On Thursday, August 4, Princeton University President Emerita Shirley Tilghman spoke at the Business Skills for Ph.D.s in Academia & Beyond Learning Cohort discussing “Business Skills in Academia: Understanding Higher Education Administration.” The program represents a first-of-its-kind professional development program and a partnership between the Graduate School and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Through a series of cohort discussions, graduate students explore case studies from academia, government, nonprofit and for-profit organizations using a “business and society” approach to understand how individual and organizational purpose, strategy, and ethical decision-making can create socially responsible business practices and social impact.

During President Tilghman’s talk, graduate students learned firsthand about leadership in higher education and the strategic business decisions involved in advancing the University’s mission to serve the nation and humanity. There were many significant developments at the University during Dr. Tighman's time as President including expanding the undergraduate student body, increasing financial aid, creating a master plan for the campus, and driving a record-breaking fund-raising campaign, among others. Dr. Tilghman joined Rodney Priestley, Dean of the Graduate School, Eva Kubu, Associate Dean and Director of Professional Development, Sonali Majumdar, Assistant Dean for Professional Development, Jim Scully, *03, ECO, Managing Director in Accenture Strategy, and a cohort of graduate students for dinner and discussion in the Garden Room at Prospect House. This was the learning cohort's seventh meeting out of ten total. 

Shirley M. Tilghman was elected Princeton University’s 19^th president on May 5, 2001 after serving on the Princeton faculty for 15 years.  Upon the completion of her term in June of 2013, she returned to the faculty. During her scientific career as a mammalian developmental geneticist, she studied the way in which genes are organized in the genome and regulated during early development, and was one of the founding members of the National Advisory Council of the Human Genome Project for the National Institutes of Health. 

Dr. Tilghman is an Officer of the Order of Canada, the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Developmental Biology, the Genetics Society of America Medal, the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, and the George W. Beadle Award from the Genetics Society of America. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and The Royal Society of London.  She serves as a trustee of Amherst College, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Simons Foundation. She serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is a director of The Broad Institute of MIT, and a Fellow of the Corporation of Harvard College.

For more information about the Business Skills for Ph.D.s in Academia & Beyond Learning Cohort, visit the Business Skills for Ph.D.s in Academia & Beyond homepage. For general information about learning cohorts and other professional development opportunities with GradFUTURES, visit the GradFUTURES website.