Tufts Gordon Institute Annual Report 2025

TGI Report 2025

welcome

Dear TGI Community, These last few years have been a wild time for our world—challenging, energizing, and full of moments that force all of us to rethink what leadership really means.

The world often feels noisy and polarized. New technologies emerge faster than we can agree on the rules for using them. AI, gene editing, quantum breakthroughs—each one carries the potential to unsettle lives and to improve them. The tools don’t determine the future. People do.

And that is where our work at Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI) matters most.

We can’t predict the exact roles our students will hold or the problems they will inherit. But we can prepare them to become the kind of leaders who bring a human-centered understanding to complex situations—leaders who stay curious, see clearly, listen deeply, and act with confidence and compassion even when the path forward is ambiguous.

Across our programs—from high school through executive education—we create space for students to wrestle with real challenges. We ask them to see the world with fresh eyes, to deeply understand the people they hope to serve, and to pair that understanding with the business and technical skills needed to design solutions that are strategic, scalable, and investable.

Our faculty bring years of industry experience, and they engage students through genuine dialogue rather than just one-directional lectures. They ask hard questions. They invite debate. They help students test ideas in the open until they trust their own judgment. And in that environment, students form close-knit communities—teams that build together, stumble together, and ultimately find the conviction to keep going.

What makes this place special is how the community continues long after graduation. Our alumni and friends help with advice, opportunities, mentorship, and philanthropy. They show, in practical ways, what it means to be part of a caring community for life.

In times like these—dynamic, unsettled, full of both uncertainty and possibility—I count myself lucky to be at Tufts, working with our community to foster leaders for a better world. It has been a remarkable year; the stories that follow are only a small sample of our impact. Thank you for the role you’ve played in strengthening this community and in preparing us all for what comes next.

With gratitude, Kevin Oye Executive Director, Tufts Gordon Institute; Professor of the Practice; Director, MS in Innovation & Management

Who We Are Today

130+ PRE-COLLEGE STUDENTS SERVED

The world needs leaders who think across boundaries, act with courage, and lead with authentic purpose.

At Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI), business acumen meets technical expertise meets human insight as we ignite these leaders. Students build leadership skills by working in teams on practical challenges with real companies, nonprofits, and communities.

They learn by questioning assumptions, testing new approaches, and refining solutions in real time. When the challenges are authentic, lessons take hold quickly—transforming both students and the organizations they serve.

Today, we develop 2,100+ leaders annually through an integrated ecosystem of academic and co-curricular programming. Pre-college students discovering potential. Undergraduates exploring entrepreneurial thinking and business acumen.

Graduate students launching ventures and transforming organizations. Alumni expanding their impact.

This happens within a community where mentorship flows in all directions.

Undergraduate and graduate students mentoring high school teams. Alumni guiding current students. Faculty investing in students’ intellectual and personal growth.

Industry partners bringing real challenges. Everyone teaches, everyone learns, everyone drives meaningful impact.

Our Success Formula: Fostering Leaders for a Better World

Think Strategically

Act Decisively

Lead With Purpose

Meaningful Impact

When these three dimensions work together, they multiply each other’s power.

Strategic thinking amplifies action. Decisive action brings strategies to life. Leading with purpose ensures both create lasting change.

1850+ UNDERGRADUATE COURSE ENROLLMENTS

220+ UNDERGRADUATE MINORS AWARDED

280+ GRADUATE STUDENTS ENROLLED

70+ GRADUATE DEGREES AWARDED

3000+ PARTICIPANTS AT TGI EVENTS

our story

2025

By The Numbers

programs & impact

TGI Impact in Action Students don’t just learn leadership—they practice it.

Here’s what that looks like across every stage of the journey.

Pre-College

Undergraduate

Graduate

Alumni

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Bootcamp

Business, Management, and Leadership Minor (BML)

MS in Engineering Management (MSEM)

Competitions and Accelerators

Business Essentials

Engineering Management Minor (EM)

MS in Innovation & Management (MSIM)

Executive Workshops

Entrepreneurship Minor (ENT)

MS in Technology Management & Leadership (MSTML)

Marketing Essentials

Entrepreneurship for Social Impact Minor (ESI) Individual Courses

Certificate in Technology Management & Leadership (CTML)

Serving as Mentors and Coaches Speaking and Facilitating Student Internships

Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research and Derby Entrepreneurship Center

TGI ECOSYSTEM

Julia Giatrelis Undergraduate Founder to Marketing Leader As a Tufts undergraduate, Julia Giatrelis (A24, Entrepreneurship Minor, MSIM ‘25) launched GlutenFreedomForAll—a growing gluten-free snack company now serving major hospitality and corporate clients across the country—in response to her own challenges with gluten sensitivity.

She was deeply active in Derby Entrepreneurship Center programming and the Entrepreneurship Minor throughout her undergraduate career. Through one to one coaching, participating in competitions and more, she developed the entrepreneurial mindset and skillset to turn a personal challenge into a scalable solution.

Having completed her MS in Innovation and Management degree, Julia now works as a Product Marketing Associate at CarGurus. She exemplifies how TGI’s integrated ecosystem works: undergraduate entrepreneurship education, enriched by mentorship and cocurricular programming, led her to create a new venture. Graduate study then built advanced innovation and business leadership skills.

Today, she brings both to her role in product marketing leadership.

Pre-College

Undergraduate

Graduate

Alumni

Pre-College Impact 130+ Students Served

Natalia & Osinachi Coaching the Next Generation Natalia Cedeño (MSIM ‘25) and Osinachi Atama (E27) coached high school students through TGI’s pre-college programs and discovered that teaching accelerated their own learning.

In Business Essentials, Osinachi helped students explore business concepts through a hands-on project selling products on campus. Students set prices, negotiated sales, and made business decisions. Guiding students through real-world choices deepened her understanding—”the best way to learn something is to teach it,” she reflected. She shared fintech innovation examples from Nigeria, showing how business principles operate globally.

In the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Bootcamp, Natalia coached students on market research—running interviews, turning observations into insights, and pitching business ideas created in two weeks. Demonstrating that teaching others is often the best way to deepen one’s own skills, Natalia deepened her own customer interviewing and discovery skills by coaching the pre-college students to go out and talk to humans to find the insights for their ventures. Natalia has gone on to help launch Mosaic Minds, an ed-tech startup launched by Saumya Mehta (A24, Entrepreneurship Minor, MSIM ‘25), where she teaches design thinking for product innovation.

Our Pre-College Programs Entrepreneurship & Innovation Bootcamp

Business Essentials

Marketing Essentials

Develops entrepreneurial thinking through opportunity identification, ideation, customer discovery, business model development and pitching.

Builds foundational business skills by running a complete business from production to sales through experiential learning.

Introduces marketing fundamentals through handson projects. Students create comprehensive marketing campaigns for real products.

programs & impact

Pre-College

Undergraduate

Graduate

Alumni

Undergraduate Impact 220+ Undergraduate Minors Awarded ■ 1850+ Undergraduate Course Enrollments

Varin “Prue” Wongpunlert Turning Classroom Learning into a Real-World Side Hustle

Prue Wongpunlert (A25, Entrepreneurship Minor) didn’t set out to start a company when she first enrolled in entrepreneurship courses as a sophomore. In classes like Entrepreneurship and Business Planning, she learned the foundations of entrepreneurship—how to identify opportunities, evaluate markets, differentiate a venture, and understand the financial, marketing, and operational frameworks behind new businesses.

By senior year, Prue and her teammates—Aaliyah “Aiko” Sutatham (A25), Karintra “Moya” Techakalayatum (A25), and Wongsapat “Beam” Sereeyothin (E25)— decided to put that learning into practice by reimagining a cookie business Aiko had previously run in Thailand. In the Entrepreneurial Field Study course, they launched Crumbs Corner, a small-batch cookie venture introducing East Asian dessert flavors like matcha mochi and Thai tea in a familiar American cookie format.

Over the semester, the team developed recipes, sold cookies at the Tufts Consumer Product Fair, and built a system to take and fulfill orders—ultimately selling over $1,000 worth of cookies while gaining hands-on experience across the business. To celebrate their success, the team presented their instructor, Elaine Chen, with a special dessert. See photo above—from left: Beam, Prue, Elaine, Aiko, and Moya.

Starting her career in technology consulting, Prue applies the entrepreneurial mindset, analytical rigor, and creativity she developed at Tufts and through Crumbs Corner to help organizations navigate technology-driven change.

Carlos Pulido Escalante Where Seconds Save Lives Carlos Pulido Escalante (A25, Engineering Management Minor) dreams of building medical devices that improve patient care. To prepare, he strengthened his Engineering Psychology degree with the Engineering Management Minor—and discovered something unexpected: the concepts he learned in class were already transforming his life at Tufts.

As captain of his dance team, Encendido, and as a project coordinator for the Tufts Human Factors Lab, while still a student, Carlos immediately applied lessons from Engineering Leadership. “The course helped me understand how to communicate more effectively, how to receive feedback, and how to incorporate that feedback into my actions,” he shared. The classroom material wasn’t just theory—it was happening to him in real time.

Carlos parlayed his undergraduate work as a Research Engineering Technician at Mass General Brigham Hospital into his current role at the hospital as an Emergency Department Supply Technician, a key step toward a career in hospital administration and management. In the high-pressure, fast-paced ER, he draws on his EM minor to make rapid assessments, communicate incisively, and efficiently manage supplies that keep the doctors and nurses delivering critical care.

“Any insight or information you can share in a matter of seconds can make a real difference—it can save a life,” Carlos reflected. “I’ve been able to resolve situations efficiently and confidently, ensuring patient care remained uninterrupted. That’s the value of applying these skills in real-world scenarios.”

Our Undergraduate Minors Business, Management, & Leadership (BML)

Engineering Management (EM)

Cultivates character alongside business acumen.

Students integrate personal discovery with professional development, building self-awareness and leadership skills that serve them throughout their careers.

Develops students’ ability to lead in technical contexts.

Students learn to guide teams, manage complex projects, and drive innovation where engineering meets human insight.

Entrepreneurship (ENT)

Entrepreneurship for Social Impact (ESI)

Empowers students to transform ideas into action.

Students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset to identify opportunities, design solutions, and create meaningful change in any organization or field.

Combines civic engagement with entrepreneurial action. Students learn to build sustainable solutions to societal challenges while creating meaningful change in the communities they serve.

programs & impact

Pre-College

Undergraduate

Graduate

Alumni

Graduate Impact 70+ Graduate Degrees Awarded ■ 280+ Graduate Students Enrolled

Meghan Davis & Sebastián Useche From Silk Research to Wound Care and Biobanks

Meghan Davis (E23, MSIM ‘24) and Sebastián Useche (MSIM ‘24) met in the MSIM program, where they conceived and launched SilkMed, a startup built on Professor David Kaplan’s research to create a spray-on wound dressing for severe burns. They entered the Tufts New Ventures Competition (then known as the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition) through the Derby Entrepreneurship Center and loved building SilkMed together, even as they chose different paths after Tufts.

Meghan spent the summer at the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and was invited to stay on as Senior Program Associate for Scientific Innovation and Strategic Investments. She now brings her biomedical engineering background and MSIM training to strategic projects, including the first disease-specific, accessible biobank drawing on diverse patient populations across Massachusetts—work that connects breakthrough science with the opportunity to transform patient care.

Sebastián kept driving SilkMed forward, joining the Derby Entrepreneurship Center’s Tufts Venture Accelerator and recruiting Zach DiMuccio (MSIM ‘25) to the team. Together, they have secured more than $120k in grant funding from VentureWell, NSF I-Corps, and others.

Meghan, Sebastián, and Zach are great examples of how TGI’s graduate programs and co-curricular ecosystem help students and alumni chart their own unique paths as leaders.

Our Graduate Programs MS in Engineering Management (MSEM) Develops scientists and engineers into technology leaders and problem solvers.

Addresses the strategic, operational, and organizational challenges faced by businesses and institutions.

Kevin Kim Turning a Layoff Into a Dream Leadership Role When Kevin Kim (E19, MSEM ‘25) was laid off, he didn’t panic—he reached out.

“The first person I called was Sam Liggero,” Kevin said. His academic advisor and the MSEM Academic Director helped him navigate the transition while Kevin tapped the wider TGI network for referrals, resume feedback, and support.

Kevin’s connections opened doors, but the MSEM program’s focus on leadership and strategic thinking helped him walk through them with confidence. In a final-round interview with a VP of Engineering, he was asked about the most important aspect of leadership. “The night before, I had just finished a homework assignment for Jane Seminara’s Practice of Ethical Leadership course where I talked about how great leaders need empathy,” he says. “I knew my answer right away.”

“I had always been thinking as an individual contributor,” he shares. “But after my MSEM courses, I began thinking strategically: ‘How does my work impact this company? How does the company’s mission help bring about a better world?’”

After hours of back-to-back meetings with leaders across the organization, Kevin landed the role of Product Design Engineer II—turning a layoff into a launching pad for the next stage of his career as an engineering leader. His advice: “Have confidence in yourself! Understand that whoever hires you sees something in you. Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to lean on your community.”

MS in Innovation & Management (MSIM) Develops leaders fluent in business, technology, and innovation. Built around venture creation to become bold, curious, action-oriented leaders who step into roles in startups and existing organizations.

MS in Technology, Management, & Leadership (MSTML) Develops human-centered leaders at the intersection of technology and business. For tech professionals ready to shape products, lead teams, and drive digital transformation.

programs & impact

Arvind Parthasarathy From India to Texas Instruments

Arvind Parthasarathy (MSEM ‘25) came to Tufts from Manipal Institute of Technology in India with a BTech in Electronics and Instrumentation and a clear goal: bridge his technical expertise with business leadership skills. The MSEM program offered exactly that intersection.

Just one year into the program, Arvind landed a Product Marketing Engineer internship at Texas Instruments in Dallas, working with the Digital Light Processing team on technology powering everything from cinema projectors to medical devices.

The opportunity was exciting—and intense. He was assigned three major projects simultaneously: developing a go-to-market strategy for a new application, evaluating product portfolio decisions, and analyzing customer loyalty to legacy technology.

“It’s been like drinking from a fire hose,” Arvind shares, “but I have been well conditioned for it!”

That conditioning came directly from his MSEM coursework. For the go-to-market project, he’s applying the RWW framework (Real, Win, Worth It) and the New Product Development process he learned in class. The portfolio evaluation project draws on customer needs analysis and strategic decision-making concepts. And the legacy chipset analysis? “This is a practical application of S-curve analysis and resource optimization concepts from the TGI program,” he explains.

What makes these connections powerful isn’t just that the concepts are relevant— it’s that Arvind can name exactly which frameworks apply to which challenges. The MSEM program didn’t just teach theory; it gave him a practical toolkit he’s using immediately in a real-world setting at one of technology’s most iconic companies.

Arvind’s advice for international students navigating today’s job market? “Build genuine connections and never hesitate to reach out. Sometimes, a single conversation can open doors you never expected.” For him, those doors led to Texas Instruments.

Pre-College

Undergraduate

Graduate

Alumni

Alumni Impact 400+ Alumni Engaged Across Programs

Alex Rappaport Clean Water Innovation and Giving Back When MSIM and MSEM students visit ZwitterCo, they see what’s possible when TGI education meets real-world opportunity. Alex Rappaport (E17, Entrepreneurship Minor, then known as the Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies Minor, MSIM ‘18), now CEO of the 60+ person cleantech company, regularly hosts students to show them what building and scaling a venture actually looks like.

Alex’s own breakthrough came through MSIM connections to Professor Ayse Asatekin’s revolutionary water filtration technology. The program gave him the business foundation to license the technology and launch ZwitterCo, which earned early validation through the Tufts New Ventures Competition, then known as the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition.

Today, ZwitterCo serves customers in more than 20 countries, treating millions of gallons of wastewater daily leveraging breakthrough zwitterionic membranes, overcoming long-standing limitations with conventional filtration.

When students visit, they see the complete journey: from Tufts classroom to licensed technology to global cleantech leader giving back to the next generation.

Mentor Matching Building Leaders Through Connection At TGI, mentoring is central to accelerating a student’s professional journey. Given how the best mentorships are rooted in personal chemistry between mentor and mentee, each fall, every first-year full-time graduate student—69 this fall—is matched with an alumni mentor for bi-weekly meetings in the spring.

Over 50 alumni volunteer as mentors, and matches are made after a high-energy fall “speed dating” event where students met ten alumni for ten minutes each, and then mentors and mentees rank ordered their best matches.

Because all our mentors are active in the industry, they share real-time insights, open their networks, and cheer students on as they move from grad school to full-time roles. Paget Stanco (A16, Entrepreneurship Minor, then known as the Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies Minor, MSIM ‘17) calls her mentoring experience “transformative,” crediting her mentors with guidance she still uses today—and she has come back as a TGI mentor herself.

our centers

Derby Entrepreneurship Center Building Entrepreneurial Leaders

1250+

Derby Entrepreneurship Center helps students, alumni, and the Tufts community develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset through hands-on learning experiences, and student grants and prizes to transform ideas into action.

COURSE ENROLLMENTS ACROSS ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS

157 MINOR GRADUATES EQUIPPED WITH ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPABILITIES

23 Academic Programs

Community

Our Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship for Social Impact minors and courses serve 800+ students annually.

Our 60+ events create innovative learning experiences and opportunities for making meaningful connections.

STUDENTS RECEIVED OVER $38,000 IN SMALL GRANTS

9 STUDENTS RECEIVED ENTREPRENEURIAL INTERNSHIP GRANTS FOR THE SUMMER

70+ TEAMS APPLIED TO PITCH COMPETITIONS

Competitions, Prizes, and Grant Funding

Tufts Venture Accelerator

We award over $300,000 in competitions, prizes, internships, and small grants each year.

Our 10-week intensive summer program transforms founders.

8 VENTURES PARTICIPATED IN THE TUFTS VENTURE ACCELERATOR

Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research Fostering Transdisciplinary Innovation

21

The Auster Center supports Tufts researchers in transforming research into innovations by fostering transdisciplinary collaboration, providing training, and engaging students in the applied business and research development enterprise.

NSF I-CORPS |NFO SESSIONS HELD

36 I-CORPS OUTREACH ACTIVITIES CONNECTING RESEARCH WITH COMMERCIALIZATION

14 Transdisciplinary Innovation

Student Engagement

We foster industry research partnerships, university-wide innovation initiatives, and Auster Faculty Fellows who serve as ambassadors of innovation.

Our programs—including Undergraduate and Graduate Summer Fellows, Tisch College Research Fellowship, and Technology Commercialization Internship—give students handson experience in innovation and commercialization.

Training and Research

Grants

We deliver NSF I-Corps training, conduct collaborative research with faculty on applied innovation, and support applicants to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Technology Transfer (STTR), and Translation to Practice (TTP) programs.

We provide interdisciplinary innovation grants for the Tufts Launchpad Accelerator and the Innovate2Impact programs, in partnership with Tufts Technology Commercialization and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, respectively.

TEAMS TRAINED IN NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL I-CORPS

2 TEAMS ADVANCED TO NATIONAL I-CORPS PROGRAM

$34k IN UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

$50k IN APPLIED RESEARCH AND INNOVATION GRANTS

our centers

AUSTER CENTER

Innovate2Impact Where Medical Research Meets Market Reality When researchers at Tufts Medical School develop breakthrough health innovations, they face a common challenge: How do you move from laboratory success to patient impact?

That’s why the Clinical & Translational Science Institute partnered with TGI’s Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research to create Innovate2Impact—a program that connects medical researchers with the commercialization expertise, industry networks, and funding needed to bring health innovations to market.

CTSI brought clinical and translational research expertise from Tufts Medical School. The Auster Center contributed technology commercialization expertise, NSF I-Corps training, and connections to industry partners and investors. Together, they built a complete pathway from early concept to funded venture.

The program launched with an Innovation Expo where researchers showcased innovations and received feedback from industry experts and clinical specialists. Finalists competed for up to $50K in funding, followed by six months of customized mentorship.

AUSTER CENTER

NSF I-Corps Hub Advancing Innovation to National Stage In 2025, TGI became a founding member of the NSF I-Corps New England Hub—an eight-university consortium funded by the National Science Foundation to catalyze and accelerate the translation and commercialization of federally funded research into societal impact, whether it be through launching startups, licensing technologies, or open sourcing the research. Being part of the founding New England Hub extends TGI’s reach beyond the schools and colleges at the university, creating a rich collaborative technology community across the New England Region.

This year alone, the Auster Center trained 14 teams with 30 individuals through the New England regional program. One standout success was Kofimi, a faculty‑led venture that advanced to the prestigious National I‑Corps program.

Dr. Valencia Koomson, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded Kofimi to launch a new bias-free pulse oximeter medical device. Through TGI’s integrated ecosystem, the venture won the prestigious Stephen and Geraldine Ricci Interdisciplinary Prize at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center’s Tufts New Ventures Competition.

With this momentum, Kofimi advanced to the National NSF I‑Corps program, where Professor Koomson and her team conducted intensive customer discovery and refined their commercialization strategy. The venture exemplifies how TGI supports innovation across the entire university—from student startups to faculty‑led research.

industry partnerships

Industry Partnerships That Create Impact 150+ Companies Engaged Across Programs

TGI connects students with real-world challenges through partnerships across sectors—from Fortune 500 companies to startups, nonprofit organizations, and Tufts research labs.

In the Classroom

Across Campus

Beyond the Classroom

Every year, more than 40 companies partner with our marketing, sales, and consulting practicum courses. Students tackle real business challenges, designing strategies and solutions. This hands-on work pushes them to think strategically and prepares them to step confidently into industry roles.

TGI partnerships connect students with Tufts researchers across campus, in engineering, data science, and life sciences— pairing innovation and entrepreneurial student talent with research projects to advance commercialization while giving students hands-on experience with cutting-edge work.

Industry leaders join our advisory boards to provide strategic guidance, offer internship and employment opportunities, and serve as judges, mentors, and coaches.

They also collaborate on joint research projects that pull in expertise from across Tufts to target industry challenges.

Entegris Turning Unused Data Into Development Insights Entegris, a leading supplier of advanced materials and process solutions for the semiconductor, life sciences, and other high-tech industries, needed to transform unused experimental data into actionable insights that could improve new product development efforts.

TGI’s Auster Center brought together the essential elements: Entegris engineers who understood their experimental designs, faculty research leadership from Abani Patra (Director, Tufts Data Intensive Studies Center), and graduate students working hands-on with industrial-scale data.

This collaboration created value for all stakeholders: The Tufts Data Intensive Studies Center gained insight into the front-line challenges of today’s semiconductor industry.

Entegris gained actionable insights for improving data analysis and design of experiments. Data that had been collected became a strategic asset for their global new product development process.

Students gained hands-on experience with industrial data challenges at a global company—the kind of project that leads to internships and post-graduation employment.

TGI demonstrated a partnership model where companies bring real challenges, faculty bring expertise, and students gain career-launching experience. Everyone benefits and drives impact.

our faculty

Recognizing Faculty Impact 50+ Faculty Members

Sam Liggero Excellence in Online Teaching Award Recognized for his use of technology that has had a markedly positive impact on student learning, Sam has developed online courses emphasizing student interaction and synchronous collaboration. As MSTML student Alexandra Richer shares: “The experience I had in this online program fundamentally changed the way I see the world and the way I see myself.”

Jane Seminara Excellence in Online Teaching Award (Honorable Mention) Honored for teaching the Practice of Ethical Leadership course that creates a forum for thought-provoking and honest discussion, both online and in-person. Students describe how Jane “fosters a safe environment where people feel comfortable to express their opinions, even during conversations about difficult or uncomfortable subject matter,” to help them each discover their own truths, their own sense of purpose, and values, essential for becoming human-centered leaders for the future.

Jack Derby Faculty Teaching and Mentorship Award Recognized for his continued commitment to student success both during and after their time at Tufts, helping to foster an ever-growing network of entrepreneurial thinkers. As MSIM alumna Julia Giatrelis shares: “Jack has been an invaluable part of my Tufts journey. His immense knowledge as a professor and unwavering support as a mentor are qualities I will always carry with me. I truly would not be who I am today without him.”

We’re fortunate to have world-class experts and industry practitioners who join our team to teach and guide the next generation of leaders out of a common love for our students.

This year, Tufts University’s School of Engineering and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences recognized several TGI faculty for exceptional teaching contributions, particularly noteworthy for acknowledging the impact they all have had on transforming their students.

Leadership Team Kevin Oye Executive Director, Tufts Gordon Institute; Professor of the Practice; Director, MSIM

Elaine Chen Director, Derby Entrepreneurship Center; Cummings Family Professor of the Practice in Entrepreneurship

Filip Čučkov Director, Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research; Auster Professor of the Practice of Applied Innovation

Samuel Liggero Professor of the Practice; Academic Director, MSEM & MSTML

Jill Parlee Director, Programs & Operations

Jane Seminara Senior Lecturer

Amy Hirschfeld

Maura Vogel

Distinguished Senior Lecturer

Director, Recruitment & Strategic Partnerships

Industry Advisory Council Tufts Gordon Institute Mert Aktar

Heather Gaylord

Chief Executive Officer, Receptive Bio

BioLife Chief of Staff, Takeda

Syra Arif

Chris George

Director, Solution Consulting AMS, ServiceNow

Chief Manufacturing Officer, Axcelis

Marta Asack

Kathrin Knauf

Senior Vice President Power Products, North America, Schneider Electric

Independent Biotech TechOps Advisor

Brett Boghigian

Tony Kourepenis

Chief Business Officer, Switch Bioworks

Vice President of Engineering, Draper

Michal Cenkl

James Lawton

Director of Innovation and Experimentation, MITRE

President, LightForce

Jeff D’Amelia

Carl Long

Managing Director, MITRE

Global Quality Director, Cabot Corporation

acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments

Board of Advisors Derby Entrepreneurship Center Matt Lyman

Chuck Auster

Vice President of Engineering, Toast

Chairman of the Board of Advisors, Derby Entrepreneurship Center; Founder and Partner, Runtide Capital Partners

Mark Martin

Kobla Asamoah

Co-Founder and General Partner, Cybernetix Ventures

Senior Director, Accelerator Operations, Caminus Ventures

Allison Perkel

Kofi Asante

Vice President, Engineering, Ledger

VP of Business Development and Market Expansion, Arc

Diane Roberts

Rachel Blumenthal

Senior Director of Engineering, EnergySage

Entrepreneur, Advisor and Angel Investor

Forrest Roush

Ben Carson

Vice President, Business Development, Xdemics Corporation

Cofounder & Partner, Fvlcrum Funds

Rich Russell

Karen Cassel

Senior Vice President, STR

President & CEO, MedicAlert Foundation

Mihir Shad

John Cuming

Venture Partner, F-Prime Capital

Former President, Cuming Microwave Corporation

Dave Sullivan

Jack Derby

Vice President, Global Vaccines, Biotech, & Sterile Injectable Manufacturing Sciences & Technology, Pfizer

Professor of the Practice; CEO, Derby Management

Nick Svencer

Mike Doyle

General Manager, Pramand LLC

President & CEO, Predict Health

Bob Treiber

Christine Dunn

President, Boston Engineering Corporation

Head of External Communications, Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Lisa Wyman

Glenn Engler

Chief Technical & Quality Officer, Scholar Rock

Senior Expert Partner, Bain

Pamela Goldberg CEO of Goldberg Healthtech Advisors; Board Member, Executive Leadership Coach, and Consultant

Nehemiah Green

Andrew Merken

Principal Business Development, AWS Startups, Amazon

Shareholder, Polsinelli

Paul Halpern

Kenny Nova

Chief Marketing Officer, JP Morgan Wealth Management

Founder & Investor, Stat Scientific

Kim Hartman

Catherine Popper

Owner, KH Designers; Cofounder, Mask Ready

Early Stage Investor, Advisor and Board Director, Launchpad Venture Group

Steve Herrod

Stephen Remondi

Partner, Juxtapose

Founder & CEO, Xphera Biosciences

David Horne

Peter Rothschild

Partner, Fenwick

Partner, East Wind Advisors; Managing Member, Daroth Capital

David Jen Managing Director Finance and Corporate Development, X, The Moonshot Factory

Felice Shapiro Founder and Publisher, Better After 50 (BA50)

Robin John

Forrest Snowden

CEO & Cofounder, Eventide

Chairman and CEO, Aria Gems

Josh Kapelman

Omer Trajman

EVP and MD, Hilldun Corporation

Founder, AskFora

Nancy Karp

Tracy Wang

MP of Development and Operations, Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design

Strategic Advisor for Nonprofit Executives

Jordan Kivelstadt

Danielle Weisberg

CEO, Trellis Management

Co-CEO & Co-Founder, theSkimm

Sarah Kugelman Founder, All Golden Beauty, The Pink Factor, skyn ICELAND & gloss.com

Alex Wulkan Cofounder and COO, Estateably

Steve McDermid

Earle Yaffa

Managing Director, Emerson Collective

Former MD, Skadden, Arps,Slate, Meager & Flom LLC

acknowledgments

Faculty Frank Apeseche

Eli Cushner

Professor of the Practice Co-founding Partner, J. Locke & Company

Lecturer Head of CS Operations & Programs, Hospitality Americas, The Access Group

Moneer Azzam

Jack Derby

Lecturer Principal, Beacon Climate Innovations

Professor of the Practice CEO, Derby Management

Bennett Baldwin

Chris DiFronzo

Lecturer Director, Insights & Improvements, Fidelity Investments

Lecturer Director, Career Services, Tufts University

Mark Bamford

Jimmy Edgarton

Lecturer CEO, Bamford Conflict Resolution

Lecturer Director, JWS Inc.

Maxwell Bevilaqua

Phillip Ellison

Lecturer Founder, Managing Director, Mindful Negotiating

Lecturer Legislative & Stakeholder Affairs Representative, New York Power Authority

George Blount

Gavin Finn

Lecturer Founder, Financial Therapist, nBalance Financial

Professor of the Practice President & CEO, Kaon Interactive

Jennifer Braggin

Luke Fraser

Senior Lecturer Director, Engineering Management, Advanced Purity Solutions, Entegris

Lecturer CEO, Stepwise Innovation

Jerome Brightman

Dawn (Renae) Geraci

Senior Lecturer President, The Leadership Group

Lecturer Director, User Research, UKG

Gerald Brown

Partha Ghosh

Senior Lecturer Senior Consultant, Growth Initiatives Consulting

Professor of the Practice Non-Executive Director & Chief Mentor, inQuebe Inc.

Tim Buntel

Betsy Goodrich

Lecturer Program Director, Business Ventures at Innovate@BU, Boston University

Lecturer VP Design & Co-owner Manta Product Development Inc.

Elaine Chen

Amir Hasson

Director, Derby Entrepreneurship Center; Cummings Family Professor of the Practice in Entrepreneurship

Lecturer Founder, Vibe Venture Lab

Filip Čučkov

Warren Hilton

Director, Auster Center for Applied Innovation and Research; Auster Professor of the Practice of Applied Innovation

Lecturer Principal, Scott Hilton Consulting LLC

Amy Hirschfeld Distinguished Senior Lecturer

Alex Ocampo Lecturer CEO, Founder, Ganance

John Jacobsen

Chimuanya Okoro

Lecturer Program Director, DePuy Synthes

Lecturer Group Product Manager, Examity

Paul Klein

Kevin Oye

Lecturer Marketing, Branding, Event, Communications Consultant, Klein Branding LLC

Executive Director, Tufts Gordon Institute; Professor of the Practice; Director, MSIM

Stacy Lennon Senior Lecturer Founder, Body of Intelligence

Samuel Liggero Professor of the Practice; Academic Director, MSEM & MSTML

Usha Pasi Lecturer Consultant

Kishore Pochampally Senior Lecturer

Hannah Lippe

Joshua Reed-Diawuoh

Lecturer Director, Product Management, Fidelity Investments

Lecturer Senior Manager, MassHousing; Founder, GRIA Food Co.

Beth McCarthy

Kendall Reiss

Senior Lecturer Principal, Elizabeth M. McCarthy Consulting

Professor of the Practice School of the Museum of Fine Arts

David Medeiros

Sandy Rosenberg

Lecturer Vice President, Engineering, Research & Development, and Labs, Advanced Purity Solutions, Entegris

Lecturer Managing Director, Discus Ventures

Kyle Monahan

Sheryl Rosenberg

Lecturer Manager, Data Science Services, Tufts University

Lecturer Associate Director, Career Services, Tufts University

James Nash

Jen Sagawa

Senior Lecturer Engineer, Nash Laboratories

Lecturer Founder, J. Sagawa Consulting

Jayne Nucete

Marci Sapers

Lecturer Facilitator & Trainer, Clarity Confluencia

Lecturer Senior Marketing Consultant, Cincinnati Consulting Consortium

Andy O’Brien Lecturer Managing Director/Founder, Resolute Advisory Services & Resolute Investors

Jane Seminara Senior Lecturer

acknowledgments

Bill Shaw Professor of the Practice Executive Vice-President, American Student Assistance (ASA)

Holly Tarnower Lecturer Theater Department Head, Creative Arts at Park

Michelle Tempesta Lecturer Founder, Turfgo

Will Trevor Lecturer Vice Provost for Online Strategy and TC Academy, Teachers College, Columbia University

Thomas Van de Velde Lecturer Founder, TeachPilot.ai

Joe Volman Lecturer Partner, Blank Rome LLP

Tina Weber Senior Lecturer CEO, A Starting Line

Kate Weiler Lecturer Co-Founder, Drink Simple

Abbott Weiss Lecturer Senior Lecturer, MIT; CEO, Abbott Weiss Consulting

Josh Wiesman Lecturer Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Strategy, Inogen

Cody Damon Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Derby Entrepreneurship Center

Carol Denning Assistant Director, Derby Entrepreneurship Center

Morgan Dent Marketing & Communications Specialist

MaryAnn DiRamio Senior Administrative Coordinator

Benjamin Friedman Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist

Marcus Johnson-Smith Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Derby Entrepreneurship Center

Audrey Marroquin Industry Outreach Manager

Idicula Mathew Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Derby Entrepreneurship Center

Annika Murphy Program Manager

Brianne Odom Senior Assistant Director, Admissions

Peter Om

Staff

Program Coordinator

Teresa Aloi

Sandy Rosenberg

Program Administrator

Executive in Residence

looking ahead

Looking Ahead The world has always needed people who can see past the fog of the moment and make something better out of what they find.

For nearly a century, writers and other watchful souls have sounded alarms about the future of America and the wider world. The names change—war, pollution, automation, polarization—but the feeling is familiar: the tide is running out too fast, technology is getting ahead of us, and something essential may be lost.

Yet alongside the concerned, there have always been creators, builders, teachers, and students doing the quiet work of mending and making the future.

At Tufts Gordon Institute, that is the company we are fortunate to keep. You see it in small, steady ways: a student staying late to help a teammate, a faculty member opening their network to help a student find a job, a staff colleague quietly fixing a problem before anyone else notices, an alum carving out time to listen and advise a student, an industry partner bringing a real challenge for students to solve. These acts do not make headlines, but they are the everyday threads from which better futures are woven.

The tools of our age are getting sharper. Software can move money, map disease, steer cars, and sift oceans of data. But a better future is never guaranteed; it still depends on people who can weigh consequences, temper speed with judgment, and stay mindful of the human impact of their decisions.

Our work is to help our students grow into these leaders.

I am grateful for this community—students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners— whose willingness to lean in, wrestle with hard problems, and do so with deep compassion gives me optimism about the years ahead. The future will have its storms, as it always has. But in the classrooms, laboratories, studios, and late night conversations that make up our community, it is clear that the world will not be left entirely to its anxieties. It will also belong to those who learn to lead, and choose to lead well—our graduates, and you who help shape them.

Thank you for all you have done with us this year, and for all the ways you will be with us in the years to come.

Kevin Oye Executive Director, Tufts Gordon Institute; Professor of the Practice; Director, MS in Innovation & Management

Connect With Us gordon.tufts.edu

Joyce Cummings Center, Suite 390 177 College Avenue Medford, MA 02155

gordon.tufts.edu