Kristin Sowden currently serves as an associate director of career advising and programming at the University of Pennsylvania in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, a division of the School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to Penn, Kristin worked for nearly eight years at James Madison University in both academic and career advising, mostly with students in the College of Integrated Science and Engineering. Kristin holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, a Master of Education in counseling psychology, and a PhD in strategic leadership and organization science. She began her career in education as a middle school language arts teacher. Her passion has always been in helping students develop the confidence, competence, and connection to do their best in work they find purposeful. Her research interests are in resilience, recruitment and retention, and first-generation college student success. In her spare time, Kristin enjoys spending time with her husband and twins, Luke and Olivia, reading, and being outdoors.
