Donna Dyer

Director, Career Services

Phone: 919.613.7383
Email: donna.dyer@duke.edu

Donna provides career planning and internship placement services for our Master of Public Policy Students, as well as maintaining our network of MPP alumni who provide valuable career assistance for our students. She received her undergraduate degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke in 1978. Until 1997, Donna's career was focused on creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income families in North Carolina, including positions in government and as Executive Director of an award-winning nonprofit development corporation. She returned to the Sanford School to share with our students the lessons she learned about the real world of policy formation and implementation.

Elise Goldwasser

Undergraduate Career Advisor and Senior Director of the Internship Program

Phone: 919.613.7311
Email: elise.goldwasser@duke.edu

Elise is responsible for helping our undergraduate majors locate and successfully complete their required internships, as many as 175 at a time. Elise received her AB and AM from Duke University and has lived in Durham for more than 20 years. She came to the Sanford School after teaching Arabic language courses, founding a nonprofit organization and working in medical research. In her spare time Elise swims with her daughter, tends her garden and avoids practicing the piano. She and her husband are active members of Beth El synagogue in Durham.

Carmella LaBianca

Global Policy Advisor

Phone: 919.613.7328
Email: carmella.labianca@duke.edu

Carmella helps Sanford graduate students decide which international internships best suit their immediate career goals and interests. She is also the internship coordinator for the Program on Global Policy and Governance held in Geneva each summer. In past lives, she has been an international student advisor at The New School, an assistant program officer at CDS International, an EFL teacher in Germany, and has also worked at various non-profits in Durham, New York and California. She received her BA in German Studies from Bard College and her MA in German Literature from the Freie Universitaet in Berlin. When she is not eating cheese she can be found drawing comics with her partner, Matt.

Suzanne Valdivia

Assistant Director of Undergraduate Internships

Phone: 919.613.7426
Email: suzanne.valdivia@duke.edu

Suzanne works with undergraduates, helping them find internships that match their interests and ensuring they complete the process. She handled communications at Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy for two years and, prior to that, worked for several different nonprofits in community affairs and communications.  She did research, writing, and editing for a consulting company that assists domestic and international nonprofits with strategic planning and grant proposal development. She has a Masters in Mass Communications from San Jose State and a BA in American/English Literature from the University of California-Santa Cruz.  She lives in Carrboro where she dodges hula hoopers on the way to the grocery store with her son and husband.  She is an avid soccer fan and plays in a pickup game every Sunday. 

Nicole Kubinsky

Office Mananger

Phone: 919.613.7381
Email: nicole.kubinsky@duke.edu

Nicole provides office support for Career Services. Nicole received her BA in Anthropology from Western Carolina University. She lives in Durham with her husband, Michael, and their dog, Lucy.