Alumni@Work

Maureen Walton received her PhD in Geosciences in the spring of 2016. She is currently working as a Geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, where she researches marine geohazards offshore of the U.S. West Coast and southeastern Alaska. Maureen is interested in active tectonics, earthquake seismology, submarine landslides, and subsurface fluid flow, and regularly goes out to sea on research vessels to collect marine geophysical data to study these geologic phenomena. After processing and analyzing field data, Maureen writes up and publishes the interpretations in peer-reviewed scientific journals to communicate the results to the scientific community and to the public.

Harsh Gugale received his Masters degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin in 2020. He is currently working as a GPU Modeling Architect at ARM Inc. where he is a part of the Central Technology group responsible for architecture exploration and high level modeling for future generations of Mali GPU IP.

Joanna D. Sánchez received her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy from UT-Austin in 2017. She is currently working as a Chief of Staff at Excelencia in Education, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Excelencia’s work focuses on promoting Latino student post-secondary success by conducting research and data analysis to inform educational policies and advancing evidence-based institutional practices. Joanna provides oversight of Excelencia’s programmatic portfolio in coordination with executives including alignment of program staffing, funding, and development. She also supports the cultivation of a high-performance organizational culture by further developing and implementing recruitment, training, and retention strategies. Prior to joining Excelencia, Joanna completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Howard University funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She received her B.S. in Geosciences from Trinity University and her M.S. in Geographic Information Science from the University of Denver. Joanna is a first-generation college graduate and proud alum of the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program. Her hometown is Pharr, TX.

Jason received his PhD from UT Austin in 2017 in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. He is currently working as an Assistant professor of Arabic at VMI where he teaches Arabic language and culture and conducts research on Arabic Linguistics.

Joyce Wong received her master’s degree in Human Dimensions of Organizations from UT–Austin in 2020. She is currently working as a Grant Manager at Porticus, where she manages some development projects/grants in Southeast Asia. Joyce has more than ten years of programs and operations management experience for various international non–profit organizations, including the United Nations Development Program and World vision, for programs across Asia and Africa.