When you think of the skills needed for a career in biotech, communication may not rise to the top of the list. But, for Adam Zetter ’19, it’s exactly what he needed.

His path began with a degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996. His first full-time job was at a small startup conducting research as a formulation engineer: evaluating, formulating, and developing products to fill the company’s drug-development pipeline.

When his employer was acquired by a larger company, there was an opening for a junior project management position. He got to know some of the people on the team and decided to try it. “The unique thing about being a project manager in drug development is that you’re right in the middle of everything,” says Zetter. “Manufacturing, regulatory, research, development, marketing—all of it.”

After a year and a half, he was lured by the thought of working for a bigger biotech company and went to serve as a product development project manager for a genomics organization in a software development role—which turned out not to be a great fit. “At the time, I wasn’t a seasoned project manager with enough knowledge of software development to make that position work and handle the pace,” he explains. “The science and genetics, yes. Software development, no.”

So he returned to smaller startups and spent the next seven years honing his project management skills in a drug development environment, where he also gained experience in roles focused on training, learning, and development. In 2007, when his employer was preparing to close its doors, he got a call from one of the biggest players in biotech: Genentech.

To work for Genentech, he went back to a drug development project manager role before transitioning to a business analyst position and serving as a liaison between IT and the business. Five years in, he shifted gears once again to become a business manager, where he learned about business from a different perspective as he worked with senior executives on strategy and tactics to help shape and advance their organizations while overseeing strategic, cross-functional initiatives—a role he still holds today.

“The great thing about this job is that there’s not any one way to do it,” he explains. “We’re counted on to leverage our experience in a multitude of situations to be thought partners on strategy and drive execution.”

Spending nearly 24 years in biotech, Zetter knew he had his technical skills down. After some personal reflection, however, he asked himself some tough questions: Where are my gaps? What’s holding me back from getting to a higher level? That’s when he realized it all came down to communication.

“It took me over 20 years to figure that out,” says Zetter. “Once it crystallized in my mind, I started researching and looking at different programs to see what they offered.”

When he discovered the MS in Communication (MSC) program, its three learning themes—managing complexity, collaborative leadership, and elegant communication—spoke to him. “At the end of the day, I only applied to the MSC program,” he says. “It’s the only one I wanted.”

Because he was based in California, Zetter appreciated the Hybrid Leadership Program option, which gave him the opportunity to learn online while still being physically present on occasion. With a young family at home, he recognized it would be a hard year—but the one-year commitment vs. two or three years made it more realistic.

“Even though we were predominantly online, the professors were incredibly engaged, and we were an extremely tight cohort,” he says. “We still message each other almost every day. These aren’t just classmates. We formed lifelong bonds, and I learned so much that I use every day.”

He credits the Understanding and Leveraging Networks course for sparking new ideas in learning and development as he builds and trains successful teams. “Helping people learn and imparting information is going to be the hallmark of the second half of my career.”

Information Design was another highlight for Zetter—if for no other reason than it inspired him to revamp his résumé, which has generated so many compliments that he says it’s now worth its weight in gold.

“I have real confidence in my communication skills and ability, knowing I can apply them in nontypical ways,” he says. “The MS in Communication program gives you skills you can apply in any business situation. Even if I go outside the biotech industry someday, I have these skills to leverage. Everything I’ve learned is going to add value.”

From a young age, Cassandra Libal ’19 knew she wanted to create change in her community. Growing up in inner-city Milwaukee, she was raised by a single mother who wasn’t able to provide financial support for higher education.

To pursue her dream, she applied for a paid apprenticeship right out of high school: Milwaukee’s Police Aide program. Earning an income while she developed useful skills for a career in law enforcement, she performed clerical and support work for two years. When she turned 21, she joined the Police Academy to complete training.

Since becoming an officer in 1997, Libal has worked in nearly every aspect of law enforcement, from general patrol to narcotics. Rising through the ranks to captain and serving as the commander of community outreach and education, she helped bridge the gap between the Milwaukee community and police officers. “I loved overseeing our community outreach efforts, which circles back to the reason I wanted a career in law enforcement: to pay it forward and make a difference,” she explains.

Marcus King ’19 has always been a leader—it just came naturally, even as a student.

Before he graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2011 with a journalism/integrated marketing communications degree, he was elected by 18,000+ of his peers to serve as the undergraduate student body president. In this role, he was responsible for representing student views in monthly meetings with the university chancellor.

Recognizing King’s strong performance in leadership and campus involvement, a professor encouraged him to pursue a Dunn Fellowship after graduation: a year-long governmental honors fellowship program that identifies young professionals who have the skills needed for executive-level positions within the Illinois Governor’s Office. Selected from a pool of more than 5,000 students, King had the opportunity to work in the press office to assist the press secretary with releases and media interaction.

With that experience under his belt, he was soon tapped for a new government role: chief of constituent affairs for the State of Illinois, where he was entrusted with significant authority over staff, served as a media spokesperson and handled media inquiries for the Illinois Department of Corrections, and organized and executed Summit of Hope (the No. 1 U.S. re-entry program for ex-offenders).

He had already gained impressive experience in just a few years, climbing the ladder quickly. (Maybe a little bit too quickly, he admits.) With so much of his career left in front of him, King wanted to do more to improve his skills—and realized that a graduate degree might be the answer.

“What sold me on the MS in Communication program was when I went to the open house and got to sit through a class taught by Michelle Shumate,” he says. “There was something about her. I was very impressed.”

Given the demands of his job, King couldn’t imagine being in class on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night. But he also didn’t want to give up his Saturdays for classes. Once he realized he could complete the graduate program in one year, he decided the Saturday sacrifice was worth it.

Only a month after he began the MS in Communication program, King’s career took another step forward. In December 2018, he was offered another senior-level position. He now serves as the State of Illinois’ senior advisor for civic engagement.

“If you’re in any type of leadership or communications position, then this program is for you,” he says. “There’s nothing you can think of that the program doesn’t touch on.”

He says his professors presented information in a way that made him curious about communication; he could relate the curriculum to everything he dealt with at work (and in his personal life, too), which only made him want to learn more.

The lessons were so valuable, in fact, that he saved his class notes—and he’s glad he did. “I was able to reference them later—I still do—and they’re like gold,” he says. “I didn’t always make the connection at the time with some of the things being taught, but I wrote them down. When I started to step away, I was able to start connecting these ideologies and philosophies to advance my career and professional relationships.”

As he works on a personal video project—set for release this fall—he spoke with a Kentucky state representative about ethics and virtue. His ability to talk about those topics in-depth with the legislator is owed to Randy Iden, King says.

“Some of his concepts were so new to me that I became fascinated with them. That’s what this program does. The professors put you on different roads you never would have traveled. Once you start traveling those roads, you get to destinations you never would have thought about on your own.”

As Jessie Pagliari (MSC ’20) was studying communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she often called her mom, Rose Pagliari (MSC ’19), as she walked home from class.

From interpersonal interaction to the mother/daughter dyad, Jessie wanted to share what she was learning—and communication was a topic they were both interested in and loved to discuss.

While Jessie was earning her undergraduate degree, Rose was a few decades into her sales career. A high-level position at an IT services company kept her busy managing a portfolio of high-impact clients, supporting their training and learning initiatives by hiring talent for their IT projects. Whenever she saw Northwestern credentials listed on a résumé, she always took time to interview the applicant. “I knew there was probably something special about that person.”

One weekend in 2018 when Jessie returned home for a quick visit (she had graduated and was working at a media company in a business development role), she found her mother writing a paper as part of prework for admission to Northwestern’s MS in Communication program.

“I had been afraid to apply and didn’t tell many people,” says Rose. “I had worked all these years and accomplished all these things. I could think of a million reasons why I shouldn’t apply, but a voice in my head just kept saying, ‘Keep going. You have to be part of this.’ I wanted to become stronger, smarter, and better. I wanted to be able to share what I learned with other people.”

Rose says her inspiration to return to school had come from her daughter – although Jessie didn’t realize it at the time. “As a parent, to learn from you child is an amazing moment,” Rose says. We spend our whole lives teaching them…and then they turn around and teach us.”

Soon, the phone calls after class started again. But this time it was Rose calling Jessie to share what she was learning: from behavior discussions of high self-monitors vs. low self-monitors to the impacts of working globally and cross-border communication differences.

For Rose, the program was answering questions that had lingered for years. She finally understood why change initiatives sometimes failed, why some people were promoted when they lacked necessary skills, and the impact of assigning overly aggressive goals—and she was excited to share with Jessie what she was discovering.

The more she heard about her mother’s classroom experiences, the more Jessie realized that an MS in Communication might be a valuable tool for her, too. Only a few years into her career, she wanted leadership, persuasion, and communication skills that would set her apart.

“My mom was learning unique things that were directly applicable to the situations I faced as an enterprise salesperson,” says Jessie, who had moved to a role with LinkedIn Learning as a mid-market relationship manager. “She inspired me to want to learn the things she was learning—and to pursue a graduate degree in communication. It was a full-circle moment: inspiration begets inspiration.” 

One year after her mother, Jessie took the leap and enrolled, beginning the MS in Communication program in Fall 2019. “I was so excited for her during the application process,” says Rose. “I knew she had so much to offer. As I took these courses and reflected on my career, I kept thinking, ‘If I only knew then what I know now.’ I’m so happy she has that opportunity.”

Jessie says it’s been helpful to talk to her mom about what she’s learning and compare it to what Rose learned a year earlier. 

“I was pleasantly surprised by the corporate application aspects,” says Jessie. “Once we hear a theory and it resonates, our professors encourage us to try it when it makes sense. If it doesn’t feel like it fits, then challenge it.”

In one class, for example, students are guided through the steps of building their own leadership stories. Jessie enjoyed the process so much that she decided to try it out, sharing the concept with her manager. From there, Jessie led her team through a three-hour storytelling workshop. “It was awesome to learn it and then teach it back to see how much other people loved and enjoyed it, too,” she says.

In the past year, while Jessie has been working and studying, Rose has been reflecting on what she learned and the confidence the program gave her. Last July, to re-focus, she decided to resign from her high-level sales position. “I have all these resources and knowledge now,” she says. “I can do whatever I put my mind to. Now I just want to think about what that is.”

After she graduated in 2019, Rose combined the lessons she learned in one of her MS in Communication courses with her own research and presented at an ATD Chicagoland Chapter Conference about the power of networks. She loved the experience so much that she plans to continue sharing her knowledge this way in the future. “Your network truly determines the opportunities that cross your desk,” she says. “There are small things you can do to increase the power of your network. I want to share that with people.”

Transportation, aerospace, and even U.S. Congress: Gabrielle Torina ’19 had gained impressive work experience across a wide variety of fields—but she was ready to focus her work and build her career.

Even before she earned her undergraduate degree at Judson University in 2017, Torina was attending open houses for Northwestern’s MS in Communication program. She worked hard to develop the focus and drive to go to college and wanted to keep the momentum going.

“I knew I had potential,” she says, “but the lack of higher education was limiting me. I was a little confused about my experiences. How was anyone going to look at my résumé and understand me and where I was trying to go if I didn’t know myself?”

As she started to think about career goals and make sense of her work experiences, she noticed some common threads: marketing, communications, and working with people. She started charting her journey, asking those around her for feedback on what she does well and focusing on experiences and skills she enjoys.

“I ultimately chose to earn a master’s at Northwestern because I needed something that was going to make me stand out,” explains Torina. “This field can become saturated, so I wanted to show that I was different. I wanted something that was going to stretch me and give me that big sense of pride afterwards.”

Living nearly two hours away in Rockford, IL, didn’t stop her from moving forward with that dream. She got up at 4 am so she could be one of the first to arrive, making the most of the experience while she could. This also allowed her to spend one-on-one time with Pat Messina, associate director of career management for the MS in Communication program (Messina arrived early on class days, too).

“She helped me reformat my résumé and look at my experiences in a different way, crafting a strong value proposition using what I already had. I took advantage of that time to ask questions and get advice.” Combined with the curriculum, these services helped her find value in the diverse career experiences she had—and how to apply them moving forward. Torina still keeps in touch with the career services team, recently reaching out for tips on refreshing her personal brand to better align it with who she is today.

Another program highlight for Torina was her mastermind group, formed by a classmate and made up of seven individuals who represented different career phases and industries. “It was so valuable—not just from a relationship standpoint, but also keeping each other on track. We were intentional about getting large assignments and capstone projects done early so we weren’t stressed at the end. We helped one another when it was time to come up with topics for papers and assignments.”

Torina says the program paid off almost immediately in the form of a new job—her dream job. Even during the interview process, she used what she learned from the MS in Communication program to answer in-depth questions in front of a panel and create a presentation in response to a specific situation.

Five weeks into her new job, the United States was suddenly faced with COVID-19. “I was immediately able to start crisis communications,” she says. “It just hit me: ‘Wow, I’m using my degree right away!’ ”

She currently works as the engagement and communications manager for Transform Rockford, a social innovation incubator. Formed seven years ago to improve living and working conditions in Rockford, this grassroots movement improves social and economic well-being for people in the Rockford area by following a transformation plan that promotes healing and fixing the community’s problems from within. Torina and her team have an ambitious goal: to transform Rockford into a top 25 community by 2025.

“I’m not the same person I was before the program,” she says. “I’m still using the resources that are available to us—for myself, for my career, and to guide others. I learned more than what I thought I was going to. They instilled a desire to always be in pursuit of information and truth. I left knowing my value and what I’m able to offer the world.”