Dr. Kirschner is a national and global voice for higher education. An educator, author, entrepreneur, and veteran of four start-ups, Ann is an ardent champion of career diversity and supporter of making professional development intrinsic to graduate education. She is currently a University Professor at The City University of New York (CUNY), the nation's largest urban university, and a faculty fellow at the Futures Initiatives at the CUNY Graduate Center. She was previously the Dean of Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, and founding director of the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship (WiTNY) initiative with Cornell Tech. 

At Princeton, Kirschner has served in numerous volunteer capacities, including the Graduate School Leadership Council, the board of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni, the English Department’s Advisory Council, the Alumni Council’s Executive Committee, the Princeton Innovation Advisory Council, and as Graduate Alumni Trustee.

Dr. Kirschner was a keynote speaker at the GradFUTURES Forum in 2020 and has supported the GradFUTURES initiative in myriad ways to benefit Princeton graduate students. She also helped launch the GradFUTURES podcast by serving as our first guest. The episode featuring an interview with Ann Kirschner will debut in April 2022.

“Graduate students are facing a lot of uncertainties these days — today more than ever — and that means it’s a really good time to be thinking about and preparing for these uncertainties. Part of what graduate students have to be ready to do is to understand those winds of change, and then figure out how their experiences can help make those changes positive ones for them and for the world.”