Goodyear Speaker Shares Her Career Journey with Students

Head of School Cathy McGehee, Lauren G. ’26, and Caroline W. ’26 participated in a “fireside chat” type of informal question and answer session in the Audrey Bruce Currier Library before opening the floor to audience questions. Following are some key takeaways from that discussion. 

Cohen’s interest in social impact began long before she knew what to call it, having grown up regularly participating in community service, “...my mom always focused on giving back to the community … understanding the world around us and people that have different experiences and that deal with all different issues, ranging from gender equity and racial equity and mental health and food insecurity, so it was something that I cared deeply about, and I knew that I wanted my career to touch on that in some way.”

Starting with an undergraduate degree in psychology and nutrition, then later a degree in public health communication and marketing, and ultimately a certificate in corporate social responsibility, Cohen shared that her career path was not linear. “I always say, pencil in your plan, but make sure it's erasable because nothing is permanent, and our career paths and our life paths are not linear. What's really exciting is that you can step into a job and figure out your favorite parts of that job and allow that to lead you to all the other steps along the way.” She also offered sage advice when pursuing job and networking opportunities like, “You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you” and “Mentors come at all levels. It's about seeking out someone who you are inspired by, who you want to learn from.”

Before working at Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund, the company and nonprofit created by actress and singer Selena Gomez, Cohen was the Deputy Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s "Let’s Move!" initiative focused on childhood health. “I learned a lot from her,” reflected Cohen. “She's played a lot of roles in her career and her family life, and learning how to navigate that is something that I think we all could learn from. That and seeing how authentic she is. At the end of the day, these big public figures can only create influence and change if we like them; if they are authentic and we believe what they're saying and what they're trying to do. I think that's the power and magic of Michelle Obama and Selena Gomez.”

She also revealed that Mrs. Obama is a key inspiration and personal role model. “My takeaway from someone like her is that you can represent so many different parts of yourself. You can be a mom, you can be a partner, you can be an employee, you can lead a career. It's really about assessing at what point in life are you stepping into one of those roles in a bigger way and perhaps stepping back a little bit from one of those roles because the hard thing is, we can't do all of it 100% every single day. She taught me that our lives, our careers, our personal lives are long, and it's okay to step in and out of different parts of them at different moments in time.”

Cohen also spoke a bit about why she decided to focus her energy on mental health and her work with Rare Beauty. “[My career] evolved to mental health when my family was impacted by mental illness. For me, it was a journey of learning, and learning how to support my own family member, and recognizing that we really needed to raise awareness in a big way around mental health, that there was so much we could do, because it impacts every single person in this room. We all have to take care of our mental health." Cohen's work with Selena Gomez has been a meaningful and impactful stage of her career. "It's a dream come true that someone like Selena Gomez has been so open and vulnerable in her own story around mental health. To me, to have the opportunity to leverage someone like Selena and her story was a no-brainer. I lead her nonprofit organization, where we raise money and disseminate that money to organizations around the world that focus on ensuring that mental health resources reach young people like many of you.”

Of course, her career choice prompted questions about students and social media, to which she responded, “We are the ones in control of building what we see on the internet. What's most important is creating your boundaries, so what you're seeing is supporting who you are, making you feel better, and creating parameters around how much time you spend. It's about balance and education and using it for good, learning positive things, being educated on topics that you care about, but also recognizing that there aren't enough rules and regulations around what is going out on social media. It's about ensuring that you're balancing that with in-person experiences. There's nothing like the feel of community in person and connecting with people, and building that offline and leveraging social media in small moments when it makes sense.”

Cohen wrapped up the Foxcroft event by providing each student with a goodie bag containing products from Rare Beauty, much to their delight! She then stayed for a Lunch & Learn with students interested in self-care and mental health.  

Thank you to Elyse Cohen for her time and to the Alison Harrison Goodyear ’29 Fellowship Program for providing this wonderful experience for our community. 

If you could not join us for the Friday morning presentation, you can view a recording of the event here.