Melanie Sinche currently serves as the Director of Career and Professional Development within the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville. In this role, she assists graduate students and postdocs across all disciplines with career exploration, decision-making, and job search strategies. Before arriving at UVA, Melanie served as the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, the Director of the Career Development Center, and the Executive Director of the Women’s Leadership Center at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she worked with university undergraduate and graduate students to help them achieve their career goals.
Prior to USJ, Melanie served as Director of Education at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT, developing programs for high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars, and assisting all students and trainees with career transitions. Melanie is the author of Next Gen PhD: A Guide to Career Paths in Science, published by Harvard University Press in August 2016. While working on Next Gen PhD, she served as a Senior Research Associate in the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School, where she conducted survey research on careers for PhDs in science. Since the publication of her book, she has delivered 40+ talks, plenary sessions, and keynote speeches on careers.
Melanie also served as the Founding Director of the FAS Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard University, held the same position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health in building the first NIH Career Center for over 6,000 intramural trainees. Melanie received her Bachelor's degree from Colgate University, and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and North Carolina State University. She is a National Certified Counselor with a career development focus.