Elevating Graduate Student Success: Summiting Peaks of Excellence

Dr. Melissa Cefkin (Ph.D. Rice University) is an anthropologist, consultant, researcher and educator with decades of experience applying human-centered expertise to technology and organizational design. She has recruited, hired, and developed people into multi-disciplinary teams and labs across several companies, and taught and mentored students in undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. programs nationally.  As an anthropologist, she has worked alongside software engineers, modelers, and computer scientists in the development of autonomous vehicles, focusing particularly on the social, ethical, and interactional dimensions of their design and operation. Within the broader frame of the ethnographic study of organizations and product and service development, she brings expertise in labor and organizational life, including work practice studies and the development and deployment of enterprise work technologies and systems.

Dr. Cefkin has held leadership positions at Waymo, Nissan-Renault, IBM Research-Almaden, Sapient, and the Institute for Research on Learning. She is currently a Lecturer in General Engineering at Santa Clara University.  A Fulbright grantee, she helped establish and grow the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (now, epicpeople.org and has served on task forces and committees for the National Science Foundation and the National Academies of Science. 

Karen P. DePauw is Vice President Emerita and Dean Emerita for Graduate Education and tenured Professor of Sociology and Human Nutrition, Foods & Exercise at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her major accomplishments during her tenure include building a strong, diverse and inclusive graduate community; establishing the national award-winning innovative Graduate Life Center (GLC); and implementing the signature academic initiative known as Transformative Graduate Education (TGE), including the global perspectives and preparing the future professoriate programs. 

DePauw has held several leadership roles in graduate education including President of the Council of Southern Graduate Schools (CSGS), and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). She is the inaugural recipient of the CGS Stewart Leadership Award for Graduate Education. 

Dr. DePauw is an internationally recognized scholar in kinesiology. Her scholarship has focused on inclusion, ableism, social construction of body, ability and disability, and disability sport. Throughout her academic career, she has served in leadership positions for national and international associations and recognized with numerous honors and awards.

Dr. DePauw earned the A.B. in Sociology from Whittier College, M.S. in Special Education from California State University, Long Beach, and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from Texas Woman’s University. Prior to her employment at Virginia Tech, she taught with the Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County Schools and held faculty and administrative positions at California State University – Los Angeles and Washington State University.

Suzanne Ortega became the sixth President of the Council of Graduate Schools on July 1, 2014. Prior to assuming her current position, she served as the University of North Carolina (UNC) Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (2011–14). Previous appointments include the Executive Vice President and Provost at the University of New Mexico (UNM),Vice Provost and Graduate Dean at the University of Washington (UW), and the University of Missouri (MU). Dr. Ortega's masters and doctoral degrees in sociology were completed at Vanderbilt University.

With primary research interests in mental health epidemiology, health services, race and ethnic relations, and graduate education, Dr. Ortega is the author or co-author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and an introductory sociology text, now in its 9th edition. An award-winning teacher, Dr.Ortega has also served on review panels for National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health and has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on grants totaling more than $11 million in private foundation and federal funds. Dr. Ortega serves, or has served, on a number of professional association boards and committees,including the boards of the Councilof Graduate Schools, the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), the National Academies Committees on the Assessment of the Research Doctorate and Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, the NSF Human Resources Expert Panel and Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee, the North Carolina E-learning Commission, and the UNC, UNM, and UW Presses. She currently is a member of the Board of Trustees of American University in the Emirates

Tara Schwegler is an anthropologist, research leader, and educator committed to bridging the gap between the academic and private sector. After beginning her career as a Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, she pivoted to the private sector, where she has held leadership positions at Meta and USAA. As Co-Founder and Director of Research of RedSquared Consulting, she led customer experience strategy and professional development initiatives for over 30 companies, including the City of San Antonio, the American Automobile Association (AAA), and Northwestern Mutual. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she teaches courses on design thinking, leadership, the history of work, and the anthropology of food.

Tara is a passionate advocate for women in leadership, and she is a highly sought after speaker whose credits include TEDx. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, her writing on higher education and leadership have been featured in the Chicago Tribune, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Inside Higher Ed. A recent Alumni-in-Residence at the University of Chicago, she actively mentors undergraduate and graduate students on leadership and career development.

Tara earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

L. Maren Wood, Ph.D. is CEO and Director of the Center for Graduate Career Success, a mission-driven organization that partners with universities to prepare master’s and doctoral students for career success. The Center provides digital training platforms (Beyond the Professoriate and Beyond Graduate School) through which graduate students explore career options and learn job search strategies. Today, the Center partners with over 60 universities in the United States and Canada to scale career support for graduate students.

Since 2012, Dr. Wood has dedicated her career to supporting universities in preparing graduate students and Ph.D.s for meaningful careers in academia and beyond. Her expertise has been featured in Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and peer-reviewed books. She also serves as an external advisor on committees such as the Council of Graduate Schools Humanities Advisory Committee and the ETS Graduate Education Advisory Council, and is regularly sought as a keynote speaker.