Alumni Profile: Julia Kang-Reeves (’94MA, Classics)
What is your current role?
I am the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of my family's bath and body care company, Earth Therapeutics, which was featured in Columbia Magazine in the Fall 2024 issue.
What are you working on now?
As CMO, I am planning the 2025 marketing calendar and devising creative ways of advancing the brand in the ever-changing terrain of social media.
What drew you to your field?
Though I had identified myself as an academic and a writer, as I grew older, I felt a need to become more engaged with the rapidly changing world reconfigured by technology. Cutting my teeth on beauty marketing in the age of social media was the challenge I needed to keep my mind sharp and current.
What lessons from graduate school have you found useful in your professional life?
Though ancient Greek and Latin, which I studied at GSAS, seem the diametrical opposite of my current profession, I still look at everything through my "classics" glasses—particularly what makes a classic, what makes something stand the test of time and speak to people eternally. This is extremely valuable knowledge to have in business and marketing.
What skill has unexpectedly helped you in your career?
Most of the ancient texts I studied were written in poetic meter. Writing marketing and advertising copy is at its core poetry—and the most demanding poetry, believe it or not.
What is your favorite memory from your graduate years?
Writing a research paper on Aristophanes' Clouds, which was demanding and exhilarating at once. Aristophanes wrote Greek comedy; I learned that the same things that make us laugh today made the ancient Greeks laugh in their day.
What are your passions outside of your work?
I revel in making connections between seemingly disparate ideas and topics and understanding the world in a holistic way. Also, I love aesthetics and fashion, observing currents and trends.
What is your advice for current GSAS students?
The content that you're learning is indeed critical and important. But whether you stay in academia or not, you will always have the hard-won skills of analysis, penetrating thought, focus, and concentration that will invariably hold you in good stead wherever you end up.
What is next for you, professionally or otherwise?
My daughter will be starting college next year, and I will become an empty nester. While there is sorrow, there is also excitement in having more time to write, and I have been collecting topics to write about over the years.
What motivates you to give to Columbia?
I was fortunate to be the recipient of the Presidential Fellowship, and the funds freed up my mind to really focus on the work at hand. Worrying about money while devoting yourself to serious scholarship is very difficult, so we need to support the scholars who will in turn teach our children. That's why I give.