Alumni Updates

Brian d’Arcy James ’90

The multitalented stage and screen actor Brian d’Arcy James planned to return to Northwestern in May to accept the Sarah Siddons Society’s Actor of the Year Award at a Pick-Staiger Concert Hall benefit event. As an undergraduate, James received a Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship in 1989, making him the first scholarship winner to also receive the society’s Actor of the Year honor. James (see “The Life of Brian”) has appeared in 20 Broadway productions, including his current role as Nick Bottom in Something Rotten! On the big screen James played a member of the Boston Globe’s famous investigative unit in the feature film Spotlight, which won both Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 2016 Academy Awards.

Photo by Jordan Matter

Tracy Carson ’04

Photo by Jared Soares

In her work with the State Department’s Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources, Tracy Carson helps develop and justify U.S. foreign assistance budgets for sub-Saharan African nations. As the regional director for Africa, she handles issues surrounding the allocation, management and use of foreign aid coordinated by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. An African studies minor at Northwestern, Carson studied South African labor movements while earning a doctorate at Oxford University and later spent eight months in Namibia as part of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  (See “An Activist and a Scholar,” summer 2004.)

Angela Jackson ’77

Acclaimed Chicago poet Angela Jackson (see “Full of Grace,” winter 2009) released It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time: Poems (Triquarterly) in 2015. The collection, her sixth overall but her first in 16 years, serves as a historical account of the African American experience in the United States. The book was longlisted for a 2015 PEN Open Book Award, which honors an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color. The winners were announced in April.

Mark Silberg ’14, ’14 CERT

Mark Silberg was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in the energy category. In 2013 he launched Spark Clean Energy, a nonprofit that supports energy entrepreneurship and now administers the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cleantech University Prize, a nationwide education program and business plan competition. He continues on Spark’s board of directors. Silberg is also the network manager for the Electricity Innovation Lab at Rocky Mountain Institute in Boulder, Colo. He served as the Associated Student Government’s first vice president for sustainability. (See “The Philosophy of Green: Mark Silberg,” Senior Standouts, summer 2014.)

Photo by Mary Henebry

Philip Yu ’00

Philip Yu (see “Angry Asian Man,” winter 2011) received a 2016 Justice in Action Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in February. The award recognizes outstanding achievements and efforts in advancing social justice. As founder and editor of AngryAsianMan.com, Yu has been writing about race and Asian identity in America for more than 15 years.

Daniel Pink ’86

In 2015 London-based Thinkers50 named Daniel Pink one of the top 10 business thinkers in the world. He is the author of five best-selling books about the changing nature of work, and his TED Talk on the science of motivation is one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, with more than 20 million views. (See “Changing Course,” spring 2007.)