People

As program director of Radius and as a chaplain in MIT’s Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life (ORSEL), Nicholas welcomes conversations with students, staff, faculty, and others in the MIT community on ethical issues in their fields as well as on matters of values-based personal discernment and discovery.

Prior to arriving at MIT in 2023, Nicholas innovated spiritual care programs in the field of population health at two healthcare institutions in Philadelphia. There he also co-founded and co-facilitated a community-based climate organizing initiative. Nicholas is a peer leader in FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics), which creates dialogues among engineers, businesspeople, attorneys, journalists, religious professionals, and physicians on pressing ethical issues of the day. He studied film and literature at Yale University and the University of Paris before turning to doctoral work in spirituality and counseling psychology at Fordham University, where his dissertation explored personality typology in the context of contemporary neuroscience.

Cat McNally is a PhD Student in History, Theory, Criticism of Art and Architecture and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. Focusing on Late Antique Jerusalem, her research investigates the spatiality of the sacred and religious interchange made manifest in material culture. Prior to MIT, she completed her MPhil in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Oxford and her BA in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania. With previous experience in the arts and education industries across the East Coast and Europe, she wishes to support others in leading a life that is in alignment with their values through various forms of critical engagement.

Graduate Community Fellows are a cadre of graduate students who work on projects and assignments that enhance graduate community in unique ways. Each Fellow reports to a staff member in the OGE or in a partner organization, and focuses on a specific project. As a cadre, Fellows meet regularly to coordinate efforts, and to pool their observations and reflections. They have the opportunity to advise the OGE about the needs of the graduate student community, and serve as an important conduit for informing the OGE about the graduate student experience.