Monthly Archives: August 2025
Alisa Pincus Finds Home Abroad
Alisa Pincus is in the 22nd year of a five-year plan to live in Sydney, Australia. After starting her legal career in New York, a blind date changed her trajectory, leading her to Australia, a global role with Nielsen, and extensive travel across the Asia Pacific region.
In this episode, Alisa reflects on the ways being an expat has shaped her perspective on America, Australia, and herself. She also shares the highlights of her years in corporate law — and her decision to step back and focus on family and board work.
Listeners will hear:
What it was like to trade New York City law for Sydney — and how five years turned into 22
The challenges and rewards of working across vastly different Asia Pacific cultures
Stories from a three-month family adventure around the world (including an Amherst reunion)
How Amherst prepared her for a life of pivots and possibilities
The classmates she’d like to hear from next
To get in touch with Alisa, email her at alisa.pincus@gmail.com and find her on Instagram: @alisapincus. Big thanks to Ed Castillo for nominating Alisa!
Abbie Raikes Seeks Out The Hard Stuff And Makes It Better
Curiosity and challenge have propelled Abbie Raikes ever since she left the stage at Amherst College in 1994 with her diploma in hand and launched her career in public service just five days later. Abbie describes the moves she’s made, from Nebraska to Paris and back again, as a series of deliberate choices to get closer to big, tough, important problems. She’s now tackling early childhood development on a global scale through her company, ECD Measure, and her role as a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
We talk about why she left the law school track, the revelation that hit her while working in a Nicaraguan health clinic, the philosophies that have guided her as a researcher and entrepreneur, and the ways that Amherst nurtured her early instincts. She shares a poignant remembrance of a classmate who left too soon, and offers insights about what she hopes to prioritize in the years ahead.
Highlights:
Abbie reflects on how a serious injury and a stubborn sense of curiosity led her to choose Amherst College over schools closer to home
She shares what working for Senator Bob Kerrey and reading constituent letters illuminated how she could best tackle important problems
Abbie explains what her company ECD Measure does. and why she prioritized cultural adaptability in its tools and output
She discusses the balance between academic rigor and entrepreneurial agility, and why she seeks out discomfort and challenge
Learn whom from the class of 1994 she’d like me to interview next
To get in touch with Abbie, you can find her on LinkedIn or through her faculty profile at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
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