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STAFF
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Roger Boye, Program Director
Roger Boye has been a part of the cherub program since 1971. He was associate director before becoming 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.
Mary Lou Song, Head Instructor
Mary Lou Song was a cherub in 1986 and has been a cherub instructor since 2003. She is a seasoned business leader with more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and innovator in the technology startup sector. She has played pivotal roles in early-stage companies across ad tech, media, social networking, and e-commerce, including eBay where she joined the company’s founder as his third employee. She is an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University where she teaches leadership at the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and journalism at the Medill School of Journalism. Song holds a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University, an M.A. in media studies from Stanford University, and an Ed.D. in leadership and learning in organizations from Vanderbilt University.
Fun Fact: She learned to walk on fire.
J.A. Adande, Instructor
J.A. Adande, a cherub instructor since 2022 and a Medill professor emeritus, is the former director of sports journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In 2025, he had the high honor of being inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. 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 is a Medill BSJ graduate.
Fun Fact: He has been to every state in the union except Alaska.
Juliet Allan, Co-Instructor
Juliet Allan was a cherub in 2021, a community and academic associate in 2023 and 2024, and a co-instructor in 2026. Allan is a 2026 Medill graduate who is now Assistant Director of Admission at Northwestern’s Office of Undergraduate Admission, where she has worked in various roles since 2022. During her time at Northwestern, she had a feature published in Block Club Chicago, helped found and was Managing Editor of CRUSH Magazine, and held multiple executive roles as an audio journalist for WNUR News. She also served as a communications intern for the Fines and Fees Justice Center, a bipartisan legal nonprofit.
Fun Fact: She is a classically trained singer.
Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell, Instructor
Dr. Ava Thomspon Greenwell has been a cherub instructor since 2019 and has taught broadcast writing, reporting and production classes at Northwestern University since 1993. In addition to teaching duties, she has held several administrative posts, including associate dean for curriculum, director of the Teaching Television Program, co-curator of the nationally recognized Ida B. Wells award and director of the McCormick Tribune Fellows Program. She co-directed Medill’s South African Journalism Residency Program from 2014-2024. She is author of Ladies Leading: The Black Women Who Control Television News and director/executive producer of two documentaries: “Mandela in Chicago” and “Hearing Silences.” She has been a freelance correspondent for the PBS news program Chicago Tonight and a reporter at WFLA-TV, Tampa, FL; WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, MN; and WEHT-TV, Evansville, IN. She holds a BSJ and MSJ from Medill and a PhD in Black Studies from NU.
Fun Fact: She has lived in Spain, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky and Minnesota.
John Kupetz, Instructor
John Kupetz has been a cherub instructor for at least 40 years. He has taught various staff members, including instructors Cynthia Wang and Bret Begun. For many years, Kupetz was a professor at the College of Lake County, a Medill adjunct lecturer and a faculty fellow at Northwestern’s Communications Residential College. He also served as 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
Carlin McCarthy has been a cherub instructor since 2017 and is currently a master’s degree candidate in the Engagement Journalism program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. She is also an experienced broadcast news producer who most recently worked as a segment producer at NBC News 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. She has a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University.
Fun Fact: Has season tickets for the New York Liberty and saw the team win their first championship in franchise history!
Peter Slevin, Instructor
Peter Slevin first worked as a cherub instructor in 2026. A Northwestern University professor since 2010, Slevin teaches classes ranging from political journalism and U.S. foreign policy to the history of race and policing in Evanston. He often takes Medill undergraduates on reporting trips, turning them loose to find great stories in the likes of Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Texas, and beyond. He confesses that he did not do journalism in college (Princeton) or graduate school (Oxford), instead starting his career at a local newspaper in Hollywood, Fla., before moving to The Miami Herald and, later, The Washington Post, reporting from at least 50 countries along the way. Since 2019, he has been writing for The New Yorker, where his most recent story was a profile of Barack Obama’s post-presidency that included an interview with the former president in his new Chicago museum.
Fun Fact: While working on a story, he once touched the hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Karen Springen, Instructor
Karen Springen was a cherub instructor in 2010 and in every year since 2017. At Medill she leads the graduate journalism Magazine Specialization, and teaches undergraduate and graduate reporting and writing classes. Professor Springen serves on the Northwestern Faculty Senate and also advises several student groups, including the student-run North by Northwestern magazine. For eight years, she directed Medill’s Journalism Residency program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University, where she was editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. For 24 years, she reported full time for Newsweek. She has published stories in many publications, including Chicago magazine, Stanford magazine, the Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly. She regularly writes reviews for the American Library Association’s Booklist.
Fun Fact: She ran the Boston Marathon while pregnant.
Tracy Van Moorlehem, Instructor
Tracy Van Moorlehem’s first stint as a cherub instructor was in 2026.
At Medill, Van Moorlehem runs the Journalism Residency program, teaches reporting and writing classes and leads employer engagement and recruitment. Before joining the full-time Medill faculty in 2022, she worked for 30 years as a reporter and then editor at The Bulletin (Bend, Oregon), Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Detroit Free Press and Chicago Tribune. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism, where she once was told she wasn’t getting an “A” after covering a press conference in class because she hadn’t asked a single question.
Fun Fact: She has never met a dog she didn’t like but is partial to larger breeds.
Cynthia Wang, Instructor
Cynthia Wang was a 1988 cherub, a guest instructor for 25 years and a full-time instructor from 2012-2016 and again in 2026.
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. Her first book, The Official Survivor Companion, will be published in 2027 by Random House Worlds.
Fun Fact: Wang’s first follower on Twitter/X was President Barack Obama.
Bret Begun, Guest Instructor
Bret Begun was a cherub in 1993 and a community and academic associate in 1995. He has been a cherub instructor for more than 20 years. He also 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.
Joe Grimm, Guest Instructor
Joe Grimm has been a cherub instructor since 2009 and also is professor emeritus in service at Michigan State University. His students publish “bias busters,” a series of guides about cultural competence. The 20+ guides have covered African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, East Asian cultures, veterans, immigrants, Hmong Americans and U.S. Catholics. 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.
Lindsey Kratochwill, Guest Instructor
In the cherub program, Lindsey Kratochwill was a 2010 and 2011 community and academic associate, a 2012 instructor and has been a guest instructor since 2013. After graduating from Medill in 2012, Kratochwill worked for print magazines in New York City— 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, and she served as a producer, editor, and managing editor for Wonder Media Network. As a freelancer, she’s made podcasts for companies such as Bloomberg, the Mash-Up Americans, Stitcher, Slate, and ABC. She’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science.
Fun Fact: She plays the mandolin.
Taariq Ahmed, Community and Academic Associate
Taariq Ahmed is a Medill sophomore and was a 2024 cherub. He hails from Chicago and is studying journalism and legal studies at Northwestern. Outside of class, he works for The Daily Northwestern. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends, going to the gym and writing poetry.
Fun Fact: Taariq has a goldendoodle named “Guru.”
Jordan Balousek, Community and Academic Associate
Jordan Balousek is a Medill sophomore and was a 2024 cherub. She is from Seattle and is studying journalism and psychology at Northwestern. She writes for The Daily Northwestern, broadcasts for WNUR Sports and designs for Spoon Magazine. She also loves to read, watch the Mariners, play soccer, bake and volunteer in a local elementary school and with Special Olympics.
Fun Fact: Jordan has been running a book review Instagram account, @balousekbooks, for more than four years.
Liam Barrett, Community and Academic Associate
Liam Barrett is a Medill sophomore and was a 2024 cherub, coming to the program from Bethesda, Maryland. He has previously served as Photo Editor at The Daily Northwestern. Outside of The Daily, he is a big fan of Muay Thai, movies, photography (shocker) and a good book or two.
Fun Fact: Liam lived in Hong Kong for two years as a kid and, allegedly, could once upon a time speak a little Cantonese.
Sami McKenney, Community and Academic Associate
Sami McKenney is a Medill sophomore and was a 2024 online cherub. She is studying journalism and political science at Northwestern, with an emphasis on video journalism. She grew up in the St. Louis metro region, and in addition to being a CAA this summer, she serves as Creative Director of The Daily Northwestern where she also has held other positions. She leads the NU Ethics Bowl team and the Communications Residential College as president. In her free time, she loves to go to yoga classes, listen to podcasts and watch movies. Lord of the Rings on repeat!
Fun Fact: Sami once broke her toe in half.
