Alumna Kara Rodby Charges Forward, Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30

Since graduating from Northwestern with a B.S. in environmental engineering, Kara Rodby has charged forward: She graduated with her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technical Engineering; while there, she interned for Volta Energy Technologies---a thematic / specialized venture capital firm that invests in companies commercializing hard tech related to energy storage. She quickly rose through the ranks to become Technical Principal at Volta where she uses her unique educational background to conduct technical due diligence on prospective startups and develop broader investment theses for the firm, among other roles. Essentially, she is a generalist on battery-related technologies. She's recently captured national attention, too, when she was named to Forbes' 2023 30 Under 30 in Energy. 

Why did you choose Northwestern to pursue your undergraduate degree?  

Honestly, my mom was a doctor at Northwestern Medicine and my tuition was nearly free...But I really loved the beautiful campus, the proximity to Chicago (my hometown and the best city!), and the strong STEM programs.

Maybe a more interesting question is how I ended up in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. I started off in the liberal arts school with a plan to pursue a degree in Environmental Sciences while fulfilling the pre-medical requirements. After taking some of the introductory EnvSci classes, I realized it was not the right discipline for me. As a very action-oriented person who seeks to make impact, I was more interested in understanding the mechanics of the problems and using that knowledge to develop solutions. Thus, I transferred into the McCormick School of Engineering in the middle of my sophomore year and played catch-up for the rest of my time at NU. This meant no study abroad and very little non-STEM classes. But it was all worth it, as I was able to learn so many more fundamental skills (deeper calculus, computer programming, fluid mechanics, etc.).

Can you recall a moment from your time at Northwestern that impacted or inspired you?   

I was involved with a student club called NU Real Food (NURF), which was a local embodiment of a broader, national movement to shift institutions' food sources towards more local, ethical, just, and humane sources. Through community education and outreach, we were able to build up significant support for this movement, and ultimately got President Schapiro to sign a commitment to this end. This required buy-in from a lot of decision-makers in the administration, who were convinced of the feasibility and benefits of the plan over time through a lot of data, analysis, and discussions. Seeing all of this hard work pay off was very inspiring, and showed me the power of collective action. This led to my later involvement in unionizing the graduate workers at MIT, another incredible feat and testament to the fact that anything truly is possible with hard work and building consensus and power among peers.

What advice would you give to prospective students?   

While I have had a very fortunate career so far, it was highly unplanned. My guiding philosophy has simply been: Be present and say yes to as many opportunities as you can. Particularly, saying yes to opportunities that may seem scary, daunting, etc. These are often great opportunities and you will surprise yourself. You should practice being uncomfortable and overcoming your own fear. Saying yes to opportunities means being there to receive them. You should talk to your professors, visiting lecturers and speakers--go to that talk or info session and ask about opportunities even if they're not explicit.

I got my first (and only) undergrad internship by connecting with a startup CEO at the NUVention pitch event. I got my current job by requesting an informational interview with someone I was put in contact with through a mutual connection. I only applied to MIT due to encouragement from my undergraduate research advisor; I was only able to be an attractive applicant for this degree because I had done two years of independent research (and a thesis) with that advisor during my sophomore year. To this end, keep your options open by pursuing a multitude of experiences during your time at NU: try an external internship, do an independent research project with a professor at NU, join a relevant extracurricular. But also evaluate your activities as you go and ask: Is this serving me? Am I growing and learning from this opportunity? There is little value in doing activities just for the sake of checking a box for your resume. I would aim to do less that has higher impact over doing more that is less useful.

How do you feel that the Civil & Environmental Engineering program at Northwestern prepared you for life after your education?   

The curriculum exposed me to the vast array of issues that make up climate change. This gave me a great survey to then decide what aspect(s) I found most interesting and/or pertinent to pursue with my career. For me, this ended up being the energy side of things. Of course, it also gave me great baseline engineering skills to work with. Finally, the flexibility in the curriculum also allowed me to explore my sub-interests more deeply. For example, I took the NUVention Entrepreneurship course focused on energy. This was my first exposure to the role of entrepreneurship in the energy sector, which is where I now work. That class also connected me with new founders and industry veterans that I still keep in contact with and run into at events today.

What would you say is the biggest challenge you faced after graduating? How did you overcome it?   

The biggest challenge I faced is learning how to apply a general knowledge set and skill base to new and unique topics, problems, etc. School is oriented towards known problems with known solutions, in a defined topic/approach. The real world is much less concrete and straightforward, following less patterns. The more you can practice applying your knowledge to unfamiliar problems, the better prepared you will be to do this in your career (and any career with real impact will likely require you to do this). This is as much about practicing the skill as it is developing the self-confidence in your ability to approach unfamiliar problems.

I was lucky that my Ph.D. program had an optional one-semester program called the Practice School that threw me in the deep end: We were sent in groups of 3 to solve real problems for real companies over 1 month periods. These problems covered topics well outside my expertise, but I was able to use my fundamental Chemical Engineering background to approach them. We were able to get real traction on some real pain points for some big companies, and that was a very empowering experience. I even found out that one of the companies is patenting the work we did, which will be my first ever patent I am a part of!

What is one thing you are passionate about? 

I'm passionate about promoting equitable and supportive work environments. I was very involved in the graduate student movement that successfully unionized the graduate workers at MIT. I think our generation is taking major, positive steps forward in redefining what have been long-established and antiquated (often sexist, racist, etc.) norms, and I am very supportive of these changes!