Two engaging forums will feature small groups of prominent alumni sharing first-person stories about moments that changed their lives and the world.

11–11:50 a.m.
Friday, October 21
Norris University Center

Witness to History
Narratives of major events in recent world history as told first-hand by alumni who were there.

Hosted by: Mei-Ling Hopgood, Associate Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Mei-Ling is a longtime journalist who has written for various publications, ranging from the National Geographic Traveler and Marie Claire to the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe. She has worked as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in the Cox Newspapers Washington bureau, and has been a recipient of the National Headliner Best in Show, ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting, White House Correspondents Association Edgar A. Poe Award and several other investigative and enterprise journalism awards. She is the author of the books Lucky Girl and How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm.

Featuring:

Tania Karas '11 is an independent journalist based in Athens, Greece, focusing on global migration and human rights. For the 2015-16 academic year she was a U.S. Fulbright Fellow researching and reporting on Europe's refugee crisis in the context of Greece's financial crisis. She has reported from Greece, Turkey, Germany, Macedonia and Cyprus. Tania is a contributing columnist for Reuters on migration issues and frequent writer for UNHCR.org. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera America, The Huffington Post, Women in the World/The New York Times, IRIN, and Mashable.com. Prior to moving abroad, Tania covered U.S. immigration, legal education, and New York courts for the New York Law Journal, a daily newspaper in Manhattan. She is a 2011 graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she double-majored in journalism and political science.

Sudip Bose '95, '99 MD is one of America’s most experienced doctors in the medical arenas of emergency medicine, mass casualty, disaster care and PTSD. He is a former major in the US Army and an Iraq war veteran, and selected as the US physician who treated Saddam Hussein after his capture, for which he was honored as a “CNN Hero.” Dr. Bose enlisted in the military and served for 12 years. Dr. Bose has been awarded numerous medals such as the Combat Medical Badge for participating in combat operations under enemy hostile fire. He was awarded The Bronze Star for serving one of the longest combat tours by a physician since World War II and as one of the sole front-line physicians in the Second Battle of Fallujah.

Dévora Grynspan '76, '83 PhD is the Vice President for International Relations at Northwestern University, and works closely with the President and other Northwestern leaders to advance the university's strategic goals in a global context and create greater integration between international programs and the university's strategic plan. Dévora is also the Director of the Office of International Program Development (IPD), which develops and administers student exchanges and specially designed study abroad programs for Northwestern students. Over the past decade, she has established a number of programs abroad, including in China, Cuba, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa and Tanzania. Dévora also co-founded Northwestern’s popular Program in Global Health Studies in 2004 and was its Co-Director until 2016.

Ariel Levinson-Waldman ’96 is the Founder and President of Tzedek DC, a nonprofit group that works to safeguard the legal rights of low-income households facing often unjust, life-altering debt collection lawsuits and other consumer protection crises. Ariel has served in the Obama administration as an advisor to the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, which focuses on ways to attack poverty by getting legal help to vulnerable American households. Ariel previously served under Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a lawyer for the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he spearheaded efforts to protect consumers. He has taught courses at the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. In 2014, Ariel received the Daniel Curtin Award, given to one lawyer in the country under the age of forty for outstanding service and integrity in the practice of public law.

3–3:50 p.m.
Friday, October 21
Norris University Center

Moments of Decision
Alumni discuss a choice, turning point, or event in their distinguished careers that had a profound impact on their work or themselves.

Hosted by: Jennifer Tackett, Associate Professor, Director of Clinical Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Tackett received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota with minors in statistics, personality, and behavior genetics. She is also a graduate of the Texas Academy of Math and Science and Texas A&M University, and has held previous faculty appointments at the University of Toronto and the University of Houston. She is an associate editor at the Journal of Personality and Perspectives in Psychological Science, and a former associate editor at the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, the Journal of Personality Disorders, and the Journal of Research in Personality. When she isn’t working or engaging in a toddler dance party, she enjoys playing piano or indulging her cross-stitch obsession.

Featuring:

Cindy Kent '91 is a healthcare veteran with 20+ years in the industry. She is currently the President & General Manager for the 3M Infection Prevention Division—a $1.6 billion+ business committed to keeping patients safe from healthcare-associated infections and complications. Cindy has global operational P&L responsibilities, including the development of the strategic and annual operating plans, as well as resource allocation across research and development, clinical, manufacturing and commercial functions. Cindy is a member of the Health Care Business Group’s Global Operating Committee as well as a member of 3M’s Executive Leadership Conference—which is the company’s top 100 executives.

Larry Irving '76 is the president and chief executive officer of the Irving Group, a consulting firm providing strategic advice and assistance to international telecommunications and information technology companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations. From 2009 to 2011, he served as vice president for global government affairs at the Hewlett Packard Company.

Prior to founding the Irving Group in 1999, Irving served for almost seven years as assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Irving was one of the principal architects and advocates of the Clinton Administration’s telecommunications and Internet policies, including the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He is widely credited with coining the term “the digital divide” and sparking global interest in the issue.