ANNA FREBEL
Astrophysicist, Speaker & Author
Science Needs Great Leaders!
The Human Side of STEMM Leadership
Shaping the people who shape the future
The future of science depends on brilliant ideas and extraordinary technical skill. But it also depends on people: people who can listen, communicate, collaborate, make difficult decisions, navigate uncertainty, bring out the best in others, and know when and how to lead.
We rarely teach scientists these things. That's a problem. For them. For us. For the world.
Changing that —by teaching award-winning STEMM leadership courses— has become one of my passions.
I believe leadership begins with understanding ourselves: what matters to us, what we bring to the table, where we want to go, and how our actions affect the people around us. From there, leadership becomes something we practice every day, whether or not the word “leader” appears in our job title.
I have seen how transformative it can be when people are given the space, tools, and encouragement to think differently about themselves and their possibilities. Helping STEMM students and professionals make those discoveries — and watching what they go on to do with them — is one of the greatest joys of my work.
Empowering STEMM talent with skills and vision
Keynote and workshops
STEMM inspiration for all
Bringing science, leadership, and inspiration together, to you. From the universe to Antarctica and the surprising leadership lessons of penguins, Anna's talks and hands-on workshops invite audiences to see their work, potential, and place in the world from a new perspective.
LEAPS @ MIT
LEAPS - Leadership and Professional Strategies and Skills
Equipping emerging and established STEMM professionals with the leadership skills rarely taught through traditional scientific training. This award-winning MIT program helps scientists become more intentional, effective, and confident leaders of their careers, teams, and communities.
GAPS @ MIT Physics
GAPS - Graduate Applications and Professional Skills
Helping the next generation of scientists take the leap into graduate school. GAPS gives undergraduate Physics students practical strategies and hands-on training to navigate graduate applications, communicate their accomplishments, and confidently take their next career step.
Roadmapping Success
Roadmapping Success for Women's Leadership, in-person @ MIT PE
Empowering women in STEMM to take ownership of where their careers go next. Through self-leadership, reflection, and strategic career planning, participants develop the clarity, tools, and concrete roadmap to turn their ambitions into action.
Unpacking Impact @ Riccio-MIT Grad EL
Unpacking Impact: Transforming Research into Real-World Solutions
Guiding researchers how to think intentionally about what their work can do beyond the lab. Through communication, reflection, and strategic planning, participants explore how to identify the problems their research addresses and the people it can serve.
Women in Leaderhip
10-week online course @ MIT PE
Preparing women to lead change within their organizations. This online program provides practical leadership tools and strategies for navigating challenges, advancing professionally, and becoming effective catalysts for positive organizational change.
Motivational keynotes & hands-on workshop
Inspiring people about the universe is one of Anna's long-term goals. Motivating people to take their career and success confidently into their own hands is another.
Alongside her presentations and videos, and with boundless enthusiasm, Anna gives regular motivational keynote presentations about astronomy, STEMM leadership, women in science, Antarctica and leadership lessons from penguins, and related topics.
She also offers practical hands-on workshops that explore a specific STEMM leadership topic of interest to the audience.
In-person conversations about science and leadership remains one of Anna's greatest passions.
She speaks to elementary school children, students of all ages at schools and universities, museum audiences, professional STEM workshops and conferences, and corporate gatherings and functions.
If you're looking for a speaker, contact Anna.
Leadership and Professional Strategies & Skills (LEAPS)
A graduate class for STEMM grad students and postdocs at MIT
Our LEAPS program at MIT has significantly and sustainably contributed to the career success of many of our past participants.
In Spring 2020, Anna co-founded a new program at MIT, together with Diane Rigos, called “Leadership and Professional Strategies and Skills (LEAPS)”.
Our goal has been to offer high quality STEMM career development training to emerging scientists (grad students and postdocs), in addition to the rigorous technical training they are receiving at MIT.
Curious to learn more about the LEAPS program?
- Course overview website
- LEAPS was featured in Physics @ MIT, Giant LEAPS (8-pages)
- We also published the Perspective Successful careers in STEMM through leadership and professional development training in the "Core Skills in Cardiovascular Research" issue of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology
The responses to our LEAPS program have been exceptionally positive and it’s been such a joy to work with the students and postdocs. Many have since become prestigious postdoctoral fellows, industry group leaders, and tenure-track faculty at renowned universities across the globe.
In 2023, LEAPS received the Irwin Sizer Award for the "Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education" by the MIT Graduate Student Council. The citation reads:
"Anna has a gift for empowering others. She spearheaded the Leadership and Professional Skills andStrategies (LEAPS) course, sharing her own career experiences to increase academic andprofessional opportunities for Ph.D. candidates and postdocs. In the words of onestudent, “I cannot overstate how much of an impact her talent, insight, and dedicationhave had on the next generation of MIT researchers and leaders."
LEAPS goes abroad:
Given the enormous success of LEAPS program for graduate students and postdocs at MIT, Anna has also taught LEAPS to wider audiences:
- For two years, Anna offered a LEAPS faculty version for Junior Faculty at MIT's School of Science.
- In January 2026, Anna traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to teach the inaugural LEAPS @ KSA program at KACST, with 36 men and women participants from various educational, commercial and government entities.
As participants shared afterwards:
"I think the concept is amazing and it is extremely helpful to junior and senior faculty. We are not trained in management or leadership yet that's what we have to do and therefore it is crucial we get training like this."
"This has been extremely helpful, especially discussing with others about their experiences and how they manage different situations."
"I enjoyed this course very much. Yes, I would recommend this course for faculty and for scientific staff as well, anyone who supervises students or postdocs, and has to give talks/write papers."
"The course gave me a framework to better understand some of the practices I was already doing, and how I might improve upon them. I also learned some techniques for conversations and mentoring that I will definitely be able to use. Thanks Anna!"
GAPS - Graduate Applications and Professional Skills
Many of our physics undergrad students are keen to attend graduate school to further their eduction and become STEMM professionals.
To shed light on the process and required preparation, in 2023, Anna developed a LEAPS-spinoff program called "Graduate Applications and Professional Skills" (GAPS), along with past LEAPS co-faciliator Sarah Geller.
GAPS is a mini series for graduating seniors in our MIT Physics Department consisting of four 2 hour sessions. We cover
1) Grad school preparation: importance of research experience, finding letter writers, and which schools to apply
2) Polishing and upgrading your CV
3) Strategic writing in preparation for the Personal Statement
4) Tips and tricks on networking and how to make the most of the school visit after receiving an offer
Each session includes an active writing workshop component, and we offer writing “office hours” to discuss students' CVs and statements.
Every Fall, about 2/3 of all our physics students have since attended as GAPS has provided practical tools and reassurance about the graduate school application process.
Roadmapping Success for Women's Leadership
"Anna is knowledgeable and highly competent in the content she presents."
This MIT Professional Education program is centered on a “leadership of self” model—a dynamic approach that can be learned, practiced, and executed at any career level.
At its core, “leadership of self” involves looking inward to assess who you are—and who you want to be.
It is Anna's new flagship program and has already transformed the lives and careers of many accomplished STEM women.
Read more about my approach to teaching leadership in "The Rooted Leader: Self-Leadership as a Strategic Advantage for Women in STEM."
In this intensive 3-day program for emerging and established STEMM women leaders, participants acquire the training, strategies, and tailored resources needed to achieve their next career goal—whether it’s a promotion, a lateral move, or a complete career change.
With a deeper understanding of one's ambitions, a concrete career plan is developed that can be put into action immediately. It allows participants to emerge from the course with a renewed sense of overall career and life goals.
Key professional development topics include practicing authentic leadership, mapping out goals and actions, leverage your strengths and weaknesses, how to resolve conflict by staying true to yourself, assesing work-life balance, and more.
Testimonials:
"Anna genuinely cares about helping women succeed, and you can tell that in everything she does. She created an environment where people felt comfortable sharing their experiences and learning from one another."
"Anna did a great job making the material relatable and applicable regardless of where someone was in their career. I appreciated how she shared her own experiences and encouraged participants to learn from each other."
Unpacking Impact: Transforming Research into Real-World Solutions
Part of the Daniel J. Riccio Graduate Engineering Leadership Program—GradEL for short—that develops MIT graduate students into technical leaders who will be more effective, efficient, and successful across all aspects of their professional lives.
I developed this course specifically for Grad EL, together with Tony Hu. We guide students through the entire process from ideas to impact. It's a wonderful roller coaster ride to success and confidence about making a difference in this world! Class page is here.
“This course very candidly addresses some of the deep personal challenges that one encounters in their graduate journey. I don’t think there is another structured course which addresses so many essential areas of grad life.” ~ Recent Student
Introduces methods for communicating the value of research and processes for transforming research findings into real-world solutions. Presents students with approaches for defining and articulating the problems their research addresses, for identifying stakeholders and their needs, and for developing visions for their research that align with these needs.
Discussions explore how technical leadership, communication, and planning skills can enable researchers to advance their research. Students practice assessing the impact of their own research from their degree programs, creating roadmaps that illustrate its applications over time. Class format is interactive, featuring lectures, discussions, exercises, and student presentations with peer and instructor feedback. Current instructors and resources can support up to 30 participants, each of whom complete their own projects and and associated deliverables.
This course counts toward the GradEL Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership.
Women in Leadership: Becoming an Agent of Change
"Women in Leadership: Becoming an Agent of Change" is a 10 week online MIT Professional Education program for professional women.
Anna is one of the contributing faculty, representing MIT's School of Science. She also runs the welcome and wrapup webinars for each cohort, together with Ed Schiappa.
WIL provides the curriculum, tools, and techniques to become a catalyst for positive change and equity within an organization. It empowers its participants to take bold risks in order to advance themselves, their team, and their organization in the face of adversity.
Get in touch with me if you would like to bring any of these programs or bespoke sessions
to your team, university, organization, or company.
I love empowering students, employees and professionals --
Are you ready to take your career and leadership capacity to the next level?
©2026
