Staff
Dr. Colleen McLinn
Email: colleen.mclinn@cornell.edu
Phone: (607) 255-2030
Address: 143 Caldwell Hall
Dr. Colleen McLinn serves as the Associate Dean for Professional Development at Cornell University Graduate School. In this capacity, she serves as a member of the Graduate School’s Senior Leadership Team and supervises several offices comprising the Career and Professional Development Team, which serve research degree students (doctoral and research master’s) enrolled with the Graduate School, as well as postdoctoral scholars. Graduate School Career and Professional Development efforts (summarized at this page) include Future Faculty and Academic Careers, Careers Beyond Academia, and the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, as well as contributions to Pathways to Success, the Graduate School’s suite of academic, career, professional, and personal development programs (offered in collaboration with other campus partners such as the English Language Support Office, Center for Teaching Innovation, and Cornell Career Services).
Dr. McLinn was the founding director of Future Faculty and Academic Careers programs at the Graduate School (originally known as CIRTL at Cornell) in 2012, and her workshop and consultation programs continue to prepare interested graduate students and postdocs for successful academic careers through development of teaching, research mentorship and other key skills. She is the institutional co-lead on several national initiatives, including managing Cornell’s participation in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) Network, a group of 40 U.S. and Canadian research universities collaboratively seeking to impact and improve higher education through development of our future faculty. She also has been a Cornell co-Principal Investigator on National Science Foundation and other foundation-funded projects such as the CIRTL Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate project from 2016-2022 (Award No. 1647094). She is currently one of two institutional liaisons coordinating Cornell efforts as part of the Equity in Graduate Education (EGE) Consortium.
Colleen’s interests include best practices for developing inclusive and evidence-based strategies in teaching and mentoring, and contributing to projects that impact the climate of academia and inclusiveness and representation in the professoriate. She teaches classes and workshops for the CIRTL Network and Cornell University audiences, including ALS 6014: Theater Techniques for Advancing Teaching and Public Speaking, and serves on the planning committee for Cornell’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition. Dr. McLinn received a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from University of Minnesota and previously served as an extension associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where she developed online and print curriculum materials and played a leadership role in grant-funded biology education efforts.
Sarah Day
Email: sd756@cornell.edu
Phone: (607) 255-6741
Address: 143 Caldwell Hall
Sarah Day is the Professional Development Program Coordinator and Graduate School Assistant, supporting Future Faculty and Academic Careers, Careers Beyond Academia, the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, and Academic affairs programming, and collaboratively supporting other Graduate School-wide events and initiatives relating to Assessment and the Office of the Dean.
