Pathways Beyond the Lab – Leadership Skills for Success
Monday, May 4, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Location: E19-202
Lunch will be provided (with gluten free and vegetarian options).
Attending any or all of the three Pathways Beyond the Lab* workshops counts as a maximum of one workshop credit toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
* Leadership Skills for Success (May 4), Communication Skills for Success (May 12), Women in Pathways Outside of the Lab: A Panel (May 15)
The first of a 3-workshop series designed to explore skills and career pathways outside of the lab. This workshop focuses on leading effective teams, understanding your transferable skills and public speaking skills.
Anna Frebel is an astrophysicist, professor of physics and head of astrophysics at MIT, known for her work in observational stellar astrophysics with discoveries and spectroscopic analyses of the oldest, more metal-poor stars in the Milky Way and small dwarf galaxies. Alongside her scientific achievements, she is committed to expanding professional career development opportunities through MIT’s LEAP program where students learn to navigate both academic and career goals with more confidence, gain leadership competency, and strengthen skills needed to successfully navigate a career path.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Wednesday, April 8, 5pm – 7pm
Attend one or both parts. If you attended the previous Developing Charisma workshop, then you can attend this workshop but can’t count it toward GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Charisma: it’s not innate, it can be learned, and this workshop will show you how. Join us on April 8 for a two-part workshop that turns rigorous behavioral science into practical tools you can use immediately: on campus, in interviews, and online.
Part 1: The Science of First Impressions
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
This practical session gives you concrete, research-backed tools to make strong first impressions both in person and online. Drawing on social psychology and neuroscience, we break down:
You’ll learn what works and why. You’ll get a chance to try out the tools in the workshop, and learn how to adapt them to your own specific needs and objectives.
Part 2: The Science of Charisma
Long believed to be an innate trait, charisma has now been broken down by research into specific, observable behaviors. In controlled laboratory experiments, researchers were able to raise or lower a person’s level of charisma almost as if turning a dial.
In this session, you’ll learn:
Becoming more charismatic doesn’t mean changing your personality. It means adopting specific practices that work with the personality you already have, whether you’re speaking in a meeting, leading a group, or participating on Zoom.
What you’ll find here is practical magic: insight drawn from multiple sciences, combined with techniques you can use immediately.
This two-part workshop is designed for technical minds who want to maximize their impact. All MIT undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to take part in the whole workshop or to choose the part that best meets your needs.
Olivia Fox Cabane is a leading authority on the science of charisma and the bestselling author of The Charisma Myth and The Net And The Butterfly, translated into 36 languages.
Formerly Director of Innovative Leadership for Stanford StartX, she has lectured on charisma, leadership, and innovation at Harvard, Yale, MIT, the Marine War College, and the United Nations.
Her clients include founders of Airbnb, Brex, Paradigm, and Presight, as well as the leadership of Google, TikTok, Deloitte, UBS, and JP Morgan. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal.
As cofounder of the KindEarth.Tech Foundation, she supports foodtech companies advancing environmental sustainability.
Olivia is fluent in four languages and was the youngest person ever appointed Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Government.
Wednesday, April 8, 5pm – 7pm
Attend one or both parts. If you attended the previous Developing Charisma workshop, then you can attend this workshop but can’t count it toward GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Monday, April 6, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Hear from Kate, an industry leader, on how AI is changing the way teams work and how you can develop the habits, skills, and behaviors that will help you thrive in your future career.
Kate Bergeron is a Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple, where she leads teams responsible for the hardware design and delivery of many of the company’s most iconic products, including Airpods, Mac systems, iPad, and Apple Watch. With more than two decades at Apple, Kate’s work spans from early contributions to Mac notebooks to leading large, cross-functional engineering organizations that bring innovative hardware to market.
An MIT alumna with both a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, Kate also co-developed and co-taught Design for Scale through MIT’s D-Lab, helping students connect engineering creativity with real-world impact. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022, one of the highest professional honors in the field.
Kate brings a unique blend of technical depth, strategic leadership, and commitment to mentoring future engineers making her a powerful voice on how technical leaders can influence through clarity, vision, and effective communication.
Monday, April 6, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Thursday, January 29, 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Location: 56-154
Please register only if you can commit to attending. Space is limited. Snacks will be served.
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Feeling like you need to break out of the ivory tower? Want to learn skills for reaching out to your home town, state, or other community to share about problems that matter to you?
In this interactive workshop for MIT students and postdocs, taught by seasoned writer Martha Eddison (Special Assistant & Senior Communications Advisor to President Kornbluth), attendees will…
Sponsored by the MIT Communication Lab.
Martha Eddison has served since 2007 as the principal writer and a strategic communications advisor to three successive presidents of MIT – Susan Hockfield, Rafael Reif and now Sally Kornbluth. She began her speechwriting career in politics, heading the speech office of the late New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo. Later, while raising three young children, she spent nine years as a freelance writer, bringing wit, rigor, clarity and delight to fundraising and admissions materials for clients that included Brown, Harvard Medical School, MIT, Tufts, Williams and Yale. On behalf of the leaders she served, she has developed op-eds that were published by the Boston Globe, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Thursday, January 29, 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Location: 56-154
Please register only if you can commit to attending. Space is limited. Snacks will be served.
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Wednesday, April 1, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Storytelling isn’t fluff; it’s a cognitive tool that helps people understand, remember, and care about complex technical ideas. In this interactive workshop, students will learn why narrative activates more of the brain than facts alone, how great technical stories are structured, and how to craft clear, compelling explanations tailored to any audience. Through real examples and guided practice, participants will transform a technical concept from their own work into a two-minute story that is memorable, engaging, and strategically aligned with their goals as emerging engineering leaders.
Linda DuCharme is a seasoned engineering and business leader with nearly four decades of experience driving innovation and organizational excellence across global energy and technology operations. Over her 37-year career at ExxonMobil, she held a series of increasing leadership roles including President of ExxonMobil Global Services Company, President of ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions, and President of ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Company where she focused teams on developing and deploying transformative technological and digital solutions to address complex challenges.
A graduate of Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, Linda’s career spans engineering, project management, business development, and international leadership in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. Recognized for her impact on the profession, she was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2020 and has been a steadfast advocate for supporting engineering talent and diversity.
Narayan Nallicheri, PhD is an experienced strategy and leadership consultant whose career spans senior roles advising global organizations on complex business challenges and organizational performance. He has served as Managing Partner of the San Francisco office and Global Head of the Service Operations Consulting Practice at Booz & Company (now part of PWC) and Oliver Wyman, where he worked closely with executives across industries including financial services, technology and healthcare.
Narayan’s work blends deep analytical rigor with practical insight into how leaders can clarify purpose, communicate effectively, and guide teams through change. In this workshop, he brings that perspective to the art of storytelling for technical leaders showing how narrative can connect ideas to audiences, create shared understanding, and elevate the influence of technical work.
Wednesday, April 1, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Wednesday, March 11, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
What does it take to make the call on a product recall when patient safety is at stake?
In this interactive workshop, industry leaders from medical devices, pharma, and life sciences will walk you through how engineering teams escalate and evaluate risks, even when information is incomplete. Working in small groups with our guests, you’ll step into real-world recall scenarios, grapple with the trade-offs, and practice making tough decisions under uncertainty. Together, we’ll debrief the approaches and insights that shape engineering leadership in critical moments.
Karen Anigbo is a seasoned quality and product safety leader in the medical device and life sciences sector, with deep experience in complaints handling, field actions, and post-market risk management. At Johnson & Johnson, she served as Senior Manager for Complaints, Field Actions, and Post-Market, where she led cross-functional investigations into product issues, evaluated risk profiles, and helped guide decisions on corrective actions, including medical device product recalls. Her expertise in real-world response strategies that balance patient safety with technical risk is what she’ll bring to life for students in this workshop exploring how engineering leaders make tough, safety-critical calls.
Kim Soter is an accomplished quality leader, a former VP of Quality for Olympus Surgical and Quality & Compliance Director at Johnson & Johnson MedTech. With a career including leadership roles where she oversaw investigation and resolution of complex product issues, Kim has helped teams evaluate safety risks, engage cross-functional partners, and determine when field actions and recalls are necessary to protect patients and maintain regulatory compliance. Her practical experience navigating high-risk product quality challenges will give a front-row view into how engineering leaders make tough, risk-informed decisions that balance patient safety, technical integrity, and operational realities.
Wednesday, March 11, 5pm – 7pm
Location: 32-124
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Friday, February 20, 10am – 12pm
Location: 3-270
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Our relationships with research advisors and professional supervisors have a tremendous effect on our well-being and growth. This workshop will teach communication principles and skills to help you “manage up” your supervisors here at MIT and beyond, creating more positive, productive working relationships. Skills will include identifying the overlap between your interests and your advisor’s, advocating for your own needs, and optimizing your day-to-day interactions.
The workshop will be taught by Dr. Diana Chien and Dr. Jac Goldstein, Senior Program Manager and Instructional Designer of the School of Engineering Communication Lab.
Dr. Diana Chien has worked with the MIT Communication Lab since its launch in 2013, and became program director in the spring of 2017, following the departure of founder Jaime Goldstein. From 2013-2015, Diana was a Biological Engineering (BE) Communication Fellow, while she was a PhD student in the Microbiology graduate program. From 2016-2017, she led the BE Communication Lab and taught the communication curricula for BE’s two communication-intensive undergraduate courses. During that time, she also led the launch of the Communication Lab’s suite of online resources, the CommKit, which she co-designed with BE Communication Fellow alumnus Dr. Scott Olesen.
Diana’s dedication to science communication grows out of her longtime passion for both biology and writing: as an undergraduate at Princeton University, she majored in ecology and evolutionary biology and minored in creative writing. Her poetry has received awards from and been published in major literary magazines. She is thrilled to be able to combine her two passions through her work with the Communication Lab.
Dr. Jac Goldstein (she/her) is the Instructional Designer for the MIT School of Engineering Communication Lab, where she trains researchers in technical communication and peer-coaching best practices. She is particularly interested in using inclusive communication to foster scientific understanding and identity in higher education.
She has led training workshops for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Science Communication Trainers Network, SciCommCon, and the Inclusive SciComm Symposium. She is also a founder of SciCommBites, a research summary blog dedicated to digesting the latest research on science communication.
Dr. Goldstein holds a PhD in Astronomy, with a minor in Life Sciences Communication, from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She holds a BS in Physics from the University of California Santa Cruz.
Friday, February 20, 10am – 12pm
Location: 3-270
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Explore topics and issues related to building trust in a world shaped by AI
Led by David Niño, Brian Subirana, and Carlos Torres Vila. (Bios below.)
Grad students are welcome to register for either Jan. 22 or Jan. 29 or both.*
Undergrads are welcome to register only for Jan. 29.
*These workshops count toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership. (You must attend at least the first session on January 22 to receive credit.)
Leading Engineering AI and Trust
The central question is no longer only “Do we trust AI?” but, more broadly: “How does AI engineering leadership shape whether others—human or machine—trust us, our work, our organizations, and our brands?”
The Jan. 22 workshop will focus on the trustor:
David Niño and Brian Subirana will lead this workshop. Increasingly, this first question affects all of us—and it is a daunting one. The first workshop addresses it directly. How can we trust AI when it acts as the architect and engineer of record for an entire building? Or when it builds a full software component with thousands of lines of code? What does a meaningful code review look like in such contexts? We will explore how trust is created, led, and engineered in a world shaped by intelligent systems – one increasingly saturated with adversarial attacks and mediated, deepfake, and hallucinated content. Students will engage in interactive leadership activities to develop a practical framework for action, alongside exposure to AI engineering approaches to increase the trustworthiness of end-to-end generative AI applications.
The Jan. 29 workshop will focus on the trustee:
David Niño and Brian Subirana will lead this workshop, which will also feature Carlos Torres Vila (BS ’88, SM ’90), Chairman of BBVA, an $800B global financial group pioneering a large-scale AI transformation. Carlos is among—and very likely—the highest-ranking MIT alumni currently serving in CEO-level leadership within the global financial sector, and he will have just attended the World Economic Forum. As Chairman of BBVA, he recently signed a strategic AI partnership agreement with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. He will address the second question introduced above, offering an executive perspective on leading AI engineering efforts to build trust within and beyond his organization—and on what drives corporate leaders to entrust one AI provider rather than another with their AI engineering stack.
David Niño is a Senior Lecturer in MIT’s Daniel J. Riccio Graduate Engineering Leadership Program. He started the program with a single class and led its expansion into a portfolio of highly-rated academic offerings and a new graduate certificate in engineering leadership. His contributions were recognized with the School of Engineering’s Infinite Mile Award, and in 2022, the program secured a $10 million gift of support.
Niño has designed and delivered MIT leadership programs online to a global audience of more than 1,000 professionals annually, offered in multiple languages. Nationally, he has been a leading figure in the field, serving as Chair of the Engineering Leadership Development Division of the American Society of Engineering Education.
Before joining MIT, he was a Professor of the Practice at Rice University and an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his Ph.D., M.A., B.B.A., and B.A. degrees.
Brian Subirana is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at EADA Business School and a member of the faculty for MIT’s Designing and Building AI Products and Services course, which he conceived and developed. He holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
He has served on the faculty of the MIT School of Engineering, MIT Sloan and Harvard University. At MIT, he was also Director of the MIT Auto-ID Lab and the founding Director of the MIT–Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology. Before entering academia, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and he has since founded three startups.
Carlos Torres Vila is the current Chair of BBVA, a $800B global financial group pioneering a large-scale AI transformation.
Carlos graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Management from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he later also earned a M.S. at the MIT Sloan School of
Management. He also graduated in Law from UNED (Spain).
He was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he worked for 12 years. He joined Endesa in 2002
as Corporate Director of Strategy and member of its Executive Committee, and became company
CFO in 2007.
In September 2008, Carlos joined BBVA as Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, and
member of the bank’s Management Committee. In March 2014 he was appointed Head of Digital
Banking, until May 2015 when he became Chief Executive Officer of the bank.
Carlos was appointed Chair of BBVA and of the BBVA Foundation in December 2018.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
Location: Room 9-354
How do you get others to act on your ideas?
In this interactive GradEL workshop, you’ll learn and practice persuasive communication strategies that technical leaders use every day – whether it’s advocating for resources, influencing design decisions, or navigating tough conversations. Come ready to experiment with communication frameworks that will sharpen your ability to make your voice heard and your ideas stick.
This workshop offers a preview of the upcoming Spring GradEL course 6.S650 Persuasive Communication for Technical Leaders – giving you the chance to experience the skills in action and discover why you’ll want to master it next semester.
Leader:
Rachel Moore Best is passionate about translating skills, frameworks, and proven theory into actionable guidance for her students’ and clients’ current challenges. Her dynamic, hands-on approach to education has led her to teach in multiple arenas, including graduate-level negotiation courses for MIT, creative university programs, youth conferences, government agencies, and corporate audiences. Along with her work as an educator, Rachel is an experienced strategist and the founder of The Human Factor, a strategy firm focused on equipping organizations to negotiate the challenges of change within complex ecosystems. In this work, Rachel works with individuals from the executional level to the c-suite as they negotiate conflicting goals, organizational complexity, and human dynamics to close deals and form effective, sustainable teams. Her notable clients include Disney, NASA, and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Location: Room 32-144
As engineers, we are trained to think about physical systems, but technical leadership involves navigating complex social structures as well. In this workshop, we will explore how systems thinking tools can help leaders to integrate social and technical considerations, and support interdisciplinary collaboration and decision making with a particular focus on sustainability.
Leader:
Dr. Emily Moore is a leader in engineering education and leadership development, serving as the Director of the Troost Institute for Leadership Education (ILead) at the University of Toronto. Before joining U of T, Dr. Moore spent over two decades in industry, first at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada where she scaled lab innovations to manufacturing, and later at Hatch, where she held leadership roles including Director of Technology Development. As a Rhodes Scholar with a BEng in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University and a DPhil in Physical Chemistry from Oxford University, Dr. Moore combines technical depth with leadership insight. Her awards include being named one of “100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining” and receiving the SCI Canada Kalev Pugi Award, highlighting her commitment to equity and innovation in engineering.
Add this workshop to your calendar using the “Add to Calendar” link below. (That does not register you for the workshop. Use the above link to register.)
This workshop counts toward the requirements for GradEL’s Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.