10 alumni join Medill Hall of Achievement
Top honor given to alumni recognizes Pulitzer winners and industry leaders
EVANSTON, ILL. -- Ten alumni will join the 2026 Hall of Achievement class at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. This is the highest honor Medill bestows on its graduates.
“Medill’s alumni are among our greatest assets, and we’re delighted to recognize these 10 alumni who lead in media, marketing, communications and law,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “All have been honored with many awards throughout their careers, but we hope this induction into Medill’s Hall of Achievement will carry special meaning for them.”
This year’s inductees are:
Danielle Austen (IMC98)
Austen is the founder and CEO of fluent360, which creates a comprehensive marketing approach to the African American, US Hispanic, Asian American and LGBTQ+ consumer segments.
Previously, Austen led marketing for Nordstrom, Jaguar North America and Sony. She focused on inclusion in the marketing efforts she led and was committed to telling the stories of multicultural consumers in an honest and insightful way.
In 2023, Austen was honored as the 65th recipient of the Advertising Woman of the Year Award by the Chicago Advertising Federation.
She serves on the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Chicago and Northwest Indiana and is a corporate member on the American Advertising Federation’s National Board of Directors. Austen also is a trustee at Adler University.
Brad Bentley (IMC99)
Bentley serves as President of NRG Consumer, where he commands a $12 billion portfolio and leads the expansion and acceleration of the company’s home energy and smart home divisions across brands like Reliant, Green Mountain Energy, Direct Energy and Vivint. A veteran of large-scale digital and infrastructure transformations, Bentley previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Expedia Group, managing the $10 billion global consumer traveler business and its powerhouse portfolio of iconic travel brands, including Hotels.com, VRBO, Travelocity, and Orbitz.
His career is defined by high-growth leadership in tech, energy and entertainment including roles as president and CEO of Inspire Clean Energy and EVP, General Manager at WarnerMedia, where he spearheaded the ground-up launch of HBO Max. Additionally, he held key executive and CMO roles at AT&T and DIRECTV.
Lisa Byington (BSJ98, MSJ99)
Byington has been a trailblazer in the sports broadcasting world for years. She is the first female full-time television play-by-play announcer for a major men’s sports team, the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. She won a regional Emmy for her performance during her first year with the Bucks.
In addition to the Bucks position, she is also the first and only female play-by-play announcer to call March Madness for the men's NCAA Tournament. She did play-by-play for five years for CBS and Warner Bros. She worked March Madness for eight straight years, working three as a sideline reporter.
Her first groundbreaking assignment came in 2017, when she made history as the first female play-by-play announcer for a college football game on the Big Ten Network.
Throughout her career, Byington has covered a wide span of sports, from football and basketball, to volleyball, softball and soccer. Byington's announcing has crossed over with FOX Sports, Big Ten Network, CBS and Warner Bros. She has worked in women's sports professional spaces as well, covering the NWSL, and the WNBA's Chicago Sky since 2013. Byington is also a part of Amazon's inaugural coverage of the WNBA, starting in 2026. Finally, she was also able to announce on two of the biggest world stages. In 2021, she worked the Tokyo Olympic Games for NBC Sports as a men’s and women’s soccer announcer, and for the Women’s World Cup in 2019 on FOX.
Byington began her career at local stations: WBKB in Alpena, Michigan, and WLNS in Lansing, Michigan.
In 2022, the Big Ten Network and Big Ten Conference created the Lisa Byington Award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding female broadcaster in the Big Ten Network StudentU program.
Mark Ferguson (BSJ80)
Ferguson is a trial lawyer who has been nationally recognized for his ability to synthesize and present complex issues to civil juries and for his innovation in the business and practice of law.
Over his 40-year career, first working with Kirkland & Ellis, and then serving as a founding partner of Bartlit Beck LLP, he has represented corporate clients and individuals in state and federal courts, in business, financial and technical litigation.
Ferguson is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a leading accolade for trial lawyers in North America. He has been recognized locally and nationally for excellence by Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in America and the American Lawyer, among others. Also, Ferguson was the recipient of the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Collaboration award.
Currently, Ferguson is a member of Medill’s Board of Advisers and has also served as an adjunct professor at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law trial advocacy program. Previously, he was a member of the Advisory Board of NYU Law School’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy, a board chair of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and president of the Springboard Foundation.
Gabe Gutierrez (BSJ05)
Gutierrez is a senior White House correspondent for NBC News. He reports for all of the network's platforms, including TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas, NBC News NOW, Telemundo and NBCNews.com.
In 2012, he started with NBC in Atlanta after anchoring and reporting for local television stations in West Virginia, Michigan, and Texas. He was a part of the NBC Nightly News team that earned an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award in 2013.
While covering breaking news across the world, he reported on a slew of high-profile police shootings and was one of the first correspondents on the scene of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Gutierrez hit the road to cover the Republican primaries. His reporting on 2017's Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was featured in “Powerless,” an NBC Nightly News film, which was one of the network’s most viewed digital documentaries of the year.
Later based in New York, he reported on the COVID-19 pandemic across the U.S. and was a lead network correspondent on the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In addition to extensive coverage of immigration across the U.S. southern border, Gutierrez has reported on a range of international stories: political developments in Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela; terrorist attacks in London, Paris, and Brussels; as well as natural disasters in Chile, Guatemala, Haiti, and Turkey. He also traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to cover the war.
Since 2023, he's been based in Washington, where he's reported daily on the Biden and Trump administrations. Beyond asking questions from the briefing room, he's recently covered President Trump's mass deportation operation across the country — from Boston to Chicago to Minneapolis — and he traveled to Colombia's border with Venezuela following the capture of Nicolas Maduro.
Dawn Hasbrouck (MSJ99)
A Chicago native, Hasbrouck anchors the weeknight evening 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. news on WFLD Fox32 Chicago. She is only the second woman to anchor the flagship 9 p.m. newscast. She also anchors the station’s 8:30 p.m. preshow on Fox Local.
Previously, Hasbrouck worked for three years as an Emmy-nominated anchor and reporter for WBZ-TV (CBS) in Boston. She was on Boston Business Journal's “Top 40 under 40” list for her career accomplishments and community involvement. Prior, she was a morning and noon news anchor for WFSB-TV (CBS) in Hartford, Conn., where she also worked as a medical reporter. She held other anchor positions with WITI-TV (FOX) in Milwaukee, and WTGS/WJCL-TV (FOX/ABC) in Savannah, Ga. Hasbrouck did additional reporting for WKYT-TV (CBS) in Lexington, Ky., and WHO Newsradio in Des Moines, Iowa through the Medill News Service.
Hasbrouck serves on Loyola University Board of Regents and has been a decades-long member of Northwestern University’s “Council of 100.”
Sally Kestin (BSJ87)
Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and co-founder of Asheville Watchdog, a nonprofit news outlet in Asheville, N.C.
Her investigative series on off-duty police speeding at the South Florida Sun Sentinel won the 2013 Pulitzer for public service. In 2006, she was a Pulitzer finalist in investigative reporting for a series on FEMA fraud.
After spending 30 years at Florida newspapers, Kestin started the Watchdog in 2020 with other veteran journalists. The Watchdog is a free, digital news outlet focusing on local investigative and accountability journalism. She regularly contributes stories and helps run The Watchdog, which has grown from an all-volunteer staff to four full-time investigative reporters and a managing editor. In 2025, The Watchdog raised $665,000, with 85 percent from individual donations.
David Rudd (BSJ88)
Rudd is the executive vice president and senior counselor at Rudd Resources where he advises clients on messaging strategy, executive communication, community relations and media engagement.
Rudd has successfully managed and overseen content development, corporate affairs and public relations with a constant focus on equity. He is a proven strategic communications adviser, directing communications for senior leaders in the medical, technology and legislative fields.
He is a communications professional and writer with tenures at the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois State Senate, Motorola, Weber Shandwick and University of Chicago Medicine.
Rudd is an adviser to IMPACT Leadership Development Program of the Chicago Urban League and a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow. He is a past board member of Prevent Child Abuse America and USA Gymnastics.
Kimberley Rudd (BSJ88)
Rudd is president of Rudd Resources, a communication firm she launched in 2014.
She has 38 years of experience in communications and business management and provides communications counsel for brands, philanthropies and policy initiatives. Before starting Rudd Resources, Rudd owned two women's fitness franchises and led marketing and development for the national nonprofit KABOOM. She helped launch the Chicago Park District’s marketing department and managed public relations programs for Burrell Public Relations.
Rudd is the board chair of Woods Fund Chicago; co-president of Publicity Club of Chicago; a charter member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Chicago Metropolitan Chapter; and a member of Delta Sigma Sorority Inc., Chicago Alumnae Chapter.
She has been honored with her husband and business partner David Rudd by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) with the Patricia L. Tobin Media Professional Award. She was also named to Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Black Chicagoans in 2024.
Robert Samuels (BSJ06)
Samuels is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a national enterprise reporter for The Washington Post.
Samuels won the Pulitzer for General Nonfiction in 2023 for his co-authored book, “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice.” The book explored how systematic racism impacted the life and death of George Floyd. The book also was a Pulitzer finalist in the biography category. Additionally, the book won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize.
For his work with The Washington Post, Samuels travels the country to cover how politics and policy are affecting everyday Americans. Furthermore, every four years he serves as the Post’s chief figure skating analyst.
He was named as a finalist for the Toner Prize for National Political Reporting for a series of profiles on presidential candidates. He was also named as a finalist for the Livingston Award in Local Reporting from his investigation into the District of Columbia’s affordable housing strategy. He has been on reporting teams that have won Polk, Peabody and NABJ awards.
Previously, he worked as a staff writer at the Miami Herald and the New Yorker. He also taught classes at Georgetown and Wake Forest universities. He is a former director of the Press Pass Mentors program, where top journalists are paired with students in under-resourced D.C. schools as writing coaches.
At Northwestern, he is the first student to have served as both the editor-in-chief of BlackBoard magazine and the Daily Northwestern.