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Roger Boye, Program Director
Boye has been a part of the cherub program since 1971. He was associate director before becoming program director in 1985.
Boye is an associate professor emeritus at Northwestern University and served as Medill assistant dean and director of the Medill undergraduate program for 19 years. He is faculty chair of Northwestern’s Communications Residential College and parliamentarian of the Northwestern Faculty Senate. For many years he wrote for the Chicago Tribune and the Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor’s degree and from Medill with a master’s degree.
Fun fact: His summer garden includes tomatoes, peppers, onions and corn.
Marjorie Geraci, Program Assistant
Geraci has been part of the cherub program since 2019.
Geraci started in January 2019 as program assistant for Medill pre-collegiate programs and also assists in the school’s efforts to promote our undergraduate program with high school journalists in Chicagoland area. She is also a freelance artist with bachelor degree in Fine Arts.
Fun fact: She does live wedding/event paintings, portraits (pet portraits are extremely popular right now) and other commissioned works of art. She illustrated a children’s book called “The Gift,” based on a true story about a blind deer named Dillie who was rescued by a veterinarian and lived in her house.
Joe Grimm, Co-Head Instructor
Grimm has been an instructor since 2009.
Grimm is visiting editor in residence at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, where he teaches reporting, editing, career branding and other things. His students publish “bias busters,” a series of guides about cultural competence. The guides have covered African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, East Asian cultures, veterans, immigrants and more. He worked as a recruiter at the Detroit Free Press for 18 years and recruited for the Freedom Forum and Patch.
Fun fact: “The Faygo Book” by Grimm came out in 2018. It follows “Coney Detroit,” another book about an iconic Detroit food.
Mary Lou Song, Co-Head Instructor
Song was a cherub in 1986 and has been a cherub instructor since 2003.
Song has a bachelor’s degree from Medill and a master’s degree from Stanford. She joined eBay in 1996 and has built internet companies as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur for the past 17 years. She is the founder and executive chairman of FuelX, an advertising technology company.
Fun fact: She learned to walk on fire.
J.A. Adande, Instructor
Adande has been an instructor since 2022.
J.A. Adande is the director of sports journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communication. He has worked in sports media for over three decades, including multiple roles at ESPN and 10 years as a sports columnist at the Los Angeles Times, in addition to jobs at The Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times. Adande has covered a broad array of sports and events, including 20 NBA Finals, Super Bowls, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals, the Olympics, the World Cup, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Masters. He continues to appear on ESPN’s “Around The Horn”, where he has been a panelist since the show’s beginning in 2002. He taught sports journalism and p.r. as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California from 2004-20015. Adande is a Medill BSJ graduate.
Fun Fact: He has been to every state in the union except Alaska.
Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell, Instructor
Dr. Greenwell has been an instructor since 2019.
She has taught broadcast writing, reporting and production classes at Northwestern University since 1993. In addition to her teaching duties, she has held several administrative posts including associate dean for curriculum, director of the Teaching Television Program, co-curator for the nationally recognized Ida B. Wells award and director of the McCormick Tribune Fellows Program. Currently, she serves as co-director of the South Africa Journalism Residency Program. She has been a freelance correspondent for Chicago Tonight, a PBS news program. She also worked as a reporter at WFLA-TV, Tampa, FL; WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, MN; and WEHT-TV, Evansville, IN. She holds a BSJ and MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in African American Studies.
Fun fact: She has lived in Spain, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky and Minnesota.
John Kupetz, Instructor
Kupetz has been a cherubs instructor since the early 1980s. He has taught several staff members, including guest instructors Cynthia Wang and Bret Begun.
Kupetz is a professor at the College of Lake County, a Medill adjunct professor and faculty fellow at Northwestern’s Communications Residential College. Previously, he was a placement director and assistant professor at Medill for 10 years. He has master’s degrees from Medill and Bowling Green State University.
Fun fact: “There’s nothing at all interesting about me. I have no personality.”
Carlin McCarthy, Instructor
McCarthy has been an instructor since 2017.
McCarthy is a segment producer at NBC News Now’s Top Story with Tom Llamas where she was responsible for producing and editing segments and stories for air. Previously, she worked as an associate producer at ABC News’ World News Tonight with David Muir and as an assistant production coordinator at BuzzFeed where she worked on a variety of series including “Worth It,” “Ladylike” and “Queer Prom.” She has a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.
Fun fact: Has never set off a fire alarm.
Ceci Rodgers, Instructor
Prof. Rodgers has been an instructor since 2024.
She has taught basic writing and reporting, broadcast and business reporting at Northwestern University’s Medill School since 2005. As faculty director of global journalism learning at Medill, Rodgers has overseen more than a dozen undergraduate and graduate courses with embedded travel to locations such as London, Tokyo and Argentina. She has also served as president of Northwestern’s Faculty Senate. Prior to Medill, Rodgers spent nearly two decades as a business correspondent and anchor for CNN and CNNfn, reporting from Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York and Tokyo. Her stories have appeared on CNBC, NBC, Reuters Insider, nationally syndicated TV show Business Week Weekend and the PBS show CEO Exchange. Rodgers has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in journalism from Medill.
Fun fact: She was a White House intern her junior year of college.
Karen Springen, Instructor
Springen was a cherub instructor in 2010, 2017 – 2024.
Springen has taught at Medill since the spring of 2004. She directed Medill’s journalism residency program for eight years. Springen holds an undergraduate degree in international relations from Stanford, where she was Editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, and graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She reported full time at Newsweek for 24 years, but always freelanced on the side. She has been published in Elle, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, and other publications and still writes a few reviews each month for the American Library Association’s Booklist.
Fun fact: She ran the Boston Marathon while pregnant.
Jessica Villagomez, Instructor
Villagomez has been an instructor since 2024.
Villagomez is a reporter who has worked in the Midwest in both Chicago and Detroit, MI. She previously worked at the Chicago Tribune covering breaking news, crime and Latino communties. She’s a proud alumna of Northwestern University and DePaul University. She has been published in PBS Newshour, In These Times Magazine, NPR’s Latino USA and HOY.
Fun fact: She enjoys spending her time playing with her bunny, Pablo Escobun, and watching bad TV.
Bret Begun, Guest Instructor
He was a cherub in 1993 and a community associate in 1995. He has been an instructor for more than 20 years.
Begun is a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. He was an articles editor for Details magazine and worked at Newsweek magazine for 13 years, principally as its front-of-the-book editor. He was Newsweek’s national affairs editor for the 2008 election and covered the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Olympic Games.
Fun fact: He can juggle.
Lindsey Kratochwill, Guest Instructor
Kratochwill was a 2010 and 2011 community associate, a 2012 instructor and has been a guest instructor since 2013.
After graduating from Medill in 2012, Kratochwill worked for print magazines— first at Fast Company, then at Popular Science. At Popular Science, she launched and hosted an original podcast. She went on to work as a producer for Panoply. As a freelancer, she’s made podcasts for companies such as Bloomberg, the Mash-Up Americans, Stitcher, Slate, and ABC. She’s currently an editor at Wonder Media Network.
Fun fact: The tree frog is her favorite animal.
Cynthia Wang, Guest Instructor
Wang was a 1988 cherub, a guest instructor for 25 years and a full-time instructor from 2012-2016.
Wang graduated from Medill in 1993. She worked for People Magazine for 18 years as an entertainment writer, reporter and editor. She has traveled to five Olympic Games, nine “American Idol” finales and seven “Survivor” locations. In 2011, Wang left People and moved to Australia to work as a staff writer for Who (People’s Australian sister magazine). She is currently a freelance entertainment writer and editor.
Fun fact: Wang can draw an object on paper with one hand and use the other hand to control a mouse to draw the same object on a computer.
Juliet Allan, Community and Academic Associate
Allan is a Medill junior from Dallas studying journalism, linguistics, and gender & sexuality studies. Outside of class, they spend time as a segment producer for WNUR News and singing in Bienen’s University Chorale. And if you see a purple hammock out on the Lakefill when the weather’s nice, it’s probably her.
Gabriella Egozi, Community and Academic Associate
Gabriella Egozi is a sophomore from Miami and was a cherub online in 2022.
She is majoring in journalism and plans to double major in spanish during her time at Northwestern. Gabriella is excited to pursue a career in journalism and is a part of WNUR Sports, Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM), NNN Sports Night and The Daily Northwestern where she has gained invaluable experience learning about the industry and reporting. Gabi loves Northwestern sports and her favorite to watch is basketball. In addition to sports, Gabi loves going to the beach on campus, trying out new restaurants in Evanston and Chicago and going on sunset lakefill walks. Gabi has had the best experience being a CAA at Cherubs and can’t wait to see all the great things the students accomplish.
Fun fact: Egozi has never broken a bone or gotten a cavity.
Audrey Pachuta, Community and Academic Associate
Audrey Pachuta is a sophomore from Swedesboro, NJ, and was a 2022 cherub.
Pachuta is double majoring in journalism and political science and is a reporter for the Daily Northwestern. In her free time, Pachuta enjoys drinking black coffee and visiting independent bookstores.
Fun fact: She has a favorite sports team in three of the four continental US time zones.
Ilse von Heimburg, Community and Academic Associate
Ilse von Heimburg is a sophomore from West Chester, Pennsylvania, and was a 2022 cherub.
She is a journalism and history student, as well as a reporter for WNUR News. She also volunteers with Books & Breakfast, a before school program in Evanston elementary schools. There are few things she loves more than the cherubs program, but books, running and mint chocolate chip ice cream come a close second.
Fun fact: She drives a manual Jeep Wrangler.
