Meet the Staff
The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) is located on both campuses. If you have questions, please use this direct link to our office email address, and your email will be responded to by the appropriate person. In your email, please specify if you are a Chicago campus student.
Margie Roe, Director
Phone: 847-491-2960
Email: m-roe@northwestern.edu
Margie has over 30 years of professional experience working with individuals with disabilities. She has been in charge of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at Northwestern since 2002.
Margie was raised and educated in Cincinnati, where she received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Edgecliff College and a master’s degree in education (in the Guidance and Counseling Program) from Xavier University. After receiving her degrees, she counseled individuals at state and private agencies that provided vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities. Prior to coming to Northwestern, she spent 13 years as the Director of Disability Services at Wright College in Chicago, where in 1999 she was recognized as one of two employees of the year.
During her tenure at Northwestern, Margie has overseen an almost 300% increase in the number of students served by SSD. She enjoys being an advocate for students with faculty, staff and administrators, and particularly thrives on working with students who find themselves in challenging situations. As a mother of two grown children, she appreciates the problems faced by parents whose children are transitioning to college.
In her spare time Margie enjoys spending time with her family, and she recently became a grandmother.
Alison May, Assistant Director- Evanston Campus
Phone: 847-467-5532
Email: a-may@northwestern.edu
Alison is a native of the East Coast, hailing from the small, gateway-to-the-ocean town of Salisbury, Maryland. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Dartmouth College, where she became interested in disability services through working in its Academic Skills Center during her sophomore through senior years. She came to Evanston in 1997 to begin her doctorate at Northwestern in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program with a concentration in learning disabilities, earning her degree in 2002.
After receiving her Ph.D., Alison worked at Columbia College Chicago, where she served as Director of its Conaway Achivement Project and Services for Students with Disabilities Office. She also taught courses in disabilities and language development in Columbia's Early Childhood Education Program for seven years and is a certified special education teacher. Alison then worked as the Director for Oakton Community College's Student Support Services TRiO Program which, like the Conaway Achievement Project, works with first-generation college students, low-income college students, and students with disabilities.
Now, as the Assistant Director for SSD's Evanston campus (since 2007), Alison especially enjoys doing academic coaching and strategy work with her students. She is close to completing her coaching certification and recently published an article in the Journal of Learning Disabilities regarding stereotypes of undergraduates with learning disabilities. Alison enjoys exercise, reading, time with friends and family, and her two cats.
Timothy Montgomery, Assistant Director- Chicago Campus
Phone: 312-503-4042
Email: timothy-montgomery@northwestern.edu
Prior to working at NU, he spent 8 years working in the areas of academic support and disability services in higher education at Dean College, Merrimack College and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He has taught at the college level, providing undergraduate supervision of student teachers in the field placements and graduate courses in the area of education/special education, both at Merrimack College. He also taught Adult Education: GED Prep at the College of Southern Nevada.
For 20 years he was a special educator in middle/high schools in Michigan, South Carolina and Massachusetts; he served for three years as a high school TEAM Chairperson in Massachusetts.
He is the proud father of two daughters. His older daughter graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor's degree in archaeology in 2010, and his younger daughter is in her final year at University of California-Santa Cruz, majoring in marine biology with a minor in education and a concentration in Japanese.
In his spare time, when he can, he enjoys and plays golf, golf and more golf.
Please visit our page providing information for Chicago-campus students for details about the procedures related to and services provided by the Chicago SSD Office.
Annie Miskella, Department Assistant
Phone: 847-467-5530
Email: annie.miskella@northwestern.edu
Annie is a veteran of Northwestern's Department of Student Affairs. She has been a member of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities since fall of 2008. In addition, she worked in Northwestern's Housing Office for two years starting in fall of 2005.
Annie is a graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she earned her B.A. in history and minored in environmental studies. Moreover, she has completed numerous master's level courses in education at DePaul University.
Annie currently lives in Chicago and enjoys cheering on the Cubs, Hawks, Bulls, and Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. In the Evanston area, you are most likely to run into her at Uber Burger or Lou Malnati's.
Candice Gant, Program Assistant for CAPS and SSD-Chicago
Phone: 312-503-0936
Email: c-gant@northwestern.edu
Candice was born in England though she calls Chicago home. She recently completed her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University. Joining the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities in the fall of 2010, she works primarily on the Chicago campus and in conjunction with the Counseling and Psychological Services department.
Candice is an avid Chicago sports fan and enjoys all things techy and sci-fi. She also enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching almost every current television show and movies while knitting, and volunteering for her alumni organization and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.