In alphabetical order:
Nancy Alexander
Nancy Alexander is a coach, leadership consultant, and Certified Master FacilitatorTM who helps individuals and organizations achieve their purpose with clarity and assurance. As principal of Lumenance Consulting LLC she serves higher education institutions, nonprofits, and professional organizations. Coauthor of the American Institute of Architects’ Guides for Equitable Practice, Nancy presents frequently on negotiation and on matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion, including at Yale, and is currently supporting the Yale School of Architecture in building its Belonging at Yale five-year plan.
Nancy cochairs the EDI committee of the Long Wharf Theatre board and has also chaired the Greater New Haven Community Fund for Women and Girls. Her BA (sociology) and MBA degrees are from Yale where, as an alumna supporter of the Yale Women Faculty Forum, she cofounded the Women’s History Tour of Yale. She earned her MA in women’s studies from Southern Connecticut State University, executive coaching certificate from Columbia University, and team coaching certificate from the Academy of Executive Coaching, UK.
Catharine Amaya
Hannah Bowles
Mark Bradford
Dr. Mark Bradford is Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. His research reveals how soil microbial processes govern carbon cycle responses to global change and environmental management. Bradford’s current work addresses questions spanning uncertainty in Earth system feedbacks to quantifying soil health concepts. He is author of over 130 academic papers. He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Exeter University (UK), did postdoctoral research at Imperial College, London and Duke University, and became faculty at the University of Georgia, Athens in 2005. He moved to Yale in 2009.
Richard Bribiescas
Dr. Richard G. Bribiescas is Deputy Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity and Professor of Anthropology. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Prior to this position, he served as chair of the Department of Anthropology from 2010 until 2014. His primary responsibilities are to oversee university wide faculty development, including working with deans and others to identify, recruit, and promote outstanding faculty. He also provides support and advice to search, tenure, and appointments processes as well as being responsible for developing and deploying the university-wide Faculty Excellence and Diversity Initiative. He received his B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology (double major) from the University of California, Los Angeles and an A.M and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. He joined the Yale faculty in 1998.
Michael Caplan
Michael Caplan is the C.N.H Long Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has been recognized by numerous awards for his teaching, mentorship and research. His laboratory focuses on understanding the ways in which epithelial cells communicate with one another to generate and maintain their unique structures. His group also studies Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease, a prevalent and serious genetic disorder that distorts the normal architecture of renal epithelial cells and that is a major cause of kidney failure. The Caplan laboratory is working to understand the mechanisms responsible for this condition and to identify targets for new therapies.
Katie Donovan
Katie Donovan is a salary and career negotiation consultant, equal pay consultant, and keynote speaker. Her company, Equal Pay Negotiations LLC, is dedicated to achieving equal pay by consulting for all the stakeholders: employees, employers, and policy makers. Katie’s 360-degree background in employment, which includes working for a staffing firm, an applicant-tracking developer, and a trade association, brings a unique and pragmatic perspective to the work.
Ms. Donovan speaks and conducts workshops on equal pay, salary negotiations, and career management at such venues as Harvard Business School, NASDAQ, Women in Construction, Association of American University Women, University of North Carolina, and Mom Corps. She is frequently quoted by and contributes to media including Mashable, SELF Magazine, Forbes, NPR, and more.
Menachem Elimelech
Professor Menachem Elimelech is the Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale. Professor Elimelech’s research is in the general area of the water-energy nexus. Specifically, the research in his group involves: (i) membrane-based processes for energy-efficient desalination and wastewater reuse, (ii) advanced materials for next-generation environmental separation and water decontamination technologies, and (iii) environmental applications of nanomaterials. Professor Elimelech has authored more than 450 refereed journal publications, including invited review articles in Science and Nature, and is a co-author of the book Particle Deposition and Aggregation (1995). He is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in two categories: Environment/Ecology and Chemistry.
Professor Elimelech has received numerous major awards in recognition of his research. Notable among these are the Eni Award for Protection of the Environment in 2015, election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017, and the Clarke Prize for excellence in water research in 2005. Professor Elimelech has advised 43 Ph.D. students and 37 postdoctoral researchers, many of whom hold leading positions in academia and industry. In recognition of his excellence and dedication in teaching and mentoring, he received the W.M. Keck Foundation Engineering Teaching Excellence Award in 1994, the Yale University Graduate Mentoring Award in 2004, and the Yale University Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize in 2012.
Bonnie T. Flemming
Bonnie T. Fleming is a Professor of Physics at Yale working in high energy particle physics. Her research focuses on accelerator-based neutrino physics to study the nature of neutrinos and what neutrinos can tell us about the rest of the Standard Model of particle physics and the universe. To do so she develops and builds particle detectors in Yale’s Wright Laboratory, and performs experiments primarily at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and CERN. Fleming received the American Physical Society’s DPF Mentoring Award in 2018.
Jenny Frederick
Dr. Jenny Frederick, Executive Director of the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, received her B.A. with honors in Chemistry from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale. Following faculty teaching appointments at both public and private universities in Connecticut, Jenny returned to Yale in 2007 as Associate Director and Science Education Specialist at the Graduate Teaching Center. She went on to assume positions of increasing responsibility within the University, including Director of the Center for Scientific Teaching, where she has advanced a national effort to transform undergraduate science teaching at colleges and universities across the United States. Her accomplishments in this area include leading presentations and workshops focused on STEM teaching, and the publication of numerous journal articles. Jenny brings to the CTL notable interdisciplinary teaching experience and a commitment to inclusive teaching practices in higher education. Jenny aspires to leverage her leadership position to advance the university mission of teaching excellence. She finds inspiration each day from the excellent team of colleagues with whom she works.
Brian Frenette
Brian Frenette joined the Yale Office of Career Strategy in summer of 2013 and currently serves as Senior Associate Director, working with students in Yale’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and postdoctoral fellows and associates. Prior to joining Yale, Brian worked in career services at Wesleyan University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he oversaw their Field Experience program. Brian is a member of NACE and the CCEIA. In addition to working in career services, Brian has also served as an adjunct instructor at the University of New Haven and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Brian lives in the New Haven area and is an avid fan of skiing and hiking.
Mary Geary
Mary C. Geary, President of MCG Consulting, LLC is a senior healthcare executive with over 25 years’ experience in operational leadership and individual and team coaching and development. She has successfully executed roles ranging from Chief Nurse Executive at hospitals to Senior VP of Operations for a national rehabilitation services contractor. Early involvement in clinical quality improvement has been a long-term focus in Mary’s work and led to her becoming a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ). Board experience includes executive (as Chief Nurse executive) as well as a healthcare startup and current service on a community hospital board. She also serves as one of three representatives to the Association of Yale Alumnae/i from YSN.
Larry Gladney
Larry Gladney joined Yale as Professor of Physics and Phyllis A. Wallace Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in January 2019. Gladney’s research focuses on the intersection of experimental particle physics and cosmology, where he attempts to understand the origins of and fundamental connections between matter, energy, space, and time. He is particularly interested in future explorations of the cause for the accelerated expansion of the universe. Co-author or author of more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, he came to Yale from the University of Pennsylvania where he was the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor for Faculty Excellence in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Associate Dean for Natural Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences. At the University of Pennsylvania he also held a secondary appointment as Professor of Education in the Higher Education division of the Penn Graduate School of Education.
Jacob Gonzalez
Jacob Gonzalez joined the Office of Career Strategy in the fall of 2021 to help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows leverage their degrees and training to find fulfilling careers outside of academia. Prior to joining Yale, Jacob served as the Associate Director for Career Advising (Sciences and Mathematics) at Wesleyan University supporting undergraduates, graduate students and alumni to explore and prepare for careers in STEM and healthcare-related fields. He was involved in biomedical research for ten years, participated in numerous professional development programs in the life sciences industry, then later transitioned to career services. Through his academic career and experiences as a biomedical scientist and career advisor, Jacob developed a passion for mentoring and supporting the professional development journeys of scholars across the arts and sciences. He earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton and holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Yale, where his research focused on epigenetic mechanisms of stem cell self-renewal. After graduating, Jacob completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at the University of California, San Diego. He lives along the Connecticut shoreline in Old Saybrook with his wife, son and Vizsla dog. In his free time, Jacob is either backpacking or hitting the trails on his mountain bike.
Jonathan Gonzalez-Cruz
Jonathan Gonzalez-Cruz is the Policy Coordinator at Connecticut Students for a Dream, an undocumented, youth-led statewide organization fighting for the rights of immigrants and their families. Jonathan received a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Southern Connecticut State University where he was a Presidential Scholar in the Honors College. He is currently a graduate assistant and student at the University of Connecticut pursuing a Master of Science in Quantitative Economics. He is undocumented and unafraid. But above all else, he is the proud son of Blanca and Jorge, who uprooted their entire lives, left behind all they ever knew, to provide a better future for their sons.
Richard Ha
Laura Hunter
Laura Hunter is the Associate Diversity Officer in Initiatives for Organizational Inclusion (IOI) at the University of Arizona and leads efforts to transform University structures, practices, policies, and individual behaviors to effectively advance inclusion. Data-informed action plans and assessment practices are being developed and utilized to ensure progress, accountability, and incentivization. From 2016-2019, she also served in a dual role as Coordinator of Faculty Development and worked to better support our faculty.
Some programs Laura codesigned include the Inclusive Leadership Program and the first university-wide faculty mentoring program. She also developed a comprehensive set of research-based professional development workshops for academics, including workshop series on getting published, advancing faculty careers, and supporting diversity in the classroom. She also leads trainings on topics such as implicit bias and imposter syndrome.
Laura earned her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Arizona in 2010, which was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. Her research has focused on implicit bias, particularly against women in STEM. Another line of her research has focused on gender differences in academic careers.
Patti Ippoliti
Dr. Patti Ippoliti is President of PI Associates, LLC as well as Lecturer and Lead Faculty at Columbia University. She is a builder of leadership talent. She is an accomplished business executive, senior consultant, coach and graduate business professor with significant global and domestic experience in business transformation, leadership coaching and development, and human capital. She consults to organizations on business transformation, leadership readiness, the multi-generational workforce, and diversity, equity and inclusion; and has extensive corporate and consulting experience in successfully transitioning companies through growth, turnaround and M&A situations.
Patti has had senior-level responsibility in human resources, corporate strategy and operations. She has held the top HR executive positions at Reebok, Elizabeth Arden, Live Nation/Ticketmaster and other companies; and has been SVP and National Practice Leader for Aon Consulting’s Human Capital Practice.
Patti teaches graduate business courses in leadership and organizational behavior, and has published articles on the future of work, business transformation, leadership, human capital and multigenerational talent. She has a B.S. in Accounting/Finance, Cum Laude, from Villanova University; and an MBA and PhD from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.
Patti has been a speaker at several conferences and events including: DTCC, Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association, NJ Hospital Association, Rutgers Women in Business, Consumer Healthcare Products Association Annual Conference, College and University Professional Association, NJ Women in Technology Leadership, National Investor Relations Institute, PSEG, Unilever, NJ Bankers Women in Business, Am Cham Singapore, Sandoz, Wells Fargo, NJ Conference for Women, and the SEI Executive Conference.
Krista Kenny
Krista Kenny is a Program Management Rotation Program (PMRP) Associate at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. She serves as an advocate for women in STEM throughout her career and through her service and membership in the Women’s Impact Network and Society of Women Engineers.
Anthony Koleske
Dr. Anthony J. Koleske is an expert in understanding the biochemical mechanisms that control changes in cell shape and movement. After receiving a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Koleske performed his Ph.D. studies with Dr. Richard Young at the Whitehead Institute/Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For his Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Koleske discovered the RNA polymerase II holoenzyme, an important advancement in understanding how gene transcription is turned on. Dr. Koleske went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baltimore at M.I.T., where he began his work studying cellular functions of Abl family kinases, which his laboratory has shown are essential regulators of the cytoskeleton in diverse cell types. Dr. Koleske joined the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University in 1998, where he currently is Professor and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurobiology.
Marianne Lafrance
Dr. Marianne LaFrance is Professor of Psychology and Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale. She is a social psychologist who does research on various aspects having to do with the psychology of gender. Current questions involve examining why males continue to be regarded as the standard against which much human behavior is judged; understanding why people do not report experiences of sexual harassment; investigating the consequences of stereotyping women as too emotional; and exploring how sexual minorities and gender non-conforming people are construed and evaluated.
Darin Latimore
Darin A. Latimore, MD, has been Deputy Dean for Diversity and Inclusion since January 2017, and is the School of Medicine’s inaugural Chief Diversity Officer. Alongside YSM senior leadership, Dr. Latimore is responsible for developing a comprehensive plan for furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion at the school, including a robust recruitment and retention program for faculty, and students from historically underrepresented in medical communities. He coordinates with such groups as the Inclusion, Community, Engagement & Equity (DICE), the Minority Organization for Retention and Expansion (MORE), the Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (SWIM), the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, and the Dean’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ Affairs.
Dr. Latimore’s passion for promoting diversity and inclusion stems from his own background. As an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, he felt isolated on a campus where there were few African-Americans and even fewer students from his socioeconomic background. After obtaining his medical degree at University of California, Davis School of Medicine and completing his residency in internal medicine at University of California, Davis Medical Center, he worked as a physician specializing in HIV care with The Permanente Medical Group in South Sacramento, CA where he also trained medical students and residents. His transition to academic medicine began with his appointment as Associate Program Director for the UC Davis internal medicine residency program. Many of the students and residents with whom he worked shared his experiences of isolation and discrimination, prompting him to write a job description that led to his inaugural position as Director of Medical Student Diversity at UC Davis in 2008, a position he held until joining Yale in 2017. Since August, as a part of his current strategy to improve the cultural climate for all of YSM, Dr. Latimore has given over 26 focused talks on the topic of unconscious bias.
Jane Livingston
As an Associate CIO at Yale University, Jane oversees Campus Community Technologies (CCT), an enterprise technologies unit focused on providing the Yale Community with solid, integrated, discoverable and reusable online services and environments. In this role, she consults, advises and partners with university senior leadership for IT planning; directs and develops IT staff responsible for planning and delivering emerging and existing technologies.
Formerly, Jane was Director of Strategy, Governance and Digital Strategy in the Office of the CIO at Yale. In this role, she oversaw strategic planning for university IT, coordinated IT governance processes related to strategic decision making, capital investments and university IT oversight, and managed the capital project portfolio including the PMO. She also managed a portfolio of business transformation projects related to modernizing and ensuring the credibility of IT services.
Before joining Yale, Jane worked at Vassar College in Academic Technology, at IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY and at Boeing in Wichita, KS. She holds an M.S. in Information Management from Syracuse University and a B.A. in History and Women’s Studies from Wichita State University.
Kathryn Lofton
Dr. Kathryn Lofton is a historian of religion who has written extensively about capitalism, celebrity, sexuality, and the concept of the secular. In her work, she has examined the ways the history of religion collides with, and is constituted by, the history of corporations, popular culture, race, and gender in the United States. Her first book, Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon (2011) used the example of Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia productions to evaluate the material strategies of contemporary spirituality. Her forthcoming book, Consuming Religion, offers a profile of religion and its relationship to consumption and includes analysis of many subjects, including office cubicles, binge viewing, the family Kardashian, and the Goldman Sachs Group. Her next book-length study will consider the religions of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Professor Lofton has served as an editor-at-large for The Immanent Frame; she has co-curated (with John Lardas Modern) a collaborative web project titled Frequencies as well as Class 200: New Studies in Religion, a book series with the University of Chicago Press. At Yale she has hosted several conferences, including one on the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis. She has won the 2010 Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching, the 2013 Sarai Ribicoff Award for the Encouragement of Teaching at Yale College, and the 2013 Graduate Mentor Award in the Humanities.
Lekha Mathew
Lekha Mathew is a Stategy and Planning Lead at Lockheed Martin. Lekha has worked for Lockheed Martin since 2015. She successfully completed the Advanced Technical Leadership Program at Lockheed Martin after starting as a Business Analysis. She earned bachelor’s degrees in Financial Planning and Services and Business/Managerial Economics before earning an MBA in Business Administration and Management. Lekha is actively engaged in promoting equity in her career.
Sandra Martinez Morilla
Sandra earned her PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine in 2013 from the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain. During her thesis, she studied the involvement of DNA repair in the cellular response to antitumoral agents of marine origin from a Spanish biotech. She then spent around 4 years as a Postdoc at Hattangadi Lab in the Hematology/Oncology section of the Department of Pediatrics here at Yale, where she studied the implication of nuclear protein export in red blood cell development, both in mouse and human systems. Currently, she is a Postdoc at the laboratory of David Rimm at the Department of Pathology, working on identification of new biomarkers to predict response to immunotherapy in cancer patients.
Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller is the Assistant Dean of the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science. As an Assistant Dean, Sarah provides leadership to advance science and engineering strategic priorities on campus. Sarah came to Yale from the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering & Applied Science where she served for six years. As an Associate Dean there, Sarah served as the college’s chief diversity officer, led enrollment management, and oversaw student programs. Sarah believes that every child deserves an excellent education. She has worked in inner-city public schools, both as a teacher and as an administrator, and at the National Science Foundation, where she served as a AAAS Fellow. She has also worked in the admissions office of Amherst College, where she earned a B.A. in Chemistry. She holds a PhD from Yale University in chemical and environmental engineering.
Meredith Mira
Meredith is the Senior Associate Director at the Yale Office of Career Strategy, which she joined in the summer of 2013. She advises students and alumni as they begin the process of articulating who they are, what they care about, their key skills, and how they want to make an impact in their communities. She has significant experience shaping post-graduate career paths and outcomes for a wide range of students, including those from first-generation and otherwise underrepresented backgrounds, helping them center their lived experiences within a broader understanding of institutional culture, relative privilege, and the world of work.
Meredith completed her doctoral degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her research focused on how high school students from a range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds become aware of social inequality and motivated to work towards social change. She is also part of the international Leading Change Network, which is a wide-ranging group of educators, researchers, and practitioners engaged in strengthening community organizing efforts throughout the world.
Audrey J. Murrell
Audrey J. Murrell, Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration, Psychology, Public and International Affairs University of Pittsburgh, School of Business Work Email: amurrell@pitt.edu Personal Email: audreyjmurrell@gmail.com Audrey J. Murrell conducts research, teaching and consulting that helps organizations better utilize and engage their most important assets – their human and social capital. She is currently Professor of Business Administration with secondary appointments within the Department of Psychology and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, she served as the Acting Dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College, Associate Dean within the College of Business Administration and as the Director of the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership. She isthe author ofseveral booksincluding: “Mentoring Dilemmas: Developmental Relationships within Multicultural Organizations” (with Faye Crosby and Robyn Ely); “Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge and Relationships” (with Sheila Forte-Trummel and Diana Bing); “Mentoring Diverse Leaders: Creating Change for People, Processes and Paradigms” (with Stacy Blake-Beard); and, the recent book entitled, “Diversity Across Disciplines: Research on People, Policy, Process and Paradigm” (with Jennifer Petrie-Wyman and Abdesalam Soudi.
Barry Nalebuff
Dr. Barry Nalebuff is an expert on game theory and has written extensively on its application to business strategy. He is the coauthor of six books. Thinking Strategically and The Art of Strategy are two popular books on game theory with over 300,000 copies in print. In Co-opetition, Nalebuff looks beyond zero-sum games to emphasize the potential for cooperating as well as competing. In Why Not?, he and Ian Ayres provide a framework for problem solving and ingenuity. Lifecycle Investing provides a new strategy for retirement investing. His forthcoming book, Mission in a Bottle, tells the story of Honest Tea in comic book format. A graduate of MIT, a Rhodes Scholar, and Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Nalebuff earned his doctorate at Oxford University. In addition to his academic work, he has extensive experience consulting with multinational firms, from American Express, GE, and McKinsey to Google and Rio Tinto. He advised the NBA in their negotiations with the National Basketball Players Association and serves on the board of Nationwide Insurance. In 1998, Barry together with one of his former students, Seth Goldman, cofounded Honest Tea, a company that sells ready-to-drink iced tea that truly tastes like tea. It is one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing companies and has recently sold its billionth bottle. In 2011, Coca-Cola purchased the company.
Michelle Nearon
Dr. Michelle Nearon joined the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in July 2008, where she works closely with students, members of the faculty and administration, and the McDougal Center Offices, to proactively recruit, retain, and assist in the professional development of graduate students from diverse racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, political, cultural, and lifestyle backgrounds. Dean Nearon received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brooklyn Polytechnic University, respectively. After completing her master’s degree, she devoted approximately ten years to both the aerospace and automotive industries, beginning as a research engineer and ultimately becoming a general manager. She then completed a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stony Brook University in May 2000. Nearon subsequently served on the faculty at Stony Brook University as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and as director of recruitment and diversification in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences until coming to Yale.
Mary I. O’Connor
Dr. Mary I. O’Connor, the inaugural Director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Health, brings together the traditional disciplines of orthopaedics, rheumatology, spine and sports medicine with ancillary services such as nutrition, behavioral health and complementary medicine to create a Center focused on integration, innovation and invigoration of patients, providers and payers. Research is a critical activity and includes translational studies and those targeting biological therapies for musculoskeletal conditions. After graduating from Yale University with a degree in biochemistry, Dr. O’Connor attended Drexel University College of Medicine and the completed her orthopaedic surgery residency and fellowship at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. She joined the staff at Mayo Clinic in Florida (MCF) and held numerous leadership roles including Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery (MCF), Medical Director for Philanthropy (MCF), member of the Executive Operations Team (MCF) and Medical Director of the Office of Integrity and Compliance for Mayo Clinic. She has also served as President of the International Society of Limb Salvage, the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons and the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society. She is the Chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery Diversity Advisory Board and Chair of the Movement is Life Caucus, a multi-stakeholder group committed to decreasing musculoskeletal healthcare disparities.
Eva Pietri
Dr. Eva Pietri is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She received her Ph.D. in Psychology at the Ohio State University. After receiving her PhD., Dr. Pietri completed a postdoctoral position at Yale University, during which she worked in the Psychology department and in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Broadly, her research investigates how basic processes in social cognition and attitudes influence a variety of domains that are pertinent to real-world issues. She aims to use theories and research from social psychology to guide the development of interventions, and much of her current research focuses on reducing biases and promoting diversity in science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Desirée Plata
Dr. Desirée Plata is the John J. Lee Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale. She has two primary obligations to society: (1) to help protect the quality of the air, water and soil; and (2) to help provide an education for the next generation of engineers, especially with regard to the influence of their designs on the natural world. Desirée holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry and Chemical Oceanography from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She has a B.S. in Chemistry from Union College and proudly attended Gould Academy for high school. She recently received the NSF CAREER award.
David Post
Dr. David Post is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Chair of the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct. David is an aquatic ecologist who studies food webs, environmental change, and interactions between ecology and evolution. He conducts research in lakes and rivers in New England, and in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa. He has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and on the Graduate School Faculty Advisory Committee, Graduate School Dean’s Advisory Committee on Regulations and Discipline, and the FAS Advisory Committee for Diversity and Faculty Development.
Lajos Pusztai
Dr. Pusztai is Professor of Medicine at Yale University, Director of Breast Cancer Translational Research and Co-Director of the Yale Cancer Center Genomics Genetics and Epigenetics Program. He is also Chair of the Breast Cancer Research Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG). Dr. Pusztai received his medical degree from the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest, and his D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford in England. His research group has made important contributions to establish that estrogen receptor-positive and-negative breast cancers have fundamentally different molecular, clinical and epidemiological characteristics. He has been a pioneer in evaluating gene expression profiling as a diagnostic technology to predict chemotherapy and endocrine therapy sensitivity and have shown that different biological processes are involved in determining the prognosis and treatment response in different breast cancer subtypes. He made important contributions to clarify the clinical value of preoperative (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy in different breast cancer subtypes. Dr Pusztai is also principal investigator of several clinical trials investigating new drugs, including immunotherapies for breast cancer. He has published over 250 scientific manuscripts in high impact medical journals including the NEJM, JAMA, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS, Lancet Oncology and JNCI. He is among the top 1% most highly cited investigators in clinical medicine according to a 2015 Thomson Reuters report. He is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and a Susan Komen Scholar.
Rona Ramos
Dr. Ramos is a lecturer and instructional lab manager in the department of physics at Yale University. She is co-director for Girls Science Investigations at Yale, a program encouraging middle school girls to pursue science careers. In addition to teaching introductory physics courses for undergraduates, Dr. Ramos also trains faculty members, postdocs and graduate students in student centered and inclusive teaching methods based on physics education research and cognitive science.
Dana Rubin
As the founder and CEO of Speaking While Female, Dana Rubin is an advocate for women’s speech and voice, helping companies develop their female talent to be recognized experts, brand ambassadors, and rainmakers. Companies with visible and influential women at all levels are rewarded with diversity of ideas, a robust talent pipeline, powerful role models, and strong reputational capital. Her programs give women the mindset and skillset to be known as authorities in their field. Dana is also the founder and curator of the Speaking While Female Speech Bank that celebrates public speeches by women. She busts the myth about women’s silence with the first-ever online collection of women’s speech from across time and around the world — because women have indeed been speaking out, loudly and proudly, in the thousands. As a speaking coach, Dana has coached speakers for TED, TEDx and other conferences, boardroom presentations, fundraising and client pitches, and high-stakes interviews. She has drafted speeches for executives in all kinds of venues, from stadium commencements to dinner party toasts, written powerful op-eds, and bylined articles and other influential material. She is a longtime annual judge for the Cicero Speechwriting Awards, recognizing outstanding speeches and speechwriters from around the world.
Reshma Shanku
Dr. Reshma Shanku is currently the Chief Engineer for US Army Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programs within the Defense Systems & Services group at Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company. In the role, she is responsible for the technical leadership of the FMS Blackhawk helicopter programs. Prior to the current role, Reshma was the Chief Engineer for the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP), which is a licensed co-production helicopter program with prime contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) to manufacture and assemble the T-70 Turkish Utility Helicopter based on the S-70iTM International BLACK HAWK for the Turkish Military and for export to Sikorsky for sale to international customers. Prior to joining Sikorsky as the Chief Engineer for International Maritime Programs, she worked at Rolls-Royce, Indianapolis. She worked as the Assistant Chief Project Engineer (ACPE) on the RB282 engine program for the French Dassault Aviation customer, as the ACPE on the T56/501 engine programs, and as the Development Project Engineer on the AE1107C engine program. Prior to moving to project management roles at Rolls-Royce, she worked on the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) Liftfan program providing materials design support to JSF Liftfan integrated product teams (IPT) and the JSF F136 engine program supporting the IPTs (Turbine, Accessory Gearbox and Combustor IPTs). Reshma holds a B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University in India, a M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Mississippi. Reshma lives in Shelton, Connecticut, and loves to hike, practice yoga, read, and travel in her free time.
Hyun Ja Shin
Dr. Hyun Ja Shin has been dedicated to supporting graduate students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and postdoctoral fellows engaged in the exploration of careers outside the academy since October 2015. After completing her undergraduate degree from Princeton and her Ph.D. in economics from Yale, she joined Charles River Associates as an economic consultant specializing in antitrust matters. She later transitioned to higher education, serving as a lead administrator for the Becker-Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. Most recently at Yale, she acted as Associate Director of Business Initiatives at Yale Conferences & Events and as a business analyst in the Finance and Business Operations division, prior to joining the Office of Career Strategy. Hyun Ja lives in New Haven with her husband, daughter, and occasionally her son, currently an undergraduate at Yale.
Kate Skog
Kate Skog is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department in Dr. Drew Gentner’s lab at Yale. Her research focuses on atmospheric organic nitrates. After completing her postdoc, she will be a Research Scientist at Picarro.
Alyssa Siefert
Dr. Alyssa Siefert works as Clinical Data Analyst for Foresite Capital, a healthcare-focused private equity and venture capital firm, where she evaluates the technological feasibility of biotech innovations. She is also a prolific science writer whose ghostwritten articles have garnered hundreds of thousands of online views. Previously, Alyssa served as engineering director for the Yale Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT), where she advised project teams, ran large healthcare hackathons, and managed academic-industry partnerships. Alyssa earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University while completing two years of MBA coursework at Yale School of Management on a Fellowship, followed by postdoctoral training at Yale Systems Biology Institute and Department of Immunobiology. Her research focused on designing nanotechnology for immunotherapeutic applications. She holds a BS in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, with a minor in Professional Writing, from Carnegie Mellon University.
Stephanie Spangler
Dr. Stephanie Spangler joined the Office of the Provost in 1995 and serves as provostial liaison for the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, Yale University Health Services, the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, and other health and biomedical units. She also oversees the provost’s Office of Academic Integrity, established in 2011, working with colleagues throughout the university to fortify and consolidate programs and procedures relating to academic integrity. Additionally, she is charged with leadership of university-wide Title IX compliance and related initiatives. Before assuming her present position, Dr. Spangler served as director of Yale University Health Services, a health care delivery system serving faculty, employees, students, and their dependents. She did her residency training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and holds an appointment as clinical professor in the Yale School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. From 2009 to 2011, she also held the position of associate vice president for West Campus planning.
Maria Trumpler
Maria Trumpler is a senior lecturer in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources. She initially came to Yale as a graduate student in Physiology but switched to History of Science in order to study how science has historically excluded a wide variety of potential practitioners. At Yale, she has worked for creating practices and systems inclusive of transgender and non-binary members of Yale’s community.
Meg Urry
Dr. Meg Urry is the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics; she served as Chair of the Physics Department at Yale from 2007 to 2013. She is currently Past President of the American Astronomical Society (the last in a 4-year term). Professor Urry received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University and her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics summa cum laude from Tufts University. Her scientific research focuses on active galaxies, which host accreting supermassive black holes in their centers. She has published over 270 refereed research articles on supermassive black holes and galaxies and was identified as a “Highly Cited Author” by Thomson Reuters. Prof. Urry is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academies of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and American Women in Science; received an honorary doctorate from Tufts University; and was awarded the American Astronomical Society’s Annie Jump Cannon and George van Biesbroeck prizes. Prior to moving to Yale in 2001, Prof. Urry was a senior astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA. Professor Urry is also known for her efforts to increase the number of women and minorities in science, for which she won the 2015 Edward A. Bouchet Leadership Award from Yale University and the 2010 Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarium. She also writes regularly on science for CNN.com.
Nancy Wayne
Dr. Nancy Wayne has over 25 years of experience teaching and leading workshops. She is founder and president of Women Advancing Together® that brings practical, goal-oriented, and problem-solving workshops to professionals, students, and administrators to help women and men overcome barriers in their careers. Information about the workshops and blogs (including topics on Work-Life Balance, Bullies in the Workplace, Organizing Your Two-Minute Elevator Pitch, The Importance of Self-Promotion, and more) can be found at https://nancylwayne.wordpress.com/. Dr. Wayne is a tenured Professor of Physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research with laboratory safety oversight. She joined the UCLA faculty in 1992, and is a reproductive neuroendocrinologist. She received her B.A. in Biology from Northwestern University, Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Michigan, and postdoctoral training from the University of Virginia.
Suzanne Young
Dr. Suzanne Young is the Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Teaching Development at the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). She earned her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Virginia. She has taught literature and composition for over 20 years, including a course on “Paris in the ‘20s” that focuses on transatlantic modernist artists. Her research interests include composition, modernist literature, digital humanities, and online learning. At the CTL, she works with graduate students and faculty on course design, teaching innovation, technology-enhanced teaching, and student engagement.
Julie Zimmerman
Dr. Julie Zimmerman is the Donna L. Dubinsky Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering jointly appointed to the Chemical & Environmental Engineering Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is the Associate Director for Research at the Yale Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering. Professor Zimmerman’s research interests broadly focus on green chemistry and engineering with specific emphasis on green downstream processing and life cycle assessment of algal biomass for fuels and value-added chemicals as well as novel biobased sorbents for purification of drinking water and remediation of industrial wastewater. Other ongoing focus areas include the design of safer chemicals from first principles and the implications of nanomaterials on human health and the environment. Further, to enhance the likelihood of successful implementation of these next generation designs, Dr. Zimmerman studies the effectiveness and impediments of current and potential policies developed to advance sustainability. Together, these efforts represent a systematic and holistic approach to addressing the challenges of sustainability to enhance water and resource quality and quantity, to improve environmental protection, and to provide for a higher quality of life. Dr. Zimmerman previously served as an Engineer and program coordinator in the Office of Research and Development at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, where she managed sustainability research grants and created EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Award program. She received a joint Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Environmental Engineering and Natural Resource Policy.
Ines Zucker
Dr. Ines Zucker is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Ines received a B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering, M.Sc. in materials and nanotechnologies engineering, and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the development of nanotechnology-based solutions for water decontamination, as well as environmental and health impacts of nanotechnology. Given the emerging interest in environmental applications of nanomaterials worldwide, and her interdisciplinary expertise on the border between materials and environmental engineering, Ines hopes to continue her research as a faculty back in her home country of Israel.