As Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Penn, Alain Plante spends much of his time in Hayden Hall—a red brick and terracotta building named for Ferdinand Hayden, a 19th-century geologist who was instrumental in establishing Yellowstone National Park. When Alain was invited to lead an alumni trip to Yellowstone, he says, “I really went down the rabbit hole.

Anton Ledesma (Master of Applied Positive Psychology `21) first encountered positive psychology as an undergraduate studying abroad in Copenhagen—which, he notes, has continuously been listed as one of the happiest cities. The experience “changed the way I looked at life and the way I wanted to pursue my studies,” he recalls.

When Adam Thiel (Master of Philosophy in Organizational Dynamics `25—expected) joined the Philadelphia Fire Department as the first non-Philadelphian Fire Commissioner since Benjamin Franklin, he wanted to spend his first few years immersed in the ins and outs of the city and its municipal organizations. Then he was ready to dedicate some time to educational pursuits. “I always need to be learning, or it’s like a piece of me is missing,” he explains.

After two decades of success in the pharmaceutical industry—in various customer-facing and business roles at Sanofi—Kelly Rebmann Shepperson (Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics ’22) was ready to pivot. While the vaccine company’s mission of prevention is deeply meaningful to her, she admits realizing that solving business problems was not her passion. “I love strategy and tactics; I'm good at those things,” she says, “But I like solving people and leadership problems a little bit better.”

By 2020, Ebighe Emafo (Master of Philosophy in Organizational Dynamics `22) had a portfolio of human resources initiatives that he was proud of. “Throughout my career, I always focused on trying to understand what the employee's expectations were, how we as an organization or team were meeting up with those expectations, and what we needed to do to close the gap between expectations and actual experience,” he says. “You can have the best strategy, the best technology, the best tools and resources, and every other organization can copy or improve upon that.

Adele Yang (Post-Baccalaureate Studies, University of Pennsylvania ’22) has always wanted to study neuropsychology—particularly neuropsychopharmocology. “50% of patients on antidepressant medication are treatment-resistant, and the side effects are terrible,” says Adele. “That’s ultimately why I decided on drug research rather than clinical psychology.