whom he had mutual respect and genuine camaraderie — good people who wouldn’t let him quit.
Determined to help other Latinx and first-generation college students like her, Xiomara Contreras ’17 became a mentor for the NAA’s Affinity Leaders and Learners (ALL) Mentorship Program. The program matches students to alumni with similar backgrounds, experiences and identities.
Heather Headley ’97 brings down the house with her performance of the original song “Children of Privilege” from Northwestern’s 1995 Waa-Mu Show, Rites of Spring. In the years since her time in Cahn Auditorium, Headley has won a Tony Award for Best Actress (for the Elton John/Tim Rice Broadway show Aida) and a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album (for her album Audience of One). She also starred both on Broadway and in TV shows such as Chicago Med and Sweet Magnolias.
Federico Burdisso made Northwestern history when he claimed two Olympic medals in Tokyo last July. The Italian swimmer became the first Northwestern athlete in 65 years to medal at the Olympics while enrolled at the University and the first Wildcat to medal since Matt Grevers ’09 earned two golds and a silver at the 2012 Games.
Chad Mirkin, the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, has played a central role in the rapid growth of nanotechnology at Northwestern and the invention of techniques that have revolutionized aspects of materials discovery.
When Kim Weisensee Brown ’08, ’09 MS needed content creation help for her Chicago-based nonprofit, she turned to Northwestern to find an intern. To her surprise, she found the perfect fit more than 7,000 miles away: Benjamin Mwangi, a junior at Northwestern University in Qatar.
Juliet Litman ’08 always figured she’d be an English professor, not a pop culture authority. But thanks to a nudge from her Northwestern adviser, Litman is now The Ringer's head of production and a creative force in the making of pop culture and sports content and commentary that goes well beyond fandom.
Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was named the 17th president of Northwestern University by the Board of Trustees last October. Blank is an internationally renowned economist and researcher on poverty and the low-income labor market, and her appointment marks a return to Northwestern, where she served on the economics department faculty from 1989 to 1999.
