For the innovators and the constantly curious, the College of Arts and Sciences is home. Our students’ dreams don’t conform to a one-size-fits-all degree, and neither do their careers.
Our alumni are entrepreneurs. Poets. Civil rights attorneys. Actors. Economists. Authors. Television producers. They’re changing the world in a great many ways, and we’re pretty proud of them.
The College of Arts and Sciences is thrilled to present our third-annual list of amazing young alumni.
Rhodes scholar
Jenny Huang (B.S./B.A. ’17, Mathematics, Individualized Major Program) is a Rhodes Scholar studying political theory at the University of Oxford. While at Indiana University, she co-authored a computational social science paper in PNAS, won IU’s top undergraduate award for fiction, and worked for President McRobbie's office. Huang is interested in community-based politics and policy. Prior to starting graduate school at Oxford, she worked as the civic engagement program coordinator at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, as a policy associate in the office of South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, and as an environmental policy fellow at the Joyce Foundation.
Security ethnographer
Meghan McGrath (M.A. ’15, Folklore) is a speculative design researcher and security ethnographer at IBM. She recently returned from an assignment in Canberra, Australia, where she represented IBM at the 3Ai Institute, which focuses on how organizations can ethically scale artificial intelligence. She now leads the IBM Z Future Demands initiative and IBM Z Security design team. McGrath has been profiled in Fast Company for her work, which incorporates elements of her English and anthropology background into a cybersecurity context. Previously, she led the design research for IBM Pervasive Encryption, which won IBM’s prestigious Outstanding Technical Achievement Award.
Poet and professor
Kyle Dargan (M.F.A. '05, Creative Writing) is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis, which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and was longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. He’s published four previous collections and has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He is currently an associate professor of literature and the assistant director of creative writing at American University.
Visit Dargan's website
Entrepreneur
Peter Margulies (B.A. ’09, Criminal Justice) is a multi-time entrepreneur who co-founded BtownMenus.com during his freshman year. While Margulies left the business to his co-founder in 2009, BtownMenus has gone on to become Bloomington’s premiere online menu and ordering guide. Margulies was also a co-founder of Jibe, a human resources technology company that was recently acquired. Over the past two and a half years, he’s worked in strategic customer success at one of the world’s most valued startups, InVision, where he manages relationships with Fortune 50 customers. Margulies lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
View Margulies' LinkedIn profile
Founder and CEO
Faye Liu (M.S. ’11, Ph.D. ’12, Geological Sciences) is the founder and CEO of RevoChem LLC, a Houston-based company pioneering geochemical fingerprinting technology to optimize energy production process. With businesses across both North and South America and clients of most major energy producers including BP, Chevron, Shell, and ConocoPhillips, her company is assisting the energy industry to improve efficiency and reduce cost and environmental impacts. She and her husband, Jiang Wu (Ph.D. ’12, Biochemistry) have been featured in the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express, and RevoChem’s technology has been reported about in many energy industry journals.
View Liu's LinkedIn profile
Professor and political scientist
As an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Paul Musgrave (B.A. '04, History, Political Science) studies how American domestic politics affect U.S. foreign policy. Besides writing for scholarly journals, he also writes about more diverse topics, like the promise and limits of the humanities for The Washington Post or the secret history of Mikhail Gorbachev's Pizza Hut commercial for Foreign Policy. He spent the pandemic working on Capitol Hill on leave as a legislative fellow in a member of Congress's office, and he'll return to Amherst in the fall to teach "The Politics of the End of the World."
Follow Musgrave on Twitter
Entrepreneur
Tarek Alaruri (B.A. ’13, Chemistry) is the founder and COO of Fairmarkit, a Boston-based software company tackling business spend management. Since its inception in 2017, Fairmarkit has grown to 65 employees and more than 40 customers, including Capital One and ServiceNow. Fairmarkit is one of the fastest-growing startups in the country and has been named one of the most innovate companies in procurement. Alaruri started Fairmarkit with his former colleague after beginning his career in sales. He’s been named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list, sits on the industry advisory board for the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and is an active reader.
Visit Fairmarkit's website
Musical theatre actress
Charnette Batey (B.F.A. ’12, Musical Theatre) is an actress and singer. She most recently toured with the first national tour of Hamilton and has also been on Broadway tours of The Book of Mormon and Seussical, as well as regional credits in and out of New York City. Batey was led to yoga while on tour in 2014 and is now also a certified yoga teacher, expanding upon her practice while she travels on tours in shows across the country. Follow more of her journey and message of self love on Instagram @charnetteb.
Read more about Batey
Economist
Rebecca Homkes (B.A. ’05, Political Science) is a high-growth strategy specialist at the London Business School’s Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and a previous fellow at the London School of Economics’ (LSE) Centre for Economic Performance. With her boutique consultancy, she advises CEOs and executive teams of top global companies and fast-growing enterprises on developing and executing growth strategies through extreme uncertainty. A Marshall Scholar, she received her Ph.D. and M.Sc. from the LSE and previously served as a fellow for the White House’s President’s Council of Economic Advisors. In 2017, she received the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
View Homkes' LinkedIn profile
Author and editor
Peter Kispert (M.F.A. ’16, Creative Writing) is the author of the acclaimed debut short story collection I Know You Know Who I Am (Penguin Books), recently featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of the “LGBTQ Books Changing the Literary Landscape,” and praised by Elle as one of the best books of 2020. Kispert’s writing has been published in GQ, Esquire, Playboy, The Carolina Quarterly, and OUT magazine, and he’s held editorial positions at the Crown Publishing Group and HarperCollins. While at IU, he served as editor-in-chief of Indiana Review, where he founded the annual Blue Light Books prize partnership with IU Press. He lives in New York and is at work on his debut novel.
Visit Kispert's website
Television producer
Eboni Griffin (B.A. ’06, Journalism) is a TV news producer with 15 years of experience at top cable networks. She recently accepted the role of senior broadcast producer for Good Morning America at ABC News. She previously served as supervising producer of Morning Express with Robin Meade on HLN, CNN’s headline news channel, where she oversaw production of the four-hour show, including rundown supervision, control-room duties, and the management of on-air talent and a team of 30 people. Prior to this, Griffin was senior producer of programming and planning for CNN Headline News, where she planned and field produced the network’s coverage of many major events. Griffin began her career at FOX News Channel in New York.
View Griffin's LinkedIn profile
Senior vice president
Tyler Poniatowski (B.S. ’05 Astronomy/Astrophysics, B.F.A. ’05, Fine Arts) is a senior vice president of D. E. Shaw & Co., where he currently focuses on business strategy, product development, and marketing for the global investment and technology firm. After deciding to take a break from physics and academia following his first research post, Poniatowski pursued an M.A. in contemporary art in the U.K. He worked in a variety of curatorial, editorial, and managerial roles in the art world before his curiosity regarding modern financial markets led him to his current role in 2007. He resides in New York with his wife, their three children, and two chickens.
Painter
Danielle Orchard (B.F.A. ’09, Fine Arts) is a painter based in Brooklyn, New York. After earning her bachelor’s degree from IU, she went on the pursue an M.F.A. in painting from CUNY Hunter College, graduating in 2013. She is a recipient of the M.F.A. Fellowship in Painting from the Dedalus Foundation, the Alma B.C. Schapiro Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Frederick Hammersley Fellowship at Tamarind Institute. Orchard’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Cut, and Juxtapoz Magazine, and her work is represented by Jack Hanley Gallery in New York City and V1 Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Read more about Orchard
Co-host of HGTV's Good Bones
Mina Starsiak Hawk (B.A. ’07, General Studies) is the co-owner of Two Chicks and a Hammer Inc. and the co-host of HGTV’s Good Bones. Since 2008, she’s operated her home rehab business with her mother, Karen. The pair focuses on renovating houses in the Fountain Square and Bates-Hendricks neighborhoods in Indianapolis, where they often incorporate green spaces and art from local artists. Good Bones has been on the air for four seasons, the most recent of which attracted more than 16.9 million total viewers. This past February, Starsiak Hawk received the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
Visit Starsiak Hawk's website
Civil rights attorney
Kara Ingelhart (B.A. ’12 , Biology, Gender Studies) is an attorney at Lambda Legal, a national legal organization advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV. Ingelhart has played an instrumental role in advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people and HIV+ people in courts across the country and at the U.S. Supreme Court, including expanding access to military service and accurate identity documents. She holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago and has been recognized by The LGBT Bar as one of the best “40 LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40” and by the Windy City Times as one of the Chicago LGBTQ+ community's best and brightest “30 Under 30.”
Read more about Ingelhart
Theatre producer and writer
Garlia Cornelia Jones (B.A. ’05, Theatre, English) is a writer, producer, photographer, and mother. As a student at Indiana University, she founded Black Curtain — a student theatre troupe dedicated to Black works — winning several awards for diversity and inclusion. In 2008, she founded Blackboard Plays, a monthly series devoted to Black playwrights. She is one of the founding producers of Harlem9, which won an OBIE award for the play festival 48Hours in… ™Harlem. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon.com, and AmericanTheatre.org, and her plays have been showcased in The Fire This Time and at The Cell Theatre in New York. Jones is also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and a line producer at The Public Theater.
Follow Jones on Instagram
Higher ed administrator and educator
Katie Dieter (M.A. ’09, Ph.D. ’17, African American and African Diaspora Studies, M.A. ’12, Gender Studies) is the associate director of African and African American studies (AAAS) at Stanford University. Dieter is passionately working in her field at this monumental time to promote change and healing through the advancement of the vision and goals of the AAAS program. For four years, she was a senior lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. She often uses her artwork as a method in her research process, and her research focuses on the ways the visual and performing arts stimulate knowledge production and resistance, particularly in Black studies programs.
Ceramic artist
Stephanie Galli (M.F.A. ’16, Fine Arts) is a ceramic artist and an assistant professor of ceramic art at Centre College in Danville, Ky. Galli has spent time making art in China and Italy and has been a resident artist at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China; the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Mont.; and MudFire Clayworks in Atlanta. Her sculptures and utilitarian vessels have been published and exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at Miami Art Week, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Hangzhou Peace International Exhibition Center in Hangzhou, China. She was named by Ceramic Monthly as a 2017 emerging artist.
Visit Galli's website
Screenwriter, executive producer, and showrunner
Aaron J. Waltke (B.A. ’06, Telecommunications) is an Emmy-winning and Annie-nominated screenwriter, producer, and showrunner in Los Angeles. His work includes the award-winning Netflix series Trollhunters and Wizards: Tales of Arcadia from Guillermo del Toro and DreamWorks Animation, where he served as a writer, co-executive producer, and showrunner. He’s currently serving as a writer/producer on an upcoming Star Trek series for CBS Studios and Nickelodeon. Previously, he was a head writer for The LEGO Movie spinoff UniKitty! from Cartoon Network, and has written projects for companies including Warner Bros., Disney, and National Lampoon, among others.
View Waltke's LinkedIn profile
Reporter
Meredith Juliet (B.A. ’17, Journalism) is a morning show reporter for Channel 13 in Indianapolis. Her reporting focuses on the lighter side of things, like trending topics and events happening in the city. Her claim to fame is an interview with Ice Cube outside of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Before moving back to Indiana, Juliet worked for the NBC affiliate in central Illinois as a morning show host. During her time at IU, her favorite courses were the travel courses made available to Media School students, particularly the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Beijing for a week. Walking along the Great Wall of China is one of the coolest moments of her life.
Read more about Juliet