Your Advisers: Graduate Students & Postdocs

Dr. Joseph Barber is a Senior Associate Director at Career Services serving graduate students and postdocs.  He has a Ph.D. in animal behaviour from University of Oxford (UK), has previously worked as a Research Fellow at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and currently also teaches graduate students as an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College (CUNY).  Joseph enjoys thinking creatively to help people find and explore different career paths, and is always interested in hearing students and postdocs talk enthusiastically about their research.

Dr. Helen Pho advises graduate students and postdocs as Associate Director at Penn Career Services. Prior to joining Penn in 2017, Helen worked in a variety of roles: search consultant recruiting for higher education executive searches, director of the Freshman Scholars at Yale program, and assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Yale University. A first-generation college graduate, she holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in History from Yale. Helen enjoys brainstorming and strategizing with graduate students and postdocs as they explore and pursue meaningful careers. In her free time, she likes exploring different parts of Philly with her family and cheering for the 76ers.

Since 2015, Dianne has been a part of the Career Services team which advises graduate students and postdocs.  In addition to her advising responsibilities with students, Dianne coordinates the partnership between Career Services and Penn Carey Law’s Master in Law program.  Prior to joining the Career Services team, she worked in a variety of student advising roles as a part of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program at Bryn Mawr College, as well as in the Career Development Center at Saint Joseph’s University.  Dianne holds a graduate degree from Penn’s Graduate School of Education and an undergraduate degree from Lehigh University.  In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her family and cooking.

Marianne joined the Career Services team in fall 2015 providing career and internship guidance to undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences and now advises graduate students and postdocs.  She has worked at Penn since 2004, starting at the Wharton School where she was an academic advisor to undergraduate students and more recently, in their alumni relations office.  She graduated from Bowdoin College with a double major in Romance Languages and History, and earned her master’s degree in Higher Education Management from the Graduate School of Education at Penn.  She is an avid skier and enjoys traveling.

Kate Lawrence is an Administrative Coordinator at Career Services serving graduate students, postdocs, and the schools of Nursing, GSE, and SP2. She has an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington in Seattle. She has worked as the Visual Arts Program Coordinator at the Vermont Studio Center and as an exhibiting artist for over ten years. Always looking to engage and to grow, Kate works to build creative environments that support inquisitive thinking and inspired learning for students on any part of their journey.