Family Service Center (FSC)

[FAN] The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again
2026-04-29 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Regina Dominican High School, 701 Locust, Wilmette, IL, 60091
Wednesday, April 29 | 7:00 PM CT
The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again
A FAN in-person featuring Mary Claire Haver, MD, in conversation with Heidi Stevens
Regina Dominican High School, O’Shaughnessy Theater, 701 Locust Rd., Wilmette, IL 60091
No registration required.
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of The New Perimenopause to attendees, while supplies last.
For many women, the years leading up to menopause arrive without warning and without a name. Anxiety, fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, disrupted sleep, volatile moods, and changes in sexual health can surface as early
as a woman’s mid-thirties — well before menstrual irregularity signals that anything hormonal is underway. Too often, those symptoms are dismissed by physicians or misattributed entirely. Mary Claire Haver, MD, has spent her career changing that.
In her new book The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again, Dr. Haver, a board-certified OB/GYN, a certified culinary medicine specialist, a certified menopause provider, and the founder of The ‘Pause Wellness, maps what she calls the hormonal “zone of chaos” — the years of endocrine fluctuation that precede menopause and generate an outsized toll on women’s daily lives. The symptoms are real, they are physiological, and they are manageable. Her book gives women the science, the clinical tools, and the language to insist on care that addresses what their bodies are doing.
The New Perimenopause delivers clear, science-backed explanations of what’s happening in the body across every dimension of the perimenopausal transition — menstrual changes, energy, mood, sleep, and sexual health — alongside a frank account of why addressing these changes now constitutes preventive medicine for the decades ahead. Haver walks women through the latest research on progesterone therapy, including both its benefits and side effects, and equips them with practical tools: checklists, questions to bring to the doctor’s office, and strategies for navigating a medical system that has historically underserved women in midlife. Whether or not a woman has yet noticed any symptoms, the book removes the mystery from this transition and restores the sense of agency that too many women lose during it.
Haver, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The New Menopause and The Galveston Diet, will be in conversation with Heidi Stevens, Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health. She writes a weekly nationally syndicated column, “Balancing Act.” Stevens has been a FAN board member since 2021.
This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded but not live streamed and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with The Avery Coonley School, Beacon Academy, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Brickton Montessori School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, Evanston Township HS D202, Family Service Center, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Lake Bluff D65, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Libertyville D70, Lycée Français de Chicago, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Roycemore School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, Wilmette Public Library, Wintrust Financial, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.

[FAN] How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work
2026-05-07 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Thursday, May 7, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work
A FAN webinar featuring Jodi Kantor, in conversation with Jennifer Breheny Wallace (FAN ’23, ’26).
REGISTRATION: www.bit.ly/KantorFANWebinar
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of How to Start to randomly selected Zoom attendees. Details on the webinar registration page.
Before Jodi Kantor became a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose reporting toppled media magnates and sparked reform worldwide, she was kicked off her college newspaper.
That early stumble is central to her new book, How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work, a guide for young people navigating political upheaval, skyrocketing costs of living, and the unsettling unknowns of AI. Kantor has spent her career anticipating uncomfortable truths about the changing workplace. Now she turns that same unflinching eye toward the question facing a generation: how is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?
Kantor sets aside platitudes and false hope in favor of something more useful. Work, she argues, is not just how we spend our time. It’s our engine of progress: how cancer therapies get invented, political campaigns get won, thrilling art gets made and finds its audience. Against that backdrop, she offers two organizing principles to help young people discover their calling: craft and need. Paired together, they provide a framework for the hardest early-career decisions: how to think about money, how much risk to take on, when to push back against conventional wisdom.
Powerful and provocative, How to Start is a statement of faith for uncertain times, offering wisdom, strategy, and a set of aspirations built to launch careers and sustain them for a lifetime.
In addition to her 2017 Pulitzer, which she shared with Megan Twohey (FAN ’19) for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein, Kantor has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Columbia Alumni medal, the George Polk Award, and Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of the year. In 2025 she joined the New York Times’ Washington bureau’s Supreme Court team full-time.
Kantor will be in conversation with Jennifer Breheny Wallace (FAN ’23, ’26), an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of Mattering and Never Enough. She is the founder of The Mattering Institute and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in schools and educational spaces.
This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with Avoca D37, Barrington D220, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, Evanston Scholars, Evanston Township HS D202, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Kenilworth D38, Lake Bluff D65, Lake Forest Community High School D115, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Libertyville D70, Lycée Français de Chicago, Magnetar Capital, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, Township High School D214, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, Wilmette Public Library, Wolcott College Prep, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.

[FAN] Backtalker: An American Memoir
2026-05-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201
Friday, May 8, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
Backtalker: An American Memoir
A FAN program featuring Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, in conversation with Beth E. Richie, Ph.D. Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave., Door 6, Evanston, IL 60201
No registration required.
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of Backtalker at the event, while supplies last.
In 2026, Critical Race Theory and intersectionality are among the most talked about and most misunderstood topics of the day. To truly understand where these ideas came from, you must start with the woman who founded them: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.
Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law Schools, Crenshaw is widely recognized for coining and developing both CRT and intersectionality. Her new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir, is the powerful and intimate story of how a spunky little girl from Canton, OH came up with a new way to look at the world and forever changed the way we talk about race, gender, and social justice. The examples from her own life, recounted with warmth, humor, and insight, illuminate how intersectionality emerged not from abstract ideas, but from lived experience.
Evoking each time and place like a gifted novelist, Backtalker takes readers from a Canton elementary school classroom to the back door of a Harvard club, and behind the scenes of some of the most consequential moments in race and gender over the last half century: the Anita Hill hearings, the launch of My Brother’s Keeper, the movement against police violence.
In a moment when her life’s work faces erasure and disinformation, Crenshaw’s story is both a call to action and a lesson in how understanding the past charts a course for the future.
Crenshaw will be in conversation with Beth E. Richie, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Black Studies and the Inaugural Chair in Social Sciences and the Humanities at The University of Illinois at Chicago. The emphasis of her scholarly and activist work has been on the ways that race/ethnicity and social position affect the experience of violence and criminalization, focusing on the experiences of Black women and gender non-conforming people.
This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded but not live streamed and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with Avoca D37, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, Evanston Township HS D202, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Kenilworth D38, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Lycée Français de Chicago, Magnetar Capital, Near North Montessori School, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, UChicago Network for College Success, Wilmette Public Library, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.

[FAN] Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better
2026-05-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201
Friday, May 15, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better
A FAN program featuring David Epstein (FAN ’16, ’20), in conversation with Megan Twohey (FAN ’19)
Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave., Door 6, Evanston, IL 60201
No registration required. Post-event reception in ETHS’s Alumni Hall, 8:30-9:30 PM CT, open to all.
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of Inside the Box at the event, while supplies last.
We live in a world that gives us seemingly infinite choices and prizes freedom above all else. We have an unprecedented number of options regarding what to do, who to be, and how to spend our time. All that choice is wonderful; it is also overwhelming. The irony is that total freedom can be paralyzing, and unlimited resources don’t necessarily lead to the biggest breakthroughs. In fact, overvaluing complete freedom can be disastrous for everything from starting a company to harnessing creativity to finding personal satisfaction.
In his new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, bestselling author David Epstein (FAN ’16, ’20) argues that all of us—individuals, businesses, institutions, even societies—can benefit from narrowing our options. He dives into the science and practice of constraints, exploring exactly when and how guardrails can be beneficial, whether we’re working with limited resources or using self-imposed boundaries to tap unexpected wells of focus and innovation.
Original, galvanizing, and deeply researched, Inside the Box tells absorbing stories of people and organizations that embraced constraints to transform themselves, and the world—as well as a few that struggled from a lack of limits. Epstein reveals how boundaries create breakthroughs, and how setting the right constraints can help you become the most creative, productive, and satisfied version of yourself.
Epstein will be in conversation with Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter at The New York Times who seeks to expose hidden truths and hold powerful individuals and institutions to account. She is the coauthor, with Jodi Kantor (FAN ’26), of She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement, which takes readers behind the scenes of the Harvey Weinstein investigation and was adapted into a film. Twohey and Kantor shared a Pulitzer Prize for public service for their reporting.
Both featured guests are ETHS alums: Epstein is ‘98, and Twohey is ‘94.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with The Avery Coonley School, Avoca D37, Baker Demonstration School, Barrington D220, Beacon Academy, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Brickton Montessori School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, Evanston Scholars, Evanston Township HS D202, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glencoe D35, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Kenilworth D38, Lake Bluff D65, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Libertyville D70, Lycée Français de Chicago, North Shore Country
Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Roycemore School, St. Bernard’s School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, Township High School D214, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, UChicago Network for College Success, Wilmette Public Library, Wolcott College Prep, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.

[FAN] Churn: The Tension That Divides Us and How to Overcome It
2026-05-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201
Monday, May 18, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
Churn: The Tension That Divides Us and How to Overcome It
A FAN program featuring Claude Steele, Ph.D. (FAN ’14), in conversation with Marcus Campbell, Ed.D.
Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave., Door 6, Evanston, IL 60201
No registration required.
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of Churn at the event, while supplies last.
Nearly two decades after Whistling Vivaldi, legendary social psychologist Claude M. Steele, Ph.D. (FAN ’14), returns with Churn: The Tension That Divides Us and How to Overcome It, an equally ambitious work examining the mental agitation and physical stress we experience in diverse settings, and the surprising role trust-building plays in reducing it across identity divides.
Opening with a striking vignette of a parent-teacher conference between a well-meaning white teacher and the concerned Black parents of a seventh grader, the book demonstrates how churn threatens the trust essential to teaching and mentoring the young. Drawing on decades of psychological research, Churn is rich with examples: a young woman entering a boardroom as one of only a few women; a white male feeling conspicuous during diversity training; a Chinese grandmother shopping where anti-Asian violence has occurred; and lessons from remarkable student outcomes at Georgia State University.
Too often, we navigate the tensions of diversity by pretending they don’t exist, avoiding connection across what can seem like wide chasms of difference. Steele charts a different path, one rooted in seeing the full humanity in human difference. He offers concrete practices, “a game played on the ground,” for building trust across all kinds of divides: between individuals, in classrooms, boardrooms, and entire institutions.
Carefully intertwining research with anecdotes drawn from Steele’s own biracial background, Churn is essential reading for anyone committed to fostering community. Filled with hard-won hope, Steele’s summa work teaches us how to work through the churn suffusing our lives.
Steele will be in conversation with Marcus Campbell, Ed.D., superintendent of Evanston Township High School District 202. Dr. Campbell was previously the Assistant Superintendent/Principal at ETHS, responsible for providing leadership in the development of district strategy and organizational change, including effective instruction practices, impactful diversity and equity initiatives, and responsive programs and services.
This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded but not live streamed and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with The Alliance for Early Childhood, Avoca D37, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Connections for the Homeless, Countryside Day School, Evanston Scholars, Evanston Township HS D202, The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glencoe D35, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Kenilworth D38, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Libertyville D70, Lycée Français de Chicago, Magnetar Capital, Near North Montessori School, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Sacred Heart Schools, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, Township High School D214, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, UChicago Network for College Success, Wilmette Public Library, Wolcott College Prep, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.

[FAN] A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection
2026-05-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Thursday, May 21, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection
A FAN webinar featuring Nicholas Epley, Ph.D., in conversation with David Brooks.
REGISTER: www.bit.ly/EpleyFANWebinar
Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of A Little More Social. to randomly selected Zoom attendees. Details on the webinar registration page.
There’s a paradox at the core of human life. We are a uniquely social species — and connection is genuinely good for us — yet we routinely choose isolation over engagement. We avoid the stranger in the next seat. We stay stuck in small talk. We hold back gratitude we genuinely feel. Every day, we pass up chances to connect with strangers, colleagues, friends, and family, forfeiting the happiness and health that come with a richer social life.
Nicholas Epley, Ph.D., the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and faculty director of the Roman Family Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has spent his career studying how we connect. In his new book, A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection, he explains that our social fears are built on expectations that are reliably too pessimistic. We overestimate the awkwardness of a conversation with a stranger. We underestimate how much a small gesture of appreciation will mean to the person who receives it. We reach for our phones when what we want is a real exchange.
Epley’s great insight is that the fix doesn’t require a personality overhaul. Introverts and extroverts alike benefit from nudging themselves toward slightly more social choices. Small acts, consistently practiced, have an outsized effect on the parts of life that matter most. Bridging the gap between two people is easier than we think, and the rewards are larger than we expect.
Epley will be in conversation with David Brooks, staff writer for The Atlantic and the inaugural Senior Presidential Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. He is the author of several #1 New York Times bestsellers, including The Social Animal, The Road to Character, and The Second Mountain. His most recent book is How to Know a Person.
Sponsored by FAN, in partnership with The Alliance for Early Childhood, The Avery Coonley School, Avoca D37, Baker Demonstration School, Barrington D220, Beacon Academy, Bennett Day School, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Brickton Montessori School, British International School of Chicago, Catherine Cook School, Compass Health Center, Countryside Day School, The Cove School, Evanston Scholars, Evanston Township HS D202, The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Family Service Center, Foundation 65, The Frances Xavier Warde School, Francis W. Parker School, Glencoe D35, Glenview Public Library, Gorton Center, Hyde Park Day School, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Kenilworth D38, Lake Bluff D65, Lake Forest Community High School D115, Latin School of Chicago, Leo Catholic High School, Libertyville D70, Lycée Français de Chicago, Magnetar Capital, North Shore Country Day, Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, Pope John XXIII School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, Rogers Park Montessori School, Roycemore School, Sacred Heart Schools, Santa Clara University School of Law, Science & Arts Academy, The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, Stevenson High School D125, Township High School D113, Township High School D214, TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804, Wilmette Public Library, Winnetka D36, Wolcott College Prep, Woodlands Academy, Youth & Opportunity United.
