Alumni spotlight on Sabrina Bonaparte: Pursuing a path outside academia, in industry & volunteering

Dr. Sabrina Bonaparte is a Business Program Manager at Microsoft, and a passionate non-profit volunteer and leader. 

Bonaparte completed the Sociology CSSS track during her PhD at the University of Washington (UW), graduating in ​​2012.  

She spoke with CSSS about her journey to work and volunteering outside academia, and how she’s drawn on her statistical training. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Question: What was your journey to your current work?  

Answer: Let’s just say I get bored easily! I grew up in Florida and got my BA in Music from Florida State University. I’d initially wanted to become a music teacher, but quickly realized it wasn’t for me. I tried ethnomusicology for grad school at UW, because it was a combination of music and anthropology — two things I loved. The program wasn’t the right fit for my PhD, so left with a master’s in ethnomusicology and switched to sociology.  

I needed more quantitative training for the sociology PhD, because my previous degrees were qualitative. So, I got a second master's in sociology! And that’s when I started with stats, studying demography. I worked with Charlie Hirschman — my MA was focused on​​ fertility in Indonesia, and my PhD work was on educational attainment of immigrants and their descendants living in the U.S. 

By the time I graduated, I was well positioned to go into academia, with a strong academic network. But, I’d also realized I didn't want to pursue a research career, for a lot of reasons.  

I ended up taking a summer internship at a marketing agency for $15 per hour, doing qualitative user research. Through that position, the marketing agency hired me on full-time as a data analyst, which drew on some of my statistics training. I spent several years as a data analyst, doing website analytics for many years for different consulting companies until I landed at Microsoft in 2018.  

At Microsoft, I started in data analyst and data scientist roles. About a year and a half ago, I made the switch to being a program manager and I love it. Now, I’m not using my statistics skills directly anymore, but my degree still helps me talk to the data scientists on my team because I understand the work they're doing.  

Q: How did you first get involved with CSSS? 

A: I studied sociology, specifically demography — and essentially, no respectable demographer would be caught dead not taking a bunch of social statistics courses! 

I dove in because I wanted to learn a lot of different statistical methods. And I knew that CSSS offered interdisciplinary courses, taught by professors from across social science. I wanted the opportunity to branch out into other areas and disciplines. CSSS was a terrific way to broaden my interdisciplinary exposure. The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology was also a great resource for cross-department learning.  

Q: ​​​​What did you take away from your time at CSSS? 

A: In my professional work, it’s been nice to have a wide breadth of knowledge about a bunch of different statistical methods. Now, if my team encounters a weird or unfamiliar statistical approach — say, Bayesian statistics, and people have no idea what that is — I can often understand and explain it, thanks to my classes with CSSS.  

For example, Statistical Analysis of Social Networks (CS&SS 567) was really cool, and Event History Analysis for the Social Sciences (CS&SS 544) was vital for any demographer! I also really enjoyed my courses on sampling. 

Beyond teaching me about a breadth of methods, CSSS also gave me broader connections to people working on the same kinds of problems but in different departments. In grad school, you can get so siloed in your department. It was invaluable — and cool! — to see a range of interdisciplinary approaches and to connect with people outside of my area, through CSSS.  

Q: Your professional and volunteer work has explored many different topics. What are some projects you would share as most meaningful to you? 

A: I spent a year and a half at Microsoft working as a web optimization analyst, conducting A/B testing to determine the best-performing website versions. There's a lot of statistics involved in picking a winner. I had to explain to people with non-statistical backgrounds how to interpret the data, and how not to use the data, and how to explain the findings to their teams. Doing that education for non-technical people has been one of the highlights of my job. I really enjoyed teaching people how to properly use statistics, and how to understand what it means to say something is statistically significant. 

As for volunteering — once I started working a nine to five job, I discovered I had a lot more time for volunteering than I had in grad school! I’d spend all my breaks, weekends, and nights outside of work volunteering — initially for a bunch or organizations, but now focused on one main cause… 

Eleven years ago (about a year after I graduated my PhD), my husband was hit by a car while he was biking home from work as a preschool teacher. He suffered a brain injury. It was defined as “mild” because he wasn't in a coma for longer than 24 hours, but there was nothing mild about what happened to him — and he still has some issues today.  

When my husband’s injury happened, I got involved with the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington, then joined the board in 2018. I’ve been board president since 2022. Other volunteer work includes serving on the National Brain Injury Alliance, advocating for policy change, and helping to edit a book, called Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury: A Guide for Survivors and Families.  

My volunteering is like a second full-time job. It’s my passion, and I love the chance to help people, advocate, and serve the community. 

Q: What’s one important piece of advice for trainees or graduate students today?  

A: You don't have to go into academia. You can do something else if that makes you happy. And even if it might feel harder at first, you can figure it out and you’re not alone. I really relied on friends and my network outside of school to get my first couple of jobs.  

In other words: Getting a PhD is still an accomplishment no matter what path you take after. You're going to get a lot of skills from the PhD, but you don't necessarily have to take the same academic path as everybody else in the program. I’m always happy to talk with students who are exploring post-grad options. 

Q: What was one of your favorite spots around the UW campus or the university district in Seattle? 

A: I used to go to Shultzy's Bar & Grill with other grad students to watch World Cups, Champion League games…basically, a lot of soccer! I met a lot of cool people and good friends there. 

Q: What have you been reading, watching, or listening to lately that you’d recommend? 

A: I’ve been obsessed with the book The Menopause Brain by Lisa Mosconi. I'm interested in anything brain-related, and she’s a professor of Neuroscience in Neurology and Radiology who’s done some fascinating research on women's health and the brain. I think anybody who has a uterus should read this book, and anyone who knows anyone with a uterus should read this book, because it gives amazing insight into how hormones affect our brains.  

Learn more about Bonaparte’s work on LinkedIn. 

Left to right, Sabrina: With her doctoral committee on defense day, on PhD graduation day at Gasworks park, and with the staff of the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington.