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Social Issues

Emergency medicine physician and former Wildcats offensive lineman Ryan Padgett ’97 was one of the first healthcare workers in Washington state to test positive for COVID-19. His harrowing story has become both a symbol of hope and a cautionary tale about the ­­­dangers of the global pandemic.

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When New York's Montefiore Medical Center admitted its first COVID-19 patient on March 11, Albert Einstein School of Medicine professor of medicine Kenneth J. Schaefle ’90 was pulled in alongside many others to help with the COVID response.

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Ken Schaefle
In a time of challenge and struggle, Northwestern alumni answer the call to help heal a wounded world in the wake of the coronavirus.

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Beginning in preschool, Black students are disproportionately disciplined in schools, from teacher-issued referrals, to corporal punishment, to police arrests and their attendant violence. And it is not simply that Black students are over-represented in these areas, but rather it is about the ways our presence — have always represented a dangerous intrusion within educational institutions structured by anti-Black solidarity.

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Northwestern gave Bill Healy the skills and the confidence to pursue a career as a journalist. It also gave him an opportunity to return to the classroom, where he teaches students to find genuine emotion that cuts to the core of our shared humanity.

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How can corporate leaders prepare for the unknown, build trust in their companies and transition their teams online? Three Kellogg School of Management professors share their insights.

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Chicago mental health services provider CEO Mark Ishaug works to change hearts and minds and structures of oppression.

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An organization run by Northwestern students is working hard to keep Evanston’s small business owners afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is just one of several ways that Northwestern students are addressing needs in response to the pandemic.

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Lending a hand
As communities across Illinois respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and brace for its long-term effects, mental health and wellness are central to the recovery strategy. Rachel Bhagwat ’12 and Anthony Guerrero ’14, ’18 MS are on the team leading that effort at NAMI Chicago, an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

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In the wake of the coronavirus, life will never quite return to “normal.” We asked Northwestern professors to weigh in on how life has been transformed as a result of the pandemic.

Read the professors' perspectives