Marla Privitera, MS

Marla Privitera is the Program Advisor for the Graduate Student-at-Large Program. She hails from Fredonia, NY though has lived in many different places, including a few in Central America, and is happily residing again in the Chicago-land area. She was previously the Assistant Director of Bridge and Partnership Programs at the Graham School (UChicago) as well as Assistant Director of Summer Session (UChicago), a Graduate Academic Advisor at American University in Washington, D.C., and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Engineering at Northwestern University where she led their Minority Engineering Opportunity Program to number one in the country for its retention rates. Marla has also been a middle school Dual Language teacher, a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, and is a certified yoga instructor who started her own Holistic Coaching business for peri, post, and menopausal women.

Marla’s main objective as the GSAL Program Advisor is to support its students with exemplary advising service, ensuring that all students who desire to bridge, successfully do so into future MA or PhD programs. She enjoys learning about each of her students and their unique paths through life, helping them explore fields of interest, choosing coursework, and connecting them with faculty, departmental advisors, and admissions directors of MA and PhD programs at UChicago. In this way, she knows her students are utilizing their GSAL time towards future graduate and professional studies.