Alumni Return for Homecoming Luncheon
More than two dozen School of Education and Social Policy alumni will return home on Friday, Oct. 9 for our annual homecoming luncheon. These connections with students, however brief, can lead to opportunities.
When Hamin You (BS26) and Anna Truong (BS26) attended as undergraduates in 2024, they met Steven McGee, a double purple alumnus and president of The Learning Partnership. Both You and Truong were interested in social justice and computer science, and they joined the company as summer interns to analyze data that looked at whether students were connecting to their computer science classes. They stayed for more than a year.
You is now an education and research consulting analyst at Huron while Truong is pursuing a doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Maryland.
As we celebrate the SESP Centennial, we're thrilled to have so many alumni returning. Here's a little more about them:
- Students: Register here to attend the event.
Richard Agin
Master of Science in Education 2009
Agin teaches math and is co-head coach of the math team at Evanston Township High School, where he also did his student teaching. In 2020, he won the Edyth May Sliffe Award, which honors middle and high school math teachers for motivating students in math and supporting them in competitions. As an undergraduate, Agin studied math and economics at Princeton University. He received a master’s in political science at the University of Michigan and a law degree at Northwestern. Then, after working in Chicago for 17 years in commercial litigation, he was ready for a change. He returned to his love for numbers and began his new career as a teacher after getting his master’s in education. He’s a former coach for the Chicago All-Stars American Regions Math League and past president of the North Suburban Mathematics League. He was previously selected for the Joseph B. Whitehead Educator of Distinction Award from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation (2017), and the Outstanding Educator/Certificate of Recognition from the University of Chicago (2013).
- Can discuss: Teaching high school math.
- Advice: "Be friendly, be funny, and show everyone that you care."
Eman Kasha Akhtar
Social Policy 2023
Eman Kasha Akhtar, a client services analyst for NORC, was a QuestBridge and first-generation scholar from Ann Arbor, Michigan. At Northwestern, she tutored with Tutoring Chicago and Skribbli.
- Can discuss: Work-life balance
- Advice: “Make connections!”
Rosalyn Bates
Human Development and Psychological Services 2000
Bates is a behavioral health intake coordinator for Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital. She also serves in ministry as an ordained staff pastor and is an adjunct professor who provides graduate level, seminary introductory course instruction about pastoral care and counseling. At Northwestern, she studied education and French language and cultures. Extracurricular activities including gospel choir, poetry, jazz and theater. Bates earned a Master of Arts in clinical psychology from Wheaton College and a Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary.
- Can discuss: Attending to your mental health as a young adult is a good decision. Studying abroad during college is also a good decision.
- Advice: "There are many options available in the field of mental health. Open yourself to explore them."
Monica Bell-Brown
Social Policy 1996
Bell-Brown teaches French at City Colleges of Chicago and Homewood-Flossmoor High School. In 2026, she received the Viking Excellence Award for the Development of the International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. At Northwestern, she studied French and International Studies in addition to social policy and participated the Northwestern Black Alumni Association and was a Northwestern Student Ambassador Host. Influential practicum experiences included working at the American Bar Association in Chicago and for the Northwestern Alumni Admissions Council. She also studied abroad at Université d'Avignon and did her graduate study abroad in Paris while working on her master’s in instructional leadership, secondary education and French at the University of Illinois Chicago.
- Can discuss: Resilience
- Advice: "Always seek opportunities to grow as a reflective practitioner."
Antonio Burketh
Human Development and Psychological Services 1983
Antonio Burketh is a computer consultant, advisor and technology strategist who was a member of various teams that delivered socio-technical innovations. He has worked on ventures connected to Chicago's Hyde Park Labs and is now a founder with numerous technology project accomplishments.
- Can discuss: Emerging quantum applications
- Advice: “Be vigilant, work hard, and pursue mentors who can help them succeed.”
Rosemary Caruk
Master of Education, Elementary Education 1988
Caruk is a writer, researcher, and editor with expertise in government, nonprofit, and university communications. In addition to studying elementary education, she took courses in constitutional law, music history, and sociology. Her career has spanned public service and community leadership, including roles with the Chicago Department of Public Health's Public Information Office, the Berwyn Public Library Board of Directors, the University of Chicago Lying-In Hospital Board of Directors, the Alzheimer's Association walk planning committee, and the inaugural Hyde Park Jazz Festival planning committee. She is currently exploring new opportunities.
- Can discuss: The value of critical thinking.
- Advice: “Hone your writing skills.”
Chris Castino
Certification K-12 1981
Chris Castino is a documentarian and consultant with an expertise in selective mutism. At Northwestern she was active in intramurals, student counseling/hotline work, and Greek life. She grew interested in education research after a practicum experience that involved creating and photographing games for a math textbook by former SESP professor Richard Lesh. Catino was named Hero of the Year by the Northfield, Ill. Chief of Police for her volunteer work supporting a student with selective mutism in District 29.
- Can discuss: How to raise awareness of selective mutism, a widely misunderstood childhood anxiety disorder.
Cindy Conlon
Secondary Education 1972, PhD1979
Conlon was recognized as an Outstanding Professor/Instructor in the School of Education and Social Policy in 2007 and 2017.
Can discuss: Law and wellness
Advice: “Connect with a human that you trust, admire, and who cares about you as a human being too.”
Amy Drake
Social Policy 2022
Amy Drake is an associate director at the Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. She supports the initiative’s events programming, strategic partnerships, and research. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Drake worked at the Brookings Institution, where she was responsible for executing events and managing digital communication. Her experiences working at the National Park Foundation inform her interests in domestic energy policy and preservation of natural resources, while her international perspective drives her research efforts in addressing climate challenges on a global level. Her activities at Northwestern included the International Student Association; The Garage, where she was a little Joe Ventures Fellow; The Dolphin Show and Supplies for Dreams. Her practicum was at Ascend Justice, a non-profit legal aid organization. After Northwestern she interned at Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. She was also named a Women in Energy Fellow with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, and an inaugural member of the Volcker Alliance’s Rising Leader Program.
- Can discuss: How to network effectively.
- Advice: "Reach out to members of Northwester’s alumni community - now is the perfect time!"
Christin Engelhardt
Human Development and Psychological Services, Social Policy, 1986
Engelhardt is a policy analyst with the American Heart Association. A work-study job in the school office and a senior-year internship with Senator Paul Simon in Washington D.C. launched a career in public service; she later worked on two of Simon's campaigns, including his presidential run across Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Among her proudest accomplishments: monitoring elections and a constitutional referendum in Albania as a field representative for the National Democratic Institute; helping make pre-surgery screening and post-op monitoring for sleep apnea standard of care as executive director of the American Sleep Apnea Association; and successfully reversing a Medicare coverage decision on a vital medication while at the Aplastic Anemia & MDS Foundation.
- Can discuss: How to stand up for what's right in your work.
- Advice: "Read widely so that you are well informed on different subjects and policy developments, and do NOT rely on AI to do your work.” (Editor's note: No AI was used in creating this website story!)
Laura Allender Ferguson
Master of Arts in Learning Sciences
Ferguson, an applied AI and engineering technologist, is CEO of WrapDotGifts, Inc. which offers personal and sustainable ecards. She was a Peabody Award-winning lead developer for CNN’s 2008 election data systems and a 2016 Techstars Fintech Accelerator Graduate.
Multimedia in Education Best Paper Award - It's not how multi the media its how the media is used, Feifer, Allender 1993"
- Can discuss: How her education background helped her mentor dozens of software engineers
- Advice: “The biggest challenge for kids today is learning how to learn. Developing AI standards with your classrooms and employees is the key to success. “
Tabitha Ferrer Bentley
Social Policy 2010
Ferrer Bentley has spent the last 15 years leading teams and boards across education, policy, tech, and philanthropy, and is currently senior managing director for Noodle Learning Partners PBC. She received a master’s in public policy and her doctorate in education administration and policy from the University of Michigan. As a Northwester undergraduate, Bently was involved with Promote 360, the Northwestern Community Ensemble, Eva Jefferson Mentoring, and CaribNation. Her practicum work took her to Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men and, through a SESP 202 internship, the U.S. Empowered Program at Corliss High School in Chicago. She has been honored as a Mackinac Future Leader by the Detroit Regional Chamber (2021), a BMe Vanguard Fellow through the Skillman Foundation, and a Rackham Merit Fellow at the University of Michigan (2012-2017).
- Can discuss: Building a portfolio career, particularly for those with a research background.
- Advice: “Expand your definitions. There are so many ways to pursue your goal- expand how you think about it.”
Tammy Gocial
Human Development and Psychological Services, criminal justice, 1986
Gocial is an executive leadership coach in higher education and owner of Gocial Leadership Advisors. At Northwestern, she was part of Wildcat Council, softball, Homecoming Committee, and the Senior Class Gift. She also loved her practicum experience with the DuPage Country Probation Department. After graduation, she earned her master's and doctoral degrees and spent the next 35 years as an administrator and faculty member in higher education, earning mentoring and project awards along the way.
Can discuss: Individual and team engagement and helping people bring their best selves to work
Advice: “Higher education has many kinds of institutions and roles, each with its own culture — so look for the place and people that invite you to flourish."
Jim Hall
Master of Science in Education, Secondary Teaching 2022
Jim Hall is CEO of K12 Coalition, a collective of education organizations and services that provides professional development, teacher certification, and school improvement solutions for K-12 schools, districts, and state agencies.
Debra Hill
Education and Social Policy 1971, Master of Arts in Education, 1972
Hill is managing director and partner of BWP and Associates, an educational leadership search firm. Her distinguished career in education encompasses more than two decades of service as both a teacher and administrator in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and superintendent of West Northfield School District 31 which serves portions of Northfield and Glenview. She also served as an adjunct professor at National Louis University and professor at Argosy University in Chicago. At Northwestern she was actively involved in the campus community as a Glee Club choir member, a Gamma Chi Chapter charter member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., For Members Only, the student representative on the developing School of Education and Social Policy committee, and as a participant in student protests and demonstrations to amplify Black student issues. Hill earned her doctorate at Loyola University and is past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum, Development both at the state and international level.
- Can discuss: International and global studies in education.
- Advice: “Travel to learn what others do.”
Stacy S. Kim
Human Development and Social Policy, 1990
Kim is a social scientist and writer who founded the coaching practice, Life Junctions, in 2008. Her latest book, Envy: Why Wanting What They Have is the Key to Getting What You Want, offers concrete strategies on “how to convert unexamined reckless use of envy into a guiding force and powerful motivator.” She is also the author of The Lighthouse Method and has written for Real Simple, Wired, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Independent and Quartz. She earned both a master’s un early childhood education and a doctorate in Leadership in Professional Education at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Can discuss: How ENVY can serve as career and life GPS
- Advice: “Examine your envy; it can tell you what you really want and provides a guide you can emulate.”
Wendy Klunk
Human Development in Context 2024
Klunk is a housing stability specialist at Impact Behavioral Health Partners, a mental health service in Evanston. At Northwestern, she was involved with Camp Kesem, club soccer, and Hillel. After graduation, she served with the Avodah Service Corps in Chicago. Klunk recently began working on her master’s in education with a focus on counselor education and guidance services at DePaul. She’s originally from Huntington Woods, Michigan.
- Can discuss: Chicago's interconnected web of nonprofits, particularly those focused on housing and homelessness.
- Advice: “What seems like a small win can be life-changing progress for a client.”
Gayle Shier Kricke
Human Development and Psychological Services, 2007, PhD Feinberg 2017
Kricke is director of operations for the primary care service line for Northwestern Medicine. After working at a funeral home in high school and part of college, she thought she’d study mortuary science and become a funeral director. But after her practicum in older adult programs at Rush University Medical Center, she decided she wanted to intervene earlier in people’s lives. In 2017 she became the second person in the nation to earn a doctorate in healthcare quality and patient safety, offered through the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Health Sciences Integrated PhD Program. She also teaches across several Northwestern master's programs, chairs the board of an Area Agency on Aging, and serves on national CMS Technical Expert Panels. “SESP changed my direction and gave me the resources I needed to follow that different path,” she says. “I was in human development and psychological services, but I draw on what I learned in learning and organizational change and social policy all the time.”
- Can discuss: Assessing value alignment when determining which opportunities to take. It can be overwhelming to decide when there are multiple opportunities available, or if you're looking to create opportunity. I spend a lot of time talking about this with master’s students and feel strongly that people rarely learn how to make a decision and not being paralyzed by choice.
- Advice: “Healthcare is for lifelong learners. It's constantly evolving, which challenges leaders to stay curious, humble, and flexible.”
Henry Lang
Learning Sciences 2021, Master of Education, 2021
Lang, an alternate education teacher in Hinesburg, Verm., is a little surprised that he’s already in his seventh year of teaching high school theater, English and music. Last year he presented a workshop that explored plays by Jocelyn Bioh, Larissa FastHorse, and Lynn Nottage to help students “dream boldly about challenging oppressive systems,” he wrote on LinkedIn “Identity and motivation are linked,” he added. “Using plays as short texts helps me co-design units for deeper learning that are accessible to all.” At Northwestern, Lang participated in Griffin’s Tale, Northwestern's Children's Repertory Theatre Company, and was active in Willard Residential College.
- Can discuss: the need for flexibility when looking for a first teaching position
- Advice: h"Hve a few public-school teachers review your cover letters before applying, so your writing truly reflects how you want to present yourself."
Michelle Meekins Cooney
Secondary Education 1996, Master of Science in Education, Advanced Teaching, 1997
Meekins Cooney is principal of the Skokie School in Winnetka Public School District 36. At Northwestern, she studied French and was involved with club tennis and community nonprofits. She student taught in Evanston/Skokie School District 65, later becoming principal at Lincoln School in Evanston before moving to Winnetka.
Sid Mehrotra
Learning and Organizational Change 2026
Mehrotra is a sustainability analyst for Responsible Alpha, a global advisory firm focused on climate and nature finance, energy and natural capital transition strategies, and data integration. He can speak to students about what it's like to build a career at a fully remote organization.
Sammi Oberman
Human Development and Psychological Services 2019
Oberman is director of programming and student outcomes at Redwood Literacy, an educational organization that provides specialized literacy testing, treatment, and intervention for children and adults with learning differences. At Northwestern she was involved with Student Led Mental Health Support (WildCHAT) and Greek life. She also conducted research with professor Terri Sabol and Danny M. Cohen, graduating summa cum laude with Dean's List honors all 12 quarters and an honors thesis that was a finalist for the GSS George C. Casey Prize.
- Can discuss: Education careers outside traditional classrooms, foundational reading and writing instruction in the age of AI, and special education and academic intervention.
- Advice: “If you want to be in education start your career working directly with students. It will better prepare you for any admin/ed-tech job in the future, and as we an increase in AI use, many parents still want humans working with their kids.”
Joe Charles (Chuck) Park
Master of Science in Education and Social Policy, 1967, PhD 1970
Joe Charles “Chuck” Park, is a retired professor and administrator. He received a Distinguished Achievement Award for excellence in educational journalism from the Educational Press Association of American in 1981.
- Can discuss: Defending intellectual freedom.
Kristen Perkins-LaFollette
Master of Science in Education, Educational Studies 2026
Perkins-LaFollette is director of Evanston/Skokie District 65 partnerships at Northwestern. She recently earned her master’s, focusing on community-engaged scholarship while working with the Office of Community Education Partnerships on collaborations with local Evanston school districts.
- Can discuss: Community engagement and public service roles with nonprofits and school districts
- Advice: "Spend time with Evanston's school districts during your time at Northwestern. This community is unique and striving to work through common education challenges that exist across the country. You will learn so much and gain a lot of joy from your experiences."
Cristina Polenica
Human Development and Psychological Services 2016
Polenica is a graduate student in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program. At Northwestern she was involved with Sex Week, College Feminists, Northwestern eSports, and Sustained Dialogue. She spent five years at a community mental health nonprofit, volunteered for three years at the Evanston Animal Shelter, and completed a summer practicum that confirmed her interest in working with youth in the areas of education and mental health. She currently serves as a graduate assistant in the SESP Student Affairs Office and as an administrative assistant in the training department at Treatment Alternatives for Stronger Communities.
Can discuss: Administrative careers in social and human services organizations, weighing paths like social work or counseling, and navigating career transitions while unemployed or underemployed.
Advice: “Remember your why.”
Aireale J. Rodgers
Social Policy 2010; Masters of Learning Sciences 2018
Rodgers is assistant professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She studies how everyday misunderstandings about race and racism shape learning At Northwestern, she participated in Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc.; and the Sheil Catholic Center. In 2018, she received a SESP Alumni Leadership Award. She interned twice with US Senator Richard Durbin, first as an Immigration intern in 2006 and again as a legislative intern in 2008. She also worked as a civic engagement intern for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
- Can discuss: Applying for and pursuing a PhD
Beth Rubin
Human Development and Psychological Services 2007
Rubin, a social worker and therapist in private practice, built her career in clinical social work, including an internship at Lurie's inpatient psychiatry unit and roles in school social work and outpatient case management.
- Can discuss: Clinical therapy and social work with both adults and children.
Myriah Morawiecki Vargo
Social Policy - International Studies 1996
Vargo is a therapist in private practice. Some of her most influential experiences, including seven years of internships and post doctoral work for her doctorate in psychology, included working at the Civic Federation after graduation and as director of development for the YMCA of Metro Chicago. She was selected to be a part of the Aspen Institute's Forum for Emerging Leaders
- Can discuss: Being genuine and authentic and purposeful in choosing your path
- Advice: “Being genuine and authentic and purposeful in choosing your path; don't worry about the money or making anyone else happy”
Shyanmei Wang
Master of Science in Education 2008
Wang, a regional grants officer with the Rotary Foundation, came to SESP from Taiwan for the Higher Education Administration and Policy program (a concentration at the time) because she was drawn to intercultural education exchange. At Northwestern, she worked as a program associate for the faculty development program at the Searle Center for Teaching and Learning and collaborated with the Graduate School and International Office on programming for international graduate students. Wang feels strongly about the importance of assessment and its practical application.
- Advice: “Stay open minded and creative.”
Imani Wilson
Social Policy, pre-law 2018
Wilson is a social worker at Evanston Township High School and the founder of Ukweli Healing and Wellness in Chicago where she works with adolescents and young adults. She received her master’s from the University of Chicago’s social work and policy school in 2020. At SESP, she was a proud member of the SESP Leadership board.
Sara Woods
Masters in Higher Education Administration and Policy 2011
Woods is an evaluation specialist at Northwestern University where she helps training program faculty and administrator carry out their plans, including designing surveys and protocols, facilitating focus groups, conducting interviews, writing evaluation reports, and summarizing data. At Northwestern, she was interested in education and education research, and she gained hands-on experience working for Chicago Public Schools and in several schools across Northwestern
- Advice: “Education is a broad field, so learn and experience as much as you can about its different areas.”