Bob Rowley is often introduced as “This is Bob Rowley, who spent a life in communication.” Bob Rowley is the Northwestern Assistant Vice President of Media Relations and a Medill School of Journalism lecturer. He spent 30 years working for the Chicago Tribune, was a White House correspondent, Pentagon correspondent, national correspondent based in Dallas, lived in Mexico covering Latin America, where his daughters were born, and in Toronto and Jerusalem, going back and forth covering a dozen wars and different kinds of stories. He has worked in higher education for about eight years, first at Elmhurst College and now Northwestern University. After graduating from the Northwestern MSC program at age 59 in 2013, he became the first president of the MSC Alumni Association.

At what point did you enter the program and why was this the right time for you?

After I came back from living abroad in 1998 and was working in Chicago, Elmhurst and Evanston for more than a dozen years, it was time for me to do something I always wanted to do: get a Master’s degree to learn and in order to be able to teach.

Communications, specifically, came up in a couple of ways. When I left the Chicago Tribune, I had a wife and family to support and two daughters in college. So, I needed to find something that wasn’t unstable like print journalism. I found my skills were valuable in other fields, such as higher education. My journalism skills were valuable in a field I used to believe was very different from journalism.

I came to Northwestern with a plan: to swim in a bigger pond working at a larger research university, to do things I hadn’t done yet in journalism, to get my masters, and to teach at Medill School of Journalism. I originally thought, “Am I too old to do this?” While younger people in my cohort  were quicker with technology I brought much more practical experience, and we were able to learn a lot from each other that way. I learned as much from my cohort, in some ways, as I did from my professors.

Why was Northwestern MSC the right program for you?

Out of all the programs I looked at, the MSC degree stood out, because it had so many interesting courses. I shopped around for programs, but I realized everything I was looking at had something to do with communication. The MSC program was a way to look at the best that was known and thought in the world about communication.

In the 33 years I was working in print journalism, technology changed everything.

It’s common to learn about communication only from the little perch of one’s career, but my professors looked at it in an academic context and most importantly, a global context, and kept up with the changing world. I was so enamored with this degree, my cohort, and professors, that I was so excited to go back to school at age 58. The program made me a better teacher now at Medill.

What is something you’ve learned that has made an impact on your professional and/or personal life?

I took a course about managing information for innovation, which became extremely valuable to the work I do. Our final project was to apply this to somewhere in our lives. An MSC colleague and I interviewed everyone at my Northwestern office and did a report on how to bring more innovation to the office and make people completely open to new ideas. We learned how to best nurture new ideas, be more creative, and encourage our employees. I applied some things we learned in class into our report on how we do things in this office. I found now that I’m a better manager because of this class and others. Instead of being closed to new ideas, I’ve learned to say “yes, and?,” not simply “no.” I also observed how my professors taught, to learn effective teaching strategies for current Medill classes I teach.

What was your favorite aspect of MSC at Northwestern?

It made me understand the big picture of communications, the business world, and my own profession and job here at the Northwestern. They teach you the best that is known and thought in the world, the latest cutting edge technology, why communication is important, how to communicate well, the best practices, how to think strategically, and how to lead. It’s not just communicating one on one, but it’s also how to gather all those ideas and knowledge you take in, keep them in mind, and think about what message you want to take out there on the road.

What advice would you have for anyone considering the MSC program?

If you’re interested in communication, leadership and strategic thinking, and want to understand a very complex media world that is changing every nanosecond and how to navigate in that world, this is the program for you. If you’re strictly interested in business school, this is not the program for you. The difference between the MSC and an MBA is that the MSC is more broad and will teach you those necessary skills about leadership, but also more broadly about the communication landscape in 21st century. You can get bits of many other programs through the MSC, but it’s much more than that.

We are in an age where communication is all the more important. We live in an era of fake news and alternative facts, which makes it even more important to understand the tools of communication and how to use them effectively to cut through all of the noise and get your strategy and message out there. It’s a great program for that — thinking and navigating in a complex communication world.

Can you talk about the value of the MSC network and whether you’ve been able to keep in touch?

The class of 2013 was a very tight cohort, and the idea for an alumni association came about after we graduated. We wanted to create an alumni association to create the same cooperative, collaborative affinity as we had with our cohort. In March 2015, I became the first president of MSC Alumni Association, and now am co-chair of mentoring panel for the MSC Alumni Association. I have had a number of meetings with current students or fellow alumni who are interested in getting involved in networking for future career purposes.

We host a lot of events. We just had MSC Professor Jason DeSanto speak to us in an extraordinary two hour lecture. No one wanted to take a lunch break, but instead we all wanted to keep asking questions. That’s just one example of how much the program energized me and the different cohorts, to the point that some of us would’ve gone into a PhD program if they offered one.

I stay in touch with three quarters of all the 84 people in my cohort. Every year I hold a tailgate party for our 2013 alumni. The MSC Alumni Association has made staying in touch both among cohorts and across cohorts much more doable. We often have an event in which alumni are invited to be panelists and to network with current students, which helps connect the different generations.

Robert Hariman can’t seem to get out of the Midwest. He grew up in North Dakota, went to school in Minnesota, had his first academic appointment in Iowa, and has been at Northwestern since 2004. He likes Evanston and the Chicago metro area for its combination of big city amenities and egalitarian values. He loves Northwestern for many reasons, not least its commitment to both world class research and exceptional teaching.

Hariman has been active in all three areas of academic life: teaching, research, and service.  While at Drake University, he was designated the Iowa Teacher of the Year (1990) by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. At Northwestern, his undergraduate courses include the study of problems of democratic speech in classical Athens, a survey of persuasive practices in contemporary visual culture, and a project-oriented study of environmental art and advocacy.

His graduate teaching is primarily devoted to courses in rhetorical theory, and it has included topical attention to photography and photojournalism, parody and other forms of political humor, and public emotions, among others. He also has taught in the MSC program, offering a core course in managerial ethics.

A primary focus of Hariman’s research has been on role of photography and especially photojournalism in public life. He and co-author John Lucaites built a research program that produced the books No Caption Needed: Photojournalism, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy and The Public Image: Photography and Civic Spectatorship, as well as many shorter works, including the blog (now dormant but still online) Nocaptionneeded.com, which analyzed images in the news media. He also has been active in research in other areas, including the study of political judgment and a critique, with co-author Francis A. Beer, of the doctrine of political realism in international relations. His work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, and French.

Hariman was no stranger to institutional service when he arrived at Northwestern, and since then has served in several different capacities. Beginning in 2007, he served for six years as Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. For much of the time subsequently, he was Director of Graduate Study for the degree in Communication Studies/Rhetoric and Public Culture. His service also included being Chair of the University Program Review Council and President of the University Faculty Senate.

Now he is stepping into the role of Director of Graduate Studies for the MSC program. “We live in interesting times,” he remarked, “which amplifies the significance of MSC’s focus on preparing students for organizational leadership.”

Hariman has been reviewing every aspect of the program through this lens. “Given our curriculum and faculty, we start in a very strong position. But the stakes are getting higher, and continued engagement with technological and social change and continued adaptability by both individuals and organizations is essential.”

“Furthermore, the purpose needs be more than near term success narrowly defined. Higher education should be teaching students how to be life-long learners, and how to both do well personally and contribute to building a better world.”

Jeanne was most recently a host of a television morning news talk show in Chicago for nearly 8 years and has had a 30-year career in radio and television. Her passion for media began in high school and continued at WNUR radio during her undergraduate degree at Northwestern. Jeanne believes in the importance of integrating experiential learning and academics in order to be able to truly organize and fully learn from our experiences.

At what point in your career did you enter the MSC program?

My undergraduate degree was from Northwestern and it was in psychology. I wanted to take a little break before graduate school, and instead I ended up having an entire career in the media. I had been working on “You & Me” for 4 or 5 years when I first entered MSC. However, I always had a life goal of going back to graduate school because I love school and love learning. The problem was that most of my learning between my undergraduate degree and the MSC was on the job– it was valuable but it was more like enrichment because it wasn’t academically rigorous.

So why was this the right time for you?

As my career changed, I changed too and I learned different things. Eventually, I realized that I wasn’t going to remain in broadcasting forever. The industry has changed a lot in the years that I’ve been in it and I realized I need to prepare myself for the next thing. I thought, maybe going back to school will help me codify and organize what I know. Sometimes what you’ve learned in life doesn’t have a place because it hasn’t been organized in the way that learning in an academic environment helps you to do. The coursework helped me to understand another layer of how to truly learn from my experience in broadcast, and that was what I wanted.

I enjoyed going back to school, and going back to Northwestern was very important for me too. I’m glad I waited until later in life (20+ years after undergrad) to go back to school. I was able to appreciate my Northwestern experience a lot more. I also brought a lot of my own experiences to the program and put it in perspective.

Why was MSC the right program for you?

I did a lot of research on different programs and already had an idea of what I wanted to do after broadcast. Eventually I decided that a graduate degree in communication was right for me. I wanted something a little different and broader in scope than what my career has been and covered all the different ways we communicate across the board.

In the end, the MSC turned out to be perfect for me not only because of the courses, but also because of the other people in my cohort. When you’re on air, your workflow and interactions with others happen very differently than in other businesses and industries. Through my classmates, I was able to learn about interactions in different industries.

What is something you’ve learned that has made an impact on your professional life?

Michael Roloff’s Change Management class was one of the first classes I took. To begin with, I love him and his style of teaching.

In an industry that constantly shifts according to people’s tastes, changes in technology, and new modes of media, my entire career has been about change. Thanks to this class I was able to analyze all of those different changes I had been through, and put them into context in order to understand how to manage them better. A lot of people have preconceived notions on how you implement change, not realizing there might be a better way to do it.

Any interesting or unique projects you worked on during your time in the program?

I really enjoyed my project in Professor Roloff’s class, because I was able to make it more personal. It was about analyzing a change management scenario. I chose changes that a coworker and I wanted to implement. It had to do with some workflow challenges for our team and the changes didn’t quite work the first time we tried. We used the material from the class to understand the different factors involved and how to adjust to them. I even followed up with him later about what worked and what didn’t. Every class that I’ve taken has applied to what I’ve already experienced or something that I’ve lived with in my industry and career, and I’m positive many students in my cohort felt the same way.

What advice would you have for anyone considering the Northwestern MSC program?

If you think the program might be right for you, it probably is. No matter where you are on the spectrum of experience, there is something in the program for you if you are interested in communication and becoming a better communicator. There is always room to get better and get to the next level. The program is so valuable because in everything we do, we are always communicating, negotiating and needing other people to understand us to accomplish goals.

Dear MSC Community,

We are thrilled to share some exciting news with our students, faculty, alumni, and wider community. MS in Communication has officially received a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) designation. Effective September 2022, the MSC program will be recognized as a STEM-designated program in “Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia”, CIP Code: 09.0702.

What does a STEM Designation mean?

A STEM designation is more than just a label; it signifies that our program meets the rigorous standards the U.S. Department of Education sets forth in the STEM field. This recognition reflects our commitment to equipping our students with the skills, knowledge, and experiences necessary to thrive in these critical areas.

How do students benefit?

STEM designation provides F-1 international students with a possible 24-month employment extension of a 12-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) authorization (36 months in total). Please visit Northwestern’s Student Employment page for additional details on OPT.

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents also benefit as STEM skills are sought by employers and typically lead to better-paying jobs. Our students may now seek scholarships and assistance from organizations supporting STEM programs.

Instead of transitioning straight from an undergraduate to a PhD program, Erik Nisbet decided to first build some professional experiences in research, strategic marketing, and branding.

He joined the workforce in the late 1990s, conducting national marketing/brand management work for a corporate apparel company, as well as tracking and reporting on lodging supply data as a director of strategic market research.

After spending seven years developing his skills, Nisbet then worked for Cornell University as a senior research associate before earning his PhD in Communication and Comparative Politics. From there, he joined Ohio State faculty to teach undergraduate and graduate-level communications courses.

Now he’s adding a new role to his repertoire: Nisbet is the new faculty director for the MS in Communication (MSC) program. He came to Northwestern University a year ago as an Owen L. Coon Endowed Professor for the School of Communication’s Center for Communication & Public Policy.

“I do a lot of research that informs strategic communication,” he explains. “I focus on message design, the impact of message framing, and the impact of different types of media sources on public opinion and policy attitudes around certain issues. I’m combining that work with my professional experiences to help create a professional MSC program that is intellectually rigorous yet provides skills, principles, knowledge, and career coaching to help students.”

His plan is to build on the program’s solid foundation and three core curricular themes—complexity management, collaborative leadership, and elegant communication—to make sure students get more than just a degree.

Nisbet says his goal isn’t to teach—it’s to transform. The program goes far beyond classwork, offering co-curricular activities, personalized career coaching, cohort collaboration projects, and interactions with a robust alumni network (which he plans to expand in the future).

“We’re creating leaders and managers in communication and giving them tools so they can transform their own organizations. We want students to also be able to communicate their personal brands in a global marketplace and the complex cultural environment we’re in,” he explains. “They will be able to find their place and customize the program to suit their needs.”

He sees his strengths as complements to those of other faculty, with a strong emphasis on elegant communication: how to find audiences, how to connect with them, how to understand them, and which messages work best for them.

Nisbet will share his expertise as he leads Foundations of Strategic Management in the program’s spring quarter; he says one of the things he looks forward to most is engaging with students during that process. His teaching will focus on helping them create comprehensive marketing and branding initiatives for organizations while balancing and working with internal and external stakeholders.

In addition to serving as the program’s faculty director, Nisbet will continue his role with the Center for Communication & Public Policy, as well as teaching domestic and international workshops for the USC Annenberg Center on Public Diplomacy.

He’ll also continue to serve as a trusted source for local and national media as they report on public opinion and perceptions about public policy issues, such as COVID-19 vaccines and presidential races.

“I’m excited to work with students who are interested in leadership and management, as well as those who have strong interests in strategic communication, and provide more pedagogical pathways for them.”

Shortly after 9/11, Lauren Pedi ’19 stopped at her local hospital to ask about volunteer opportunities. She had recently moved from Detroit to Chicago—where her family was from—to work full-time at an architecture firm.

She was thankful for the job, given the current climate, but felt like something was missing. Maybe spending time in a medical setting would satisfy her desire for rewarding work.

Instead of becoming a volunteer, however, she ended up meeting someone in the development office. Shortly after, Pedi landed a job at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center as a development coordinator—and she loved it.

“I learned a little about everything,” she says, “from major gifts fundraising to event planning and stewarding donors. So much was transferrable from my time as a communication major at University of Michigan-Dearborn because so much was about relationship building and connecting with people.”

Four years later, she joined Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago to work with volunteer boards and fundraise for special events. At the time, the hospital had just announced plans for a 22-story, state-of-the-art medical center, slated to open in 2012: Pedi would be part of the team tasked with raising $600 million for the campaign.

“It was a really fun, rewarding, and memorable experience. We worked hard. We played hard. We had 30 events in 30 days, and we loved every minute of it,” she says. The experience also solidified her desire to use her skills to support groundbreaking work in healthcare.

In January 2014, Pedi left the team to move into major gift fundraising; she joined Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine to raise money for the Institute for Translational Neurosciences and its work on Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.

As she helped support this research, she decided it was time to explore a master’s program. After talking to colleagues, doing research, and attending information sessions, she discovered Northwestern’s MS in Communication program.

Pedi admits she was scared to return to the classroom after being out of school for nearly two decades, but her “colleagues spoke very highly of it,” she explains. “As a one year program, it seemed very approachable. And I knew the fundamentals would not only help me in my job today but also in the rest of my career—no matter where I went.”

Earning an MS in Communication gave her the opportunity and the confidence to put her skills to the test. For starters, she purposely chose an elective that she knew would be uncomfortable—but would pay off in the end: Professor Paul Arntson’s Leadership & Decision-Making class.

“You’re videotaped as you lead a group through a decision-making process based on an analysis of a business case study,” she explains. “Then you and the members of your team go back and evaluate how you did. When I first heard about it, I didn’t think I could ever do it. But I joined the program because I wanted to learn and push myself, so I decided to go for it.”

That confidence carried over into her work, too. While at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Pedi had agreed to share what she was learning in the program and lead the charge on a new project: finding meaningful ways to engage donors. After coming up with a plan, she took her team’s proposal to senior leadership and they moved forward. “I had the confidence to lead this small group through this process and present our ideas to leadership because of the experiences I had during the program,” she explains.

As graduation approached, Pedi planned to take a few months off and re-evaluate next steps. But after lunch with a former Lurie Children’s Hospital colleague, she learned about an open fundraising position within the neurosciences program.

She returned to the hospital in November 2019 as a senior major gift officer, where she raises funds for the Division of Neurology and Division of Neurosurgery, among other areas.

Today, Pedi still reaps the benefits of her MS in Communication. Working with doctors, scientists, administrators, and donors, she says her job can be challenging as she breaks scientific and medical information into understandable messages to motivate donors.

“The program gave me the confidence to ask questions and probe deeper with doctors and scientists to get at the heart of their work and how it translates into something meaningful for donors,” she says. “It helps me do my job more effectively and successfully.”