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50s

Harlan Knosher (MS59), a former professor of physical education and director of athletics at Knox College, received an honorary degree from the school. His tenure is legendary; he started as a faculty member in 1960, was promoted to full professor in the late ’70s, and retired in 2000.

70s

Pamela Bolotin Joseph (MS71, PhD78) published Teaching for Moral Imagination: An Interdisciplinary Exploration. She is principal lecturer emerita at the University of Washington Bothell’s School of Educational Studies.

Dennis Paige (MS74) published the memoir Jolts, Synchronicities, Dream Catchers, and Milagros: A Memoir into the Fire of Original Experience. A longtime environmental educator and conservationist, he received several major ecological landscaping awards throughout his career.

Edward Whipple (MS75) is interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Lake Forest College, a “retirement job” after nearly three decades as vice president for student affairs at Montana State University Billings, Bowling Green State University, Willamette University, and Boise State University.

Jordan Horowitz (BS78, MA81) retired as chief operating officer at the Institute for Evidence-Based Change. He now volunteers as a docent at California’s Long Beach Museum of Art and as a grant writer for local nonprofits.

80s

Catherine French (BS86) is senior vice president and head of corporate initiatives for Cenlar FSB. 

90s

Eleanor Laws (BS90) was appointed by the National Labor Relations Board as associate chief administrative law judge in charge of its San Francisco Office of Judges. She has been an NLRB judge since 2011 and was previously a judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Social Security Administration.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Partoyan (BS93) joined the National League of Cities as a senior fellow at the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families.

Georgia L. Lorenz (MS95) has been president of Seminole State College of Florida since 2018.

Steve Schnur (BS96, Medill97) is chief operating officer of real estate development and investment firm CRG.

Eric R. Brown (WCAS97, BS99), a biology teacher at Evanston Township High School, served on a National Academy of Education steering committee as part of the Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs project.

William A. Sandoval (PhD98) is head of the STEM education department at North Carolina State’s College of Education.

Matt Fordenwalt (BS99) is senior vice president of life-cycle services for Rockwell Automation.

00s

Jolen Anderson (BS00, Pritzker03) is chief people and community officer for coaching platform BetterUp. She’s also an executive advisory board member for SemperVirens Venture Capital

Lanetta Haynes Turner (BS00), chief of staff for the Cook County board president, received the Motorola Solutions Foundation Excellence in Public Service award from the Civic Federation.

Chala Holland (BS01), a former teacher and administrator at Evanston Township High School, is the first Black woman to serve as superintendent of Township High School District 113 in the north Chicago suburbs. She was previously assistant superintendent for Naperville schools and a principal at Lake Forest High School.

Rachel Wolan (BS02) is the first chief product officer for Webflow, a platform for building websites without writing code.

Juleigh Nowinski Konchak (BS03, FSM16) was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health by governor JB Pritzker.

Faisal Mohyuddin (MS03), an award-winning writer, artist, and educator, was named to this year’s “Lit 50” list by Newcity magazine. He also published a new book of poetry, Elsewhere: An Elegy.

Grace H. Yoon (BS04) is deputy city manager for Long Beach, California.

Ruby Mendenhall (PhD05) was appointed poet laureate for the city of Urbana, Illinois.

Betsy Parker (MS05) received the Mikki Jeschke Academic Adviser of the Year Award from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.

Kisa Sthankiya (BS06) was appointed to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission review board by governor JB Pritzker. She is a partner at Rusin & Maciorowski in Chicago.

Emily Machado (BS09), an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, received the Chancellor’s Inclusive Excel- lence Teaching Award and, from the Literacy Research Association, the Early Career Achievement Award. 

Dave Musser (MS09) is deputy director of policy implementation and oversight for federal student aid at the US Department of Education.

10s

Adam Cebulski (MS10) founded the consulting and coaching service Transform.forward to bring strategic and sustainable changes in universities, public agencies, nonprofits, and startups.

Keeley Sorokti (MS11) won the Internet Time Alliance Jay Cross Memorial Award for her contributions to informal learning. A director of knowledge and collaboration at Sift, a fraud protection software company, she was a SESP instructor in the master’s in learning and organizational change program from 2020 to 2023.

Roberto Cabanelas (MS13), vice president of corporate human resources for Archer Daniels Midland, was appointed cochair of its North American Hispanic/Latino employee resource group. He is also a board director of the Latino Policy Forum in Chicago.

Hailey Danz (BS13) brought home the gold in the women’s PTS2 triathlon event at the 2024 Paralympics. Danz has also won two silver Paralympic triathlon medals.

Chloe Grainger (BS13) was named director of policy and advocacy for the National NeighborWorks Association, which lobbies for affordable housing and community development. She previously did policy work for Illinois congresswoman Lauren Underwood.

Ummul-Kiram Kathawalla (BS13) is assistant professor of clinical practice in the psychology department at Suffolk University.

Becca Portman (BS13) is the community success lead for the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

Sanjay Lumpkin (BS16, SPS20) is an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks. He was previously a player development coach with the Utah Jazz.

Courtney Bass Sherizen (Cert17) is chief talent and culture officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia.

Tyler Hough (MS19) was selected as a national fellow by the Society of Experiential Education.He also published “Elevating Community Voices Through Place-Based Education Initiatives in Chicago” in the journal Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities.

20s

James Arvidson (MS20) is a career development coordinator with the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

Matt Casler (BS20), associate consultant at Bain & Company in New York City, helped lead the 20th annual business conference for Out for Undergrad, a leadership development organization for LGBTQ+ undergraduate students.

Sebastian Rivera (BS20) won the 65-kilogram men’s freestyle wrestling bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was the flag bearer for Team Puerto Rico.

Dee Dee Hong (MS21) published a paper in Teaching and Teacher Education highlighting the lack of attention paid to immigrant students in teacher education.

Gabby Rios (BS21) is an adviser for first-year students at the University of North Carolina and teaches sections of the Thriving course.

Kristine Lu (PhD23), a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, is joining the faculty of Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media, and Design as assistant professor.

Lauren Walcott (BS24) is a Bill Emerson National Hunger fellow at the Congressional Hunger Center; she’ll work in the New York City mayor’s food policy office.

For more class notes, visit sesp.northwestern.edu