Continuumt h e m a g a z i n e o f t h e n o r t h w e s t e r n u n i v e r s i t y s C h o o l o f C o n t i n u i n g s t u d i e s
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contentsgreen town, summer in the city 2An innovative program explores environmental sustainability in and around Chicago
going global 7Today SCS draws students not just from Chicago but also from China and the Middle East
rx for medical education 10SCS’s prehealth professional programs keep pace with changes in the health care industry — and blaze new trails as well
departmentsstudent profile: terence rau 16
faculty profile: eric fridman 18
sCs news 20Scholarships for SCS students; new programs; Wieboldt Hall renovation update
sCs people 23News from alumni, students, and faculty
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sCsn o r t h w e s t e r n u n i v e r s i t y s C h o o l o f C o n t i n u i n g s t u d i e s
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Continuum is published by the Northwestern
University School of Continuing Studies
for its students, alumni, faculty, staff, and
friends.
Editors: Brad Farrar, Tom Fredrickson,
Margaret McCarthy
Designer: Vickie Lata
Writer: Leanne Star
Photos: Kevin Weinstein, Sally Ryan,
Steve Anzaldi
Photo montage of the CIty Hall roof
garden on page 4 by Dennis Light/Light
Photographic.
Back cover:
Charles Whitaker, assistant professor
of journalism and director of the Medill
School’s Academy of Alternative Journalism,
teaches Advanced Feature Writing at SCS.
The former senior editor of Ebony magazine
was the 2004 Charles Deering McCormick
Distinguished Clinical Professor.
© 2007 Northwestern University.
All rights reserved.
Produced by University Relations.
5-07/22M/TF-VL/10717
Views expressed in Continuum do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the
editors or the University.
Dear SCS Friends,
“SCS’s pulse is a little closer to society’s.”
These words of Kimberly Gray, professor of civil and environmental engineering at
Northwestern, could well sum up this issue of Continuum and the recent SCS initiatives
highlighted within.
Our lead story (pages 2–6) describes SCS’s pioneering Green City Summer Institute,
an exploration of efforts in and around the city of Chicago to design and support environ-
mentally sound practices and communities. Drawing on the expertise of the Northwestern
faculty and local professionals, the institute addresses issues in a way that no other school
or program has.
SCS’s programs for students pursuing careers in health care professions have a long-
standing reputation for quality and rigor. And as these professions change, so does SCS — a point
demonstrated in the suite of articles on pages 10–15. Our curriculum reflects the variety of career
options available in the field today. Among the most exciting is medical informatics, a marriage of
medicine and information technology that promises to revolutionize patient care. SCS’s innovative
master’s degree program, offered in partnership with Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, is
offered both on site and online, matching course content and educational method to put students on
the cutting edge of the cutting edge.
Another new area where SCS has found success is in customized education programs for
business people — both in local institutions and from much farther afield. In one recent example
(described on pages 7–9) SCS adapted an existing English-language program to the needs of a
group of city administrators from Beijing. That the Chinese delegation chose SCS over other
programs speaks to the success of these efforts and of our increasing international reach.
The international flavor of SCS is also evident in the profile of student Terence Rau (pages 16–
17), who recounts his amazing journey from Asia to SCS. While his story is singular, Terence shares
with so many of our students a vision of the future that is best reached through SCS.
Every school is a laboratory for the future, and every dean hopes important work is being done
in his or her lab. I believe an important gauge of our success at SCS is how closely the work of our
students, faculty members, and alumni mirrors and anticipates the needs of society. And based on the
evidence in this magazine, I am proud of the progress we are making.
Sincerely,
Thomas F. Gibbons, Dean
May 2007
Spring 2007 Continuum 1
from the dean
2 Continuum Spring 2007
A collaboration between SCS’s Summer Session and the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied
Science grew into Northwestern’s inaugural Green City Summer Institute, three days of presentations and field trips highlighting the practice and promise of sustainability.
“The original seed came from Jack Clegg, who was overseeing our land-
scape design program,” says Stephanie Teterycz, director of Summer Session. “He brought the idea to the table, we began gathering information, and we found that the Chicago area offered a plethora of resources for studying environmental issues.”
One of those resources was right on the Evanston campus. The Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center, completed in October 2005 to house the McCormick School’s design-focused programs, was the first University building to gain certifica-tion from the U.S. Green Building Council under its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System. The building, which had to meet national benchmarks for environmental sustain-ability in five key areas — site development, water sav-ings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality — provided the ideal home base for the institute.
a common interest in sustainabilityThe Ford building also supplied an important link when its project manager directed Teterycz to a Northwestern faculty member, Kimberly Gray, professor of civil and environmental engineering at McCormick and a specialist on a wide array of topics ranging from alternative energy to urban redevelop-ment to natural systems such as wetlands and the Great
Lakes. Gray, who has long advocated for more environmentally based classes at Northwestern, embraced the idea of a summer institute and agreed to serve as its academic leader. “Years ago I began lobbying the University to become more interested in the area of sustainability,” says Gray, who has conducted research on how to harness light energy to catalyze reactions to attack pollutants or make chemical fuels. “Summer Session was the perfect place to nurture interest in sustainability. SCS’s pulse is a little closer to society’s.”
Gray recruited other Northwestern experts to pre-sent information on their specialties, while Teterycz contacted the city of Chicago for the names of com-munity activists, architects, and urban planners. Soon the program had an impressive roster of presenters and an inspired format for studying environmental issues in summertime Chicago: a mix of presentations in the
sCs focus
Green town, summer in the cityEnvironmental institute showcases Chicago
like most things green, it
started with a seed— actually, a few seeds and
a little cross-pollination.
don’t miss the 2007 green City summer instituteA Field Study in Chicago: Past, Present, and Future
August 2–4
For more information, see www.scs.northwestern .edu/summernu/programs /greencity.cfm.
Spring 2007 Continuum 3
Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center, with field trips to relevant sites in and around Chicago — all built around the theme of the past, present, and future state of the environment. “We took advantage of Chicago’s well-earned reputation as one of America’s greenest cities,” says Teterycz, noting that the city has pledged to lead the nation in the urban environmental movement. “Partnering with the city of Chicago was very gratifying.”
Teterycz took a green approach to marketing the summer institute, too, using mostly electronic media that depleted neither forests nor the program budget. The institute attracted an eager and eclectic group of 32 participants that included an educator from the Shedd Aquarium, a vice president of strategic planning, a botanist, a master gardener, professors, a real estate appraiser, architects, a rabbi, an academic program manager, a city project manager, and a graduate student in civil engineering.
Participant Keith Bodger (see accompanying article) says that the group enjoyed great camaraderie because of their common interest in green cities. Bodger adds that he had been waiting for a program like this to appear: “There wasn’t anything like this out there. I received cutting-edge information that I can use in my work.”
the ford motor Company engineering design Center was a fitting home for the green City summer institute, given its leed certification from the u.s. green Building Council.
4 Continuum Spring 2007
factories and fishing, side by sideAugust 9 was Day 1 of the program, which focused on “The Big Picture and the Past.” The group hit the ground running, with several hours of presenta-tions from Gray, who spoke on “Sustainability: Fad or Necessity,” and three others. Henry Binford, associ-ate professor of history at the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and at SCS, discussed the role of nature in shaping cities. David Lentz, vice president of scientific affairs and senior scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, explored the effect of 12,000 years of climate change and hu-man activities on plant life in Illinois. Carla Ng, a PhD candidate in chemical and biological engineering at McCormick, spoke on “Green City, Brown Lake” — restoration strategies for sustainable ecosystems in an evolving biological landscape.
Participants then piled into a bus for a site visit to the Calumet region in far south Chicago, an area that has come almost full circle ecologically. Once one of the largest and most diverse natural wetland complexes in lower North America, the Calumet region began, with the industrial boom of the mid-1800s, to produce the building blocks of a growing nation: steel, brick, glass, paint, and petroleum products. More than a century later the result was a 15,000-acre brownfield of abandoned industrial sites and noxious landfills, intermingled with the remnants of a highly endangered ecosystem. In June 2000 the city and state partnered to launch the Calumet Initiative,
4 Continuum Spring 2007
City hall’s roof garden (left) is a symbol and proof of Chicago’s place as one of america’s greenest cities.
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Spring 2007 Continuum 5
with the mission of rehabbing both the region’s open space parcels and its economy to demonstrate that ecological and economic restoration can occur in a complementary process. What the Green City partici-pants saw — a mix of wetlands, prairies, industrial sites, and neighborhoods — impressed them. “People were
fishing,” says Bodger, “and an auto parts fac-tory was being built next to an auto plant to minimize transport.”
picnic in the cityThe second day of the program —
“The Present” — began with a presentation by Evanston architect Nathan Kipnis on sustainable architecture and a talk by transportation expert Joseph Schofer, professor of civil and environmental engineering at McCormick, titled “Transportation, Location, and Sustainable Urban Travel.” Then it was on to downtown Chicago for a visit to City Hall’s roof-top garden, the first such green roof on a munici-pal building in the United States and one of 200 planted roofs in Chicago that help cool the city and reduce the amount of storm water entering the sewer system.
The next stop turned Chicago’s motto, Urbs in Horto (or “city in a garden”), into “garden in the city.” City Farm is a 1-1/2 acre organic farm on a once-vacant lot near Clybourn Avenue and Division Street. Because most Chicago soil con-tains lead, the ground is covered with three feet of composted soil, moved from the farm’s first lo-cation on the city’s South Side. According to City Farm founder Ken Dunn, who spoke to partici-
pants, Chicago has 90,000 vacant lots, totaling 10,000 acres. With City Farm as a model, the idea is that, as lots become developed and communities grow, the composted soil will be moved and reused. Compost for City Farm is generated by a dozen of the city’s finest restaurants (hotspots like Frontera Grill and Scoozi!), which in turn purchase the produce grown on the farm. Their chefs are thrilled with the range and quality of the produce — 30 varieties of tomatoes as well as beets, carrots, potatoes, gourmet lettuces, herbs, and melons — as were the Green City participants, who feasted on a picnic lunch that featured the farm’s offerings.
After lunch the group made its way to the West Side to visit the Center for Green Technology, a city-owned, mixed-use facility reborn from a former indus-trial building and dumping ground. When the Center for Green Technology was inaugurated in 2002, it was one of only five buildings in the country to receive the highest LEED rating of Platinum (the Ford building is Silver); currently there are 20 Platinum buildings in the United States. Kevin Pierce, then a principal architect for Farr Associates, the firm that designed the building, led participants on a tour that highlighted sustainable prac-tices: the extensive use of recycled or salvaged materials; water-storage cis-terns and a green roof to minimize run-off and irrigate native plants; and a ground-source heat/cooling pump
system that includes 28 vertical wells drilled 200 feet into the earth. “It was inspiring,” says Bodger. “It caused us to examine how we live our lives.”
Spring 2007 Continuum 5
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participants in sCs’s green City summer institute explored the past, present, and future of sustainability in the Chicago area:
from wetland to brownfield, the Calumet region has charted the environmental impact of industrialization. now, thanks to the Calumet initiative, the area is home to a mix of wetlands, prairies, industrial sites, neighborhoods — and even a rare yellow-winged blackbird. photos by rob Curtis.
some of Chicago’s best restaurants provide compost for the City farm and reap a harvest of high-quality produce in return. photos by Janel laban.
Built on what was once a rubble-strewn industrial site, the Center for green technology employs recycled building materials, solar panels, smart lighting, and a green roof — and is home to companies with an environmental bent. photos © farr associates architecture | planning | preservation, Chicago, illinois.
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A Green Cit y Alumnus puts new ideA s to work
Keith Bodger was not playing hooky from work when he spent three days in August picnicking, strolling through prairies, and taking in the scenery from a rooftop garden. In fact, Bodger’s employer sponsored his participation in Northwestern’s Green City Summer Institute, which included thought-provoking lectures on sustainability along with the picnicking (see accompanying article). Bodger, a senior environmental specialist at Nicor Gas, the Northern Illinois natural gas distribution company, says he is eager to implement in his workplace the ideas he picked up at the summer program.
“Seeing how rubber tires were recycled at the Chicago Center for Green Technology made me think about how we can recycle plastic pipe at Nicor,” says Bodger, who has worked at the company since 2001. “We can also do things like retrofitting lighting to be more energy efficient. Nicor’s already planting prairies — eight acres last year in Naperville and Elgin.” As pleased as he is with his company’s interest in the environment, Bodger is practical: “I have to take the emotion out of it and present sustainability to the company as a sound business move.”
Bodger has a long-standing interest in the environment and in Northwestern. In 1995, two years after moving to Chicago from his home near Ottawa, Bodger, who had earned an associate’s degree in geotechnical engineering in Canada, began taking classes at SCS while working at a consulting firm. By 2000 Bodger had earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies. “After I finished at Northwestern I couldn’t wait to go back to school,” says Bodger, but his busy work and family schedule kept him from doing so until last summer, when he heard about the Green City institute.
“My boss was very interested in what I learned at the institute, and we’ve been meeting with key personnel at Nicor to plant the seeds for new approaches to environmental issues,” says Bodger, who believes that what he learned in the program will further develop his career. At Nicor, Bodger works on maintaining environmental compliance. He leads classes for employees on topics such as spill response and is involved in committees that write regulations, including the Illinois underground storage tank regulations, which were rewritten in 2003 with the participation of stakeholders like Nicor. Bodger is also the author of a book, Fundamentals of Environmental Sampling, published in 2003.
As knowledgeable as Bodger is about environmental issues, the summer institute introduced him to several firsts. “I had read about LEED–certified buildings, but I had never been in one,” says Bodger, who noted details like minimal drywall and recycled glass steps in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center, where classes were held. “I had never seen a green roof before,” says Bodger, “and now we’re thinking of doing it at Nicor.” The biggest surprise for Bodger was City Farm: “I was amazed at what they’re doing in the middle of downtown Chicago. Ken Dunn [the founder of City Farm] is making a real difference.” And, says Bodger, the picnic lunch prepared from organic City Farm produce was “outstanding.”
development on the prairieOn the final day the topic was “The Future.” To catch a glimpse of what that might hold, the group traveled to far north suburban Grayslake to stroll through Prairie Crossing, a self-identified “Conservation Com-munity.” The 10-year-old development mixes 359
single-family homes and 36 condomini-ums with shared open land — in the same space that might have motivated a conven-tional developer to erect thousands of homes. Designed to combine respon-sible development, the preservation of open land, and easy commuting by rail, Prairie Crossing is now considered by
many to be a national example of how to design com-munities to support a better way of life.
“Going to Prairie Crossing opened my eyes,” says Gray, who confessed that before she visited the devel-opment she thought its status as a green community might have been hype. “Learning the history of it and understanding all the obstacles that had to be overcome to develop it, I came away with a new appreciation for what’s involved in creating and marketing a sustainable community.”
The entire program was an eye-opener for Teterycz. “The Green City Summer Institute was a tremendous learning experience for me,” says Teterycz, who in ad-dition to being an administrator is a graduate student in organizational change at the School of Education and Social Policy and was able to use her summer experi-ence for field research. “It went beyond doing my job. It stimulated my interest in the field. We talked about what we could do to make our lives more sustainable — on a personal level, a corporate level, a community level.”
For presenter Kipnis, variety was the spice of the institute. “The neat thing about it was that the partici-pants and the presenters all had varied backgrounds. The mix of lectures and field trips gave an overview of the subject, a nice snapshot of sustainable practices in the past, present, and future,” says Kipnis. “I haven’t seen another program on sustainability as comprehen-sive as the Green City Summer Institute.”
Teterycz is already gearing up for this summer, when the institute will be repeated but with new site visits and the latest information. “I’m thinking about what we can do to make the program itself greener,” says Teterycz. “Definitely less plastic with the catering.”
Keith Bodger
prairie Crossing
6 Continuum Spring 2007
“dear mayor daley,” begins the letter dated May 17, 2006. “we are a group of 22
civil servants from different departments
of the Beijing municipal Government. we
are currently studying english at north
western university school of Con tinuing
studies in order to prepare for the 2008
olympic Games.” The group ends the let-ter by inviting Mayor Richard M. Daley to meet with the class, sweetening the deal by promising to supply tips on how Chicago might win its bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. On June 29 Mayor Daley welcomed the group to City Hall.
The courses taken by the Beijing municipal employees represent one of several ways SCS has expanded its out-reach far beyond the Chicago area to create global ties. “Increasingly, SCS is seeking to offer programs or courses with an international focus, reflecting the University-wide commitment to offer programs that span the globe and promote cross-cultural understanding,” says Peter Kaye, assistant dean for undergraduate and credit professional programs at SCS.
SCS expands international ties
language skills help professionals advanceSCS developed a customized program to fit the needs of the Chinese delegation based on its Professional English Communication series, formerly known as English as a Second Language for Professionals. Leading SCS’s efforts in this area is Julia Moore, who holds a three-way appoint-ment at SCS, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and Northwestern’s Graduate School. At the Graduate School she runs the International Summer Institute, which provides intensive language instruction for international PhD students. Moore directs classes and tutoring year-round. She earned a PhD in linguistics from Northwestern in 2004 and specializes in language acquisition, pedagogy, and pragmatics.
Moore helped develop a roster of seven courses in the Professional English Communication series aimed at Chicago-area professionals in business, medicine, research, and academia who have intermediate to advanced profi-ciency in English. “Communication is important in the workplace,” says Moore. “Even small talk and socializing play a part. Our students know that refining their English skills will help them advance in their work.”
The classes, which emphasize speaking rather than reading and writing English, are a lively mix of role playing and interactive exercises designed to promote practice. “If you walk into a class you’ll hear the students speaking to one another, with the professors providing feedback,” says Moore. “Our goal is comprehensibility and effective communication. We don’t want students to get hung up on perfect pronunciation. We try to let them hear the dif-ference in intonation through repetition and correction.”
Going global
welcoming visitors with a customized curriculumIn addition to regularly scheduled courses, SCS tailors special offerings to visiting groups, like the Chinese delegation that visited last spring. SCS also developed an intensive program last summer for a group of five police officers from the United Arab Emirates. The program included special-ized vocabulary that included the nomenclature of accident investi-gation and traffic engineering. By fall the five were equipped to join native English speakers in classes at Northwestern’s Center for Public Safety, where they will complete their course work in police traffic management in June.
“Having SCS bring ESL instruction to this group made a big difference,” says Alexander Weiss, director of the Center for Public Safety. “In the future we hope to include this as part of our program for international visitors.”
Because Chinese speakers make up the largest group in the Professional English Communication series, SCS instructors already had a good grasp of the issues involved in teaching English to the municipal workers from Beijing. “Pitch is important in both Chinese and English,” says Moore. “But in Chinese pitch operates at the level of individual words — these are called tones. In English we use changes in pitch at the sentence level — intonation — to carry meaning, some of which is also conveyed in social cues. This takes some getting used to for non-English speakers.”
SCS’s experience teaching English to Chinese speakers was one of the factors that led Chinese offi-cials to select Northwestern from a group of 12 schools originally considered; the Chicago setting was another plus. Gearing up for the 2008 Olympic Games, the government of Beijing wanted to ramp up training for municipal workers who will have increased communica-tions in English with international visitors.
SCS also had the advantage of working with “a wonderful group of partners,” says Moore. Interna-tional Student Friendship Chicago provided weeklong home stays with host families for complete immer-
sion in English. Licheng Gu, chair of Chi-nese language and literature in Northwestern’s Department of African and Asian Languages, arranged for American students learning Chinese to meet with the visitors. Volunteers from the North-western chapter
of the Community Council for International Students and from SCS’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute also provided important support.
practicing english in the windy CityThe Chinese municipal workers arrived in April and spent 13 weeks in the United States. Most of their time was devoted to the SCS program, but they also fit in a 10-day tour to a few national highlights: Yellowstone National Park, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
At SCS’s new Loop space at 210 South Clark Street, they took classes in listening and translation, conversation, pronunciation, and presentations. “It’s a wonderful facility, with state-of-the-art classrooms and beautiful views of downtown Chicago,” says Moore.
left: Julia moore
Below: Joann dobbie, sCs director of corporate education (left), with students zhu linyan (center) and Xu lu (right).
Bottom right: the Beijing municipal employees visit mayor richard m. daley at City hall.
The program was customized for the specific needs of the group. Translation skills were emphasized because, says Moore, “when they return to Beijing they will be the English experts in their departments, called on to translate.” To accommodate differences in proficiency, they were divided into small groups for some subjects, like pronunciation. An extra-long break was scheduled at lunch to allow students time for the nap often built into the Chinese school day.
On Fridays the students received one-on-one tutor-ing and took a project-based learning class that included numerous field trips, like a visit to a Borders bookstore to look for nouns and verbs. The group also enjoyed a tour of Chicago’s architecture and activities organized by their instructors. Z. J. Tong, who taught their listen-ing and translation class, planned a party, and another instructor arranged for the group to attend the opera Nixon in China. “All of the instructors helped make Chicago a second home for the students,” says Moore.
It was an in-class writing exercise that spurred the students to invite Mayor Daley to meet with them. During the visit to City Hall that resulted, the mayor delivered a short address to the delegation in which he recounted a recent visit to Beijing and commented upon Chicago’s efforts to increase awareness of Chinese culture. The students discussed the city’s government with Eileen Hubbard, director of the Office of Protocol, and shared their experiences in Beijing’s government with her. A look at City Hall’s rooftop gardens provided
an opportunity for a member of Beijing’s Bureau of Environmental Services to converse with her Chicago counterpart.
“The visit with the mayor was wonderful because it came at the end of the program,” says Moore, “and the students were able to use all the skills they had developed over the past three months to speak about topics specific to their interests.”
Moore says she was very happy with the prog-ress the group made. “I saw a wonderful improve-ment in their English. They now have a broader, more international per-spective.” She adds that the experience was equally valuable for SCS. “We learned a great deal about logistics that will be helpful in hosting other groups.” Moore is exploring English tutoring options for business professionals from Argentina and continues to work with international law students from China, Israel, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
During their months in Chicago the Chinese municipal workers formed strong bonds with their instructors and with the city, says Moore. “When they arrived they were homesick for China. When they left they were homesick for Chicago.”
“ Communication is important in the workplace. Even small talk and socializing play a part. Our students know that refining their English skills will help them advance.”
10 Continuum Spring 2007
Rx for medical educationSCS offerings mirror trends in health care
Rx for medical education
Spring 2007 Continuum 11
T he practice of medicine in the United States has changed in many ways
over the last quarter century — an upsurge in managed care, increased use of information technology, a proliferation of high-tech diagnostic and therapeutic tools — but one thing has barely budged: the num-ber of medical school graduates. In 1980 U.S. medical schools graduated 16,935 new physicians, versus 15,925 in 2006 — a 6 percent decrease that coincided with a 32 percent increase in the U.S. population.
Does this mean that the nation is experiencing a severe shortage of doctors? Not necessarily. For one thing, graduates of foreign medical schools represent about one in four physicians practicing in the United States. For another, the responsibilities of health care professionals have shifted, with physician assistants and nurse practitioners assuming some of the duties once restricted to physicians.
Nevertheless, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reports mounting evidence that suggests current trends will culminate in a shortage of physicians within the next few decades. The AAMC further points out existing shortages in particular specialties and underserved populations. But because enrollment numbers in medical schools are nationally regulated, an increase in the number of available slots may be years away.
What this means is that anyone hoping to gain admis-sion to medical school in the immediate future will have to vie for about the same number of openings as far fewer candidates did a generation ago. Last year approximately 39,000 applicants competed for 17,000 slots, making the odds of getting into medical school less than 1 in 2. What is a would-be doctor to do?
more paths to a career in medicineThe options for those interested in health care professions are multi-plying at SCS. Chief among these options is Northwestern’s Professional Health Careers Professional Develop-ment Program, which consists of four concentrations that prepare students to apply to schools of• medicine and related professions
— dentistry, veterinary medicine, physician assistant, pharmacy, osteopathy, and podiatry
• physical therapy• nursing• clinical psychology
Other career possibilities lie in the rapidly growing field of medi-cal informatics, a hybrid discipline
that merges information technology with the practice of medicine to improve patient care. Northwestern’s Master of Science in Medical Informatics (MMI) degree program, founded in 2006 and based on the Chicago campus, now offers an option for online study, giving students who live thousands of miles away access to this nationally recognized program (see accompanying article).
SCS’s approach to medical education dovetails with changes in medical practice and education. “Increasingly, medical schools aren’t limiting their admissions to biology majors as they had in the past,” says Peter Kaye, assistant dean for undergraduate and credit professional programs at SCS. “Now they’re drawing on a candidate pool with more diverse experience — which fits nicely with what we’re doing at SCS.” The varied backgrounds of SCS’s premedical students enrich the classes, says Kaye, citing some of their fields: law, social work, psychology, software programming, physics, finance, and microbiology.
Even with that diverse experience, these budding doc-tors must still meet the same prerequisites for admission to
adviCe for those Considering a Career in health Care
Jocelyn hirschman
“I like the idea of taking small steps. If there’s a voice in your head saying
‘Be a doctor,’ start with a class or two. That voice spoke louder to me in
my 30s than it did in my 20s.”
vu le
"If you’re thinking deep down that becoming a doctor is your
calling, give it a shot, but don’t quit your day job. One class will give you an idea of how hard it is and whether this will work in your life’s plan. Even students who took premed classes
years ago will want to retake science classes before taking the MCAT.”
12 Continuum Spring 2007
medical school as the biology majors with whom they com-pete. That often entails going back to school, typically in a postbaccalaureate premedical program, to study subjects like biochemistry.
Of postbaccalaureate premedical programs listed on the AAMC web site, Northwestern’s is highlighted for its focus on career changers. (For the story of one such career changer, read the accompanying profile of student Vu Le, an experienced mechanical engineer about to enter dental school.) “For some it’s not only a career change but a life change,” says Kaye. “Their interest in medicine might be precipitated by incidents in their lives.”
These career changers also tend to be older than the freshly minted college graduates who represented most medical school enrollees in the past but who today make up only about half of entering classes. “Being older can be a plus,” says Kaye. “Life experience helps physicians relate to patients.” Almost a third of current applicants are between 24 and 27, and 16 percent are older than 27. Students in this category are sometimes referred to as “nontraditional” — a label that not so long ago referred to women and minorities applying to medical school. Jocelyn Hirschman, a veteran of SCS’s premedical program who began medical school last fall (see accompanying profile), said that at age 34 she expected to be the oldest in her medical school class — but discovered that one of her classmates was 44.
In addition to their diverse professional backgrounds, SCS premed students represent varied geographic territory. “The publicity about the program on the AAMC web site attracted national and international interest,” says Carolyn Feller, an academic counselor at SCS. Feller says that stu-dents from throughout the country, including California, Colorado, and Georgia, have relocated to the Chicago area to attend Northwestern’s program and that inquiries have come from China, India, Ireland, Korea, and Turkey.
What attracts these far-flung students to Northwestern’s premedical programs? “Northwestern’s reputation and the rigorous curriculum are primary reasons,” says Feller, “but SCS’s flexibility is equally important.” Because most classes are held at night on the Evanston campus, where lab space is available, students can keep their day jobs. A prospective student might choose to test the waters with a single course as a student at large or apply to enroll in a premed professional development program. Enrolling in the program qualifies students for federal financial aid
and allows them use of the recommendation file service when applying to medical school. Another option might be to earn a second bachelor’s degree in a subject like human biology.
a sense of communityKaye says that a big draw for premeds at SCS is their sense of community, and he believes they deserve the credit for this. “They’re very supportive of one another. One of the best aspects of the program is the student group. I applaud them for their energy and initiative.” That student group, Northwestern University Pre-health Professionals (NUPP), identifies itself as “a community dedicated to the successful admission of its members into programs that lead to careers in medical, health, and veterinary practice.” To that end, students share relevant information and meet to hear speak-ers on topics of interest.
Some of what students share might be tips on applying to medical school, suggestions for presenting themselves during the requisite interviews, and — something that looms very large — how to do well on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). “Numbers aren’t the whole story,” says Feller, “but students who get into medical school usually score 30 or higher on the MCAT and have a GPA of 3.5 or above.”
No figures are available for how SCS premed students score on the MCAT, but Hirschman says that her score shot up by seven points after she took classes at SCS, as measured against two earlier attempts. Kaye says that the rigor of the curriculum prepares students for more than that important exam. “After taking the MCAT one student told me, ‘We were pushed so hard in organic chemistry that I knew all the material.’” Kaye says that in addition to being rigorous the SCS curriculum offers some unique opportunities, including the only undergraduate anatomy class at Northwestern. He adds that SCS pays attention to what medical schools want, such as more emphasis on biochemistry.
“The strength and rigor of our program fit into our larger mission, which is to make top-quality education available to those who might not otherwise have access to it,” says Kaye. “Our hope is that it will open doors of possibility to our students — and that the medical com-munity will benefit.”
About half of all medical students go straight
from college to medical school. For the other
half the path may be circuitous. “I thought
about medical school in college,” says Jocelyn
hirschman, who earned a bachelor’s degree in
biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign in 1994, “but I wasn’t prepared to
go to school for another 10 years.” Apparently
timing was everything for Hirschman. Last fall,
a dozen years later — and rich with experience
— she entered Northwestern’s Feinberg School
of Medicine.
The intervening years took Hirschman around
the world, first to New Orleans for a master’s
degree in public health at Tulane University. For
her capstone project in epidemiology she served
as a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso in
West Africa, training a management committee
at a small village health center in budgeting and
program planning. Hirschman next put her public
health degree to work doing infectious disease
surveillance for the Arizona Department of Public
Health and studying how poverty influences
health outcomes at Chicago’s Sinai Urban Health
Institute.
She liked epidemiology but felt she could
do more as a doctor. To begin to realize that goal,
she took general chemistry and physics at SCS
as a student at large.
“The classes made it
clear to me that this
was what I wanted
to do,” says Hirschman, who went on to finish
the Professional Health Careers Professional
Development Program with a concentration in
premedicine in two years.
The environment at SCS enhanced her experi-
ence. “It was good to be with others who were
going through the same thing,” says Hirschman.
“I really liked my fellow students, with their
wide range of backgrounds and their maturity.”
Hirschman also praises the student group, NUPP.
“The support of the community made the deci-
sion to go to medical school much easier.”
The hardest decision for Hirschman, who
was accepted at several top medical schools,
proved to be picking which school to attend.
Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine
won out. Hirschman notes that
her friends at SCS also were
accepted into their programs of
choice in medicine, veterinary
medicine, and physical therapy.
Her first day in medical school was “exciting
and a little scary,” but she soon discovered that
her units in biochemistry and cell biology were
similar to what she had studied at SCS. “I felt
very well prepared,” says Hirschman. “I’m confi-
dent I can do this.”
pre-premed: time for experience before medical school
“ i felt very well prepared. i’m confident i can do this.”
Spring 2007 Continuum 13
Vu le was working 60-hour weeks as an auto-
motive engineer at a Ford assembly plant on
Chicago’s South Side when he revisited his
dream of a career in medicine. His sister, an
endodontist, had previously prodded him to
consider such a move, but at that time he lived
in Michigan and had been unable to find a pre-
medical program that would allow him to con-
tinue to work. When he moved to Chicago, he
discovered SCS. “It was exactly what I needed,”
says Le, who plans to attend dental school after
he completes a bachelor’s degree in biology at
Northwestern in June.
Le had earned bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in mechanical engineering and
amassed years of experience in the automotive
industry in Detroit when he and his wife relo-
cated to Chicago in 2004. Because Le had taken
many of the necessary premed courses as an
undergraduate, he could have applied to medi-
cal school after taking only two SCS courses,
biology and organic chemistry. But Le found
his classes so absorbing that he resigned from
his job to focus on his studies. “I thought the
upper-level biology classes
of the bachelor’s program
would help me stand out
from other applicants,”
says Le.
One valuable source
of information for Le was
NUPP, the student organiza-
tion for pre-health profes-
sionals. “NUPP showed me
how to be a more competitive applicant,”
says Le, who is now the group’s president.
“They gave me a lot of information, and I
wanted to give something back.” To that end
Le applied some of his professional skills as a
team leader, matching committee members with
specific responsibilities, clarifying accounting,
and negotiating an agreement with Kaplan Test
Prep and Admissions — SCS had an existing
relationship with the Princeton
Review — so that students could
obtain discounts at both. NUPP
also facilitates tutoring for pre-
medical students.
Le has no regrets about the
effort it takes to switch careers.
“I realized I didn’t want to do my
old job for another 30 years,” says
Le, who is 34. “If I graduate from
dental school when I’m 40, I’ll still have 25 years
to practice, and I’ll be doing work that I find
truly satisfying.”
sCs student chooses the road not taken — and it leads to dental school
“ if i graduate from dental school when i’m 40, i’ll still have 25 years to practice, and i’ll be doing work that i find truly satisfying.”
14 Continuum Spring 2007
Spring 2007 Continuum 15
The cutting edge of the cutting edge in health care can be found
in SCS’s newest distance learning initiative, the online version of its rigorous Master of Science in Medical Informatics (MMI) program. Com-bining information technology (IT) with medicine, the MMI program now offers students the choice between the classroom and the computer — anywhere in the world.
Offered by SCS in partnership with the Feinberg School of Medicine, the 11-course MMI program received a Creative Credit Academic Program Award from the University Continu-ing Education Association in 2006. Students follow one of two entry tracks depending on whether their backgrounds are in health care or IT. Program director David Liebovitz has expertise in both areas — he majored in electrical engineering before attending medical school — and serves as chief medical informatics officer for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation and as medical director for clinical information systems at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Liebovitz is enthusiastic about how medical informatics can improve patient care and streamline adminis-trative practices. “Medical informatics facilitates and guides medical decision making, increasing the probability of safe and effective care — it can help save lives by preventing medi-cal errors,” says Liebovitz. “It also improves communication and acts as a bridge between patients and physicians. And it can save money — potentially billions of dollars annually.”
In Introduction to Clinical Thinking, an entry course geared to nonclinicians, Liebovitz addresses topics like the recording of medical information. “We look at how struc-tured data differs from a free text and why it’s important to strike a bal-ance between the two in presenting a patient narrative. Here’s an example: A 65-year-old woman returns from her niece’s wedding and sees that her feet are swollen; she’s also anxious and short of breath. The detail about the wedding — where she may have indulged in dietary indiscretions, such as too much salt — may provide an important direction for testing.”
In a parallel entry track, Intro-duction to Medical Informatics, students with clinical experience explore how IT applies to health care. One instructor for this course is Linda Salchenberger, associate dean of academics at SCS. Salchenberger, who earned a PhD in decision sciences, has published research on data mining and neural network applications in health care.
Salchenberger says that the MMI program lends itself perfectly to its new online learning option, which began in January: “MMI students are highly motivated and very tech savvy. They’ll find this a natural way to learn.” She adds that online learning can serve local students with demand-ing work and travel schedules as well as those thousands of miles away. “Our audience of adult learners shouldn’t be constrained by geographic bound-aries,” says Salchenberger.
To reach that audience, SCS Dean Thomas F. Gibbons has
launched several distance-learning initiatives. “We’re experimenting with three different learning-delivery methodologies,” says Salchenberger. An undergraduate major in organiza-tion behavior, designed around the theme of leadership, blends classroom and online learning to cut face-to-face class time in half by adding online work. A noncredit course, Basics of Futures and Options Trading, gives students the choice between coming to class in person or participating in classes using web conferencing — an example of synchronous learning, where students connect at the same time, wherever they may be.
The online option for the MMI program combines synchronous and asynchronous learning. Professors schedule weekly sessions with students using WebEx™ conferencing; the sessions are recorded and archived. Students can access other material and homework exercises at their con-venience via Blackboard, an online course management program. The online option remains separate from the on-campus program, although students can transfer between them.
Salchenberger says that as the technology becomes more sophisti-cated, SCS program planners hope to build more collaborative tools. “Our focus is on creating a good distance learning experience for students,” says Salchenberger. “No talking heads, no professors delivering canned lectures. We’re trying to recreate the environ-ment of a real classroom.”
medical informatics: high-tech help for healing Online option brings the classroom anywhere
16 Continuum Spring 2007
student profile
What did you do before coming to SCS?
There are private security companies that support
government agencies and private corporations in
their operations overseas, and I worked for one
of these companies. These are often very volatile
regions, and people can get themselves into trouble
— sometimes through their own actions, sometimes
as targets of indigenous groups waging political
fights or simply kidnapping for money. I worked
throughout Asia: Pakistan, India, northwestern
China on the border of Tajikistan — that was my
last posting before coming to Chicago.
How did this experience lead you to SCS?
I came away not entirely convinced that these
companies are the best way to solve a lot of the
problems they are called on to solve. At best we were
bandages; we weren’t solving problems. I started
looking for more long-term solutions, and I think a
lot of it has to do with how countries are governed.
Naturally these are huge, multidimensional
challenges, but I began looking at where I could
have the most impact. I knew I needed to go to
law school — with a focus on comparative law or
comparative constitutional law — and that meant I
needed to brush up my academic credentials before
applying.
When Terence Rau speaks of the “less linear” lives of SCS students, it quickly
becomes clear his own life may be the ultimate example: Born in Singapore, Rau
spent his early years — some of them homeless — in Indonesia and Malaysia before
making a career in private security in various trouble spots throughout Asia. When
his wife started law school in Chicago, Rau followed. At SCS he is completing a
BSGS in political science this year with an eye to applying to law school. While
taking classes he works as an options trader and personal fitness trainer.
Why did you choose SCS?
I was looking for a real education. I could have done
it much quicker at other schools, but after weighing
the options and really looking at my life, I chose the
program where I would be intellectually challenged
and could get as much exposure to real academia as
I could.
Also, the value of a flexible program that allows
one to make a living while receiving the quality of
education that Northwestern provides is priceless.
For all us SCS folk who experienced a “less linear”
path in life, this program is a privilege.
What is the best thing about being a student
at Northwestern?
The professors. They not only facilitate a level of
education that promotes critical thinking but also
introduce tools for continued self-education.
What have been your favorite classes?
I took the African survey class by Jeff Rice [history]
last summer and the anthropological cultural
survey of North Africa by Katherine Hoffman
[anthropology] last spring. For a continent that
provides so much of the world’s resources, headlines,
engagement rings, and kids for celebrities, it does
Spring 2007 Continuum 17
What’s your favorite thing about Chicago?
Winter. (Kidding.) The opportunity to interact
with Midwesterners. I have come to realize how
different Chicagoans and Midwesterners are in
their self-view, perception, and conception of
America and its other regions as compared with
Southerners. (I used to live in Texas and traveled
extensively through the Southern states.) The
local political scene, city infrastructure, and
acquiescent class system as viewed through the
experiences of my peers are fascinating.
What book is on your nightstand?
Snow by Orhan Parmuk (translated from
Turkish). It’s a social and political commentary on
Turkey (intentionally, superficially) couched in the
style of a narrated travelogue. It reads like you’re
watching a movie. Over the years the author has
been in and out of jail for the political subtext of
his works. The book provides excellent insight into
the complexities of Turkish society and sovereign
identity in the world community through the story
of a rural community. Even if politics and social
commentary are not your cup of tea, it holds its own
as a novel.
What is your greatest achievement?
Ask me again when I’m 90.
not command a proportionate share of intellectual
attention. That we have scholars like Rice, Hoffman,
Georgi Derluguian [sociology], and Will Reno
[political science] at Northwestern with both deep
field and intellectual knowledge of Africa is a
testament to the justified national reputation of the
University.
Who are your favorite professors?
William Arndt [finance], Michelle Christensen
[political science], Liuba Kurtynova-Derluguian
[history], Georgi Derluguian, Tolga Esmer [history],
(if he visits again), Roshen Hendrickson [political
science], Katherine Hoffman, Ian Hurd [political
science], Deepasriya Sampath-Kumar [economics],
Jerome Lassa [organizational behavior], Will Reno,
Jeffery Rice, Torrey Shanks [political science], David
Tully [political science]: Their classes have been
engaging and challenging and allow you to stretch
your mind as far as you want. These professors are
also great communicators, possess interesting and
diverse worldviews, and are accessible outside class.
Their publications contain powerful ideas and offer
rich bibliographies for further research.
18 Continuum Spring 2007
faculty profile
When Franz Paul walked into Eric Fridman’s class last June,
he thought he knew what to expect from Topics in Management: Leadership and Decision Making. “I thought we’d read about Patton or other military leaders,” says Paul, an options trader who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from SCS in December. He could not have been more wrong.
Rather than study General George Patton, the class watched a routine by comedian George Carlin. Instead of PowerPoint presentations, students recited poems and belted out gospel music. “Eric approached the subject in an unexpected way,” says Paul. “When he first talked about the art of leadership and about authenticity, I had no idea how these would fit in. In the end I came away with a much deeper understanding of what leadership is. Out more than 20 classes I took at SCS, this was one of the very best.”
It should come as no surprise that Paul’s instruc-tor, a rookie at SCS but no novice in the classroom, hit one out of the park, or that his class is sure to be offered again, probably next fall. Fridman, assistant dean and director of marketing for executive education at the J. L. Kellogg School of Management, is a sea-soned teacher and student of leadership, a subject he knows firsthand from more than 20 years as an executive in the telecommunications industry.
“I think of leaders more as artists than generals or football coaches,” says Fridman. “Leaders must be creative to solve organizational issues. Like artists, they have to be able to improvise on the spot. I try to use the classroom as a studio, a creative environment where students not only learn about leadership but practice it.”
In keeping with that goal, Fridman started the first class — without introducing himself —
by asking a question: “How many of you have walked into a room where a group of people are sitting and waiting for you?” A few hands went up, and Fridman followed with another question: “OK, since you understand my situation, how should I start?” As students made suggestions — “You could tell a joke” — Fridman asked another question: “Why?” Soon the entire class was engaged in dialogue.
The questions and dialogue at the heart of Fridman’s teaching reflect his background. “Most of my schooling was in the humanities,” says Fridman, who earned a master’s degree in general studies in the humanities at the University of Chicago, where he studied Chinese philosophy — he is proficient in Mandarin — and crafted a thesis on Ezra Pound. Fridman later earned an MBA from Kellogg. “Study-ing the Greeks and Plato gave me a lifelong apprecia-tion for the Socratic method. One of the first skills I introduce to my students is how to engage in dialogue with another person.”
Students in Fridman’s class quickly learned to expect the unexpected. They read Ellen Langer’s On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mind-ful Creativity and kept personal journals to identify obstacles that kept them from fulfilling their creative
An authentic teacherEric Fridman riffs on the art of leadership
Spring 2007 Continuum 19
potential. Why read Langer and explore mindfulness? “Mindfulness is a personal capacity leaders must cul-tivate,” says Fridman. “Most of us spend 90 percent of our time worrying about the past or future rather than paying attention to what’s happening right now. Multi-tasking is the antithesis of mindfulness; it prevents you from becoming the leader you can become.”
Fridman led students through a series of exercises designed to help them experience the qualities of lead-ership. To learn about personal presence, Fridman asked students to select a reading of personal impor-tance and present it to the class in a way that would establish a direct, emotional connection. One student brought a guitar and sang a blues song he wrote about his wife. Another read a citation for a friend in the Marines who lost his life in the Sudan, and one read an inspirational passage from a diet book. Fridman went last, reciting a William Carlos Williams poem, “Danse Russe.”
Anyone wandering into Fridman’s classroom during moments like these might have wondered,
What does this have to do with leadership? “Leaders must be authentic,” says Fridman. “Their actions have to be consistent with their personal values. Trust has to grow between leaders and followers.” When asked why trust is essential, Fridman gives a pointed answer: “Look at Enron.”
The role of the leader, says Fridman, is to create an environment in which all factions can engage in can-did dialogue and create solutions that give everyone something of what they want. “The best metaphor I can think of for leadership is the leader as a chef and the organization he leads as a pressure cooker,” says Fridman. “That’s why the leadership classroom comes to look less like a class in chemistry or algebra or even
marketing and more like a class in cooking, painting, or sculpture, where instead of one right answer there are several.”
Fridman’s approach to teaching leadership, with its emphasis on authenticity and creativity, may be uncon-ventional, but it does not lack rigor. “Sometimes I had to remind myself that this was an undergraduate class,” says Paul. “He brought the intellectual rigor of a grad-uate business school program to the classroom.” Paul adds, “People responded eagerly to his teaching style. He truly listens and adds fresh ideas.”
Fridman would call his teaching prowess simply being a good leader. He credits his SCS students for their willingness to engage and to see things in new ways: “SCS students are really hungry to learn. They believe their education will make a profound difference in their lives — and it will.”
At home in Glenview, Fridman takes great pleasure in his family. He and his wife of 15 years are parents to an 11-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son, both of whom are following their dad’s lead by learning Chi-
nese. Fridman’s leisure pursuits, he says, are unremark-able. When asked about a creative outlet, however, he does not hesitate: “Teaching. That’s what I do for fun.” No wonder Fridman’s students are eager to follow this leader.
“ i try to use the classroom as a studio, a creative environment where students not only learn about leadership but practice it.”
20 Continuum Spring 2007
sCs news
The pharmaceutical, food, and biotechnology industries are moving at an increasingly rapid pace, with pressure to get new products to market quickly while assuring consumers and regulatory agencies that these products are effective and safe. Scientists in these fields are often forced to juggle the demands of consumers, government regulations, business, and science itself. A new SCS graduate program, the Master of Science in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Science (MQARS), aims to give these labo-ratory scientists the knowledge, expertise, and skills to create and implement efficient and effective quality systems as well as under-stand the regulatory and compli-ance environment.
lab science degree focuses on quality, regulatory standards
“Life scientists are unique in that the quality of their work, when used for the good of mankind, will be the difference between suffering or relief, life or death for many people over many, many years,” said Neal Siegel, chief scientist of Sword Diagnostic and an MQARS board member. Scientists with undergraduate and graduate degrees in fields such as biology, chemistry, bioengineer-ing, biotechnology, and chemical engineering routinely find them-selves asked to play a leadership role in quality assurance, yet they are unlikely to have any formal edu-cation in this increasingly complex field. Pharmaceutical, food, medical device, and other similarly regulated industries face many overlapping quality challenges that are better
addressed by a rigorous profes-sional master’s degree than by internal training programs. The industry-standard MQARS program is ideal for scientists and quality-affairs professionals as well as scientists with undergradu-ate or graduate degrees in the life sciences intending to pursue a career in regulatory affairs. The degree is offered in partnership with the Department of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and combines leadership and communication skills with applied science and project man-agement as well as risk assessment and risk management. A faculty consisting of University faculty and specialists from FDA-regulated companies leads students through a 10-course curriculum
designed to bridge instruction in the life sciences with the demands of industry. Highlights of the program include a leadership series and a capstone project that combine theo-retical and applied approaches in a cross-industry fashion. SCS also offers a five-course Professional Graduate Series Certificate that con-sists of core classes and electives for students seeking a more focused program of study. For more information, contact Cary Nathenson, assistant dean of graduate programs, at 847-491-4340.
Employees of Northwestern enrolled in SCS are eligible for a scholarship of up to $1,000 from the University Circle, an organization founded to provide opportunities for service, scholarship, and social activi-ties that enhance the University community. The award helps cover tuition toward a certificate or degree program at the undergraduate or graduate level.
The University Circle established the scholarship in 2004 and awarded the first one in spring 2005. In 2006 the University Circle awarded two scholarships in response to the number and quality of applications. They were presented to two Feinberg School of Medicine employees: Laura Guzman and Silvia Skripkauskas (see SCS people).
The application deadline is March 1, and the winner is announced at the May annual meeting of the Circle. The scholarship may be applied to tuition for the following summer, fall, or winter quarters.
Applicants must be in good academic standing with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and must have been employed by Northwestern for more than one year. The scholarship committee considers clarity of and dedication to stated goals, past academic record, financial need, and Northwestern University or other community involvement when assessing applications.
university Circle scholarship aids sCs students
The scholarship is funded through donations from University Circle members and friends. The Circle had its origins in 1915 when a group of Northwestern faculty wives formed the Faculty Women’s Club to help build a facility for female students. Today any person with an official relationship to Northwestern University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, or Seabury-Western Theological Seminary is eligible to become a member of the Circle, as are spouses and parents of those persons.
Information about the scholarship and application forms are available at www.northwestern.edu/university-circle.
Spring 2007 Continuum 21Spring 2007 Continuum 21
In wake of Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate scandals, Americans are increasingly aware that crimes of the executive suite can be just as destructive as crimes of the street. To address this trend, SCS has launched Investigation and Prevention of Commercial Fraud, a new certifi-cate program designed to help professionals meet the growing challenges associated with internal fraud and white-collar crime.
The curriculum is designed for audit committee members, executive management and owners of small and mid-sized companies, accountants, internal auditors, attorneys, law enforcement and government investiga-tors, and career changers who have an interest in this growing field.
Susan Henry, program adviser and instructor, says, “Professionals re-sponsible for investigating and preventing fraud within their organizations need critical resources — beyond standard academic studies and on-the-job training — to maximize their effectiveness. This program provides a foundation for individuals to learn best practices in fraud investigation and prevention from top instructors in the industry.”
Students in the program learn about various forms of financial statement fraud (including billing schemes, cash larceny, bribery, and corruption), legal requirements for fraud prevention within an organization, data investi-gation techniques used in the course of fraud investigation, interview and interrogation techniques employed in fraud examinations, and how to utilize forensic accounting, data analysis, and computer forensics to con-duct a fraud investigation.
Students earn the certificate when they complete four six-week courses within one year. The evening courses are held at SCS’s Loop location, 210 South Clark Street. For additional information, contact Laura Salus at 312-503-4846 or visit www.scs.northwestern.edu/fraud.
The Center for Public Safety has moved to new headquarters in SCS’s main Evanston building at 1801 Maple Avenue.
The move consolidates all of the center’s programs — except for Traffic Safety School — into one facility.
The center was established in 1936 as the Traffic Institute and joined SCS in 2004. It provides con-tinuing education, consulting, and research for law enforcement agen-cies throughout the world.
In its new space on the first and third floors of 1801 Maple, the center has two 50-person “smart” conference rooms, a 60-seat multi-purpose room, a forensics room, and administrative offices. The con-ference rooms serve law enforce-ment and traffic personnel who attend the center’s professional ed-ucation and training courses. About 2,000 people attend courses each
wieboldt hall update
In late January the renovation of Wieboldt Hall shifted into high gear as contractors worked round-the-clock to overhaul the lobby and the fourth and fifth floors. To minimize disruption of SCS activi-ties, demolition was limited to a brief period ending in February and occurred entirely at night. Teams of electricians, HVAC specialists, carpenters, and other contractors worked during the day to modern-ize the SCS facilities. The recon-struction will continue through the spring and summer, with August 31 set as the target for completion.
In addition to improved electri-cal, heating, and cooling systems,
new program targets white-collar crime
year on campus and in locations in other states and foreign countries. Courses are offered on such topics as supervision of police and person-nel, crime control strategies, police ethics, and traffic accident investi-gation and reconstruction.
Center for public safety moves to 1801 maple
Wieboldt Hall will have 18 new classrooms — including one seat-ing 75 and two outfitted for video-conferencing — three group study rooms, a computer lab, and two stu-dent lounges on the fourth and fifth floors. The mechanicals and cab interiors of the two main elevators will also be updated. The new lobby will serve as an enhanced entryway to SCS, with a reception area featur-ing an online registration kiosk and new signage.
To track the progress of the proj-ect and see construction photos, visit www.scs.northwestern.edu /renovation.
state-of-the-art “smart” classrooms are key features of the wieboldt hall renovation.
22 Continuum Spring 2007
sCs snapshot
the mix of
traditional and
modern architecture
on northwestern’s
evanston campus
mirrors the univer-
sity’s academic
breadth.
23 Continuum Spring 2007
sCs people
Alumni and students
roy alexander (54) of
New York City heads a
consulting firm noted for
sales and communications
consultations in energy-
related fields. He recently
revised and updated Secrets
of Closing Sales (Portfolio,
2004).
harold v. anagnos
(76, Kellogg 90) of Long
Grove, Illinois, is managing
director of BXA Associates
in Palatine. He started BXA,
a technology investing and
technology marketing advi-
sory services firm, after the
merger of Lumex Inc. into
Illinois Tool Works. He re-
mains CEO of Lumex, a com-
pany that he cofounded more
than 25 years ago.
Cynthia l. Berry (98) of
Des Plaines, Illinois, is vice
president of Professional
Prodigy Inc., an organization
she cofounded to empower,
educate, and inspire women.
She cowrote When the Vow
Breaks (Professional Prodigy,
2005), an inspirational
story of triumph through
tribulation. She is an activist
against domestic violence in
Chicago and a volunteer with
a local shelter.
troy Bradford (02) of
Wilmette, Illinois, is presi-
dent and founder of Triad
Business Consulting, a
company that provides sales
training, sales management,
and marketing services.
david r. donohue (94) of
Waukegan, Illinois, is a
communication researcher
at Qualitative Technologies
Inc. at the North Chicago
Veterans Affairs Medical
Center. He produced
“Analyzing Factors Affecting
Functional Literacy in
the Context of Primary
Care Patient/Provider
Communication,” a research
study in functional health
care literacy, at the North
Chicago VA Medical Center
and the Naval Hospital at
Great Lakes.
patti solis doyle (90) is
manager of the presidential
campaign of Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D–New
York). She has worked with
Clinton since 1991 and served
as a special assistant to the
president and director of
scheduling for the First Lady
during the Clinton adminis-
tration. Solis Doyle was chief
of staff on Clinton’s campaign
for the Senate in 2000 and
managed her successful
2006 reelection campaign.
Solis Doyle was also execu-
tive director of HillPAC, the
political action committee of
Senator Clinton. She is the
first Hispanic ever to manage
a presidential campaign.
Kathryn mcauliffe duda (76)
of Naperville, Illinois, worked
as a staffing coordinator in
information technology for 12
years. She also has worked in
marketing communications,
writing, and advertising. Her
twin sons graduated from
college in spring 2006.
marjorie “mar” sue
durrbeck (80) of Evanston,
a financial planner at
New England Securities in
Northbrook, Illinois, received
the registered financial
consultant designation
from the International
Association of Registered
Financial Consultants in
February. She has been a
financial planner since 1997.
mary franklin (95) of
Evanston, vice president
of administration and
publishing at Diamond
Headache Clinic, co-
wrote Headache Through
the Ages (Professional
Communications, 2005),
which describes headaches
as represented in the Bible,
literature, and art and
introduces headache suffer-
ers from throughout the
centuries.
thomas gary (99) of
Oak Park, Illinois, is on
active duty with the U.S.
Navy. He is assisting in the
training of Iraqi army units
and the preparation of civil
affairs projects. He is on
leave from his position with
the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic
Opportunity.
laura guzman received
a 2006 University Circle
Scholarship, available to
Northwestern University
employees enrolled in SCS
(see SCS News). Originally
from Colombia, Guzman is
a research technologist in the
Department of Dermatology
in the Feinberg School of
Medicine. She is working
toward a master of arts in
literature degree in SCS’s
MALit program, and her goal
is to teach at the college
level and edit, translate,
and write literary works.
Faculty
new director for osher lifelong learning institute
At the October 2006 annual
meeting of SCS’s Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute (OLLI), 150 life-
long learners welcomed the insti-
tute’s new director, Judy Mann.
Mann comes to OLLI after 12
years at Chicago’s Council for Jewish Elderly, where she devel-
oped educational programs for older adults and coordinated
marketing and outreach efforts. OLLI offers peer-led, noncredit
seminar-style courses to more than 500 mature learners on
both the Evanston and Chicago campuses of Northwestern
each year.
“As it prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary, OLLI
has new leadership, new energy, and a new commitment to
lifelong learning, “ says Linda Salchenberger, associate dean
of academics at SCS. “With the hiring of Judy Mann, OLLI will
continue to seek innovative ways to best serve its members.”
Mann is excited about her new role. “This is a wonderful
opportunity for me to focus my passion for lifelong learning,”
she says. “I believe that adult development is a lifelong pro-
cess and that continued growth and learning are keys to suc-
cessful aging. OLLI members are extremely passionate about
learning and committed to the program. It is a pleasure to work
with people who are so enthusiastic.”
Mann cited the lack of classroom space on the Evanston
campus as one of the immediate challenges OLLI faces, adding
that efforts are under way to secure space for classes near the
Evanston campus by fall 2007. She also said that OLLI would
have to address the influence of external forces. “Changing
demographics, new retirement patterns, and increasing lifelong
learning alternatives are driving a strategic exploration at SCS
of how to maintain OLLI’s core program yet keep the program
fresh,” she said. “I am looking forward to exploring the oppor-
tunities that these challenges present.”
Spring 2007 Continuum 23
sCs people
In memoriam
edward J. adesko Jr. (76), Vancouver, Washington
peter anderson (59), Jackson, Michigan
hermine Beukema (55, C60), Chicago
edward w. Bilinski (60), Northbrook, Illinois
alexander h. Briddwell (81), Winnetka, Illinois
James f. Cooke (52), Marshall, Michigan
Charlyne macKay davie (44), Chicago
laverne decker (56), Calumet City, Illinois
samuel Curtis finley (82), Evanston
Claire rose hellstern (72), Chicago
Clarence w. hubbard (53), Hampstead, North Carolina
Jacqueline evers Kellogg (WCAS83, 87), Wilmette, Illinois
ronald a. Kober (CB71, 75, 79), Scottsdale, Arizona
mitchell h. lane (55), Park Forest, Illinois
david h. poirier (73), Geneva, Illinois
helen youngreen rapp (38), Homewood, Illinois
nino C. salerno (64), Hudson, Florida
robert J. skup (58), Wheaton, Illinois; survivors include his wife, Patricia Bragwell Skup (51)
Joseph J. sterkowicz (60), Chicago
James e. sykes (60), Portland, Oregon
Chesna Cohen weisberg (40), Pacifica, California
elsie e. wilgen (61), Ottawa, Illinois
william h. guthman (51),
81, Westport, Connecticut,
Dec. 28, 2005. Specializing
in early Americana, Guthman
became a well-respected an-
tiques dealer and appraiser.
In 1966 Guthman quit
his job as an executive at a
manufacturing company to
pursue his interest in colonial
military artifacts that ranged
from carved powder horns
to painted militia drums.
Besides establishing Guthman
Americana, he regularly ex-
hibited his collections, valued
at between $3 million and $5
million, at New York’s Winter
Antiques Show. He also ap-
peared as a guest appraiser
on Antiques Roadshow.
He is survived by his wife,
Elizabeth; his children, Scott
and Pamela; his stepchildren,
Alice and Amelia; and two
grandchildren.
Alumni and students, continued
dominic henry (96) of
Chicago was named assistant
chief engineer at O’Hare
International Airport in May.
lousanne halverson lofgren
(77, 79) of Oak Park, Illinois,
became executive director
of the American Orthopaedic
Foot and Ankle Society in
Rosemont in August 2005.
anita lynch (05) is work-
ing on an MBA at Harvard
Business School after hav-
ing been accepted to both
Harvard and Dartmouth. At
SCS she was an economics
major and a member of Alpha
Sigma Lambda, the national
honor society for adult stu-
dents in continuing higher
education.
thomas mudloff (88) of
Wheeling, Illinois, is a
lecturer and instructor of
Egyptology at the Field
Museum in Chicago and a
lecturer at SCS. He wrote
Hieroglyphs for Travelers:
What Do Those Little
Pictures Mean? (R. E. Fellows
Publishing, 1999). Mudloff
leads tours to Egypt, Syria,
Jordan, and Lebanon.
lindsey parker novak (78)
of Chicago, author of the
nationally syndicated work-
place advice column “At
Work,” opened a business-
writing consultancy. She is
also a writing instructor and
corporate writing trainer.
She received a Northwestern
Alumni Association Merit
Award in 2004.
lowell d. parker (71) of
Roseburg, Oregon, retired
in 1985 from his position
as lieutenant colonel and
deputy director of the Alaska
State Troopers. He enjoys
traveling and would enjoy
hearing from classmates.
edgar sanchez (00) of
Glendale Heights, Illinois,
accepted a senior specialist
role as infrastructure design
architect at Accenture in
Chicago.
mark schmidt (92) of
Park Ridge, Illinois, in April
2005 was named Midwest
regional manager for Daifuku
America Corp., designers and
manufacturers of materials
handling automation.
don l. scott (94) of North
Riverside, Illinois, became
proposal manager of cli-
ent services for LaSalle
Investment Management in
October 2005.
silvia skripkauskas received
a 2006 University Circle
Scholarship, available to
Northwestern University
employees enrolled in SCS
(see SCS News). She is a
health literacy research
coordinator for the Institute
for Healthcare Studies in the
Feinberg School of Medicine.
She is pursuing a master’s
degree in public health policy
in SCS’s MPPA program with
the long-term goal of becom-
ing a physician.
hunt h. unger (72) of
Evanston is an executive
career consultant and life
coach.
nancy faulkner wiersum
(82) of Naperville, Illinois,
became community develop-
ment director for Naperville
Community Television in fall
2005.
24 Continuum Spring 2007
attention sCs alumni
Where have you been? What are you doing now? How has your SCS
experience prepared you for your current and future endeavors?
We want to hear from you. Contact us via e-mail at [email protected].
Blueberry Hill, Goshen, VT, by ethel peterson.
reprinted with permission from the
osher lifelong learning institute Journal.
NorthwesterN UNiversityschool of coNtiNUiNg stUdiesWieboldt Hall, SixtH Floor339 eaSt CHiCago avenueCHiCago, illinoiS 60611-3008
PHone 312-503-6950Fax [email protected]
nonProFit organizationu.S. PoStagePAidnortHWeStern univerSity
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