Graduate Affiliates are graduate and professional students affiliated with Berkeley! We are here to help you and enrich the residential college experience. We participate in many parts of BK life - helping out with college activities, advising students on graduate school, and most importantly, sponsoring yummy study breaks. Grab a meal in the dining hall with us anytime!
Graduate Affiliates for 2024-2025
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Head Grad Affiliate |
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Sarah Spaulding Sarah Spaulding (JE ‘18) is an MD student at Yale School of Medicine and serves as the Head Graduate Affiliate for Berkeley. Originally from sunny Wilmington, NC, Sarah double majored in Environmental Engineering and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology as a Yale undergrad. After graduation, she worked in cancer research for two years in New York City. Now back at Yale for med school, she is passionate about student wellness and making time for life outside of school. Talk to her about reality TV, pickleball, skincare, audiobooks, online shopping, North Carolina BBQ, or anything STEM/medicine-related. |
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Grad Affiliates |
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Lucien Dieter Lucien Dieter is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Growing up in Portland, Oregon. He graduated in 2021 with a degree in environmental engineering at Arizona State University, where he also minored in sustainability and music performance. As a student researcher with The Biodesign Institute, Lucien investigated the impact of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment. After graduating, he worked as a physical scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before arriving at Yale. His PhD research studies analytical and molecular biotechnology applied to environmental health. Lucien is always looking to be active outdoors, experiment with new vegan foods, and catch up on a backlog of movies and TV. Please talk freely with me about things to do in the area, science and engineering research or career interests, pets, and all things health and environment! |
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Kevin Girardi Kevin Girardi is an MD student at Yale School of Medicine. He grew up nearby in Madison, Connecticut, and attended Amherst College, where he majored in Chemistry and was a member of the football team. Outside of medical school, Kevin loves cooking new meals and enjoys both watching and playing sports (pickleball, basketball, softball). Please feel free to reach out about medicine, fun things to do in Connecticut, or anything else. |
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Naomi Gluck Naomi Gluck is a 4th-year Physics PhD candidate from Long Island, NY. Her current research is in computational astrophysics and cosmology, specifically the connections between stellar evolution and galaxy evolution with machine learning. As an undergraduate, Naomi majored in Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, and conducted research there and in Israel at the Technion Institute of Technology. Aside from astrophysics, Naomi is interested in music composition, ballet, drawing, and mentoring. Please feel free to reach out - she is always happy to talk about physics, graduate school, art/music, and coffee! |
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Dhruti (Dhru) Gopaluni Dhruti (Dhru) Gopaluni is an MBA student at the School of Management. She grew up in Houston, TX and graduated from Stanford University (’17) with a degree in Management Science & Engineering. After school, she lived in DC for six years, predominantly doing strategy and analytics work for NASA HQ. Outside of school and work, she is a big reader, a huge sports fan (talk to her about hockey, soccer, tennis, and your fantasy football team), and an outdoors enthusiast. She also loves trying new restaurants and cooking for her friends and family. Give Dhru a shout if you want to talk about business school, civic tech, space + energy policy, non-profit leadership, and what you’re listening to, watching, or eating. |
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Chloe Howard Chloe Howard is a third year MFA Acting student at the Drama School. She is an actor, singer, and writer/creator from Los Altos, California and a graduate of Northwestern University where she studied Theatre and Psychology. Before coming to grad school, she lived in New York for a few years and co-created and acted in a web series, VIRAL, that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and worked on several developmental processes for new plays and musicals. Last summer she studied clown in Bilbao, Spain. While at Yale, Chloe has performed in Metamorphoses, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, the Langston Hughes Festival of New Plays, How to Live on Earth, and understudied Escaped Alone at Yale Rep. |
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John Lee (BK ’18) is an MDiv (Masters of Divinity) student at Yale Divinity School. He was born in Baltimore and has split time between Baltimore and New Haven since 2014. As an undergrad, he majored in biomedical engineering. He probably should have been an English major focused on creative writing. He was a loyal Lazarus Library attendee and spent most of his Saturdays in the Berkeley Woodshop. After graduation, he studied Parkinson’s Disease at Yale for a year before running the local education nonprofit LEAP’s Dixwell and Newhallville sites for 3 years. He organizes with New Haven Rising, a grassroots community organization that advocates for New Haven residents through challenging Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital’s economic practices around local hiring and… not paying property taxes to New Haven. John enjoys running, biking, foraging for mushrooms, playing guitar, writing bad poetry, and pickup basketball. Hit him up about any of the above, especially if you’re looking to ground yourself in our great city of New Haven! |
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Frederick Liu Frederick Liu is a 1L at Yale Law School. He is originally from Shenzhen, China. Fred completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Political Science at the University of Rochester and then his master’s degree in Technology Policy at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in studying Intellectual Property Law and hopes to specialize in IP litigation. If you are interested in Law and Technology/Computer Science, please reach out to him. Outside of academics, Fred is an avid soccer player (recreationally, for Yale Law Soccer) and was once a long jumper during undergrad and in grad school (PB: 7.03m, 23’3/4”). He also enjoys photography and does free photoshoots for students on campus. You can reach out to him for free photographs on Instagram via @BankruptPhotographer. Fred’s Hogwarts house is Gryffindor (though he also got sorted into Ravenclaw once from the Sorting Hat quiz—but, kind of like Harry, he didn’t let the Sorting Hat determine his fate). If you are a Harry Potter fan as well, Fred can’t wait to talk with you about the upcoming Harry Potter HBO series, which is speculated to be released in 2026. |
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Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma is a first-year PhD student in Earth and Planetary Sciences studying vertebrate paleontology. She loves dinosaurs and researched them in her undergrad, but now she studies skeletal patterning in the earliest vertebrates. Miranda is from New York state and graduated from Yale College in December 2023, where she was involved in music through the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Yale Concert Band, and Low Strung, Yale’s all-cello rock band. After graduating, she spent five months hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Miranda is always on the hunt for new foods, skills, and experiences to try. Talk to her about nature and the outdoors, education, academia, or anything else on your mind! |
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Gabriel Mesa Gabriel Mesa is a PhD student in the History Department focusing on the early Soviet Union and late Imperial Russia. He graduated from Yale in May 2023 with an M.A. in History and a B.S. in both Physics and History. Currently, Gabriel is studying Soviet grand strategy in the Pacific during the leadup to the Second World War. In particular, he is tracing how intelligence and diplomacy both served the strategic ends of weakening Japan, courting the United States, and protecting Soviet regional interests. More broadly, Gabriel’s research questions revolve around the fusion of diplomatic and political history with the history of ideas, contending with the question of how historians can characterize periods in world history without being reductive or deterministic. He is interested in a historicism that considers individual agency and personality to be central to causal narratives rather than exceptional. This approach has led to more diverse questions about both Russian and Global History: How do ideological conceptions of state and nation impact diplomatic decisions and grand strategy? What is the nature of civil-military relations in non-democratic forms of government? What was the relationship between philosophical objections to revolutionary activity and government policy in nineteenth century Europe? As a proud graduate of Berkeley College, Gabriel is glad to be serving as a graduate affiliate this year. He contends that the spirit of the college is best summarized by the belief “that the pursuit of truth flourishes more abundantly in the good company of friends,” a powerful phrase immortalized by the Berkeley College diploma. Additionally, Gabriel is serving as one of the 2024-25 co-presidents of the Andrews Society and sings/conducts in the Yale Russian Chorus. He is happy to talk to anyone interested in similar research questions or the PhD program at Yale. |
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Siddharth Mitra Siddharth Mitra is a PhD student in the Computer Science Department and enjoys working on algorithms for machine learning and optimization. For undergrad, he was at the Chennai Mathematical Institute, a small and close knit community of eccentrics in the heart of South India, where he majored in Mathematics and Computer Science. Originally from New Delhi, India, he has lived in Virginia and Illinois. Sid loves the outdoors and particularly enjoys running and hiking. He plays the piano and, never seen without his camera, has a deep love for photography. His greatest talent may lie, however, in brewing an excellent cup of coffee, and in being a good listener. |
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Danielle Miyagishima Danielle Miyagishima is an MD-PhD student. She is originally from New Mexico and graduated in 2015 with a degree in Biology from New Mexico State University. She is doing her PhD in Genetics with Dr. Murat Gunel and is studying the tumor microenvironment of meningiomas using a variety of molecular biology and computational methods. Her other academic interests include teaching/tutoring, anatomy, bioethics, and neuroscience. She hopes to pursue a career in neurosurgery and was Co-Founder and Co-President of a medical student organization (Yale Cushing Society) for several years, which hosts events with YMPO for Yale College students interested in the field (so if you are interested, or curious, talk to me!). She’s involved in a variety of leadership and community-based activity inside and outside of Yale including her role as Founding Curator of the New Haven Global Shapers Hub. Global Shapers is an initiative by the World Economic Forum inspiring young people to organize in their local communities for the betterment of the world. Outside of school, Danielle enjoys anything outdoors (hiking/backpacking/camping, running, cycling, swimming, soccer, rock climbing), and cooking New Mexican food. She has three very cute (unbiased, of course) dogs that live with her in West Haven. Talk to her about: anything, philosophy, surgical (or any medical/biomedical research) career interests, life in general, or life as a dog mom. |
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Laura Plata Laura Plata (she/her) is a first-year student at Yale Law School from Illinois. Laura graduated Yale College with a degree in Ethics, Politics and Economics and was also a member of the Human Rights Program. As an undergraduate, Laura was part of the Yale Refugee Project (now known as the Migration Alliance at Yale) and also was involved with community-building efforts among first-generation college students. After graduating, she spent time both in Mexico doing research on U.S. asylum policy and in the UK pursuing a masters in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at the University of Oxford. Laura enjoys pursuing hobbies she is very mediocre at (salsa, painting, running 5ks). She’s always happy to talk about human rights work broadly, graduate school, the FGLI experience, or anything about life at Yale, in general. |
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Henry Ritter I grew up in Cambridge, MA and graduated from Brown University with a degree in Economics. At Yale, I am doing a joint MEM-MBA degree between YSE and SOM. Before arriving at Yale, I worked at McKinsey, The New York Times and Google; at Google, I spent part of my time working on a climate start-up in X. I also spent a summer season running a high-mountain hut for the Appalachian Mountain Club in New Hampshire. I currently advise a climate materials start-up, Adept Materials. In my free time, I love hiking and mountaineering, writing satirical articles, watching live stand-up and practicing my French. |
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Jennifer Rodriguez Jennifer Rodriguez is a medical student at Yale School of Medicine. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she graduated with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a minor in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, she worked as a medical scribe and pursued cancer research in Chicago. Outside of medicine, Jennifer enjoys staying active—whether it’s hiking with her golden retriever or lifting at the gym with her bestie. She loves cooking new recipes with friends weekly and will eat anything involving chocolate or ice cream. Her interests include listening to all genres of R&B, creating all kinds of art, going to the movies, or having a cozy night in with her roomie and pets. Jennifer is always happy to chat about pursuing medicine, work-life balance, life as a dog/cat mom, or just life in general. |
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Lucia Shen Lucia Shen (she/her) is a second-year MPH Candidate at the Yale School of Public Health. She is originally from Palo Alto, California, and graduated from the George Washington University (’23) in DC with a degree in Psychological and Brain Sciences. At YSPH, she is in the Social and Behavioral Sciences department on the US Health and Justice Track and is interested in Mental Health Policy. Outside of school, Lucia enjoys running, hiking, yoga, live music, and reading! Feel free to reach out if you ever want to take a walk around New Haven and look for cute dogs or just yap over coffee :) |
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Brian Thorn Brian Thorn is a second-year MBA candidate at the School of Management. He grew up in Cleveland, OH and graduated from the United States Military Academy – West Point with a dual degree in Economics and English. Prior to attending SOM, he spent 6 years in the US Army and worked at Bonhams Auctioneers as a fine wine and spirits specialist. In his free time, Brian is also an NCAA basketball official. He’s always interested in learning from others, talking about Ohio, college football, chess, tennis, wine or anything in-between – do not be afraid to reach out! |
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Jackson Willis Jackson Willis (BK ’20) is a first-year law student from St. Petersburg (“St. Pete”!), Florida. As an undergraduate, Jackson majored in Humanities and Economics and volunteered with the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project (YHHAP) and Dwight Hall. Prior to law school, Jackson served in the Peace Corps, toyed with a backwards clock, and pursued graduate study in the U.K. He’s thrilled to be back at Berkeley. Want to chat about public art or anything else under the Florida sun or Berkeley thunder? Please say hello! |
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Mitch Wride Mitch Wride is an MD student at Yale School of Medicine. After growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, he went to high school in St. Louis, MO before majoring in Portuguese at Brigham Young University. Before starting medical school, Mitch worked in ethnolinguistic and language pedagogy research. He spent his most recent summer in Germany and Poland as a medical fellow for the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). Mitch has two young children and believes strongly in work-life balance. He loves pickleball, basketball, hiking, audiobooks, going to the movies, and exploring Connecticut. He would love to talk about medicine, school, sports, or things to do in the area! |
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Eleanor Womack Eleanor Womack is a second-year PhD student in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University, where she primarily studies Soviet Kazakh literature (with a focus on representations of nuclear violence). After graduating from Yale College (BK ‘18), she spent two years teaching English in Kyrgyzstan with the Peace Corps, and went on to complete a Master’s degree in Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Feel free to reach out to her with any questions about the Peace Corps, grad school, reality television (especially The Traitors), Baldur’s Gate 3, Sacred Harp singing, or, really, anything! |
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Amy Zhao Amy Zhao (BK ’18) is an MD/PhD student at the Yale School of Medicine. She was born in California and grew up in Connecticut and Massachusetts. As an undergrad, she majored in Statistics and Data Science as well as Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She was also a member of the varsity swimming and diving team, a student researcher in the Koleske and King labs, and a co-leader/member of several student organizations. In addition to her Genetics PhD thesis research on lung diseases, she is passionate about advocating for women in STEM and medicine, advising students, and teaching/tutoring. She also enjoys board gaming, playing piano, and trying new restaurants. Please feel free to reach out - she is happy to talk about things to do in New Haven, STEM, medicine, and life in BK and at Yale! |
