This event will feature an alumni panel moderated by Professor Laura Edwards, Department Chair. History alumni on different career paths will discuss why they chose History as a major, and how that decision led them to where they are now, followed by a Q&A. Boba tea and sushi will be served at the reception to immediately follow. 

Featuring Department of History Alumni: 

Manuel (Manny) Perez ’11, Cabrera Capital Market

Manuel (Manny) Pérez serves as Senior Vice President at Cabrera Capital Markets, a leading Latino-owned investment bank and institutional brokerage, where he focuses on real estate and public finance. Prior to joining Cabrera, Pérez served as Deputy Mayor at the City of Chicago, leading Mayor Lightfoot’s legislative agenda at the local, state and federal level. During his tenure, Pérez shepherded thousands of legislative items at the city, including Chicago’s first-ever casino, civilian oversight of police, and operating budgets totaling over $40 billion. Before joining City Hall, Pérez was the campaign manager for Mayor Lightfoot and served as the Intergovernmental Affairs Director for the transition. He has led a variety of campaigns at the local, state, and federal level, including Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García’s first successful run for Congress in 2018 and his run for Mayor in 2015. In Cook County government, Pérez has served as Special Assistant to the President of the County Board, Chief of Staff to the County Clerk, and Chief of Staff to then-Commissioner García. He graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and resides in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.​

Isabel Kasdin ‘14, New Jersey Cultural Trust

Izzy Kasdin currently serves as Executive Director of the New Jersey Cultural Trust, a grantmaking agency for the cultural sector within New Jersey state government. Prior to this role, she served as Executive Director of the Historical Society of Princeton, after serving as their Curator of Collections and Exhibitions. Izzy concentrated in History and earned a certificate in American Studies at Princeton, graduating in 2014. She received her MPhil (Masters) in Archaeological Heritage and Museums from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She completed her archaeological field school training in colonial American material culture at the College of William and Mary in 2011.

Caroline Kitchener ‘14, The Washington Post

Caroline Kitchener is a national reporter covering abortion at The Washington Post. She won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for her coverage of the fall of Roe v. Wade, along with a 2023 duPont-Columbia award. Before joining the national staff at The Post, Caroline wrote about women and gender for The Lily, the Post’s vertical for millennial women. Her nonfiction book, "Post Grad: Five Women and Their First Year Out of College," follows the lives of five women in their first year after their college graduation.

Charlotte Champ ’20, McKinsey 

Charlotte is currently living in New York and working in management consulting. At Princeton, she majored in History and did her Junior and Senior independent work with Professor Graham Burnett. Her senior thesis was titled “Man, machine and monitor: The militarization of attention through vigilance in the twentieth century” and focused on military research on the topics of vigilance and attention. Charlotte has spent the past four years working at a consulting firm where she leads small teams of colleagues and advises industrial clients across a range of topics. 

Kenneth Gonzalez Santibanez ‘22, Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice

Kenneth is a Legal Advocate at the Survivor Justice Center, where he provides direct legal services to low-income survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking across multiple legal practice areas, including housing, consumer debt, family law, domestic violence prevention, and public benefits appeals. At the Center, Kenneth helped co-create and develop its new housing law and consumer debt law projects. Kenneth joined the Center after graduating from Princeton in 2022. With plans to attend law school in the coming years, Kenneth hopes to continue his work serving survivors and immigrants as an attorney.