Graduate Career Team

Erin Brown is the Associate Director for UCLA’s Graduate Career Services, providing career exploration and professional development programming, as well as individual career coaching, to UCLA graduate students. Having completed her PhD in History at UCLA, she has a deep connection to UCLA’s graduate communities and is committed to helping graduate students successfully pursue their career goals. Erin brings a wealth of industry experience to this position, having worked at two multi-national corporations (including Toyota), as well as having founded and operated a preservation consulting firm in northern California. While at UCLA, she taught in multiple departments and was a writing consultant for UCLA’s Gradate Writing Center. She has previously taught at CSU Chico, where she holds a master’s degree in Construction Management. An ardent advocate of thinking outside the box and testing limits, Erin enthusiastically supports students who want to use their graduate training in innovative and unexpected ways.

Eddie Cleofe is the Assistant Director, Masters Students at the UCLA Career Center, where he leads the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of programming and resources designed to address the unique needs and strengths of UCLA’s 7000+ master’s students. He started his career in higher ed administration while an undergrad at Brown University, where he coordinated events and facilitated programming for student of color outreach and recruitment with the Office of College Admission. Before joining UCLA, Eddie worked for several Seattle-based non-profits, including Youth Development Executives of King County, where he created and facilitated trainings and designed professional development resources for employees of over 115 member organizations in the youth-serving non-profit sector.

Eddie earned his PhD at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and serves as the human skeletal remains specialist for the Bicol Archaeological Project. His research explores indigenous responses to Spanish colonialism in the early modern Philippines, and his dissertation project examined changes in funerary practices, grave goods, and skeletal biology in a cemetery used for over 5 centuries in the Bicol region of the Philippines.

Gaby Barrios is the Assistant Director for STEM PhDs for UCLA’s Graduate Career Services, helping STEM PhD students and postdocs find employment within and beyond academia. She offers career coaching services in English and Spanish. After finishing her PhD at UCLA, she found a calling in helping others like herself find fulfilling employment after grad school. Gaby has worked in multiple offices on campus advocating for graduate student needs and more. She taught for over seven years at UCLA in multiple departments including Writing Programs, Spanish and Portuguese, and Urban Planning. A firm believer in the power of a graduate degree, Gaby is dedicated to creating more opportunities for UCLA grad students and postdoctoral scholars.

Julia is a STEM Graduate Student Career Consultant at the UCLA Career Center. Within the Career Center, Julia is involved in team development, marketing, and career consulting 1:1 appointments for both masters and Ph.D. students. Previously to her experience at the Career Center, Julia worked at the Graduate Student Resource Center as an InterGrad Dialogue Program Coordinator.

Currently, Julia is a fourth-year doctoral student at UCLA in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department and 2023 National Science Foundation Fellowship recipient. Her research specialization is quantifying photosynthetic efficiency in the tropical rainforest, and she is passionate about using science and technology to preserve natural resources and ecosystems.

Jessica is a PhD candidate in Sociology. She has recently retired from the Air Force with experience in Air Traffic Control and Landing Systems, Weather Radar, Security Forces, Equal Employment Opportunity, Aviation, and Public Affairs. She will be joining the STEM PhD and Postdocs consulting team.

Sophie Kronsberg is a Graduate Career Consultant specializing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) with experience in coaching students who are interested in academic and/or non-academic careers, as well as event planning and facilitating. In 2024, she facilitated the HASS Academic Job Series, and in 2025, she spearheaded the completion of a Resume Book for HASS PhDs pursuing careers outside academia. She is especially passionate about helping students to craft their own personal narratives, which are vital to strong application documents and interviews, and have the added benefit of boosting self-confidence. Sophie is a final stage PhD candidate in English and her dissertation research focuses on narratives of education in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, as formalized systems were developing Britain. Sophie’s other current endeavors include completing a Certificate in College Counseling and working as the head Application Coach for CA College Prep. With nearly a decade of teaching, advising, and student affairs experience, Sophie enthusiastically supports students to achieve success.

Jade Levandofsky (they/them) is a Graduate Career Consultant working with doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences. After multiple internships and fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C, they moved to Los Angeles to earn their Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) from the School of Education and Information Studies. They are a 3rd year PhD Student in the Department of Information Studies where their research interests range from digital transformation and design practices in museums, the use of AI in pedagogical practices, and how information-seeking behaviors inform coalition building. Jade is passionate about connecting their research and pedagogy with the material conditions of those they work with as they bring this approach to their work at the career center by helping students chart their academic path and goals and consider careers beyond academia.

Fernando is a 4th year PhD candidate through the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry where he is co-advised with the Department of Materials Science Engineering. Fernando’s research is focused on finding an engineering solution to the rising demand of renewable energy needs by utilizing microbes to convert various sources of waste into a useful hydrogen product to sustain the emerging hydrogen economy.