Exploring Careers Beyond Academia...and Lunch!
PIs often have trainees who have professional goals outside of academia, but (because of their own career trajectories) often have little experience in how to help trainees achieve those goals. To help rectify this imbalance, grad students Juanita Pardo Sanchez, Julia Eckberg, and Prof. Gideon Bradburd created the Exploring Careers Beyond Academia, and Lunch (ECBAL) seminar series, which is supported by UM EEB with the invaluable guidance of the department's Grad Coordinators.
In each seminar, a speaker (often an alum of the UM EEB program) who has gone on to a career outside of the "traditional" academic path comes to speak about their job: what it's like, how they got there, and advice for current students/postdocs interested in pursuing a similar career. Lunch is provided!
These seminars are also recorded and are available to all current UM students and postdocs. If you have any suggestions of folks you'd like to bring in as speakers, please reach out to Prof. Bradburd, Juanita Pardo Sanchez, and Julia Eckberg!
Speaker Lineup:
2024-2025 AY:
9/27/2024
Naikoa Aguilar-Amuchastegui, Senior Climate Change Specialist at the World Bank
2023-2024 AY:
10/20/23
Libby O’Brien, Mergers & Acquisitions Consultant with Environmental Resource Management
11/3/23
Chloe Weise, Data Analyst at Lumen Energy
12/8/23
Kristin Lee, Data Scientist at Spotify
1/26/24
Peter Cerda, Associate Librarian & Data Curation Specialist, UM Library
2/16/24
Michelle Fearon Scales, Camden Gowler, and Patrick Clay
(all working at the CDC!)
3/8/24
Mandy Izzo
Science Writer at the Gates Foundation
4/12/24
Tony Kolenic
Director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens & the Nichols Arboretum
