Nicole Gesualdo has had a wide-ranging career that spans newspaper journalism, higher-education strategy, marketing and communications, commercial aviation, and, in some earlier incarnations, making custom ice-cream cakes and teaching kids how to not flip over a sailboat. She works with Chicago Tech Circle alongside her full-time airline career.

Nicole grew up wanting to be a fighter pilot (you can tell from the list above that this did not happen) at a time when women in the U.S. military were still excluded from doing so. Ever since then, it’s been important to her that every person has the full opportunity to choose whatever field or job they might want. Through Chicago Tech Circle, she helps today’s students develop the skills they need for their careers of choice.

Raised on Long Island and having spent most of her adult life in Brooklyn and Queens, Nicole will always consider New York home but now lives in the Washington, D.C., area. She holds a PhD in communication from Rutgers University, a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Georgetown. On her off days, you can find her on bike trails, at cake bakeries, sitting at the end of an airport runway watching planes land, hanging out by the water, and accumulating far more hooded sweatshirts than any one person could possibly need.