Ignatius Valentine Aloysius completed his MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on fiction from Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, where he received the Distinguished Thesis Award for his novel manuscript Fishhead. Soup., now under consideration by Curbside Splendor Press. A finalist for The Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists competition, Aloysius was also an interdisciplinary Ragdale resident. In addition, he became the 2014 Writer-in-Residence at el Ranchito Cielito con Nopales in La Union, New Mexico. Aloysius moderated several writers’ panels and also participated as a guest panelist at the 2015 Chicago Writers Conference. His writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, Newcity, the Chicago Tribune, LaTolteca Zine, and Gander Press Review. Aloysius is currently Managing Editor of the bilingual LaTolteca Zine online. He lives in Evanston and makes a living as a graphic designer and teacher of English and design software. In his spare time, he writes songs and plays lead guitar in a hard rock band.
Kevin Budelmann is the president and co-founder of Peopledesign, a design strategy firm based in Michigan. Kevin oversees the firm’s strategic direction and helps manage client relationships as designer, strategist and change catalyst. Budelmann has been a designer at Herman Miller Inc, served as the president of APDF (Association of Professional Design Firms) and AIGA West Michigan (Professional Association for Design) and is on the board of IxDA (Interaction Design Association). His co-authored book, Brand Identity Essentials (Rockport 2010) has been translated into six languages and is available worldwide. He received a Master of Design Methods from IIT Institute of Design and is a frequent speaker and guest blogger on brand and design innovation.
Kelly Cutler is an Educator and Business Leader. She brings over two decades of experience to her current role at Northwestern University, where she teaches at Medill, Kellogg and SPS. Kelly has been teaching in the areas of technology, marketing, and communication for nearly 15 years and continues to offer her expertise to professional, graduate, executive and undergraduate students at Northwestern University. In addition to her love of higher education, Kelly is a seasoned entrepreneur and technology executive with a background in digital marketing and technology solutions. Kelly is proud to hold a master's degree from the Information Design and Strategy program in Northwestern's School of Professional Studies. In her free time, Kelly enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors with her family.
Michael Dain has been a practitioner in the field of Human-Computer Interaction since 1997, and received his master’s in the subject in 2001. His interests combine a deep appreciation for human behavior, design history and principles, and interaction patterns and innovations. He has held many roles in leading development of innovative experiences, including Creative Director and Experience Design Director. His advertising work has won Cannes Gold and Silver Lions, Addy Awards and Marcom awards. He has worked in Advertising, Education, Health Care and Enterprise Systems. Dain has developed and taught User Centered Design courses for DePaul and Northwestern Universities.
Matthew Grossman
Matt Grossman is a freelance UX Strategist and Manager of Customer Success at Saganworks, an Ann Arbor, MI-based software startup exploring innovative solutions for arraying and interacting with digital information in 3D environments. He’s focused on deeply understanding customers and translating that information into delightful, human-centered product experiences. After a decade of working on eCommerce marketing and content teams, Matt earned a Master of Science in Information Design and Strategy (IDS), with a specialization in Content Strategy, from Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies. Through the IDS program, Matt connected his experience in visual communication and marketing with his passion for exploring information through structural, aesthetic, and social lenses. Previously, Matt earned a B.S. in Communication from Eastern Michigan University. He teaches Information Design and Architecture.
Randy Hlavac
Randy Hlavac is an expert in digital marketing and how to use consumer and business big data to define, target, and develop high value markets. Randy teaches Digital, Social and Mobile Marketing Strategies in the Medill IMC program, Marketing Analytics in the McCormick Engineering Management program and Social Media and Content Curation in the School of Professional Studies. Randy also works with The Garage and the Farley Entrepreneurial program to assist entrepreneurs to grow and position their brand using social and digital marketing. In addition to teaching, Randy is director of the OmniChannel Initiative – a joint venture with IBM to bring new business and marketing technologies into the college curriculum at Northwestern.
Randy also helped Northwestern develop Coursera online programs in Social Media Marketing and Content Strategy and Content Curation. These courses are offered worldwide and have students in over 150 countries. They are some of the largest online programs on marketing and content in the world.
Randy is CEO of Marketing Synergy, Inc. Founded in 1990, Marketing Synergy helps clients from start-ups to Fortune 100 to develop effective digital marketing strategies and deploy the marketing, customer service, and financial metrics systems to improve profits and grow market share.
Randy speaks at business, technical and marketing conventions around the world. He is a frequent speaker at IBM conferences on Big Data, Watson, and IoT. Randy is also the author of the book – Social IMC – Social Strategies with Bottom-Line ROI and will soon be publishing Prosper – Your Guide to Building Profitable Digital Marketing Programs. Randy is also a blogger on digital and social marketing technologies.
David Noffs
Dr. David Noffs has spent over 10 years as an Instructional Technologist and Designer in the Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence at Columbia College Chicago where he oversaw the development of online interactive tools and the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS’s). In this capacity, he supervised the installation of a campus-wide Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) LMS in 2008 and development of training programs for students, faculty and staff. Noffs’ work grew to include not only teaching faculty and staff ways to use technology in the classroom, but also oversight of the creation of faculty led virtual learning communities, and non-stop facilitated online courses for faculty and staff development. In addition, he helped develop and teach workshops for mobile app development, online coursework development (instructional design), grade book design, portfolio design, and an array of online teaching tools, including integration of social media into virtual learning communities. Noffs joined Northwestern University School of Professional Studies in 2015. His doctoral dissertation in Adult and Continuing Education from National Louis University is entitled, Resonating Frequencies of a Virtual Learning Community: An Ethnographic Case Study of Online Faculty Development at Columbia College Chicago. Noffs also teaches courses in Sound Design, Web Design and iOS, C# and C++ Programming at Columbia’s department of Interactive Arts and Media.
Russell Roberson
Russell Roberson is vice president of quality and regulatory affairs for a global medical company, assuring that products and services are designed, manufactured, distributed, and serviced properly. He has responsibility for an extensive portfolio of healthcare software products in both medical (pharmacy, imaging, electronic medical records, and prescription management products) and nonmedical (financial and data-privacy products) device areas affected by global regulation. Roberson is a frequent speaker at global conferences on such topics as software design processes, regulatory affairs, and quality management systems. A licensed professional engineer, he holds professional certifications in engineering, auditing, and management; is active in several professional societies; and sits on his college fraternity’s national board of trustees. Among his publications are two books on leadership and cancer management. Roberson has a doctorate in business administration and management, an MBA degree, and a MS in mechanical engineering.