Category: Class Notes

Jill Vanneman ’79 of Seattle has written a memoir published in June 2026 by SheWrites Press called “The Perfection Campaign A Daughter’s Search for Acceptance.” Told with biting humor, tenderness, and grit, The Perfection Campaign is part survival story, part love letter to the messy, magnificent act of becoming yourself. It’s a memoir for anyone who’s ever tried to shrink to fit someone else’s definition of “enough”—and finally decided to take up all the space they deserve.

Medill graduate Kyra Kyles and her sister, Kozi Kyles, co-produced/directed/wrote a buzzy fictional horror comedy podcast, “Home for the Holidays.” Spanning Christmas, New Year’s and Thanksgiving, this trilogy features an array of talent from across the country and the audio engineering skills of fellow Northwestern grad, Casey Baker. Fans of anthology series from “The Twilight Zone” to “The Outer Limits” to “Tales from the Crypt” (and “Hood”) can take a listen to Season 1 and then subscribe to stay on top of new releases: https://bit.ly/4qssCls Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.

Kirshenbaum published “Miami Road: A Son’s Memoir,” a book about his family’s life on Chicago’s once heavily Jewish West Side and in his hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan, and touching on his Northwestern years. Kirshenbaum was a feature writer and columnist at the Minneapolis Tribune, staff writer at Time and for 30 years a writer and editor at Sports Illustrated. He is an inductee in Medill’s Hall of Achievement. In 2022, he came out of retirement to write a 50th anniversary reminiscence for Sports Illustrated of his experiences covering the 1972 Munich Olympics at which Mark Spitz’s heroics were eclipsed by a terrorist attack that shocked the world. Michael Korda, author and former editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, says of Miami Road: “I enjoyed this book enormously. Written with a remarkable combination of frankness and love. A family story well told.”

Alice Foeller’s TEDx Talk was chosen as a TED Editor’s Pick in 2025, and she published a book this summer. Alice’s book, The Art of Compassion: Supporting Friends Through Dark Times, is a handbook for being helpful to someone who is grieving. Grief research is artful woven into Alice’s personal narrative of losing her husband to suicide in 2023.

Sharon Yoo won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for KING 5 in Seattle. Sharon will travel to New York City next week to accept the award at the 2025 National Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala. The honor is for her 30-minute documentary, “The Buffalo Hunt,” in the category of Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Large Market Television.

In the documentary, Sharon and a photojournalist follow the Kalispel Indian Tribe as members prepare for Indigenous People’s Day through their annual buffalo hunt. The tradition honors their ancestors, culture and is a vehicle to help heal wounds from the past.

Lisa Parker is the new director of the Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence at DePaul University, where she teaches Advanced Reporting. Lisa joined DePaul after a career as a consumer investigative reporter, most recently for 27 years at NBC Chicago. In a major serendipity, this year Lisa taught alongside her favorite former Medill instructor Rick Brown!