Ruha Benjamin is an internationally recognized writer, speaker, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code and editor of 

Dr. Ali Nouri leads the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs as an Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. He was previously serving as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in that office.  Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Dr. Nouri was the President of the Federation of American Scientists, a…

Rodney D. Priestley is the dean of the Graduate School and the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and was named vice dean for innovation in 2020. Since joining Princeton’s faculty in 2009, Priestley has performed groundbreaking fundamental research in materials science, facilitated the development and…

Hosted by the Public Lectures Committee, Reshma Saujani will deliver a talk, "Brave Not Perfect, a lecture that is being co-sponsored by GradFUTURES. 

Reshma Saujani, a first-generation American whose parents were Indian refugees from Uganda, grew up in Illinois and attended the University of Illinois (majoring in political…

Amy Aines is a communication strategist, speaker, coach, and trainer who builds career success skills. She teaches graduate students and postdocs at universities and government agencies how to simplify the complex, engage listeners, foster productive relationships, and make a bigger impact…

Dr. Roger Aines is Energy Program Chief Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and co-author, Championing Science- Communicating Your Ideas to Decision Makers. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Carleton College,…

Scott is Director of Venture Commercialization with the Foundation Venture Capital Group where he plays a critical role in sourcing and evaluating potential investment opportunities. He also works directly with academic entrepreneurs and management teams of health-related early-stage startup companies to support their commercialization needs, including contributing to research and development plans, intellectual property strategies, and financial modeling.

Caig B. Arnold is the Vice Dean for Innovation and the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Materials Science at Princeton University.  Arnold previously was the Director of the Princeton Materials Institute from 2015 through 2022.  His research ranges from basic science to applied technology aimed at…

After completing my PhD at Princeton, I taught in the PU Writing Program. Returning to school, I received my JD at Yale Law School, and practiced for a while in New York with a focus on international litigation and as in-house counsel for a technology start-up in Princeton. In 2015, I returned to teaching, this time as a member of the English…

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of French & Italian. Before coming to Princeton, I received a Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, with a double major in French language and literature. I have been performing as a cellist and a singer since the age of eight, and I have played at Carnegie Hall…

"I've been concerned with graduate education and graduate student professional development for more than a decade, and have seen it tried at many campuses nationwide. Princeton is doing it right. I'm impressed with what I see here, and grateful to do my part to help. GradFUTURES is a terrific program, the state of the art."

Pilar Castro-Kiltz '10 is the CEO and founder of More Canvas Consulting. Launched in 2014, the firm offers services in strategic planning, operations improvement, and communications management to a portfolio of clients across industries, with special expertise in higher education, healthcare, social impact, and the arts. Pilar’s approach, which connects strategy with storytelling, draws both from her professional experience and her training at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned an MBA and MFA, respectively.

Jim is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fitz Gate Ventures. Jim and Mark Poag lead the Venture Capital & Startup Learning Cohort for the Graduate School. In collaboration with the Keller Center and the Princeton Entrepreneur Council, the learning cohort introduces graduate students to the world of venture capital and start-ups and…

As a UAF "I get to work on issues and topics that are meaningful to me as an international student, as a woman, and as an academic."

Julia Freeland Fisher is the director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute. She leads a team that educates policymakers and community leaders on the power of disruptive innovation in the K-12 and higher education spheres through its research. Her team aims to transform monolithic, factory-model education systems into…

Rose Guingrich is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology. She studies human-AI interaction through the lens of social psychology and social policy. Specifically, she is conncerned with the ethical implications of conversational AI on human relationships. 

"I've always had a variety of interests and wondered how I…

Dr. Joann Halpern is the Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute, New York (HPI) and an adjunct professor in the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities at New York University. Prior to joining HPI, she was founding director of the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI), which was created as a cornerstone of the German government’s initiative to internationalize science and research.

Shannon is a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Her research lies at the intersection of sustainability and biology, with a key focus on producing proteins that we typically source from animals using engineered yeast instead. She's originally from Ohio and earned her Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from…

Matt Johnson, PhD is a speaker, writer, and researcher, specializing in the application of psychology and neuroscience to branding. Following his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Princeton University, his work has probed the science of brand storytelling, experiential marketing, and consumer decision-making. He is the author of the top…

"The programming that GradFUTURES offers is needed by graduate students, who are recognizing the broad value of their training, and want to find careers that allow them to engaged with values and career paths within and beyond the academy."

Benjamin Kahan is the Robert Penn Warren Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Louisiana State University. He has held fellowships from Washington University in St. Louis, Emory University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Sydney, the National Humanities Center, the Reed Foundation, and the John Simon…

After obtaining my graduate degree in Politics (focus on political theory) from Princeton, I elected to move into secondary school teaching.  I taught seven years at the Pingry School, and since 2007 have been a history teacher at Montclair Kimberley Academy, in Montclair, NJ.  Over my career, I have taught a variety of courses,…

As the inaugural Associate Dean and Director, Eva provides strategic vision and leads the Graduate School's priority to make professional development an intrinsic and transformative part of graduate education at Princeton. She and her team spearheaded the GradFUTURES® campus-wide initiative to provide a comprehensive model of…

Erica Machulak (she/her), PhD, is the Founder and Lead Facilitator of Hikma, a social impact startup with a mission to mobilize scholarship for the public good through consulting, capacity building, and storytelling. Over the past two years, Hikma clients have secured $6M+ in research…

Dr. Sonali Majumdar joined the GradFUTURES team in May of 2022 as Assistant Dean for Professional Development. In addition to developing programs and building partnerships to benefit all graduate students, Sonali serves as the primary liaison for graduate students and faculty in the natural sciences and engineering divisions. 

Ian McLaughlin, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Government Affairs at BioNJ, which is the trade organization that represents approximately 400 companies and organizations in the life sciences throughout New Jersey—from large biopharmaceutical companies to biotech start-ups. A life scientist by training, Ian completed his Ph.D. in neuroscience…

"GradFUTURES has been a great way to build stronger connections to Princeton's Graduate School and also to current graduate students..."

Laura is the Assistant Director, Learning Programs in The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, where she creates initiatives and programming to support graduate students across the university. Laura is also a University Administrative Fellowship Program Mentor.

Laura leads a program to support graduate student and…

“Leading this venture capital cohort is so much fun since we’re teaching these grad students who are brilliant experts in their respective fields of study a topic with which most of them are not very familiar.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know many of them better and am excited about their innovative startup ideas.  Hopefully, once they are ready to raise outside capital, they’ll be a little better prepared after taking this class.” 

Mika has been a mentor with the GradFutures Mentor Collective Scheme at Princeton since its creation in 2019, working with graduate students in several departments in the Humanities. She is an independent scholar, translator, editorial consultant and illustrator, and a contributing editor for the literary journal Bookanista. At Princeton, Mika…

Matt J. M. Rohal is Associate Editor of Skills for Scholars at Princeton University Press.

He began his career in 2013 as an Editorial Assistant and later an Assistant Editor of Politics at Oxford University Press in New York City, before moving on to Princeton University Press in 2016, as Assistant Editor and later Associate…

Gabriella Rosen Kellerman is an author, entrepreneur, start-up executive, and Harvard-trained physician with expertise in behavioral and organizational, change, digital health, wellbeing, and AI. Her first book, Tomorrowmind, co-authored with

Rob Tempio acquires and edits books for PUP in the areas of philosophy, political theory, and the ancient world (classics, ancient history, and archaeology).

Sandra Toussaint-Burgher serves as the President and CEO of United Way of Greater Mercer County. She provides executive leadership and vision to the organization. Prior to that Sandra held the position of Vice President of Resource Development & Strategic Partnerships. Sandra has more than twenty years experience in fund development, strategic partnerships, and marketing. She’s held senior positions at local and national organizations including Youth Communication, Inc., Special Olympics, and Twenty-First Century Foundation.

Dr. Joe Tylka is a research scientist at Siemens Corporate Technology whose expertise lies in multichannel signal processing, intelligent control, and machine learning. He received his Ph.D. in 2019 from Princeton University, where his dissertation research focused on virtual navigation of measured 3D sound fields.

James M. Van Wyck is the liaison for the Humanities & Social Sciences. He manages graduate student professional development programs, strategic communications, the GradFUTURES Fellows program, including the University Administrative Fellows Program, and the Community College Teaching Initiative.

Raghuveer Vinukollu is the Head of Climate Insights and Advisory. at Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. based in Princeton, New Jersey. He has a PhD in land surface hydrology from the Civil and Environmental Engineering department; he is also one of the Advisory Council members for the department. He is a passionate advocate for climate…