Nicole 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!