Exploring Careers with Linguistics Alumni

January 29, 2016

Map of Future Jobs

Maggie Smith, MA

Assistant Director, Student Career Advising

Serving students in Weinberg College of

Arts and Sciences

620 Lincoln St. Evanston, IL 60208

maggie-smith@northwestern.edu

Phone (847) 491-3700

Tyler Perrachione (B.A. 2007, M.A. 2007) isan Assistant Professor in the Department ofSpeech, Language, and Hearing Sciences atBoston University. He is the Director andPrincipal Investigator of the CommunicationNeuroscience Research Laboratory. He hasbeen published in many academic journals.

Natalie Friend (B.A. 2011) pursued herM.S. in Speech-Language Pathology atNorthwestern. She now works in a schoolas a Speech Pathologist, teachinglanguage to children with autism.

Jeff Schecter (B.A. 2011) worked as a Spamand Abuse Analyst at Google from 2011-2014.He then became the Data Scientist and DataEngineer at financial technology startup LevelMoney. Jeff is currently a Data Scientist /Master Software Engineer at Capital One.

Minna Zhou (B.A. 2012) is a Twin-Cities-based Radio Producer, Writer, andResearcher. She has written for variouspublications, including Pitchfork, MTV Iggy,and FADER. She has produced radio andDJ’d, interned with American RadioWorks,and conducted sociolinguistics fieldwork as aFulbright Fellow to Senegal. In 2011, sheinterned with Smithsonian FolkwaysRecordings.

Joel Nierman (B.A. 2004) is the StrategicAdvisor at MediaLink, where he developshypotheses, does in-market research withindustry experts to test those hypotheses, anddelivers recommendations based on qualitativeresearch. He notes the parallels betweenlinguistics and the field of advertising andmarketing.

Page Piccinini (B.A./M.A. 2009) is currentlya Ph.D. candidate at the University ofCalifornia San Diego in the LinguisticsDepartment. Her advice to current studentsis to become directly involved in research.

Steve Kleinedler (B.A. 1989) works as theExecutive Editor of the American HeritageDictionary. His love for language inspiredhim to major in linguistics.

John Lee (B.A. 2010) is currentlycompleting his master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Northwestern. Hedecided to pursue this degree due to hisinterest in the scientific, psychosocial andneurological bases of language.

Daniel Speirs (B.A. 2002) works for themanagement-consulting firm GapInternational. A course in phonetics in hisfreshman year inspired him to learn moreabout the field.

Sherry Vernon (B.A. 2015) currentlyworks as a Program Assistant supportingthe Weinberg fundraising team withinNorthwestern's Alumni Relations andDevelopment department.

Brett Blake (M.A. 1989) is a Professor atSt. John’s University, where she is also aResearch Fellow in the Vincentian Centerfor Social Justice and Poverty. She hasworked with the with the Chicago PublicSchools, and she recently received her 8th

book contract.

Evan Bradley (B.A. 2005) is an AssistantProfessor of Psychology at Penn StateBrandywine. He got his graduate degree inlinguistics because it was the perfectcombination between language andscience.

Dana Lossia (B.A. 2001) went to Law Schoolafter completing her linguistics degree and isnow a partner at a labor and employment lawfirm in New York City.

Jenna Luque (M.A. 2012) received herPh.D. in communication sciences anddisorders and now owns a private practicefocusing on accent modification. She is alsoa Visiting Instructor at the University ofSouth Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

Kelly Kahle (B.A. 2012) is in Medical Schoolat the University of Illinois College ofMedicine. She is set to graduate this springand will continue her training in a familymedicine residency.

Katrina Hood (B.A. 1987) taughtEnglish in Japan for a year. She thenwent to medical school and joined theU.S. Navy to complete her residency.She is now in private practice as apediatrician in Lexington.

Jennifer Gies (B.A. 2001) has worked in themusic industry for many years and is also anEnglish as a Second Language Teacher foradults in Tennessee, Chicago, and LosAngeles. She aspires to write a hitscreenplay.

Camille Lamoureux (B.A. 1989) is the Co-Founder of a children’s edutainmentsoftware called Headbone Interactive. Shewas the Technical Director for 10 years. Sheis now a photographer and just finished herfirst novel.

Lena Winters (M.A. 2000) went toNorthwestern Law School where she nowteaches and has worked in family law andcriminal defense firms as a trial attorney.She now has her own family law practice.

Kathleen Painter (B.A. 2014) is theAssociate Dean of High School Boardingat Korea International School, JejuCampus. She promotes English languagelearning for Korean students.

Staci Gold (B.A. 2013) is currentlypursuing a Post-Baccalaureate Pre-MedicalCertification at Illinois Institute ofTechnology to become a pediatricpsychiatrist.

Lauren Cohen (B.A. 1993) is the Head ofBusiness Development National for KossResource. She was also a real estatecapital service provider and originator ofdebt and equity transactions.

Maria Nasrallah (B.A. 2006) works in lifeinsurance and partnered with her husbandon two business ventures, one in thelandscape industry and the other in a cardealership.

Jeffrey Geiger (B.A. 2012) is a Ph.D.student in the Department of Linguistics atthe University of Chicago.

Anna Dabrowski (B.A. 2010) worked as aResearch Assistant at Stanford University’sSemlab and pursued a M.Sc. in informationscience in Copenhagen. She is now theDigital Repositories Librarian at TexasA&M.

Liz Coppock (B.A. 2002) pursued a Ph.D.in Linguistics at Stanford and is now anAssociate Professor of Linguistics at theUniversity of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Alexa Carreno (B.A. 2013) is in her lastsemester of Law School at Chicago-KentCollege of Law. She has interned formany organizations, including Region 5 ofthe U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyand the Humane Society of the UnitedStates in Washington, D.C.

Nancy Rogers (B.A. 1987) is a Professorof Music Theory at Florida StateUniversity, where she received FSU’sUndergraduate Teaching Award in 2013.She is a Co-Author of Music for SightSinging, the leading sight-singing textbookin North America.

Vance Schaefer (B.A. 1986) is an AssistantProfessor of TESL and Applied Linguistics inthe Department of Modern Languages at theUniversity of Mississippi.

Ellen Barton (M.A. 1983, Ph.D. 1985) is aProfessor in the Linguistics Program andDepartment of English at Wayne StateUniversity, where she has been sincereceiving her Ph.D. in 1985.

Denise Neapolitan (B.A. 1986) studied cognitive developmentat the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She joined theUniversity of Kansas’ Center for Research on the Influences ofTelevision on Children. She then led the “Magic School Bus”software series at Microsoft.

Lindsay Hagerman (B.A./M.A. 2002) worked in twointernational sales jobs. She now works in her family businessin e-commerce and importing.

Allison Rosenberg (B.A./M.A. 2005) has been a CommercialReal Estate Attorney for 7 years, splitting her career betweenNew York and Tokyo.

Faithe Thomas (B.A. 1990) worked for six years in Africahelping to establish indigenous publication centers. She ownsMaster Design Publishing. She also started Master DesignMarketing and FaitheThomas.com.

Amy Millar (B.A. 2007) graduated with an MD from RushMedical College. She is finishing her specialty training inobstetrics and gynecology at the University of Minnesota.

Kathy Pendleton (B.A. 2012) was a Scholarship and StudyAbroad Coordinator for Rotary International. She then worked asa Student Advisor at the University of Michigan Department ofLinguistics.

Liz Coffey (B.A.1997) works as a Senior ImplementationManager for a financial software company.

Susan Goldstein (B.A. 1975) is a Nonpartisan Attorney for theWashington State Legislature. Linguistics introduced her tomany subjects through words and the structure of language.

Tom Hayden (B.A. 2011) went to law school at Vanderbilt and isnow a Real Estate Transactions Attorney at Fidelity NationalFinancial.

Visit CAREER PATHS and ALUMNI

pages on the Linguistics department

website to learn what you can do

with a major in Linguistics!