As the principal of Acero Marquez Charter School in the Chicago area, Allison Hansen wears many hats to make sure that school is a place where both her teachers and students can grow together. Despite seeing the challenges of being a principal through her experience with the Teach for America Program, Allison still stuck to her passion for education reform. She sheds light on her definition of what great leadership is and what it looks like to be vulnerable as a leader. Owning her privilege takes a lot of courage but naming it and educating herself to be an ally has been instrumental in her relationship at her school.

Listen in to this special episode as Allison also shares about her upcoming Tenth Reunion as one of the Committee Members for the Class of 2009. Homecoming and Reunion Weekend will take place on the week of October 21st, 2019 in Evanston, IL, where Wildcats will come back to celebrate and reunite with their fellow classmates.

The NAA is happy to introduce our new host of Northwestern Intersections, Helen Kim. Helen is one of the founding team members of this podcast and has served as the editor and producer of Northwestern Intersections. She currently works as the Assistant Director of Career Advancement at the Northwestern Alumni Association, specializing in digital career programs for both alumni and students, and is an alumna of the Class of 2016. Listen in as former host Cassie Petoskey passes the baton and asks Helen about her experience transitioning from studying Percussion Performance at the Bienen School of Music to working in career programming for the University. We want to thank Cassie for all her efforts and wish her the best in her next role, where she will be working with Weinberg students to facilitate career exploration programs.   

In this three-part series featuring outstanding coaches, you’ll hear some of the most frequently asked questions that they receive from their clients in their industries. Tish Hicks ’88, Kathryn Haydon ’99, and Melissa McFarlane ’86 are leading experts in their fields who have presented Northwestern Alumni Association’s career webinars in the past on topics including on the power of one’s voice, creativity at work, and goal-setting processes on designing one’s business and personal endeavors.

In this episode, we are speaking with Melissa McFarlane ’86, an internationally-recognized coach with over 28 years of experience in executive, business, and personal coaching. She is the Founder and CEO of Creative Successful Entrepreneurs | Coach for Creatives.

In this three-part series featuring outstanding coaches, you’ll hear some of the most frequently asked questions that they receive from their clients in their industries. Tish Hicks ’88, Kathryn Haydon ’99, and Melissa McFarlane ’86 are leading experts in their fields who have presented Northwestern Alumni Association’s career webinars in the past on topics including on the power of one’s voice, creativity at work, and goal-setting processes on designing one’s business and personal endeavors.

In this episode, we are speaking with Kathryn Haydon ’99, a creativity and innovation strategist at Sparkitivity with over 20 years of experience and the author of four books, including her upcoming book, The Non-Obvious Guide to Being More Creative.

In this three-part series, you’ll hear some of the most frequently asked questions that they receive from their clients in their industries. Tish Hicks ’88, Kathryn Haydon ’99, and Melissa McFarlane ’86 are leading experts in their fields who have presented with the Northwestern Alumni Association through career webinars in the past on topics including the power of one’s voice, creativity at work, and goal-setting processes on designing one’s business and personal endeavors.

In this episode, we are speaking with Tish Hicks ’88, the founder of V.O Dojo with over 25 years of experience as a voiceover professional with a background in acting, singing, and kickboxing.

After her own experience in conflict with chairpersons, Isabelle Nüssli interviewed 100 chairpersons and CEOs to uncover the source of the tension that’s often built at the top of the corporate pyramid. When she realized that admitting these issues in leadership was considered taboo, she sought out to take action, ultimately resulting in writing her book. Nüssli is the author of Cockfighting: Solving the Mystery of Unconscious Sabotage at the Top of the Corporate Pyramid. In this episode, you’ll learn the three conscious and five critical unconscious drivers that drive these types of turmoil, according to her findings.  

Start your day off with a sense of peace and mindfulness with Ellie Burrows Gluck as she guides us through a calming meditation exercise in this special episode. Before co-starting MNDFL, Ellie Burrows Gluck served as an executive in the film business for a number of years until she came across her true passion: spirituality and pursuit of consciousness. She then quit her job in 2013 to travel around the world as a spiritual tourist, returning to New York City at the end of the trip to pursue her Certificate in Coaching. And then came along MNDFL, a drop-in meditation company where New Yorkers can better connect to their mind, heart, and the body without the weekend-long commitment. Listen in as she sheds light on her non-linear career changes she made while facing unexpected life circumstances. 

Erica Keswin is a workplace strategist and business coach with over 20 years of experience, having worked with top organizations that honor relationships at their workplace. Keswin, a bestselling author, published her book, Bring Your Human to Work, to help employees and leaders at organizations navigate ways to connect in the workplace and develop a winning culture. In addition to tips on how to form genuine relationships, she also shares her experience in the field of executive recruiting, a field not most MBA graduates go into, and her transitions between companies while going through major personal life changes. Keswin is always ready to be challenged and she is ready to share with the world on how to leverage all that technology has to offer but also to put it in its place and connect with humans face-to-face.   

Concertmaster of Hamilton: An American Musical of the Chicago company and artist and teacher-in-residence at the Lyric Opera of Chicago come together to share their stories as entrepreneurial artists in the 21st century. What’s inspiring about these artists is that they’re not afraid to be vulnerable when it comes to elaborating on the topics of injury, fear, and insecurity – most which are not often talked about in the creative arts community. Aranyi, who is also on faculty at the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern, offers her expertise on branding classes she teaches on campus, one of which Bontrager was invited as a guest speaker at. No matter how many times (around a thousand) he performed Hamilton or she sang cantatas and debuted at the Carnegie Hall, they still get nervous. And that makes them human.

August 1st is the long-awaited day that the Common App opens for students applying to colleges. Paula Whitman is here to tell you that applying to colleges does not have to be stressful! Whitman, a college application and essay coach, shares what has changed and stayed the same over the past year in the admissions process and offers tips for each class of high school students. She also points out what to avoid and the pitfalls most students make during this process. Tune in to hear how to make the college admissions process as easy and smooth as possible for the entire family.