2026 Alumni Newsletter
The Center for Leadership Studies Newsletter is dedicated to the CLS community, including current seminar students, CLS alumni, partners and friends. It is intended at once to keep you informed and to keep us accountable to our mission and vision of bringing the highest quality living-learning experience to the finest blossoming professionals from around the world.
Our space
The Center for Leadership Studies is home to Carnegie Mellon University’s Leadership Development Seminar. The program provides students with a clear framework through which they can think about and hone their leadership skills, including many and varied resources that will help them to contextualize their academic and metacurricular experiences, and to grow in key areas of awareness and skills that are critical for leadership. The shared space serves as a home for current students, alumni, and fellows to gather, connect, and enjoy weekly events on campus during the semester.
The Character Initiative
A $50,000 grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), administered through the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University and funded by Eli Lilly, has been awarded to The Center for Leadership Studies for the 2025-2026 Academic Year. The CLS will use this grant to expand Carnegie Mellon’s capacity to explore character development in 4 major areas across the university: professional development, metacurricular integration, curricular integration, and community engagement. Mini grants will be awarded to students, staff, faculty, or campus groups to allow them to explore character related to their professional, metacurricular, or curricular development. A series of events through the Community Connection Series will provide the opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to explore character around a series of topics. Please apply for the mini grants if you are interested by clicking on the CLS website, and be on the lookout for announcements about the Community Connection Series events!
Events
“A Focus on Character and Leadership,” led by Executive Fellow Dr. Meghan Bollens and Educational Program Assistant Preveena Thathireddy during the Fall 2025 semester. This was an opportunity for open discussion on the ways in which you and your colleagues feel character informs leadership and why issues of character are critical to human and organizational development. This gathering was part of The Character Initiative, a cross-campus and interdisciplinary exploration of character at Carnegie Mellon funded by the Eli Lilly Foundation and Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative.
John P. Surma, Penn State alum and former chairman & CEO of U. S. Steel, joined us for a lively session on leadership and the future of industry. Questions ranged from navigating cyclical markets and supply-chain shocks to building safety culture, governing ethically, and leading through public scrutiny. Surma spoke candidly about decision-making under uncertainty, balancing stakeholder interests, and the discipline it takes to uphold values when pressure is high. He also shared pragmatic career advice: do the unglamorous work well, prepare relentlessly, and protect your integrity. Attendees left with a clearer view of how policy, markets, and technology intersect—and how principled leadership can shape outcomes.
2025-2026 Events and visitors
- Roger Ma ’05: Personal Finance Night
- Nicole Ayala ’01, ’05: BNY Mellon
- Jeff Nagel ’87, AEA Investors Operating Partner
- Andress Appollon ’02, CEO at Appollon Strategies LLC
- Kristin Gilmore ’02, U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer
- John Surma, CEO Emeritus, U.S. Steel & Marathon Oil
- Xining Gao ’20, Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard-MIT HST
- Rachel Amos: Own Your Time. Lead with Intention.
- Meghan Bollens
- Provost Jim Garrett
Alumni spotlight
Emily Tolmer (class of 2019) is a Staff Service Designer at LinkedIn, where she leads work to simplify complex systems and create seamless, trustworthy interactions across the company’s global products and services. While studying mechanical engineering, she discovered her passion for understanding how people and systems interact in the School of Design, learned collaboration and resilience as the three-year captain of the women’s soccer team, and found clarity and reassurance in her path through the leadership seminar. Since graduating, her work has focused on connecting people, tools, and processes to make experiences feel more intuitive and meaningful. Emily lives in Brooklyn, where she loves eating her way through the neighborhoods, going to concerts, traveling, and returning to Pittsburgh whenever she gets the chance.
“I’ve built a career in human-centered design, a path I never could have imagined when I started at Carnegie Mellon as an engineering student still figuring out where I fit. The leadership seminar gave me the confidence to explore beyond what I thought my future ‘should’ look like and to follow my curiosity toward work that felt meaningful.
The leadership seminar exposed me to leaders from a wide range of industries, each with their own nonlinear journey. Hearing how they made choices not just around roles or companies, but around the kind of lives they wanted to build, was profoundly grounding. Just as impactful were the weekly reflections and discussions with peers, which helped me build a habit of introspection that has become essential in my life—especially after graduation, when those natural moments for reflection aren’t built in. And perhaps most memorable was the way Michael led our class: with deep respect, warmth, and care for every student and visitor, he set the gold standard for creating belonging and fostering a community that endures.
Those lessons have guided me ever since. My advice to current students is to pay close attention to the culture and leadership of the teams and organizations you join. The right environment and the right leaders can make all the difference in how you learn, grow, and experience your work. I’m deeply grateful for the foundation the leadership seminar provided and thrilled to see how it continues to grow and shape future CMU students.”
Meet the EPAs
Nolan Casey
Nolan Casey, is a graduate student in the Tepper School of Business, getting his masters in management, with a concentration in finance. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s Dietrich College in spring of 2025, with bachelor's degrees in Behavioral Economics and Decision Sciences. Casey plays on the Carnegie Mellon basketball team and this season will be his third as captain. His summers have been spent in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY, where he interned at PricewaterhouseCoopers on their Digital Product Development, and most recently, Commercial Technology and Innovation teams. He joins the center this fall as Senior Educational Program Assistant, where he hopes to continue growing the Leadership Center on campus, and looks forward to bringing forth new initiatives and opportunities for both current students, and alumni to get involved in the center.
Alondra Robles
Alondra Robles is a senior studying Information Systems with a minor in Software Engineering. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the president of Girls Who Code and also serves on the board of the Catholic Newman Club. Outside of her studies, she enjoys volunteering with local organizations, reading, and hiking. After graduating, she hopes to work full-time in a role that combines her interests in software engineering, data science, and consulting.
Daniel Aluko
Daniel Aluko is a senior studying mechanical and biomedical engineering. After taking the leadership seminar course last fall, he now serves as the Educational Program Assistant, supporting seminars and new student initiatives in the center. Active in research and campus leadership, Aluko also enjoys playing piano, cooking, and weightlifting in his free time.
Sophie Clarke
Sophie Clarke is a first-year Ph.D. student at Stanford University in Bioengineering. In Spring 2025, she graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering. At Carnegie Mellon, Clarke was President of the Biomedical Engineering Society and conducted biomedical engineering research for 3.5 years in tissue engineering and biotherapeutics. Her graduate research focuses on 3D bioprinting for congenital heart defects. Sophie joined as a senior EPA in May 2025, and she hopes to contribute to strengthening alumni connections to the CLS.
Praveena Thathireddy
Praveena Thathireddy is a second-year MBA candidate at the Tepper School of Business, where she focuses on strategy, leadership, and technology. She joined the Center for Leadership Studies as a Graduate Educational Program Assistant, supporting CMU’s cross-disciplinary execution of a capacity-building grant from the Educating Character Initiative. In this role, she helps assess existing efforts, identify gaps, and collaborate with faculty, staff, and student leaders to integrate character development into coursework, co-curricular programs, and community engagement. Prior to graduate school, Thathireddy worked in product management and corporate development, with experience spanning global enterprises and startups. She is also an entrepreneur, having co-founded a nutrition-focused venture centered on sustainable practices.
“I am excited to contribute to the Center’s mission of exploring how character shapes leadership and community at CMU. I look forward to fostering meaningful collaborations across campus and learning from the diverse voices in our community.”