Alessandro F. Rotta Loria

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2022

Alessandro F. Rotta Loria is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. Rotta Loria will deploy a wireless temperature sensing network in underground environments across the Chicago Loop district that will become a living laboratory for his class “Energy Geostructures and Geosystems” (EGG – CIV_ENV_353). 

This network will provide a large set of real-world data that students in the EGG course will use to design innovative projects that can harvest renewable geothermal energy and waste thermal energy through the subsurface to meet buildings’ heating, cooling and hot water needs. These projects will be developed virtually but could be realizable immediately, with significant implications for the decarbonization of cities and the building sector at large. In support of this undertaking, Rotta Loria will provide students with cross-disciplinary competence in mechanics, energy and data science.

Rotta Loria’s research is at the intersection of geomechanics, energy and environmental sustainability. His goal is to understand the properties and behavior of soils, rocks, concrete and system thereof in the context of geological energy production and storage.

Northwestern Now, January 31, 2022 | By Lila Reynolds

Heather Pinkett

Curriculum Innovation Award Recipient, 2022

Heather Pinkett, the Irving M. Klotz Research Professor and associate professor of molecular biosciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will create modules with students that highlight the professional stories of scientists with diverse backgrounds, particularly emphasizing scientists currently working in the field. 

Pinkett’s work will build on an existing biochemistry class, giving students additional opportunities to teach and learn from their classmates as well as implement changes to future curricula.

The project, called the Northwestern University Teach One Reach One project, or NU-TORO for short, promotes inclusion in STEM curriculum and gives students agency to reform STEM curriculum alongside their professor. By implementing a resource that highlights new connections between textbooks and contemporary research that traditional coursework may not allow, NU-TORO offers students different perspectives on the feasibility of careers in STEM.

Pinkett also will launch the NU-TORO website nationwide as a template for other educators to increase their own curriculum inclusivity, providing references and other resources.

The Pinkett lab looks at the way nutrients, antibiotics and chemotherapeutics are transported into and out of the cell, with an interest in ABC transporters, proteins that use ATP hydrolysis to move substrates across cell membranes.

Pinkett is an expert in ABC transporters, transcriptional regulation and host-pathogen interactions, and is also a member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.Pinkett is an expert in ABC transporters, transcriptional regulation and host-pathogen interactions, and is also a member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute.

Northwestern Now, January 31, 2022 | By Lila Reynolds

Roslyn Brock

Distinguished Alumnae Award Recipient, 2021

The Alumnae Award recognizes a woman who has brought honor to Northwestern University through outstanding professional contributions in her field and who has attained national recognition. Established in 1976, the Alumnae Award has been presented every year to an alumna who has had a significant impact in her field of endeavor. Educators, journalists, doctors, scientists, and artists are included among The Alumnae’s roster of awardees.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Roslyn Brock, a nationally recognized civil rights, health policy, and equity advocate, is the recipient of The Alumnae of Northwestern University’s 2021 Alumnae Award. She is currently Chief Global Equity Officer for Abt Associates, a social impact research firm that uses data and bold thinking to improve the quality of people’s lives worldwide. Brock is Chairman Emeritus of the National Board of Directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was the youngest person ever elected NAACP chairman and the fourth woman to hold the position.

“As the 45th recipient of our Alumnae Award, Roslyn will join a distinguished group of women bringing honor to Northwestern University,” say The Alumnae president Carolyn Krulee.
As NAACP National Board Chairman, Brock championed the board’s policy engagement in health care reform and access. In 2003, she founded the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit, which is a recruitment and training initiative to cultivate a new generation of civil rights leaders. This initiative contributed nearly $2 million to support the organization’s civil rights programs.

Brock’s social impact extends globally. She built cross-cultural understanding and professional networks with young leaders in China as a Young Leaders Fellow with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Brock’s personal philosophy is embodied in an African proverb: “Care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible.” Her trademarked mantra is “Courage will not skip this generation!”® When talking about mentoring, Brock notes: “Mentoring is incredibly beneficial in career advancement, when women in leadership positions mentor other women; it not only gives them those opportunities but also gives them a space and network for support.”

Brock has served as Chief Advocacy Officer for Bon Secours Mercy Health, a top 20 health care delivery system, where she advanced health equity, health policy reform and social justice initiatives for vulnerable and under-resourced populations. She also managed and directed domestic and international health programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, and the New York State Health Department.
Recognized for her leadership skills and publications, in 2020 Brock was featured on CBS Nightly News commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage. She received the 2018 Distinguished Health Care Leader Award from the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE); the 2018 Schaffner Award for Social Impact from Northwestern University; the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Leadership Award; Essence magazine’s list of “40 Fierce and Fabulous Women Who are Changing the World;” and Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) inaugural “Black Girls Rock” broadcast, among other accolades.
In addition, Brock is a Board Trustee at The George Washington University and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility; Chairman, International Connection/Social Action Committee, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; Chairman Women’s Caucus, Comcast NBC Universal Joint Diversity Advisory Council; and former Chair, Board of Advisors, Milken Institute of Public Health, The George Washington University; among other affiliations.

Brock graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Union University, earned a master’s degree in health services administration from George Washington University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in divinity from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. She holds four honorary doctorate degrees.

Roslyn Brock received her award virtually on Monday, October 18, 2021, at 11 a.m. She was introduced by Robin Means Coleman, vice president & associate provost of diversity and inclusion, Northwestern University, and Ellen Taaffe, clinical assistant professor of leadership and director, Women’s Leadership Programming, at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

The Alumnae of Northwestern is an all-volunteer organization of women that raises funds for a wide range of projects to benefit the University. It shares the University’s academic resources with the community through its Continuing Education program, which is celebrating its 53rd year of bringing daytime noncredit courses to the public. The Alumnae has given more than $9.5 million to the University in the form of grants, fellowships, scholarships, and an endowed professorship, and has provided funds for special university projects and summer internships. For more information, visit The Alumnae website (www.nualumnae.org).
# # #
NR 2021 Alumnae Award – Brock/mb

10/2021

July Chen

STEM Scholarship Recipient, 2021

July Chen, WCAS ‘22, from Westmont, Ill., is majoring in biological science and psychology. His goal is to achieve an MD/PhD in medical science. July is a member of the Molecular Biosciences Lab at Northwestern and received a Baker Grant for Undergraduate Research. In high school, he medaled in the Illinois State Science Olympiad Tournament, received an award in writing from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement, was a National Merit Commended Scholar, and first chair of his school’s wind ensemble.