Member Spotlight: B. Pagels-Minor ’07
“Community, giving back to others, and building a legacy” are three values that are fundamental to how B. Pagels-Minor ’07 chooses to live life. Embracing these ideals has helped B., a gold-level NU Loyal member with 14 consecutive years of giving, tackle challenges and embrace opportunities.
Born and raised in the Deep South of Mississippi, and first attending Duke University for two years of college, B. (who uses they/them pronouns) almost had a story without a Northwestern direction. During their time at Duke, they suffered a major injury and took a year away from school to heal. While they were recovering, they realized transferring to a different school would be a better fit. Northwestern appealed to B. because of the mix “of different disciplines and closeness to a large urban area. It seemed like it offered the perfect combination of things for me to be successful.”
After enrolling in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences as a history major, B. was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during their junior year. B. says, “This was a major setback not only as a student away from home, but also as a poor, uninsured patient.” Worried about how all of this would affect their livelihood, they confided in their dean about what was happening.
B. was unprepared for the acts of kindness that ensued. “The University facilitated my move to a dorm with fewer stairs, moved my classes to lower floors, arranged a car to take me to and from my doctor’s appointments, helped me sign up for health insurance, and worked with all of my professors to help me continue my work. This experience singlehandedly may have saved my life.” Reflecting on the experience now, B. continued, “My disease was such that I just didn’t have the energy to fight, but in the end I didn’t need to, because Northwestern took up the fight on my behalf.”
The support B. received from Northwestern in a time of need inspired them to give back, but they say another reason is the “true commitment Northwestern has shown to women, and Black and Brown folks. They have consistently shown that they put in the work to ensure that everyone can attend, no matter what their economic ability is.” B. has supported the Northwestern University Pride Alumni Club (NUPAC) Scholarship Fund, Weinberg College, and the Northwestern Annual Fund. More recently, B. and their wife, Alissa, committed to funding a scholarship in B.’s mother’s honor called the Suzi Anne Franklin Scholarship Fund. In the future, B. hopes that Northwestern “continues to thrive and focus on being interdisciplinary. It is so important that there are as many investments made in engineering as there are in drama, and I believe that is what allows Northwestern to uniquely churn out leaders.”
Today, B. lives with their family in Los Angeles, California, and works at Netflix. They currently serve on the board of Howard Brown Health and the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and are also a nationally and internationally-recognized speaker and advocate for women’s and LGBTQ rights.