Centennial Alumni Spotlights

A former NASA astronaut and physicist, George “Pinky” Nelson, is one of two Harvey Mudd alumni to travel into space. From a young age, Nelson was drawn to the night sky and knew he wanted to become an astronomer. That early fascination with space shaped his academic path and eventually led him to Harvey Mudd College, where he discovered a love for flying and developed the skills that would later support his entry into NASA. “I had learned to fly while I was an undergraduate at Harvey Mudd,” he said. “The job [of an astronaut] looked like it combined the three things I was really interested in—space, astronomy, and the intellectual challenge of it all.” Over the course of his NASA career, he flew on three space shuttle missions and became one of the first Americans to perform a spacewalk untethered from a spacecraft. Nelson has often reflected on the [...]

Michael Shear is a White House correspondent for The New York Times and a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. With decades of experience traveling aboard Air Force One and covering world events from the front lines of American politics, Shear has built a career grounded in fairness, accuracy, and accountability. He is part of a tradition of political journalism that seeks to hold power to account, regardless of party affiliation, by remaining open to complexity and guided by facts rather than ideology. Reflecting on his undergraduate experience, Shear credits Claremont McKenna College with shaping his approach to reporting. “I recall CMC being a place that required me to challenge my own assumptions, especially with students and professors who came from very different ideological backgrounds,” he says. “That’s one of the keys to good political journalism—to understand that [...]

Mukesh Aghi serves as President and CEO of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening commercial and diplomatic ties between the two nations. In this role, Aghi brings decades of experience navigating both public and private sectors, working closely with government and business leaders to promote trade, innovation, and shared values. His academic journey includes an MBA in international marketing, an advanced management diploma from Harvard Business School, and doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate University, where his interest in global cooperation took shape. Reflecting on his time at CGU, Aghi shared, “My time at Claremont Graduate University was truly transformational. As an international student, CGU gave me more than just an education. It gave me perspective, purpose, and a platform to lead.” His career has since spanned continents, languages, and even mountain peaks, with successful summits across North America and Europe. A member of CGU’s Board [...]

Romarilyn Ralston is the senior director of the Justice Education Center (JEC) of The Claremont Colleges, where she works to advance the transformative mission of the Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA program. That program helps currently incarcerated individuals (“inside” students) to obtain bachelor’s degrees as they learn alongside on-campus Claremont Colleges (“outside”) students. Her own powerful journey shaped Ralston’s leadership in this space. After spending 23 years incarcerated, she was released in 2011 and enrolled at Pitzer as a New Resources student, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Gender & Feminist Studies. She is now pursuing a PhD in Executive Management at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Business. Ralston’s path is a testament to the life-changing power of education and the profound impact of second chances. “I chose education as my transformative practice and have not stopped learning since,” she says. In her role at JEC, she advocates for the idea that incarcerated [...]

Jennifer Doudna is a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who has transformed the landscape of modern science through her groundbreaking work in gene editing. In 2012, she and her collaborator, Emmanuelle Charpentier developed CRISPR/Cas9, a genome-editing technology inspired by a bacterium’s immune system that acts as "genetic scissors." Their discovery enables scientists to modify DNA with unprecedented precision, offering powerful new tools for treating cancer, advancing agriculture, and potentially curing inherited diseases. In recognition of this work, Doudna and Charpentier received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the committee citing CRISPR’s revolutionary impact on the life sciences. As a professor and researcher at UC Berkeley and a former Pomona College Trustee, Doudna continues to push scientific boundaries while engaging deeply in the ethical implications of genetic technology. Reflecting on her formative years, she shared, “I am grateful to Pomona every day, honestly, because it was a liberal arts education that exposed [...]

Gabby Giffords is a former U.S. Representative and a national advocate for gun violence prevention. She graduated from Scripps College in 1993 with a double major in Latin American Studies and Sociology and studied abroad in Chihuahua, Mexico, as a Fulbright Scholar. Elected to represent Arizona’s 8th congressional district in 2007, Giffords served in the House of Representatives until 2012, when she stepped down to focus on her recovery after surviving a gunshot wound to the head during a deadly mass shooting in 2011. The shooting, which claimed six lives and injured 12 others, changed the course of Giffords’ public service, but not her commitment to making a difference. Her determination to relearn how to walk and speak captured the nation's attention and became a symbol of resilience, optimism, and civic dedication. In the years following her recovery, Giffords has remained a powerful voice in public life as the co-founder [...]

Abasi Ene-Obong was featured on Fortune's 40 Under 40 list in 2020 for the category of healthcare. He has dedicated his career to medical research with a focus on Africa, and specifically the field of genetic research. In genome studies, people of African descent make up only 3% of the genetics included in research, despite the continent of Africa having rich genetic diversity. Abasi believes that with better representation of African ancestry in medical research, it will create better medical care for all. In a recent interview, Abasi shared the role KGI played in giving him the tools to create his first company, 54Gene, and his most recent endeavor, Syndicate Bio. Abasi has a PHD in cancer biology and has worked in health care organizations in US and UK. He has a strong background in healthcare but to reach the goals of creating worldwide databases, he obtained a Masters in [...]