Northwestern Intersections

Join us for a special episode celebrating alumni who coupled up at Northwestern. Six guests share short stories about finding true love on campus. Take a break from the cold and warm your heart with tales of campus romance.

McCollough Seletzky was a litigator before becoming an award-winning writer and memoirist with work featured in the Atlantic, O Magazine, and the New York Times. Join us as we discuss her memoir, The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and her journey to discover her family history.

Skladany is an icon across industries, working as a television and radio personality, writer, editor, publicist, and lifestyle content expert. He has worked on countless projects with recognizable brands, from People magazine and Apartment Therapy to Food Network and CBS. Join us as we discuss his ubiquitous career path and the lessons he has learned from working in multiple industries.

Hahn and Sandler met on campus and have been a Northwestern power couple ever since! Their careers have included acting and producing credits on some of Hollywood's most memorable productions, from New Girl and Meet the Robinsons to WandaVision and Private Life. Join us as they discuss their time at Northwestern, finding their way in Hollywood, and working together in the industry.

Kliegman is a sportswriter and copy chief at Sports Illustrated. Her journalism often focuses on underrepresented topics in sports and society, including gender, asexuality, and mental health. She shares valuable lessons on working as a sports journalist and finding stories that matter. Join us as we discuss her important work and her upcoming book, Mind Games: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes, due out in March 2024.

Gallagher is a television producer and author based in Los Angeles. She worked on MTV's wildly successful The Real World and went on to become an executive producer for several major reality TV shows, including The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, and Married at First Sight. Join us as she talks about her time in Hollywood and how she found the inspiration for her Twist My Charm young adult book series.

Jackson is an author, playwright, and poet currently serving as the Illinois Poet Laureate. She is a Chicagoan through and through, having grown up on the South Side, and uses her experiences in the area as inspiration for her poems and novels. Her works have been awarded major literary honors, including the Pushcart Prize, Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and American Book Award. Join us as we talk through her creative trajectory and the sights, smells, and sounds of Chicago that influenced some of her most recognizable projects.

Lord is a Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist, an author, and a Vietnam War veteran. He went from a career in television news management to writing the book, 50 Years After Vietnam: Lessons and Letters from the War I Hated Fighting, in 2018. Lord has reported in several major American cities, including Nashville, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, and was also a correspondent for NBC News. Join us as he discusses breaking news, pursuing the truth, and sharing your own story.

Arana is a prize-winning author, literary critic, and inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress. She has been an executive at publishing houses Simon & Schuster and Harcourt Brace, a judge for the National Book Awards and Pulitzer Prizes, a Latin America columnist for the New York Times editorial page, a media commentator for numerous news outlets, and editor in chief of Book World at the Washington Post. Join us as we explore her incredible literary contributions and discuss her upcoming projects.

Alomá is a CEO, lecturer, and author based in Chicago. He went from working in communications and consulting to lecturing at Northwestern to founding his own marketing company, Threadline. Alomá applies his knowledge of narrative psychology to the practice of marketing and branding, serving as a self-described "couples therapist" for clients and their customers. Join us as Alomá talks about his journey toward founding his dream company and finding time to write a bestselling book, Start with the Story: Brand-Building in a Narrative Economy.