Talking with Roee Shraga: On Taking “Leading Self and Others” As a Postdoc

When Roee Shraga finished his doctoral degree in 2020, his choices led him and his wife and children from their home in Israel across the world to Northeastern University. After earning a PhD in data science from Israel’s top technical university, he found himself in Boston working in the lab of Khoury College of Computer Sciences Distinguished Professor Renée Miller, using machine learning tools to comb through and easily view different data sources in the field of data integration.

Of the many decisions he made during his postdoc—about research, fellowships, or courses—one profoundly impacted his quality of life: Taking the PhD Network’s LEADERs “Leading Self and Others” course.

Today, as an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Shraga has moved from mentee into the role of mentor—recently returning to Northeastern as guest speaker at a networking event for LEADERs. We sat down with Shraga to discuss the value of the LEADERs program for all postdocs as they prepare to transition into the world.

Anna Fiorentino: What drew you to the LEADERs program as a postdoc in the first place?

Roee Shraga: At Northeastern, in my lab, there were four faculty members and several students. As the only postdoc, you notice the age difference. I’m closer in age to the junior professors than to the students, but there is an obvious separation of roles between professors and postdocs. A postdoc is more like a senior student, but that’s not always the case. I think if it was reversed—if a postdoc was considered as a junior professor—that would have been easier.

I’d always had my community as a PhD student and I was looking for something equivalent during my postdoc. It wasn’t easy to find. We had orientation with other employees—not that I have an issue being called an employee because I was an employee. But the orientation was general, not specific to postdocs. Like many postdocs, I’d fallen between the cracks between being a PhD and being a faculty member. So when my department suggested LEADERs to me, it felt right. Starting with the mentoring program, I finally began to grow my community through LEADERs.

AF: Can you tell me about the mentorship you received through LEADERs?

RS: The mentorship I received from [the PhD Network’s director of partnership relations] Jason Sidman was game changing. My advisor was already very involved in what I was doing, so Jason became someone to talk to outside the lab about the things that I was going through research-wise and beyond. He suggested that I take the LEADERs course over that summer and that was just as eye opening. Years later, more recently, I became a guest speaker during a LEADERs event that the PhD Network threw for postdocs, which wasn’t there when I joined. I got to see how much the program had grown in just a few years.

AF: Can you tell me more about what you gained from the “Leading Self and Others” course? 

RS: It’s the discussions and the people I met that stand out. In the class, I found companionship after feeling siloed as the only postdoc in my lab. Working in groups with others with diverse expertise outside of computer science taught me a lot.

I learned that writing a grant proposal wasn’t only about showing fancy techniques that were working in a domain. It was about breaking down my work in lay terms and translating it across disciplines. I realized the importance of collaborating with individuals who weren’t necessarily in computer science. What I got most was from the discussions and the people that I met was that they forced me to consider my work from an external perspective. Hearing different points of view changed my thinking about how I pursued—and was eventually granted—a National Science Foundation grant around the course’s required research project, the aim of which was to provide semantic understanding of data versioning, a key ingredient in handling and managing data.

AF: What advice would you give to a postdoc considering the LEADERs program?

Don’t take LEADERS to tick a box or to add a line to your CV. Do it to gain leadership skills and exposure to things and experiences that you do not see in your day-to-day life. Do it to develop the skills to deliver your research to a wider audience.

Do it for the course’s requirement to create a presentation about yourself and why you’re capable of leading, highlighting your research will help you polish your skills. The feedback you’ll get both from your peers and from the instructors will be crucial. And you get to know people fast because you work in teams, discussing a predefined topic. LEADERs requires a lot of work and you have to be willing to put that work in to get the most from it, which is true to a lot of things in life. Now I tell my students that same thing.

AF: Any final words of advice for postdocs and PhD students coming to Boston to attend Northeastern from across the world?

Treat it as your new home and try to make as many connections as possible. Even if the plan is to go back to your home country, plans may change. My original plan was to go back to Israel for an academic position, but we fell in love with Boston and Northeastern and everything that came with it and decided to stay.

Upon completion of the “Leading Self and Others” course, LEADERs program staff and partner companies select fellows who align with specific industry needs. PhDs are supported through the fellowship application process and placed in a specialized role to solve a problem in industry. They go on to earn a LEADERs’ Experiential PhD leadership certificate, with guidance from an industry mentor and faculty advisor. The program is run by the PhD Network, which helps prepare students to enter the workforce as impactful researchers.

If you are a postdoc interested in the LEADERs program, sign up or contact Wendy Eaton, director of LEADERs partnership relations. Follow us on LinkedIn.