Exploring Careers with Linguistics Alumni

Svetlin is currently a Business Analystat Dose, one of the world’s fastest-growing digital media companieswhere he analyzes and optimizesdigital content to make it go viral.Previously, at Millward Brown, hemanaged copy/ad testing, ad andbrand equity tracking, and othermarket research programs for clientsfrom Fortune 100/500 companies froma variety of industries.

Svetlin Dimov, M.A. 2015

Sherry currently works as a Program Assistant supporting the Weinberg fundraising team within Northwestern’s Alumni Relations and Development department. She double majored in Cognitive Science and Linguistics.

Sherry Vernon, B.A. 2015

Kathleen currently works as theAssociate Dean of High School Boardingat Korea International School, JejuCampus. She supervises the high schooldorm staff, organizes activities andevents for students and connects withteachers and administrators in the dayschool. She is using her Linguisticsdegree to promote English languagelearning for her Korean students. She iscurrently implementing second languageacquisition strategies in the school anddorm environment in order to preparethe students for English-speakinguniversities.

Kathleen Painter, B.A. 2014

Alexa is currently in her last semesterof law school at Chicago-Kent Collegeof Law, concentrating in environmentaland animal law. In her time at school,she has interned for a variety oforganizations, most notably for Region5 at the United States EnvironmentalProtection Agency in Chicago and atthe Humane Society of the UnitedStates in Washington, D.C. Heranalytical skills from linguistics havegreatly helped in developing legalanalysis and arguments.

Alexa Carreno, B.A. 2013

Staci is currently pursuing a Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Certificationat Illinois Institution of Technology. Shehopes to become a pediatric psychiatrist.

Staci Gold, B.A. 2013

Jeffrey is a Ph.D. student in the Departmentof Linguistics at the University of Chicago.He is particularly interested inaccommodation and context-dependence,and in his latest project, he is hoping tocharacterize the interaction between (non-linguistics) contextual information and overtlinguistic information in determining whattypes of antecedents can beaccommodated for elliptical structures. Hehas also done some previous work inexperimental phonology on the role ofrhythm in language game learning.

Jeffrey Geiger, B.A. 2012

After graduating in 2012 with herLinguistics degree, Kelly entered medicalschool at the University of Illinois Collegeof Medicine that fall. She is set to graduatethis spring and will continue her training ina Family Medicine residency hoping toenter rural practice.

Kelly Kahle, B.A. 2012

After receiving her MA in Linguistics atNorthwestern, Jenna relocated back toFlorida to work on a PhD inCommunication Sciences and Disorders.While finishing up her degree, Jenna ownsa private practice focusing on accentmodification and is a Visiting Instructor atUniversity of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. Her knowledge of linguistics isuseful in both of these areas.

Jenna Luque, M.A. 2012

Alex came to linguistics from philosophy;rather than continue study in either, he splitthe difference and went to law school. Hecurrently works for a Circuit Judge here inChicago, and is working his way back intoacademia by publishing a series ofincreasingly inaccessible articles onincreasingly obscure bits and bobs ofIllinois law. He is always happy to maketime to talk shop — linguistics, law,anything — with future colleagues.

Alex Moe, B.A. 2012

Nattalia works full-time as a freelanceconference interpreter and translator. Shehas all sorts of large and small clients, buther main client is the Federal Government,mainly the U.S. Department of State andthe U.S. Department of Defense, togetherwith the agencies that serve them (e.g.Meridian International, IIE, Detra, etc.).

Nattalia Paterson, Ph.D. 2012

Minna is a Twin-Cities-based RadioProducer, Writer, and Researcher. Shehas written for various publications,including Pitchfork, MTV Iggy, andFADER. She has produced radio andDJ’d, interned with American RadioWorks,and conducted sociolinguistics fieldworkas a Fulbright Fellow to Senegal. Minnaalso directed, produced, and DJ’d forContinental Drift on WNUR 89.3 FMEvanston-Chicago. In 2011, she internedwith Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Minna Zhou, B.A. 2012

After finishing her dissertation, Melissachose to stay in academia andcontinues to work as a researcher andteacher. Immediately after graduation,she moved to Donostia-SanSebastian, Spain, to work as apostdoctoral researcher at the BasqueCenter on Cognition, Brain andLanguage. After two years at theBCBL, she moved back to the US,where she worked as a postdoctoralresearcher in the Department ofCommunicative Sciences andDisorders at Michigan State University.In 2013, Melissa moved to Oregon towork as an Assistant Professor in theDepartment of Linguistics at theUniversity of Oregon.

Melissa Baese-Berk, Ph.D. 2011

After becoming interested in L1 acquisition asan undergrad, Natalie received her Master's inSpeech-Language Pathology fromNorthwestern's School of Communication. Shenow works in a school as a speech pathologist,teaching language to children with autism.

Natalie Friend, B.A. 2011

After graduating from Northwestern, Tomwent to law school at Vanderbilt University.He now works at Fidelity National Financialas a real estate transactions attorney.

Thomas Hayden, B.A. 2011

Using skills in statistical programming,computational modeling, and datamanipulation learned studying linguisticsand cognitive science at Northwestern,Jeff worked as a spam and abuse analystat Google from 2011 through 2014,fighting organized crime money-makingschemes and fraudulent businesspractices. He went on to become the datascientist and data engineer at financialtechnology startup Level Money, whichwas acquired by Capital One in 2015. Jeffis currently a Data Scientist / MasterSoftware Engineer at Capital One, wherehe looks for excuses to apply artificialneural network techniques to problems inpersonal finance.

Jeffrey Schecter, B.A. 2011

After completing her Ph.D., Kristinworked as a postdoc and lecturer in theDepartments of Linguistics andCommunication Sciences and Disordersat the University of Texas at Austin. In2012, she took a postdoctoral teachingposition in the Linguistics Program atWashington University in St. Louis, andin 2016, she accepted a tenure-trackposition in the Departmentof Psychological and Brain Sciences atWash. U. where she will continueteaching in the Linguistics Program.

Kristen Van Engen, Ph.D. 2011

Emily received a B.A. in Linguistics andM.S. in Speech, Language, andLearning from Northwestern. Aftergraduating, Emily worked as an inpatientspeech-language pathologist in an acuterehabilitation hospital, working withindividuals with swallowing, speech,language, and cognitive deficits. Shecurrently works as a research speech-language pathologist at the Center forAphasia Research and Treatment at theRehabilitation Institute of Chicago,administering treatment to individualswith language deficits after stroke.

Emily Braun, B.A. 2010

After graduating in 2010, Anna worked as aResearch Assistant at Stanford University'sSemlab and then moved to Copenhagen,Denmark, to pursue an M.Sc. in InformationScience. Anna used her background inlinguistics to study search engineperformance in academic literature retrievaltasks. She conducted experiments thatincluded citation contexts within retrieval toimprove performance. In 2016 Annareturned to the US, and now she is theDigital Repositories Librarian for Texas A&MUniversity Libraries' Office of ScholarlyCommunication.

Anna Dabrowski, B.A. 2010

Meredith is currently a research analystin the National Center for EducationResearch in the Institute of EducationSciences at the U.S. Department ofEducation. She oversees researchgrants that study adult learners whorange in skill from preliterate throughundergraduate, focusing primarily onadults with low literacy or numeracy skill(i.e., below the 12th grade level) or thoselearning English. Her background inlinguistics provided her with fundamentalknowledge in research design andmethods necessary to do her job.

Meredith Larson, Ph.D. 2010

John is currently completing hismaster’s degree in Speech-LanguagePathology at Northwestern. Hedecided to pursue this degree due tohis interest in the scientific,psychosocial and neurological basesof language.

John Lee, B.A. 2010

Julliard is currently a graduate student inUrban Planning at New York University.Prior to returning to school, she worked incity government and urban policy.

Julliard Lin, B.A. 2010

After graduating with a B.A./M.A. inLinguistics with a focus in Bilingualism andAcoustic Phonetics, Kelsey became the labmanager at Northwestern’s SpeechCommunication Research Group, whereshe analyzed speech recordings anddeveloped software to assist in the lab’sresearch projects. She later moved on tobecome the primary analyst at a start-upcompany called Pawngo where shespecialized in building data-integrationprograms to track and analyze digitalmarketing and performance data. Fromthere, she became a developer at Chicagostart-up called The Started League (formerlyCode Academy), architecting and buildingsoftware to automate everyday businessoperations. She is currently a SoftwareEngineer at Sittercity.

Kelsey Mok, B.A. & M.A. 2010

After receiving his Ph.D. In Linguisticsat Northwestern, William continuedfor a while working at Motorola Labsas a Natural Language Processing(NLP) research engineer. In 2010 herejoined Northwestern University, thistime as a Research AssistantProfessor in the Feinberg School ofMedicine. He is currently doing NLPresearch on biomedical literature andon clinical notes collected for patientcare in hospitals and outpatientoffices across all of NorthwesternMedicine. Moving forward, he hopesto collaborate once again with theNorthwestern Linguistics department.

William Karl Thompson, Ph.D. 2010

After receiving his Ph.D., James movedto Aix-en-Provence, France, for apostdoctoral position at the LaboratoireParole et Language. In 2010, hemoved to Singapore for his first tenure-track position at NanyangTechnological University, where hediscovered his love for teaching andsupervising. He is currently a Professorand Chair Fellow at Aix-MarseilleUniversité, working in the samelaboratory as before. His currentresearch explores how socialinformation interacts with prosodicrepresentations in both production andperception.

James German, Ph.D. 2009

After attending Northwestern, Pagecontinued on to the University of California,San Diego, completing a PhD in Linguisticsin 2016. Her thesis focused on thephonetics of code-switching in Spanish-English bilinguals, as a means to betterunderstand how bilinguals organize andaccess their two languages. Paige iscurrently a post-doc at theNeuroPsychologie Interventionnelle (NPI)at the École Normale Supérieure.

Paige Piccinini, B.A. & M.A. 2009

Chris is a post-doctoral researcher at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in theDepartments of Linguistics and Biology,where his research focuses on usingmathematical and statistical tools tounderstand how and why languageschange over time. Since graduating fromNorthwestern, he has worked on searchengine summarization, completed a PhDin Linguistics, and used natural languageprocessing to help connect peoplesuffering from rare diseases.

Christopher Ahern, B.A. 2008

Amy Millar became interested inlinguistics after enrolling in a freshmanseminar that explored the acquisitionand development of language inchildhood. This class not only led her topursue a degree in linguistics, butfostered in her a desire to furtherunderstand the intricacies of humanbiology. After finishing herundergraduate degree, she went on tograduate with an MD from RushMedical College in Chicago. She iscurrently finishing her specialty trainingin Obstetrics and Gynecology at theUniversity of Minnesota in Minneapolis,MN.

Amy Millar, B.A. 2007

Tyler is an assistant professor in theDepartment of Speech, Language, andHearing Sciences at Boston University. He isthe director and principal investigator of theCommunication Neuroscience ResearchLaboratory, where his NIH-funded researchprogram focuses on the brain bases of speechand language. He received his B.A./M.A. inLinguistics from Northwestern, followed by aPh.D. in Neuroscience from MIT. Dr.Perrachione's research on brain and behaviorfactors in human communication has beenpublished in academic journals such asScience, Cognition, and Human BrainMapping, and featured in the popular press,including the New York Times, BBC, and NPR.

Tyler Perrachione, B.A. & M.A. 2007

Maria currently works in life insurancefor her New York-based company. Shehas partnered with her husband ontwo business ventures – one in thelandscape industry and the other in acar dealership. She often reflects onher years at Northwestern and thevaluable education she received, aswell as how it has contributed to hercareer.

Maria Gallegos, B.A. 2006

After graduating with a Linguistics degreeand working in a private law firm for acouple of years, Anne went to law schoolat Vanderbilt University. Since 2011 shehas been an Assistant Parliamentarian inthe U.S. House of Representatives. TheOffice of the Parliamentarian provides theHouse with nonpartisan, objectiveguidance on parliamentary rules andprocedures. During proceedings on thefloor, she can be found to the Speaker'sright on the dais. As an attorney in theOffice of the Parliamentarian, she is oftenwriting and editing, in addition to providingoral advice to the House, its Members, andthe public.

Anne Gooch, B.A. 2006

Evan Bradley, B.A. 2005Evan Bradley majored in theinterdisciplinary Cognitive Scienceprogram, with a focus in linguistics,and also earned a certificate inMusic. While at NU, he worked withfaculty in the Linguistics andPsychology departments in theProject on Child Development. Hethen went on to earn his Ph.D. inLinguistics from the University ofDelaware, and he is currentlyAssistant Professor of Psychology atPenn State Brandywine. Hisresearch focuses on the perceptionof both language and music.

Julia chose to stay at Northwestern inthe Department of Linguistics. Shecurrently serves as the Director ofEnglish Language Programs.

Julia Moore, Ph.D. 2004

Joel Nierman started his career as a digital mediaplanner at Agency.com. He subsequently led digitalmedia planning and buying teams and groups at anumber of agencies, including MPG/MediaContacts,Charlotte’s Web Marketing (since acquired) and CriticalMass, where he directed the global mediapractice.While at Critical Mass, Nierman evolved theoffering, shifting from direct buying to a data- andresearch-driven, comms-planning-first unit. He workedacross agency and client marketing teams,evangelizing the “media mindset”. After Critical Mass,Joel joined to Liquidus Marketing, where he led their adtechnology division, consisting of the programmaticbuying team, media product strategy and businessdevelopment. Now at MediaLink, a strategic advisoryfirm that lives at the intersection of Hollywood, WallStreet, Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley, Joel helpsclients across the company’s portfolio understand andsolve the underlying technology and data strategypuzzles that will support their businesses into the nextcentury of media, marketing and entertainment.

Joel Nierman, B.A. 2004

After graduating from Northwestern, Lizpursued a Ph.D. in Linguistics at Stanford,and is now an Associate Professor inLinguistics at the University of Gothenburgin Sweden, focusing on semantics andpragmatics. She previously held researchand teaching positions at the Departmentof General linguistics at Heinrich HeineUniversity (Dusseldorf, Germany) and theCentre for Languages and Literature atLund University (Lund, Sweden).

Liz Coppock, B.A. 2002

Lindsay Hartman Hagerman married aMedill '03 graduate and used herSpanish fluency in two internationalsales jobs. She now works in her familybusiness in e-commerce and importing,and continues to find immense value inher Linguistics degrees in businessinteractions and in raising her daughtersto speak well and understand the nuanceof language.

Lindsay Hagerman, B.A. & M.A. 2002

Dan Speirs is a management consultant withGap International and a co-Director of itsLeveraging Genius Institute. He was the firstlinguist Gap hired to initiate its study of theconnections between language andperformance. He has been influential in thedevelopment of the core methodology ofLeveraging Genius, which involves identifyingand growing the mindset behind success. Danconsults with Global 1000 clients in industriessuch as manufacturing, consumer goods,energy, and financial services. Along with hislinguistics degree, he completed theMathematical Methods in Social Sciencesprogram at Northwestern. Dan has an MS ininformation systems from Drexel University andan MBA from the Duke University FuquaSchool of Business. He lives outsidePhiladelphia with his wife and three children.

Daniel Speirs, B.A. 2002

Saundra is currently a professor and theVice Chair of the Department of Englishat California State University, Chico,where she also runs the ESL ResourceCenter on campus. In 2010, she wasdesignated as the Outstanding Teacherat CSU, Chico.

Saundra Wright, Ph.D. 2002

Dana represents plaintiffs in bothindividual and class action employmentdiscrimination litigation. She is a memberof the Board of Editors of the EmploymentDiscrimination Law treatise, and hasgiven presentations at the AFL-CIO’sannual Lawyers Coordinating Committeeas well as the annual Impact Fundconference. She is the recipient of theCenter for Constitutional Rights’ 2010President’s Award.

Dana Lossia, B.A. 2001

After graduating with a M.A. inLinguistics, Lena entered NorthwesternLaw School and received a JD in 2003.Since then, she has worked in a numberof family law and criminal defense firmsas a trial attorney. She now teachesIntroduction to Trial Advocacy atNorthwestern Law School and has herown family law practice, Winters FamilyLaw Firm.

Lena Winters, B.A. & M.A. 2000

After she graduated from Northwestern, Allisonwent to law school at Duke University, where shedid a joint JD/LLM in International and ComparativeLaw. She has been a commercial real estateattorney for 17 years, splitting her career betweenNew York and Tokyo.

Allison Rosenberg, B.A. & M.A. 1995

Andrew Talle earned a bachelor’s degree in celloperformance as a student of Hans Jørgen Jensen,as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees inlinguistics. From 1995-2003, he was a PhD studentat Harvard University, earning master’s anddoctoral degrees in musicology. Dr. Talle spent oneyear lecturing at Harvard before moving toBaltimore in 2004 to join the musicology faculty atthe Peabody Conservatory. In 2011, he was nameda Gilman Scholar of the Johns Hopkins University,a distinction reserved for fewer than 20 facultymembers across all nine divisions.

Andrew Talle, B.A. & M.A. 1995

Mari received her post-doc at theUniversity of Maryland, and shecurrently works in Natural LanguageExperiences at the MicrosoftCorporation.

Mari Broman Olsen, Ph.D. 1994

Lauren is Head of Business Developmentnationally for Koss REsource, an onlinecommercial real estate platform based inLos Angeles. She identifies andimplements new strategies for growth andbuilding and maintaining successful clientrelationships. She promotes the businessat real estate conferences and is focusedon helping to grow the targeted user baseand increase revenue. Prior to KossREsource, Lauren was a real estatecapital service provider and originator ofdebt and equity transactions. Laurenloves to write, read and remainsinterested in the study of language andgender, language and culture andsociolinguistics.

Lauren Cohen, B.A. 1993

Kathy worked as a scholarship coordinatorfor Rotary International. She worked withSpanish-speaking countries and non-nativeEnglish speakers coming to the U.S. Shethen worked as a student advisor in theDepartment of Linguistics at the Universityof Michigan. She is now home with her twochildren. Kathy plans to return to work onceher family completes a move to Nashville.

Kathy Pendleton, B.A. 1993

Shahrzad is a Professor of Linguisticsand the Linguistics DepartmentProgram Coordinator at NortheasternIllinois University. She has been atNEIU since 1993.

Shahrzad Mahootian, Ph.D. 1993

After receiving a B.A. in Linguistics Karen has been choreographing anddesigning costumes. This might not be a typical route for linguists, but shehad found ways to weave language issues into a great deal of her workwith a recent project, The Dictionary of Negative Space(https://dictionaryofnegativespace.com)

The Dictionary of Negative Space is an interdisciplinary lament thatexamines the negative space within the English language, the vast chasmsof unnamed ideas related to mourning, trauma, and repair. Karendeveloped it as an exhibition for her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and it wasinspired by the car accident that killed her mother, father, and older brotherin 2012. While receiving a tremendous amount of feedback from otherartists, Karen would be especially interested in hearing insights from thelinguistics community. Please feel free to contact her with any questions,comments or suggestions.

Karen Krolak, B.A. 1993

Sylvia’s Ph.D. in ethnolinguistics,specifically on misunderstandings,had immediate application inmarketing. She worked for Pepsi-Cola and Baxter Healthcare and nowhas her own company with a team ofanthropologists to do ethnolinguisticresearch on patients and doctors toanalyze how they communicate. Hercompany does projects forcompanies like Pfizer, Bayer andSanofi, and sell research-basedpatient education materials to healthcare providers.

Sylvia Aruffo, Ph.D. 1992

Jennifer majored in Linguistics andInterdepartmental Speech, graduatingin 1990. For many years, she hasworked in the music industry, but hasalso been an English as a SecondLanguage teacher for adults inTennessee, Chicago, and LosAngeles. (She was also a learner ofSpanish and Arabic.) She has alwaysbeen a language connoisseur, andappreciates standard spelling,punctuation, and grammar. Shecurrently lives in Los Angeles,teaching ESL and aspiring to write ahit screenplay.

Jennifer Gies, B.A. 1990

Faithe Thomas, B.A. 1990After completing her B.A. in Linguistics(1990), Faithe worked for six years inAfrica helping establish indigenouspublication centers in Ghana andZambia. After returning to the UnitedStates, she continued her publishingcareer as owner of Master DesignPublishing, which publishes books invarious languages for use around theworld. They have printed over 2.25million books since 1998. Faithe startedMaster Design Marketing andFaitheThomas.com, both of which helpnew entrepreneurs around the worldenter the arena of internet marketing.She is married and homeschools theirdaughter.

Brett Blake, M.A. 1989Brett is Professor in the School of Educationat St. John’s University in New York Citywhere she is also a Senior Research Fellowin the Vincentian Center for Social Justiceand Poverty. Since receiving her M.A. fromNorthwestern (and her Ph.D, from theUniversity of IL at Chicago) she has workedwith the Chicago Public Schools and variousout-of-school settings including Riker’s Islandin New York City to help ensure that thosestudents with linguistic differences were stillafforded equal and equitable chances toeducation. She is the author of severalarticles and books, including the best seller,“She say, he say: Urban girls write theirlives,” that chronicled her work with Chicagourban English language-learning (ELL) middleschool girls.

Following her graduation, Jan was hired byEvanston School District 65. She was assigned totwo Evanston elementary schools, Dewey andLincoln, to be the Caribbean ELL teacher. She hasnow been in the school district for 27 years. For thepast 17 years, she has been the ELL teacher atHaven Middle School. Because of the linguisticsprogram, she has had a satisfying and excitingcareer that she loves everyday.

Jan Braeutigam, M.A. 1989

Sandi graduated from Northwestern in1989 with a double major in EnglishLiterature and Linguistics. She went onto the University of Michigan School ofPublic Health and earned her Mastersin Health Services Administration in1991. She has worked in a number ofsettings in health care since, includingan integrated delivery system, a healthinsurance company, state government,and consulting. Sandi has also beeninvolved in the implementation of theAffordable Care Act in Rhode Island,and she is currently a Program Advisorto Brown University’s Executive Masterof Healthcare Leadership.

Sandi Ferretti, B.A. 1989

Steve is the executive editor for the AmericanHeritage Dictionary and managing editor forthe Webster’s New World College Dictionary,both published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,where he is executive editor of the referencegroup. Steve earned a BA in linguistics fromNorthwestern University and attendedgraduate school at the University of Chicagofor linguistics. He worked as a freelanceeditor for several reference titles for NationalTextbook Company between 1989 and 1997.Steve is vice president for the DictionarySociety of North America and is a foundingmember of Shattered Globe Theater inChicago.

Steve Kleinedler, B.A. 1989

Camille graduated with a B.A. in Linguisticsin 1989. Right after college she went to workas a computer programmer eventually co-founding a small children’s edutainmentsoftware company called HeadboneInteractive in Seattle, Washington. Sheacted as the Technical Director for almost 10years before quitting and becoming aphotographer. She is still a photographer buthas also just completed her first novel,which she is currently editing and decidinghow to publish. Camille lives in Kirkland,Washington, with her husband JimLamoureux who also graduated fromNorthwestern.

Camille Lamoureux, B.A. 1989

The same year he received his Ph.D.,James was hired to teach mathematicsand computer science at MillikinUniversity, where he is now a tenured fullProfessor of Mathematics. He hasreceived several University-wideteaching awards and has over 150publications in national and internationaljournals. James has also served as theChair of the Department of Mathematicsand Computer Science and as theDirector of the Writing Across theCurriculum Program, and he has givennumerous professional talks. He iscurrently investigating swarmintelligence.

James Rauff, Ph.D. 1988

After she left Northwestern in 1987,Katrina travelled to Japan and taughtEnglish for a year. She returned to theUS with a new desire to go to MedicalSchool. She graduated fromUniversity of Louisville Medical Schoolin 1994 and joined the US Navy tocomplete her residency. Katrinabecame a Pediatrician in 1997 and leftthe Navy in 2001. She returned hometo Kentucky where she is in privatepractice as a Pediatrician inLexington. She is convinced that herlove of Pediatrics is in part due toLinguistics and her passion forlanguage development.

Katrina Hood, B.A. 1987

Nancy is a Professor of Music Theory atFlorida State University, where she receivedFSU’s Undergraduate Teaching Award in2013. Her research interests include musiccognition and its pedagogical implications,and she has presented papers at numerousnational and international conferences. Sheand Robert W. Ottman are co-authors ofMusic for Sight Singing (Pearson), the leadingsight-singing textbook in NorthAmerica. Nancy has served as Secretary ofthe Society for Music Theory, President ofMusic Theory Southeast, and Treasurer ofMusic Theory Midwest. Before coming toFlorida State University, she was on thefaculties of Northwestern University, theUniversity of Iowa, and Lawrence University.

Nancy Rogers, B.A. 1987

Having received a BA in Linguistics fromNorthwestern University, Denise Neapolitan wasawarded a Marshall Scholarship and studiedcognitive development at the Centre for CognitiveScience at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.After receiving her PhD, Denise joined the Universityof Kansas’ Center for Research on the Influences ofTelevision on Children, concentrating on theeffectiveness of educational media. She then leftacademe and joined Microsoft, where she led thepopular "Magic School Bus" software series. Denisehas returned to the UK where she lives with herhusband.

Denise Neapolitan, B.A. 1986

Daniel is the author of five provocativebooks – including the long-running NewYork Times bestsellers, A Whole NewMind and Drive. His latest book, To SellIs Human, is a #1 New York Timesbusiness bestseller, a #1 Wall StreetJournal business bestseller, and a #1Washington Post nonfiction bestseller.Dan’s books have been translated into34 languages. He lives in Washington,DC, with his wife and their threechildren.

2009 TED Talks: Daniel Pink examinesthe puzzles of motivation.

2014 Weinberg College ConvocationAddress by Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink, B.A. 1986

Photo by Rebecca Drobis.

Vance is an Assistant Professor of TESLand Applied Linguistics in theDepartment of Modern Languages at theUniversity of Mississippi. He has workedeither as an ESL/foreign languageinstructor or translator, living in countriessuch as Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.

Vance Schaefer, B.A. 1986

Craig is Associate Professor Emeritus ofEnglish at DePaul University. In 1983, heaccepted an administrative position atDePaul, which led to directing eveningundergraduate programs in DePaul’sCollege of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Hethen landed a tenure-track position in theDepartment of English, where he taughtundergraduate and graduate-levelcourses. In retirement he now works asa volunteer in Lyric Opera’s EducationCorps, giving backstage tours of theCivic Opera House to school groups.

Craig Sirles, Ph.D. 1985

Ellen is a Professor in the LinguisticsProgram and Department of English atWayne State University, where she hasbeen since receiving her Ph.D. in 1985.

Ellen Barton, M.A. 1983, Ph.D. 1985

For nearly 25 years following the completion ofher doctorate in linguistics, Linda served as auniversity faculty member, first at Northwesternand then at Millikin University, teaching at boththe undergrad and graduate levels. Areas ofspecialization included first and secondlanguage acquisition, bilingualism, languageassessment, sociolinguistics, cross-culturalcommunication, bilingual education, andinternational and U.S. ethnic literature. Shealso served as a consultant on a number ofthese topics, both in the U.S. and abroad,working for state departments of education,school districts, educational testing companies,publishing houses, and professionalorganizations. Linda retired from MillikinUniversity as Distinguished UniversityProfessor and Professor Emerita of Languageand Literature.

Linda Schinke-Llano, Ph.D. 1981

Judith currently works at J. Markowitz,Consultants in the field of speech andlanguage technology. In addition to herdoctoral degree in Linguistics, she also hasan MS in Computer Science and acertificate in Strategic Management fromthe American Management Association.Judith gave a keynote address atSpeechTEK 2015, which is the premiercommercial conference in the speech-processing industry. She has publishednumerous books.

Judith Markowitz, Ph.D. 1977

Sue is a nonpartisan attorney in thelegislative bill drafting office of theWashington State Legislature. In addition toediting the work of other professionallegislative policy staff members, her joboften involves helping translate policy andconcepts into easily understood andunambiguous language in bills that have thepotential to be enacted into law. AtNorthwestern, she was particularlyinterested in language acquisition anddevelopment, which she rarely uses in herjob, though she has at times been requiredto include "nonwords" in her bill drafting.

Sue Goldstein, B.A. 1975

After she received her Ph.D., Bonniebecame a faculty member in the School ofSpeech, Department of CommunicationSciences & Disorders. She was an AssistantProfessor there from 1975-1980 andbecame an Association Professor in 1980.After she left Northwestern, Bonnie becamethe Dean at Erikson Institute, a center foradvanced study in child development. Sheis currently an Associate Professor in theDepartment of Psychiatry at Rush MedicalUniversity, on the faculty of the ChicagoInstitute for Psychoanalysis, in privatepractice, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journalof the American Psychoanalytic Association(JAPA), published by Sage.

Bonnie Litowitz, M.A. 1970, Ph.D. 1975

William is retired from the University of Puerto Ricoat Rio Piedras, where he worked as a semanticist inthe Humanities English Department.

William Greenberg, M.A. 1967