Nina Kraus

Distinguished Alumnae Award Recipient, 2022

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences, Neurobiology, and Otolaryngology, is the recipient of The Alumnae of Northwestern University’s 2022 Alumnae Award. As a biologist and amateur musician, she thinks about sound and brain health. Kraus is a role model for women in science and technology. Through her diverse partnerships, her work on the effects of music experience on the nervous system has targeted African American and Latino children living in low-income areas. Her research on HIV takes place in under-resourced communities in China and Tanzania.

Her latest book, Of Sound Mind – How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World, which was written for the intellectually curious, has received national recognition. When talking about her book, Kraus notes in the Evanston Round Table: “This is my love-letter to sound, how sound connects us, its biological impact on making us us, and how it affects the world we live in. Sound is an underrecognized, powerful force in our lives. The hearing brain engages how we think, feel, move and integrate our other senses.” A Wall Street Journal review of the book notes: “Of Sound Mind offers a deeply scientific yet often poetic look at the hearing brain and provides an in-depth narrative about why such explorations are important.”

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. 

“As the 46th recipient of our Alumnae Award, Nina will join a distinguished group of women bringing honor to Northwestern University,” says The Alumnae president Carol Willis. 

In her deep examination of sound and the brain, Kraus makes the case for the far-reaching impact of sound, showing how hearing engages how we think, feel, move and combine our senses. Through auditory neuroscience, she discovered how the sounds of our lives engage our neurological health for better (musicians, bilinguals) and for worse (concussion, language disorders, poverty). Kraus has more than 400 books and articles in peer-reviewed publications. 

Diverse partnerships encompass:
Community Partnerships: Kraus has a history of engaging with communities beyond academic science, with longstanding partnerships with education, industry, the arts, philosophy, athletics, medicine and the general public. All partnerships have led to peer
reviewed scientific publications. 

Partnerships with Education: Kraus has undertaken uncommon initiatives with children engaged in music programs in low-income areas of Chicago and Los Angeles. Using longitudinal studies (following individual children for about five years), she delineated
biological consequences of living in poverty on the hearing brain, revealing that music education can offset adverse biological, learning and literacy outcomes in at-risk children. 

Partnerships with Athletics: Kraus leads an ongoing NIH-funded project evaluating all 500 Division I athletes over 5 years with biological assessment of hearing health to delineate the auditory processing consequences of concussion and prolonged
participation in contact sports. The work has revealed that concussion indeed disrupts the hearing brain, as well as biological evidence for subconcussive injury. On the other hand, healthy athletes show enhanced sensory processing, more so in female than male athletes.

Partnership with the Arts: SoundHealth is an ongoing partnership between the NIH, NEA, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Along with Francis Collins (NIH director) and soprano Renee Fleming, Kraus has led panels on the feasibility of launching NIH initiatives to fund the study of the biological effects of music on health. Kraus delivered the opening keynote at the founding meeting of this enterprise. 

National Endowment for the Arts: Kraus has shown that links between brain rhythms and
sound rhythms track with language skills. 

Uniting Communities: Science, Athletics, Performing Arts: Kraus is using her research to Uniting Communities: Science, Athletics, Performing Arts: Kraus is using her research to make connections between seemingly disparate fields. Currently, she is
investigating rhythm training as a therapeutic avenue for concussions. She engages with Athletes for the Arts and the Performing Arts Medical Association. To illustrate concepts, often partnering with artists for lectures and teaching, Kraus demonstrates that   science is an art. 

Since 2016, Kraus gave 90 keynotes and numerous invited talks including: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fermi Labs, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Columbia University, Rutgers University, Emory University, Tufts University, University of Chicago and the University of Texas. 

Kraus runs a far-reaching lab website (https://brainvolts.northwestern.edu) and enjoys regular media coverage (New York Times, BBC, NPR, Time, Nature, Science and Scientific American). She embraces podcasts and interviews to communicate the science of sound through sound. Unscripted and spontaneous, these exchanges build empathy with an audience, capitalizing on
sound’s ability to connect us. She holds five patents, with three pending, for assessment of sound processing in the brain. 

Nina Kraus will receive her award on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at 4 p.m., at the Allen Center on Northwestern’s campus. She will be introduced by E. Patrick Johnson, dean, Northwestern’s School of Communication and Annenberg University professor. 

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). 

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For Immediate Release
October 12, 2022 – Photo available
For more information:
Michele Bresler, Public Relations Chair
The Alumnae of Northwestern University
847-867-5412; [email protected]
Nina Kraus, PhD, to Receive 2022 Alumnae Award
From The Alumnae of Northwestern University

Rama Darayyad

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Rama Darayyad is a Communication Sciences and Disorders major with a minor in Global Health and was accepted into the very competitive Accelerated Public Health Program, which is a combined program open to Northwestern students during their junior year. Students take graduate public health courses as a senior and then formally begin their MPH in June. Rama also holds a credit in American Sign Language. Her letters of recommendation gave her high praise, but Pete Locke’s reflections were most powerful: “I was lucky to have Rama as an exceptional student in my advanced seminar, War and Public Health. It was during this time that American university campuses were experiencing controversy and upheaval as students organized to protest the staggering human toll of the war in Gaza that began in October 2023. Rama’s family is originally from Palestine and has direct experience of multiple waves of violence and displacement in the region, leading ultimately to their emigration to the United States. In the same class I also had students descended from Holocaust survivors who identified strongly with Israel and felt uncomfortable with the student protests. What struck me most about the experience of teaching this class during such a difficult time was the maturity, thoughtfulness, and collegiality of all my students, and Rama in particular. She is a gifted intuitive leader and colleague.” In her personal statement, Rama writes that her “passion lies in working with refugee children and families, listening to their stories, and improving their access to care.”

Kelly Vogt

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Kelly Vogt is a first-generation student who earned her undergraduate degree from the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) with a focus on Human Development in Contest and Latino and Latina Studies. All aspects of Kelly’s application indicate a young woman possessing a strident work ethic, dedication to her field of study and empathy for both her colleagues and her students. In her own words she feels we need educators “who lead with love and compassion above all else.” Kelly’s recommendations highlight both her academic and professional skills and her positive attitude toward challenging tasks. They praise her as a leader committed to service. One of her recommenders states that “Kelly has a way of meeting people, seeing what’s important to them, and then remembering details about ones’ interests, stories and lives. She makes people feel seen.” She will continue developing and growing these skills while pursuing a Masters of Secondary Education with the goal of becoming a middle school Spanish teacher at a Chicago Public School. After that, she would like to return to her education and research how learning environments can support culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Gabriella Nyambura

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Gabriella Nyambura will enroll in the Master of Science degree program in Integrated Marketing Communications. Her intellectual journey has taken her far from her home in Kenya, where her mother stressed the importance of education. She has won internships, worked as an Education USA College Applications Consultant at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, and was named Outstanding New Employee at the Norris University Center, May 2023. Gabriella secured first place in Arts and Humanities at the Undergraduate Expo in May 2024 and won other honors and awards.
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As one of her recommenders commented about Gaby, “one of her strengths is her intellectual curiosity.” She has initiated a bench-marking survey of peer institutions comparing alumni benefit offerings, to determine how Northwestern ranks among peer institutions. Another recommender commented, “her ability to apply academic theory to practice is impressive.”

Ed. note:  She was also a 2023 Alumnae of NU Undergraduate Research Scholar.

Catherine Choi

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Catherine Choi majored in Biological Sciences as an undergraduate and was selected for the highly competitive Accelerated Master’s Program in Public Health in her senior year. She was on the Dean’s List multiple quarters, as well as an Alumnae Undergraduate Research Scholar. Catherine is fluent in Korean and has intermediate proficiency in Latin. She received a summer internship three years in a row, a Weinberg College Summer Research Grant, a STEM Scholarship in 2023 from The Alumnae of Northwestern University and participated in volunteer and service projects. After her mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer, Catherine noted, “I spent a decade earning how to morph myself into the role that the times called for – a caregiver, a medical interpreter, a researcher, a patient advocate, as student – and had a sharper focus for my future studies.” One recommender stated that Catherine has expressed interest in the possibility of an MD degree with a career in clinical medicine in the future. She stated that this “reflects her intellectual curiosity and openness to the range of future possibilities.”

Anna Bock

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Anna Bock is pursuing a Physician Assistant degree from Feinberg School of Medicine. She graduated from Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Marketing Communications with a BS in Journalism while also following a pre-med track. She has worked as an EMT provider while writing the stories behind the work of her EMT colleagues. Additionally, Anna has completed a full-time journalism internship with JAMA and has contributed 24 articles to date. She has excelled in both journalism and pre-med, appearing on Dean’s List in her last seven quarters. One of her recommenders states, “Mixing writing labs, daytime reporting requirements and the intensity of the hands-on demand of journalism classes with the equally time-intensive demands of pre-med classes, labs, and sequences is a rare achievement. Anna is one of the few who succeeded in that effort.” Anna says that combining both as of study intersects with her interest in telling human stories as well as being a part of the stories through her medical training. Professor Patti Wolter of Medill wrote that Anna is “committed, incredibly intelligent” and “a student who excels in two very different, important fields.”