A ghostwriter for the president of Northwestern University since 2001, Mandy Stadtmiller thanks the incredibly wealthy on a daily basis. In correspondence with major donors and in speeches at fundraising functions, the president is a very grateful man, and Ms. Stadtmiller excels at conveying such gratitude with pithy turns of phrase. Her duties also include writing marketing pieces about nanotechnology, life sciences, theater, music and just about any other higher education endeavor you might dream up.

Prior to this, she worked as a content strategist for the world's largest Internet professional services firm, marchFIRST. This was a brief but memorable stint as she was flown around the country to stand in front of white boards and brainstorm. She took it as a bad sign when the CEO no longer had a private jet but could be found instead sitting in the cattle call section of coach. As she watched him happily engrossed in the latest issue of SkyMall, she knew it was time to get out.

From 1999-2000, Ms. Stadtmiller carried the title of assistant director of publications and public relations for Northwestern's Medical School. She wrote stories for doctors about doctors in the alumni magazine. She profiled many academic luminaries including one neuroscientist who was known for being able to "make an obscure little cell in the cerebellum suddenly leap up and sing like an Italian aria."

From 1998-1999, Ms. Stadtmiller was a general assignment reporter for The Des Moines Register, where she went on ridealongs with police officers, and they did things to try to impress her like blasting the music from "Cops" out the squad car.

Previous years were also spent as a reporter for major newspapers across the country and in school as a journalism student at Northwestern, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1997. After graduation, she was selected for an internship at The Washington Post, where she worked with Joel Garreau on stories that often played on the front cover of the Style section. During this time, she also had the distinction of helping to cover the Marv Albert trial where a reporter from E! and a reporter from The New York Times simultaneously turned to her and asked, "Did you get that?"

Other internships during college included writing for The Village Voice, where she covered the reality exploits of the hit musical "Rent" and for The (Ft. Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, where she wrote an award-winning piece on the realities of teen-age drug use. (Said one 12-year-old, "Some boyfriends give flowers, some give acid.") She also interned at Illinois Entertainer and Mainstream, a nationally magazine for the disabled.

As an undergraduate, she received several writing awards including two top rankings in the prestigious Hearst competition, considered the Pulitzer Prize for journalism students. While her teachers taught her many things, the most invaluable experience came as editor of the entertainment section of The Daily Northwestern, where she secured interviews with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ana Gasteyer. The Conan interview was supposed to last 10 minutes but went over an hour. Ms. Stadtmiller thinks it was the mention she made of her height at a stunning 6'2".

Prior to her tenure at Northwestern, she spent many idyllic years as as a youth in San Diego, where she received her education at the same high school Cameron Crowe attended. Like Mr. Crowe, she also helped run the student newspaper and had bad taste in rock music. Ms. Stadtmiller is 26 and a Scorpio.