On this episode of the Grad Girl Wellness Podcast, we’re diving into all things leadership + higher education with the brilliant Dr. Nicole Rayfield. 🎓💛

She holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership with a focus on organizational citizenship behavior in Black women in academic spaces—aka all the extra labor we do that often goes unrecognized. 🙃✨

Get your notebooks ready, because she drops so many gems, including:

1️⃣ How to identify your “strategic yes” and decide if a leadership role is truly for you

2️⃣ How to step away from positions that no longer serve your growth 🙅🏽‍♀️✨

3️⃣ How to spot your everyday leadership abilities (yes, you have them!) 💪🏽

4️⃣ How to quiet self-doubt and trust your leadership power 💭➡️✨

To learn more about Dr. Rayfield and her entrepreneurial brilliance, follow her on IG:

👉🏽 @officialdrnicolerayfield

👉🏽 @polishmeunbothered

or visit www.polishmeunbothered.com 💌

Tune in, take notes, and step into your leadership era, Grad Girl. 💛🎧✨

Awwww S.N.A.P.! 🎙️

On this episode, we sit down with Dr. Pearis Jean — psychologist, assistant professor, healer, and author. In her final year of graduate school, Dr. Jean developed a powerful model for Strategically Navigating Anti-Black Racism in Professional Spaces (S.N.A.P.) which is now a book! 📚

In this conversation, Dr. Jean shares insights on:

✨ Understanding and addressing anti-Black racism

🤝 Building peer support across graduate student cohorts

🧭 Using the S.N.A.P. decision-making model to prepare for, respond to and reflect on anti-Black racism

💡 Bonus: How a conference presentation turned into a book opportunity!

🌐 Connect with Dr. Jean:

Website: www.drpearisjean.com

Instagram: @pearisjeanphd

LinkedIn: Pearis Jean

📘 Check out the book:

Strategically Navigating Anti-Black Racism in Professional Spaces: A Practical Guide for Black People Responding to Racism in the Workplace — available wherever you buy books.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Destiny Williams-Dobosz, a postdoctoral fellow in Educational Psychology. Drawing from her own journey, Dr. Williams-Dobosz shares how personal experience became a doorway into her research on help-seeking among Black women in STEM and first-generation college students.

Our conversation explores:

• The resilience and vulnerability paradigm
• Redefining success in toxic environments
• Strategies for asking for help in college settings
• Ways to foster and support help-seeking behaviors in others

You can dive deeper into her work by reading her recent publication:

Williams-Dobosz, D. (2025). Storytelling as praxis: Leveraging a Black woman’s critical autoethnography as a first-generation college student to explore inequities and possibilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

🎓 You don’t have to do grad school alone! 💫

On this episode of the Grad Girl Wellness podcast, we sit down with Darrien Johnson, founder and CEO of The Community Curator — a social-impact consultancy supporting grassroots organizations across Philadelphia 🌆💼

With a Master’s in Non-Profit Organizational Management, Darrien shares her powerful journey of leaning into community to navigate grad school and build lasting impact.

Tune in to hear:

🤝 How to find community in unexpected places

🏡 The importance of leaning on your home base during academic challenges

🌱 Tips for building sustainable and intentional community

Want to learn more about Darrien and her incredible work? Follow her on LinkedIn to stay connected and inspired!

#GradGirlWellness #CommunityBuilding #BlackWomenInNonProfits #GradSchoolJourney

🎙️ On this episode of the Grad Girl Wellness podcast, we chat with designer, advocate, and creative visionary Diona Nicole! With a Master’s in User Experience and Interaction Design, Diona channeled her passion into founding Barren Fruit, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting those navigating infertility and reproductive health challenges 💛🌱

Tune in to hear:

✨ How Diona transformed an adjunct role into an opportunity for self-growth

🎓 How she used her master’s thesis to visualize the “silent” pain of women’s reproductive health

🤝 Practical ways to support someone experiencing reproductive health concerns

To learn more about Barren Fruit and the inspiring work Diona does to birth new ideas, visit Barrenfruit.org or follow her on IG at @Diona.Nicole 💫

#GradGirlWellness #ReproductiveHealth #InfertilityAwareness #WellnessJourney

Let's talk! On this episode of the podcast, we sit down with health advocate and doctoral student Shay Webb who is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Science. As someone diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis, she uses her passion for health equity to fuel her research and work in the legislative policy space. On this episode, you'll learn about:

• How and when to ask for accommodations
• The importance of building community
• How to manage advocacy work with pursuing a graduate work

To follow Shay's work you can subscribe to her newsletter "Webb of Diabetes", connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow on Instagram @shayd1t

Have you ever considered adjuncting as a side hustle or as a way to getting teaching experience on your CV? If so, this podcast is for you. On episode 36, we chat with Dr. Mecca Terry the originator of the "From Grad School to Adjunct" masterclass, which she developed based on10 years of working in an adjunct position. You'll learn the following just by tuning in:

-How to leverage an adjunct position for future job prospects 

-How to determine if an adjunct position is right for you

-Ways to begin your adjunct job search 

-The importance of wellness while adjuncting

-How to be ok with being told "no"

Dr. Terry will be hosting her "From Grad School to Adjunct" masterclass on Wednesday, January 29 from 6-7:30 pm EST. Go to drmeccaterry.com to register!

Remember that admission for graduate students is FREE!

While we wait for a graduate student edition of Pop the Balloon, here's our newest episode all about dating. Here, we chat with Dr. Dalesa Martinez Rueda (@docdalesa) who is a marriage and family therapist and owner of Inspired and Free (@inspiredandfreelife), an online therapy practice for children, adolescents, individuals, and groups in 10 states! Listen in for answers to the following questions:

• How to not measure our journeys by societal expectations?
• How to turn down the tendency to compare?
• What work should you do prior to getting on the dating scene?
• What are helpful resources you could rely on while dating in graduate school?

If you like what you hear, be sure to sign up for your free consultation at www.inspiredandfree.com!

This is a solo episode with Angela where she offers her five keys to gift giving as a graduate student.

On this episode, she not only tells you how to make the most of your limited grad school coins and where to look for deals, but she also takes the time to think through what it feels like to budget on a grad school stipend.

If you're on the market to buy something for yourself or a graduate student in your life, check out the GGW Etsy store which has lots of goodies--stickers, mugs, care packages and more!

If you missed the live recording of the Postdoc Perspective webinar earlier this year, this is your chance to catch the playback. On this episode, you’ll hear from three postdocs, Dr. Angela (Education), Dr. Reka (Education) and Dr. Christine (Microbiology), as they discuss all things postdoc. Some of the topics they discuss include; 

1. Why they chose a postdoc
2. How they knew their postdoc was a good fit
3. The best and worst parts of their positions
4. Ways to make additional money as a postdoc 

If you’ve ever considered a postdoc or don’t even know what it is, this recorded session is certainly for you!