Our June MCDB Alumni Spotlight is highlighting Dr. Anisha Kalidindi! Dr. Kalidindi is an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. She graduated from MCDB in 2022.

We asked Dr. Kalidindi some questions about her experience as an MCDB student, as well as her career since graduating from the program.

• Can you briefly describe your current role and the path that led you there after graduating from the MCDB program?
  I'm an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where I work with life sciences companies on strategy and operations. That can look like a lot of different things. Helping an organization build better processes for tracking drug assets from early research through clinical development, or supporting due diligence on mergers and acquisitions.
  
  My path here wasn't exactly linear. In MCDB I was deep in neuroscience research, and for a long time I assumed I'd go the academic route. I even had funding lined up for a postdoc. But somewhere along the way I got curious about what it actually looks like to translate science into real-world impact at scale. Consulting felt like a way to stay close to the science while also getting to engage with the bigger strategic and business questions in the industry.
• Looking back, what part of the program best prepared you for your current role?
  Learning how to sit with uncertainty and keep going anyway. Research doesn't follow a clean script. Experiments fail, hypotheses fall apart, and you have to figure out how to adapt without losing momentum. That's been really useful in consulting, where ambiguity is basically a constant.
  
  The program also taught me a lot about working with people. Graduate school can feel like a very individual pursuit, and in some ways it is. You own your thesis, you're responsible for driving your own work forward. But my experience in the lab was really team driven. A lot of our experiments required multiple people, so we were constantly collaborating with lab mates, sharing resources, and figuring out how to get things done together. That balance of individual ownership and team collaboration is something I rely on in my work now.
• What is one memorable or favorite moment that you have from your time at OSU or in the MCDB program?
  It's the small stuff I remember most. The everyday moments with classmates, running to the hospital cafeteria in the middle of a long experiment day, debriefing over bad coffee, laughing through the frustrating stretches. I was lucky enough to have someone from my cohort in the same lab, which made those long days a lot more bearable.
  
  And then there were the late-night time points. When you study circadian rhythms, you end up in the lab at some genuinely unreasonable hours, working under red lights and watching mice for hours. At the time it felt exhausting. Looking back, those nights are some of my most vivid memories from graduate school. There's a real intimacy to doing that kind of work with people you trust, working towards a common goal. It's something I still find in consulting today. A lot of what I do happens in small teams, working through hard problems together, and some of the best moments come from those late nights.
• If you could go back to your first year in MCDB, what would you tell yourself?
  Write a plan, but do it in pencil.
  I came into graduate school with a clear vision of where I was headed, and I'm glad I had that direction. But the most important things I did were the detours. Writing popular science pieces. Working in the tech transfer office on patent applications. Neither became my career, but both opened doors I didn't know existed and helped me understand how science creates impact far beyond the lab.
• Are there any specific accomplishments that you're proud of since graduating that you would like to highlight?
  Putting down real roots in Cleveland. After grad school, it would have been easy to treat wherever I landed as temporary. Instead I leaned in. I joined the board of a local public high school focused on science and medicine, and getting to meet students as they start to explore careers in healthcare and science is one of the most rewarding things I do. It keeps me connected to what drew me to science in the first place.
  Graduate school can feel like you're always in transit. Finding community and investing in the place you actually live has been really meaningful.
• Outside of work, what's something fun or interesting you've done recently?
  Honestly, mostly following our dog Moose around. Cleveland's neighborhoods, the lake, and the Metroparks have given us plenty to explore.
• Is there anywhere online where students can learn more about your work or connect with you?
  Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or email, whether you're thinking about consulting, exploring what comes next, or just have questions about life after MCDB.