Fall 2025 Welcome Message from Dean Mayo
While you work to obtain advanced knowledge and valuable skills, we in TGS appreciate all that you contribute to our growth as an institution.”
Kelly Mayo
Dean of The Graduate School and Associate Provost for Graduate Education
Dear members of The Graduate School (TGS) community,
I would like to extend my warmest greetings as we begin a new academic year and enjoy a beautiful autumn. Welcome back to those returning, and welcome to those who just arrived and are joining us from more than 40 countries around the world.
My team and I are here to support graduate students and postdocs as you embrace the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. TGS is a place where learning, discovery, and creativity flourish. Your unique ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives contribute to a vibrant and exciting academic culture conducive to learning through shared experiences. We are stronger as an institution and better as a university because of you.
As you wander through our campuses, you will find a TGS presence everywhere. Members of our graduate community can be found in classrooms helping to teach and inspire emerging scholars, in labs running groundbreaking experiments, in studios creating expression through music and performance, and on our athletic fields igniting a sense of teamwork and school spirit. In addition, TGS students and postdocs contribute to local neighborhoods, schools, museums, prisons, clinics, libraries, and theaters, sharing their research and engaging the communities that Northwestern calls home. In these ways and many others, graduate students and postdocs are an essential part of Northwestern at its best. While you work to obtain advanced knowledge and valuable skills, we in TGS appreciate all that you contribute to our growth as an institution.
To aid in your endeavors, our dedicated team at TGS provides a wide variety of resources and support. We offer quarterly career and professional development programming opportunities, and we invite you to explore the programming tool on our PhD and Postdoc Careers website to identify customized skill-building opportunities. We also help foster connections through sponsored graduate student and postdoc organizations as well as TGS Hangouts, which provide the chance to gather for fun events and meet new friends. In addition, our Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Success (GPS) is dedicated to supporting a holistic experience and your academic progress to ensure you thrive and obtain your full potential. These are just some of the many ways we can help you navigate your journey, and I hope you will reach out to me or anyone in TGS whenever we can be of assistance.
It has been an absolute pleasure to meet many of you at our fall events. I continue to be inspired by your accomplishments and commitment to your personal growth and that of others. Thank you for being here, and my best wishes for the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Kelly E. Mayo
Walter and Jennie Bayne Professor of Molecular Biosciences
Dean of The Graduate School and
Associate Provost for Graduate Education
Categories: From the Dean