The Columbia Climate School Office of Undergraduate Programs recently hosted its third annual Alumni Career Conversations Panel, featuring three alumni from the Sustainable Development Program (SDEV). The event offered an opportunity for current Columbia students to learn about the various sectors and future career paths open to students interested in pursuing climate and sustainability-related careers. Kayran Abasali (CC’13), Annie Evangelakos (Block) (CC’19) and Anthony Perez (CC’21) shared their diverse experiences during and after the program, including work spanning both the public and private sectors.
The panel was moderated by Jason Smerdon, professor of climate, co-director of the Climate School’s M.S. in Climate and previous co-director of the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development at Columbia.
At Columbia, Abasali was part of the sixth class to graduate from the special concentration in Sustainable Development, which aligned with her goal of pursuing a degree with social impact. Abasali began her career in tech sales at IBM, and has since worked in ESG consulting within the tech industry. She is currently completing her M.B.A., and recently launched her own social impact venture focused on helping women in the Caribbean get access to STEM careers.
Evangelakos is a project manager of sustainable buildings at Jones Lang LaSalle, where she works on mitigating emissions through energy efficient building design. Through her Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification and undergraduate thesis on green infrastructure in Brooklyn, she gained an interest in sustainable infrastructure, which she now brings to projects with architects and building developers.
As the most recent graduate of the Sustainable Development program, Anthony Perez currently works as a senior analyst at the Resiliency Task Force in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Budget Management. For his senior capstone, Perez worked on establishing financial pathways for communities along the Hudson River north of New York City—a project that shaped his trajectory post-graduation. Through this experience, Perez not only gained familiarity with public grants programs and budget allocation, but he also learned how to apply these programs to understanding sustainability and climate resilience.
While the three panelists have taken different paths after graduation, they had similar reasons for wanting to pursue a career in sustainable development. “I didn’t want to be in a lab my whole life. Instead [I wanted to] work directly with people while still focusing on science,” Evangelakos said.
For the speakers, the SDEV program provided an opportunity to engage with science while simultaneously learning how to apply it to careers in policy, business and ESG. Students in the audience explored this intersection, asking panelists how the SDEV program has shaped their current professional roles.
Perez explained that the understanding of the social and policy aspects of climate he gained as a student has been crucial in his work with the New York City government. “At my job everyone has a climate background, but the social aspect is what helps me thrive,” he said.
Through a balance of physical science, policy and social impact, the SDEV program sets up graduates to work in diverse fields, in which these ideas are applied in both the public and private sectors.
Abasali’s professional career has spanned multiple sectors and scopes within tech, consulting and social impact. However, everything she has worked on “circles back to sustainability,” she said.
The Sustainable Development program provides an enriching background for alumni to tackle challenges in climate and sustainability head on, opening a wide variety of career paths, and offering opportunities to engage in meaningful work within climate and sustainability in various fields.
As the Climate School’s undergraduate program offerings expand to include a Sustainable Development minor and a Climate and Sustainability major, students are encouraged to explore climate and sustainability from all perspectives. As exemplified by the alumni panel, the impact of these programs is felt across this work—from ESG to finance to government planning.
For all three panelists, the multidisciplinary aspect of the program has guided them throughout their careers and remains a key element of their success today. “Education plays a major role. After 10 years, I remember things I have learned in the program which I am now revisiting in my M.B.A.,” said Abasali.
