Cyndi Lynch is the Director of Fellowships and Graduate Student Professional Development for the Graduate School. Cyndi administers the fellowship program for the university, counseling students on fellowship applications and fostering positive experiences for fellows.

Through her research in higher education administration, Cyndi created the Graduate Student Professional Development program. Implemented in 2003, the program fosters graduate student professional development through developing effective writing strategies, mentoring, and career management. Cyndi instructs Purdue’s Preparing Future Faculty course and the Preparing Future Professionals course, designed to facilitate graduate students transition into faculty positions and non-academic positions respectively.

Cyndi is a registered veterinary technician, focusing on animal behavior. She holds a bachelors degree in Animal Science and a Master of Science degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue University. Cyndi’s research focuses on doctoral student engagement in identified best practices, including mentoring, faculty-student relationships, orientations and transition courses, doctoral student professional development. Additionally, Cyndi’s research explores the impact of best practices on the associated doctoral student learning outcomes and assessment of best practices. The research is funded by grant from the Council of Graduate Schools PhD Completion Project.