Dr. Coral Fernandez-Illescas holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from the Environmental Engineering and Water Resources Program at Princeton University and a Masters of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London, UK. She has over 25 years of experience practicing STEM in international development at the Asian and Inter-American Development Banks and in academia as a STEM faculty, dean, researcher, advisor, and mentor at Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of Connecticut. In her role as Director of the Bridge to Ph.D. Program in STEM at Columbia, she looks forward to working together across faculty and student affairs to increase the participation of students from underrepresented groups in Ph.D. programs in STEM disciplines.