Alumni Profiles

With a PhD in business, you might not expect Chris Boerner, AB ’93,  to be fighting cancer. Yet as head of international markets at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he works to bring life-saving immuno-oncology cancer drugs to international markets. In his free time, Boerner participates in two bike rides that raise more than $1 million annually for cancer research.

Joyce Trimuel, EMBA ’16, has always seen her career advancement as a chance to help others. Now, as the diversity and inclusion officer for CNA, she’s making its corporate culture more inclusive.

In Chicago, Steven Collens, AB ’93, was instrumental in starting 1871 and MATTER, co-working spaces for tech and health-care startups, respectively.

Paul Pariser, AB ’76, is reshaping Manhattan with his real estate development and investment firm, Taconic Investment Partners.

George Liu, EMBA ’08, learned American management styles at the Washington University/Fudan University Executive MBA program. He was able to grow his silk exporter business as a result.

Emma Zhao, MSW ’11, discovered how much she enjoyed development when she was a student at the Brown School. Now she gets to work in the field for the university that sparked the interest.

Stephanie Beamer, Crystal Ellis and Hillary Petrie, all 2006 architecture graduates, became friends and collaborators while students at Washington University. Now, they run the award-winning furniture design company Egg Collective in New York City.

When Sam Coster, AB ’12, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at age 23, he knew his life had to change. A game developer who made irreverent endless runners for mobile, Coster and his brothers, who run the game development studio Butterscotch Shenanigans, decided to create their most imaginative and ambitious game to date, Crashlands.

As a survivor of sex trafficking, Katie Rhoades, MSW ’11, is passionate about helping women in the commercial sex industry. After graduating from the Brown School, she founded Healing Action, a nonprofit that helps women move on from their trauma.

Kristin Bauer Van Straten, BFA ’88, is best known for playing the fashionable, no-nonsense vampire Pam De Beaufort on HBO’s True Blood. But when she was younger, she was interested in another art, painting, which led her to Washington University.