People & Profiles
After years of study and training — including four years in Northwestern’s celebrated theater program — Mark Hoebee finally danced on the Great White Way, appearing in a production of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. After “about 10 Broadway shows and national tours, he enjoyed a successful career as a choreographer and director of musicals before joining the Tony Award–winning Paper Mill Playhouse, where he is producing artistic director.
Dedicated philanthropist, investment executive and scholar Arthur Pancoe ’51 MS passed away on Jan. 16.
Margaret Glenn Sales Semmes, who studied music at Northwestern in the 1940s, was one of 856 women who served in the Women’s Army Corps’ 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, also known as the Six Triple Eight, the only American Army unit comprising all women of color during World War II. They faced a mammoth task: sorting through a multiyear backlog of mail that had yet to be delivered to American soldiers, government personnel and Red Cross workers serving abroad.
Whether they were college sweethearts or connected after graduation, these Wildcat couples are very much in love today — and many are celebrating reunions this year!
Parkinson’s disease often causes hand tremors and muscle rigidity, making it difficult to write by hand. After her grandpa was diagnosed with the disease and could no longer write, journalism major Izzy Mokotoff teamed up with biomedical engineering major Alexis Chan to develop SteadyScrib, a special pen and clipboard system that helps counteract Parkinson’s symptoms.
Lizards can regrow their tails and crabs their severed claws. Now, after decades of research, scientists including Samuel Stupp ’77 PhD are closer than ever to unlocking the human body’s healing powers.
Cody Keenan ’02 spent eight years as a White House speechwriter for President Barack Obama ’06 H. Now a visiting professor at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Keenan talked with Northwestern Magazine about his start in politics, what he learned from the former president and what gives him hope.
At age 8, Sydney Lee ’22 MMus was accepted into The Juilliard School’s pre-college program, and at 13 she made her orchestral debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Now, the award-winning cellist performs around the world, dazzling audiences with her heartfelt, classical music.
Isabella Twocrow interned for 10 weeks with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, working alongside some of the most important decision-makers when it comes to Native American life, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “They’re the people protecting tribal sovereignty through policymaking,” says Twocrow, who is Oglala Lakota and a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and co-chair of Northwestern’s Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance.
George R.R. Martin ’70, ’71 MS, ’21 H, author of the acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire novels and co-executive producer of the Emmy Award–winning Game of Thrones series, is sharing his love of storytelling through two gifts to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
