People & Profiles
Dom Collins ’16 JD, MBA had been working as a media and entertainment banker on Wall Street for a year when he got the itch to leave his day job and pursue his passion. Drawing on his legal and business background, Collins formed Domarco7 Entertainment and launched an R&B career in New York City under the stage name Dom Marcell.
When Richard Bourke became a volunteer at the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2012, he expected to spend an outdoorsy retirement in the nonprofit’s dry, mountainous desert preserve. “I just wanted to be outside, do physical activity and learn more about the desert,” he says.
Roderick Cox, the 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award winner, occupies a highly visible position in an industry not noted for its inclusiveness, and he hopes his work continues to inspire people from different backgrounds to pursue music.
The Scott family tree has deep roots on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, the place where three of the last four generations met future spouses during their first year. Gordon Scott ’89, the great-grandson of former University president Walter Dill Scott, and Anne Nelson Scott ’89 found love, lifelong friends and a sense of belonging soon after arriving at Northwestern in 1985.
Our Class of 2019 "Grads to Watch" feature includes Alessandra El Chanti, the Northwestern University in Qatar Dean’s Award recipient; cricket club founder and business leader Ali Qureshi; pre-med and journalism double major Courtney Zhu; trumpeter, pianist and composer Sam Wolsk; equity advocate Madisen Hursey; and Darby Hopper, a speechwriter for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Twenty years ago, Ryan DuVal ’02 moved into his room in Bobb-McCulloch Hall a few days early. Inspired by a trip to Italy, he decided to paint three scenes from the Sistine Chapel ceiling in his dorm room — and inadvertently became a national sensation.
After three years spent dreaming about the hike, Elizabeth Weingarten decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro the week of her 30th birthday — the perfect moment to figure out what she was doing with her life.
In fall 2018 New York Times investigative reporter Barstow and his colleagues Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner wrapped up an 18-month investigation into President Donald Trump’s personal finances.The investigative pieces earned Barstow and his colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. It is Barstow’s fourth Pulitzer.
When he was 13, Balu Natarajan ’92, ’96 MD, ’99 GME became the first child of South Asian immigrants to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word “milieu.” “When I was competing, I had no idea that I was representing a community,” Natarajan says. “I quickly learned that the victory was embraced by the Indian community in particular.
When Jody Reeme ’01 MS purchased her first classic car, a 1939 Ford De Luxe Fordor Sedan, she expected it to be a one-off. Sure, she had always been interested in classic cars — Reeme grew up in Detroit, shares a birthday with Henry Ford and loved playing with slot cars as a kid — but she didn’t expect to wind up with a collection of almost a dozen vehicles.
