About Us

Michelle Ponce
Director

Michelle Ponce is the Director of Career and Professional Development at Claremont Graduate University. She has led her career as a visionary leader with an eclectic style of engaging career professionals through individualized career self discovery and self journey. Her goal is to envision and implement innovative strategies to enlighten life-long learners. She is energetic and creative with a unique ability to influence and integrate collaboration between internal and external stakeholders.

She has dedicated her career to coaching and guiding students and alumni towards exploring and engaging in their career journeys. Her roles have included Assistant Dean and Director positions within Southern California. In addition, Michelle is a career expert recognized nationally and regionally via professional committees and various executive roles. She authored a chapter in the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) book, “Cases in Career Services: A Working Guide for Practitioners, Engaging Adult Learners Toward Their Career Journey” as well as articles and references to support the career services industry.

She is driven by her life philosophy “It’s not what you do in life, but who you are to others”.

Michelle holds a Master of Arts in Counseling from Chapman University, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and an Associate of Arts from Marymount College.

Ro Lee
Associate Director

Ro Lee is the Associate Director, Career and Professional Development at Claremont Graduate University, offering career development and professional partnership opportunities. His prior experience includes policy development in nonprofits working with underrepresented populations, heading pro bono programs for large firms in New York and spearheading employment efforts for international education companies as a Program Manager of Southern California. “I believe that Career Development is an extremely valuable resource for those seeking a return on their educational investment and should be a mandatory skillset all students should learn to advance their personal growth.” In addition to his career in academia, he has practiced law in the areas of litigation and immigration. He has taught and served students at UC Riverside, Rio Hondo College, Korea University, and is an adjunct professor at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law.

Ro earned a JD from St. John’s University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

Chris Varano
Peer Career Consultant

Chris Varano earned his Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neurobiology from the University of Maryland. He is now pursuing his Master of Arts in Positive Organizational Psychology and Evaluation. Chris has a passion for helping others thrive by supporting individuals through their journey career. His coaching approach is to align each client’s interests and values throughout the career exploration process. During his spare time, he manages and oversee his own coaching and consulting business.

Ciara Hernandez
Campus and Industry Partnership Specialist

Ciara Hernandez is a doctoral student, pursuing a PhD in social psychology. She also works as a student researcher in Dr. Hogg’s Social Identity Laboratory and a CCEPS Fellow in the Honnold Mudd Library for the Special Collections department. Ciara serves in honorary roles as Chair of the Social Socials Committee and as a member of the Psi Chi International Honors Society. Ciara’s personal research interests are social psychological underpinnings of geopolitical current events, international conflict resolution and diplomacy. She interned at President Carter’s Carter Center in the Conflict Resolution Program. In this role she researched the Israel-Palestine conflict. In her free time Ciara loves to read Shakespeare and watch the sitcom Frasier. She is a recent graduate from the University of California, Irvine, where her academic focus was centered around cognitive neuroscience.

Kaajal Sheth
Social Media & Communications Specialist

Kaajal Sheth is an international student, currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Health Promotion Sciences at Claremont Graduate University with a focus in Health Communications. With a background in Nutrition, Kaajal has experience working in the field of Nutrition and Diabetes education. She is currently working with the Community Translational Research Institute on their ‘Stopping Diabetes in its Tracks’ project. Her professional and research goals are to have an overall impact on the health, wellbeing, and self-efficacy of an individual as well as the population.

In her free time, she volunteers at the local Priceless Pets orphanage.

Kasturi Gavali
Data and Analytics Specialist

Kasturi Gavali is an international student, currently pursuing her master’s degree in Information Systems and Technology at Claremont Graduate University, with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems. She completed her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and worked for Project Management and Pipeline Survey Consultancies in India. With growing interest in GIS, Analysis, and curiosity of developing cutting edge GIS solutions technology, she decided to pursue her master’s degree. She believes that if you have a strong will and patience, you can achieve many things.

She likes working out, cooking, painting, and learning new skills for professional as well as personal development.

Jason Sun
Data and Analytics Specialist

Jason Sun is a Ph.D. student specializing in Information Systems and Technology with a concentration in Data Science and Analytics at Claremont Graduate University. He likes to explore the relationships between data and translate those numbers into stories. Jason dedicates to make tangible impacts with the stories for organizations to find actionable solutions and make better decisions. He is quite passionate about numbers and data. His Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Master of Science in Mathematical Sciences has equipped him knowledge to achieve his goals. Jason is also a constant learner and always like to take up challenges and strive for excellence. He keeps up to date with programming abilities in data management, information visualization, and data analytics. In his free time, Jason enjoys joining sports activities.

Rebecca Grim
Peer Career Consultant

Rebecca is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in educational studies (SES) at CGU. Her goal is to develop university policy that supports the mental health of graduate students with mental illnesses and mental health concerns by connecting community mental health services and university counseling centers. Rebecca earned her M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from California State University Los Angeles where she also completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology. She believes that in order to achieve academic and professional success students should explore their interests and value themselves as professionals. As a career counselor Rebecca brings her sense of humor, her passion for student success and education to support the needs of students seeking assistance in our Career Center.

Vaishnavi Mansabdar
Industry and Campus Partnership Specialist

Vaishnavi Mansabdar is an international student, currently pursuing her DrPH in Leadership & Management at Claremont Graduate University with a focus in Healthcare Policies & Community-Based Translational Research. Her background is in Biochemistry with a dual degree in Food Science & Quality Control along with her Master’s in Public Health. She is also working towards teacher training and a Master’s in Fine Arts with a major in Bharatnatyam (Indian Classical Dance) under UNESCO. Through her professional experiences, her research goals lean toward advancing healthcare oncology policy for cancer survivors and creating a concept of dance therapy that goes hand-in-hand with physical therapy in healthcare treatments.