RCTP Team: The Graduate School - Northwestern University

RCTP Team

Current Team Members

Kiki Zissimopoulos

RCTP Program Director, Director of Operations, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)

Dr. Kiki Zissimopoulos is an engineer and educator focused on designing programs and experiences that allow researchers to learn and grow. She serves as the Program Director for the Research Communication Training Program (RCTP) and as Director of Operations and Senior Research Associate at CIERA. Kiki became especially interested in science communication after participating in the inaugural offering of RCTP (then called RSG) as a biomedical engineering graduate student, subsequently co-founding a science communication course sequence for undergraduates at the University of Chicago. She is an invited speaker for various science communication workshops in the Chicago area and is excited to carry forward the efforts of Michelle Paulsen and Alex Adler, RCTP’s founders.

Danielle Rothschild Doyle

Graduate Assistant, RCTP

Danielle Rothschild Doyle is a graduate assistant for the Research Communication Training Program. She is currently a PhD student in Cognitive Psychology, working with David Uttal in the Spatial Thinking and Representations Lab. Her research focuses on spatial learning in different environments, with a focus on how spatial skills relate to STEM skills. Danielle completed the RCTP program in spring of 2025, and is passionate about how we can use skills from cognitive science and science communication to better promote knowledge from the academic community to practice in educational settings. She is excited to work with the incoming class of RCTP!  

Siyi Wang

Graduate Assistant, RCTP

Siyi Wang is a Graduate Assistant for Northwestern’s RCTP program, returning after participating in the Spring 2025 cohort. She is a master’s student in Neurobiology based in Evanston, conducting her thesis research in Dr. Alicia Guemez-Gamboa’s lab on the Chicago campus. Passionate about the intersection of storytelling and translational biomedical science, she supports graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in building confidence, clarifying their message, and connecting with diverse audiences.

Byron Stewart

Adjunct Lecturer, McCormick School of Engineering

Byron Stewart is an adjunct lecturer at Medill and the McCormick School of Engineering. Stewart has facilitated applied theater/improv communication workshops and individual coaching sessions for corporations as well as for graduate students and faculty at various research institutions including Northwestern. Stewart co-teaches two courses titled: Engineering Improv I & II targeted to Northwestern’s undergraduate engineering students. He is a science communication instructor for Northwestern’s Graduate School’s Research Communication Training Program. He has taught Improv for English Communication for Northwestern’s international students. He also teaches Public Speaking103 for Northwestern’s Prison Education Program for incarcerated students at Statesville prison. Stewart is an alumnus of Howard University.

Beth Bennett

Professor and Associate Dean, Medill School of Journalism

Beth Bennett is associate dean and professor of journalism at Medill and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her teaching is focused on television news writing, video producing and on-camera reporting. Bennett works with both undergraduate and graduate students and has taught all the major video courses in Medill’s curriculum. In addition, Bennett founded Sticks and Stones Media, which specializes in presence coaching, media training and short-form video production.

In 2009 Bennett produced her first documentary Under the Ice, which showed at the Chicago United and St. Louis International Film Festivals. It aired on WTTW (PBS) and Wisconsin Public Television licensed it. In 2011 Bennett produced Kindred, which also aired on WTTW and won a Midwest Emmy. Her 2012 short film Spinscreened at the Toronto Film Festival and made it to the semi-finals for the International Documentary Race.

Prior to joining Northwestern’s full-time faculty in 2006, Bennett worked on-air for TV stations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Traverse City. Bennett has covered major disasters, politics, crime, education and entertainment. Most recently, she worked as a freelance reporter/anchor for Tribune-owned CLTV. Her reports were also broadcast on WGN-AM. Bennett has worked as a freelance producer for the following shows: FOX News Chicago, CBS Early Show, Metromix the TV Show and the NBC reality series Starting Over.

Bennett has an MSJ from Medill and an A.B. in English and art history from Kenyon College.

Dr. Barbara Shwom

Professor of Instruction, The Cook Family Writing Program; Director, The Writing Place

Barbara Shwom holds joint appointments in the Kellogg School of Management, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. For more than 30 years at Northwestern, she has designed and taught a wide variety of communication courses, including Writing in Organizations (Kellogg), Communicating Complex Data (McCormick), and How to Become an Expert in Roughly 10 Weeks (Weinberg). She also serves as a communication coach for graduate and undergraduate project teams in McCormick’s Segal Design Institute, where she helps students prepare design presentations for both corporate and entrepreneurial clients.

Professor Shwom’s teaching at Northwestern has been recognized by both an outstanding teacher award and an appointment as a fellow of Northwestern’s Searle Center for Teaching Excellence. In addition to her work at Northwestern, Barbara is also the managing principal of Communication Partners, a consulting practice that specializes in helping clients communicate complex information to external and internal audiences. Communication Partners’ client list includes organizations from a range of industries, including biotechnology, high tech research and development, pharmaceuticals, management consulting, market research, financial services, engineering, and consumer products.

Barbara is co-author of Graphics and Visual Communication for Managers and Business Communication: Polishing Your Professional Presence. She is active in a number of professional associations and has served as president for both the Association for Business Communication and the Association of Professional Communication Consultants.

Nick DiMaso

Filmmaker, Actor

Nick DiMaso is a graduate of Northwestern University (’15) with degrees in Psychology and Radio/TV/Film, as well as a Certificate in Creative Writing for the Media. Currently working in Chicago as a filmmaker/editor/actor, Nick has worked on short films, comedy networks, national and regional commercials, and nonprofit marketing materials. When not making movies, Nick serves as the Corporate and Foundation Relations Manager at the nonprofit Horizons for Youth, and he sits on boards with Camp Kesem and the Obama Foundation. Nick performs improv at iO Chicago and CIC Theater.

Will Sonheim

Writer/Filmmaker

Will Sonheim is a writer/filmmaker with a Bachelor’s in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Screenwriting from The London Film School.

Founders

Michelle Paulsen

Founder and Former Program Director

Michelle is the founder of Northwestern’s Research Communication Training Program and was a co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant. She is currently the Deputy Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program. Michelle has over ten years of experience in higher education administration at Northwestern University, where she has also served as an adjunct faculty member in both the School of Education and Social Policy and the School of Communication. She has a background in Chemistry Education and Environmental Engineering and holds certification and an advanced degree in Educational Leadership. Michelle is a co-author of The Power of Partnerships and was featured Scientist of the Month for February 2013 by the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). She has been an invited presenter at NSF, AAAS, and ACS national meetings and has served as an education consultant on the development of science communication programs at universities around the country.

Alex Adler

Co-Founder

Alex Adler holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern’s Materials Science and Engineering program. Alex’s passion for communicating science started at a young age and continues now through RSG. As a performer in SPG Improv, a graduate student improv group, Alex honed the stage skills that would aid him in science enrichment programs like the Chute and Northwestern Science Education (CHANSE) after school science program. At Northwestern, his work with the Science and Engineering Research Teaching Synthesis (SERTS) program brought hands-on demos to non-science major undergraduates and promoted the importance of scientific research at universities at national labs. He has been invited to present about the RSG program at the first annual International Teacher and Scientist Partnership (ITSP) conference in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.With RSG, Alex has had the unique opportunity to work with great instructors and a fantastic student body with one common goal: tell the exciting story of science.