Hanging OUt With...Blakely O'Connor
PhD '20 and Birmingham Regional Representative
What Harvard undergraduate, graduate, or executive education program did you complete or are enrolled in?
I earned my Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). My thesis was focused on engineering models of the placental and blood-brain-barriers for developmental toxicity testing.
What year did you graduate?
I graduated May 2020
What is your most memorable Harvard experience?
It's a tie. As President of the GSAS Student Council, I was invited to give a welcome address for incoming students in Sanders Theatre, an incredibly beautiful and intimidating space. I was honored to share the stage with President Bacow and the Deans of FAS and GSAS, as well as some laughs with the crowd about my U-Haul trek from Bama to Boston. Later, I was asked to deliver remarks as a 2020 GSAS Commencement Marshal, this time recording a speech alone in my living room due to the ongoing pandemic. It was less beautiful, more intimidating, but equally memorable!
What’s your Bama story—how’d you get here, what made you come back home or how’d you make the jump from Bama to Harvard?
My family and I moved back home to Alabama in August of 2020, a few months after graduating in the middle of the pandemic. To be honest, when I moved to Massachusetts in 2014 to pursue my PhD, I wasn't sure if we would ever come back. It was thrilling to explore a new part of the country, to work with and learn from incredibly talented people, and to be a part of a community with shared values.
Like many people from the South, I struggle(d) in the tension between running from the things in my home state that I don’t like and staying (or returning) to make it a better place. Over time, I felt drawn to come back to Alabama to fulfill the latter mission, and like Andrew mentioned in the earlier article, the isolation and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic helped accelerate that decision for us. After getting settled in, we are so excited to live in Birmingham and be a part of a thriving community that believes in the potential of our state.
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Blakely is the Regional Representative for The Harvard Club of Alabama. Connect with her and other board members here.