Nicole Ostrowski is Executive Director of Strategy and Operations at Longitude Rx, where she supports executive leadership in advancing strategic initiatives, operational processes, and organizational effectiveness. Her career has combined technical research training with strategy and operations leadership, building on the research foundation she developed through MCSI and at Pitt. Ostrowski earned her PhD in Bioengineering from Pitt in 2016.
In her own words:
I worked with MCSI during undergrad. I stayed in Pitt for my PhD, shifting to the Bioengineering department to focus on biomaterials for hard tissue applications. During that time, I became interested in management consulting. After defending, I joined an internal consulting team at Arconic. I spent a little over two years with that team before transitioning to a similar team at Highmark Health, where I am currently working.
MCSI was the springboard for how I learned about academic research and became interested in graduate school. Through one of the summer research programs I was able to travel to Brazil and became more comfortable with traveling for a professional purpose.
Finally, working with students and professors at MCSI demonstrated to me that there is a whole group of professionals who are focused on improving the world as their career, not just getting a paycheck. I think that's important for people in younger generations to see!