Alumni Spotlight: Maria Murad

Maria Murad (B.A. ’25) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.

A career in finance might not be the first thing that comes to mind for someone studying communication and creative computing, but for Meadows alum Maria Murad, the connection makes perfect sense. As a financial analyst at JPMorganChase, Murad draws on an unexpected combination of skills developed through her studies in Corporate Communication and Public Affairs (CCPA), Creative Computing and French.

At JPMorganChase, Murad supports budget forecasting and spending analysis for the firm's marketing and communications teams. Her work involves tracking expenses across campaigns, projecting future spending and helping leadership understand where resources can be used most effectively. While the role requires strong analytical skills, Murad says the ability to communicate what the numbers mean is just as important.

“Between CCPA and Creative Computing, I was constantly moving between analyzing data and figuring out how to communicate it clearly to a room of people who didn't have time for jargon,” she explains of the programs where she learned to think in numbers and in narratives at the same time. “Meadows is where I first understood that data without a clear story behind it doesn't move anyone to a decision.”

That balance between analysis and communication was central to Murad's academic experience. Courses in CCPA, including Business and Professional Communication and Financial Communication, helped her develop skills in presenting information, communicating financial concepts and tailoring messages to different audiences. Those lessons now inform how she translates budget data into insights that business leaders can act on.

Her Creative Computing coursework provided a complementary set of skills. Through classes such as Creative Coding I and Aesthetics and Computation, Murad learned to approach complex problems systematically while considering how information is presented. Today, she applies that same thinking when developing financial forecasts and dashboards that need to be both accurate and easy to understand.

Beyond the classroom, balancing three majors also helped prepare Murad for the demands of her career. Managing coursework in multiple programs taught her to shift between different subjects, organize competing priorities, and meet deadlines, skills she now relies on while supporting multiple teams at JPMorganChase.

“Juggling CCPA, Creative Computing, and French at the same time taught me how to context-switch fast and manage competing deadlines without losing quality on any one thing,” says Murad. “At JPMorganChase, I'm constantly moving between different teams' priorities and different levels of detail in the same week and college basically gave me a head start on that muscle.”

Although she didn't initially envision a career in finance, Murad sees her professional path as proof that the skills developed through an interdisciplinary education can translate into unexpected opportunities. She encourages current students to remain open to careers outside their immediate areas of study and to focus on developing abilities that will serve them across industries.

“Don't assume your degree has to dictate a single lane,” she says. “My advice is to get genuinely good at translating information for people who don't have your specific expertise. That skill will outlast whatever your first job title says on it.”

For Murad, the freedom to pursue an unconventional combination of interests at Meadows became one of the most valuable aspects of her education. What once seemed like three distinct areas of study now comes together in a career that relies on analytical thinking, effective communication and creative problem-solving, demonstrating that the skills developed at Meadows can open doors far beyond the fields students originally envision.