Rebecca received her PhD in German from the University of California-Irvine in 2010, and spent four years as a visiting professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Ohio State University before leaving to become a coach and journalist. In her coaching practice, she has helped dozens of clients achieve their goals and feel empowered and in control of their lives. Rebecca’s sharp, incisive coverage of the American higher education landscape in Slate, the Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education and other outlets has, since her debut in 2013, been a leading voice in the conversation about academic labor, challenges to PhD completion, and other pressing issues in the field. She is the author of two books, Kafka and Wittgenstein (Northwestern University Press, 2015), based on her doctoral dissertation, and Schadenfreude, A Love Story (Flatiron/Macmillan, 2017), a comic memoir that details her misadventures with German literature and academia. As an experienced “committee whisperer,” Rebecca specializes in helping graduate students who have challenging relationships with the academy, whether that be adviser issues or general anxiety, and enjoys providing an array of dynamic support services with her coaching clients, including creating empowering work plans that really work, and navigating “tough-conversation” emails with mentors. She is particularly interested in working with humanities and social science dissertations, and those that specialize in women’s and gender studies and LGBTQ issues.
