Academic Events

Leadership Through the Humanities: Professional Perspectives

One common way that humanities programs make the case for their importance is by pointing to the work they do to equip students with key skills, such as critical thinking, textual and visual analysis, and cultural competence, which will help them to succeed in a variety of careers after graduation. But how exactly does careful study of the humanities translate into better leadership practices? How transferable are the skills, habits, and wisdom gained from a humanities education to life in non-academic sectors? In this panel discussion, professionals from intelligence, medicine, and the civic sector will share their personal perspectives on how their humanities educations have informed and shaped their professional leadership journeys. They will discuss specific humanities artifacts – works of literature, art, songs, performances – that have had a significance impact on the way they have approached their leadership work in professional and personal contexts.

Their stories and conversation promise to be enlightening to:

  • Humanities undergraduate and graduate students, who will not only learn new ways to think and speak about their training, but may also imagine new possibilities for their future paths
  • Humanities faculty, who will be inspired to reimagine and redesign their work in the classroom as leadership trainers
  • Anyone who wishes to reflect more on the vitality of the humanities for the leadership development of everyone.

Speakers

Andrew Gilmour
Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship @Catholic University of America
Andrew Gilmour is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America. He previously served as a senior intelligence expert on the Near East, South Asia, and Islam over a 32-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency in a range of managerial and analytic positions. His languages include Persian, French, and ancient Greek. He holds degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins University. His most recent publication is A Middle East Primed for New Thinking: Insights and Policy Options from the Ancient World.

Dr. Nadia Hashimi
Pediatrician, Novelist
Dr. Nadia Hashimi is a pediatrician, an internationally bestselling author of novels for adults and acclaimed novels for children, and an advocate for women and children. Nadia graduated from Brandeis University with degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Biology. She studied medicine in Brooklyn, New York, and then completed her pediatric residency training at NYU and Bellevue hospitals before moving to Maryland with her husband. On days off from a busy emergency room and after years of avid reading, she began crafting stories that drew on her heritage and the complex experiences of Afghans. Her novels include The Pearl That Broke Its Shell (2014), When the Moon is Low (2016), A House Without Windows (2017), and Sparks Like Stars (2021). She was also the first Afghan American to run for Congress. She serves on the board of two non-profit organizations dedicated to education in Afghanistan.

Dr. Jeffrey Katra, DO, MA
Dr. Jeffrey Katra, DO, MA received undergraduate degrees in history and government from Georgetown University (COL ’05), a Master’s Degree in history from the University of Virginia where he studied the intersection of politics and science in America, and a medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Katra completed his Family Medicine training at Lower Bucks Hospital Family Medicine Residency in Bristol, PA. He subsequently completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at the University of Virginia. He is also a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in chronic pain, phobias, and addictive behaviors. Dr. Katra has certificates in psychopharmacology from the Neuroscience Education Institute as well as in cannabis medicine from the Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis & Hemp at Thomas Jefferson University.

Ashley Robison
Ashley Robison is a seasoned non-profit manager with thirteen years of experience in programming, project management, communications, and audience engagement. She graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a Bachelor’s in English (Writing) and Film Studies. Ashley earned her Master’s in Arts Administration at Indiana University. She currently works at Tulane University as the Associate Director, Global Programs in Alumni Relations. Ashley serves on the Board of Directors for Daughters Beyond Incarceration and the Young Professionals Ambassador’s Circle for The Roots of Music. She previously served on the Young Professionals Committee for the Innocence Project New Orleans for five years.

Susannah Wellford
Founder and President @Running Start
Susannah Wellford is the founder and president of Running Start, a nonpartisan organization which aims to inspire young women and girls to pursue political leadership. Running Start furthers the work begun by the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC), which Susannah cofounded in 1999 and led for five years. She is a globally recognized expert on women in politics, and she speaks frequently about the importance of inspiring more young women to enter politics. Susannah received her bachelor’s degree in English from Davidson College and her JD from the University of Virginia. Prior to law school, Susannah worked for Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Task Force in the Clinton White House. Before founding WUFPAC and Running Start, Susannah worked as a lobbyist for state and local governments, foreign governments, corporate entities and trade associations before Congress and the Executive Branch.

Mallory Monaco Caterine
Co-founder and co-executive director @Kallion Leadership, Inc.
The panel will be moderated by Mallory Monaco Caterine (COL ’07), co-founder and co-executive director of Kallion Leadership, Inc., and a Senior Professor of Practice in Classical Studies and Greenberg Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Tulane University. Mallory earned her PhD at Princeton University, writing a dissertation on the significance of the Hellenistic past in Plutarch’s Lives; her recent research has focused on the representations of tyrants and women’s leadership in Greek and Roman literature. Her goal as an educator is to help students make connections between the past, the present, the self, and the human community.