Beyond Academia:
Careers for PhDs in Behavioral & Brain Sciences
January 17, 2025
Panel 1: Nonprofit
Amy Goodwin Davies
Data Analytics Lead at CHOP
Previous Position: Graduate Student at Penn
Degree field: Linguistics
Best part of my current position: Emphasis on collaboration
Advice: (i) Conduct informational interviews to learn about professional opportunities and build your network. (ii) Develop your data analysis skills by contributing to non-academic projects (via community datathons, internships, personal side projects, etc). (iii) Take advantage of resources available at Penn, especially Career Services.
Contact: www.linkedin.com/in/amygoodwindavies/
Oren Gur
Director of DATA Lab, Director of Research, Policy Advisor, Philly DAO
Previous Position: Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State Abington
Degree field: Criminology, Law, and Justice
Best part of my current position: Working daily to directly improve the city where I was born and raised by providing information to decision-makers
Advice: There is an opportunity for a huge effect size when government use data and research more. Policy and practice are increasingly informed by data and research, and helping leverage local data and research to inform local policy and practice is both challenging and rewarding. A little data can go a long way.
Contact: Oren.gur@phila.gov, @orengur.bsky.social
Rich Bollinger
Senior Program Officer at John Templeton Foundation
Previous Position: Director of Psychotherapy Services at the Outpatient Psychiatry Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Degree field: Clinical Psychology
Best part of my current position: Seeing project ideas from around the world and working with applicants as they advance through the proposal review process.
Advice: Read widely. Learn to clearly articulate how your discipline/expertise connects to real world issues. Build relationships with colleagues outside of your discipline.
Contact: rbollinger@templeton.org
Panel 2: Industry
Lisa Bromberg
Senior Learning Design Manager at Duolingo
Previous Position: Assistant Director of Outreach at the Global Studies Center @ University of Pittsburgh
Degree field: French PhD
Best part of my current position: Working with fun, smart, interesting people to solve interesting problems and build awesome stuff
Advice: learn the language of the job/industry/field you want to join; if your hiring committee perceives that you speak their language, they’ll see you right away as a potential colleague
Contact:lisa@duolingo.com
Rebecca Nappa
Senior Data Scientist at Amazon
Previous Position: User Research Intern, Pearson Education
Degree field: Psychology
Best part of my current position: The pace, the impact, the ability to innovate, but most of all the colleagues!
Advice: When job-hunting, choose a company, product, or field that you can get (at least a little!) excited about and push towards that as your goal – you may wind up very far afield, but the whole process will be faster and more pleasant if you have good answers to the questions “What kind of job are you looking for?” and “Why?” Also, don’t be shy, use any connection you have and make new ones wherever you can! They’re the best way to learn about organizations and opportunities, and no one will find it strange if you reach out to them just because you both went to the same high school or have a random mutual acquaintance.
Contact: nappattack@gmail.com
Emma Satlof-Bedrick
Senior UX Researcher at Comcast
Previous Positions: Director of Research, Character Lab
Degree field: Psychology
Best part of my current position: The flexibility! I mean this both in terms of getting to use lots of different research methods, but also in terms of the balance with the rest of my life outside of work.
Advice: Revamp your resume to frame your academic research in UX terms. You don’t need any additional training or certifications, you have more than enough knowledge, you just need to frame it in words hiring managers and AI resume readers can catch.
Contact: satlof.bedrick@gmail.com