Kathy is passionate about working with and supporting students as they navigate their experience at Northwestern and helping prepare them for their career paths when they leave. She is a transformational and experienced program management and higher education professional who really enjoys advising students and building relationships with faculty, fellow staff, alumni, and industry partners. Kathy started at Northwestern in August 2021 and spent two years working in the McCormick School of Engineering’s Office of Professional Education, supporting two professional master's programs: Master of Science in Machine Learning and Data Science (MLDS) and Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT). Prior to that Kathy was a stay-at-home mom, community/school volunteer, writer/blogger, group fitness instructor and coach for 18 years. Kathy earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees in Leisure Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).Kathy has worked for the Chicago Park District and the Skokie Park District in various programming and facility management roles, as well as staff training and development. She has also worked in higher education at UIUC and the Catholic Theological Union Graduate School of Theology and Ministry (CTU) in a number of positions, including being a teaching assistant and a program coordinator with student activities at UIUC, as well as the director of a program called the Peacebuilders Initiative, working with high school students, graduate students, faculty and community members at CTU. Kathy is inspired by how Medill leads the way in preparing students to both thrive in and help to shape the evolving media industry. She is excited to be part of the Medill Career Services team helping to prepare a new generation of multimedia journalists, communicators and marketers for life after NU. Kathy is a lifelong learner who challenges the status quo and is always evolving through reading, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, watching movies and documentaries, seeing theater productions, and traveling, all of which help her to better understand current events, history, and people from all walks of life. Growing up in Evanston, as the daughter of a journalist/editor and a teacher/reading specialist, she learned the importance of and how to appreciate quality journalism, communication and marketing from a young age. Kathy loves to keep in touch with many of the incredible people she has met throughout her life and connect those she thinks can learn from each other and/or work together.