Having to choose between running for office in NIU’s Student Association or joining the advertising sales staff at the Northern Star in 1987 was no contest for Tim O’Malley. The Northern Star won out in the end — because students were paid to work at the Star.

While earning some extra cash may have been the incentive at first, through the years Tim has given more than his share back to the Northern Star, its students and its alumni.

“I consider myself lucky to have worked at the Northern Star,” he said. “It really has made a difference in my life and career.”

From his first semester at the Star through today, Tim has continued to make a difference.

“The kid was determined,” Business Adviser Maria Krull remembers about Tim’s early days at the paper. “We had a sales incentive program where students would get to go to an advertising conference in Seattle. Tim told me, ‘I’m going.’ And sure enough, he did.”

As advertising manager, Tim began the first sales training workshops for students on the advertising staff, which included bringing in outside professionals to share their experience and expertise. As an alumnus, Tim continued to give back, first with the creation of a mentor program to bring students and working professionals together and later with his role as the Northern Star Alumni’s first president.

“I take pride in the fact that I was able to help change the way things were done for students at the Northern Star,” he said. “Now it’s a given that when we leave the Star, we go back and help.”

After graduating from NIU in 1989, Tim began a successful career in advertising and sales that includes working for the Chicago Tribune from 1989 to 1993 and for the Los Angeles Times from 1993 to 1997. In 1997, he took a new challenge as publisher of Where Chicago magazine. Today, he is senior vice president of the entertainment division for TravelCLICK, the leading marketer of electronic media advertising and management information products to the worldwide travel industry.

Tim and his wife, the former Sue Dispensa (also a Northern Star alum), live in Indian Head Park and are raising two sons, Danny, 4, and Timmy, 20 months.