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Social Issues

Northwestern alumna Karen DeCrow led the National Organization for Women in the mid-1970s, when she campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, defended Title IX and ran the first Take Back the Night march.

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now president karen decrow
What did you learn about the Central District from producing and directing “On the Brink”?I was struck by the intense feelings of trauma, tragedy, and loss that residents in the Central District are feeling while the city is experiencing an economic boom. I lived in Seattle for 10 years before my work with Seattle Growth Podcast opened my eyes to a rich history that’s in danger of becoming history forever.

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jeff shulman
Lori Post, an architect of the prototype for the patient protections section of the Affordable Care Act, says the creation of a federal universal background check is imperative to stop mass shootings because a patchwork of federal and state laws has created loopholes.

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lori post
Northwestern professors weigh in on how parenthood has changed in the past generation — and the advantages and drawbacks of 21st-century parenting.

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parenting
Louise Kiernan’s reporting at the Cook County juvenile court profoundly changed her understanding of journalism and how she wanted to approach it. She says journalism education at its best brings us into the places and lives that transform the way we think about the world.

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my northwestern direction louise kiernan
Growing up in a Milwaukee housing project, Patty Loew didn’t meet many other Native American people. A member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Loew would occasionally spend summers on a reservation with relatives, but it wasn’t until her late teens that she started developing a connection to her Native identity.

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native scholar patty loew medill journalism
Last summer international aid workers began descending from Soviet-era helicopters into the forests, mountains and villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region, setting up treatment centers and laboratories, and donning hazmat suits as they treated people sick with the Ebola virus. The workers brought computers, lab equipment, vaccine doses and anything else that supported epidemiology, data and patient management, and infection prevention and control.

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ebola clinic
Lake Michigan, the immense body of fresh water whose shimmering beauty convinced Northwestern’s founders that this was the place to build the University, has been under threat since the early 20th century. Northwestern researchers, students and alumni are discovering solutions for water quality issues and climate change challenges in the Great Lakes region.

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lake michigan sunrise opener
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.

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david barstow pulitzer prize ceremony
Although Generation Z — kids born after 1996 — is in some ways just forming its identity, the group is already shaping our society, says Northwestern anthropologist Shalini Shankar. In her new book, Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z’s New Path to Success, Shankar interviews spelling bee participants and their parents to understand what insights the competition can offer into the characteristics of Gen Z.

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spellingbee atman