Graduate School I: Making the Decision of When and Where

Liz Robinson A15, Magenta; Elayne Stecher A14, PhD Candidate, UCLA; Kelsi Stine-Rowe A10, F11, Wikimedia Foundation; Lumay Wang Murphy A11, Anheuser Busch
 

Elizabeth Robinson is the Asia Regional Lead at MAGENTA, a social and behavioral change research and communications firm. She has five years of experience in international development and humanitarian aid, including in Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Based in Jordan with frequent travel to Kabul, Elizabeth is fascinated by the challenge of education in fragile contexts, and is eager to tell you why she thinks grad school is overrated.

Elayne Stecher is a mixed methodological researcher with work experience in academia and the private sector. Her work combines qualitative study with quantitative analysis, particularly on topical matters related to illicit markets, organized armed groups and political violence. Elayne received her BA in International Relations and Arabic from Tufts University in 2014 and her MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago in 2019. She is currently enrolled at UCLA where she is pursuing a MA in Statistics and a PhD in Political Science. She is trilingual (English, Spanish, Arabic) and is currently focused on Mexico, although she has also conducted research on armed groups in Iraq, Kashmir, and Nigeria. Before matriculating at UCLA, Elayne was a market research consultant in Chicago and has continued her work on these projects as a contract consultant.

Kelsi Stine-Rowe is a passionate global professional with broad expertise in nonprofit program management, communications, and monitoring & evaluation. She currently works at the Wikimedia Foundation where she leads a global community outreach team working to make Wikipedia more inclusive and diverse. Prior to this role, Kelsi was a social impact research with Prof. Rosabeth Moss Kanter at Harvard Business School and led large monitoring & evaluation projects in Africa and the Middle East with Search for Common Ground. Lastly, Kelsi has worked for the last several years as a nonprofit leadership coach to social impact start ups and NGO leaders across the United States. Kelsi holds a masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and now lives in Seattle, WA.

Lumay Wang Murphy A11 is currently the Global Corporate Strategy Manager at Anheuser-Busch.  She earned her MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.