
Nya Mbock

- Doctoral Student
Nya Mbock focuses on different approaches to public policy and professional development that work to include marginalized and gender-expansive identities through collaborative and holistic leadership models.
Nya Mbock is a graduate of Portland State University’s Honors College, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Communications and served as the student body president. While at Portland State, She also taught a Freshmen Inquiry course, served as a campus ambassador, was the programming associate for the Center for Women’s Leadership, and worked as a representative of the University across Oregon and within state-wide legislation.
Mbock's undergraduate Honors thesis, The Sensory Woman, was an immersive visual and audial reflection of her Cameroonian heritage and her experiences as a dual-citizen navigating through cultural landscapes. Mbock is inspired by the unconventional, and she loves to expand on what is considered critical academic work by including different mediums to express her approach to academia.
With research interests in persuasive communication, connection formation, and leadership development, Mbock's time at Annenberg will be spent discovering how successful leadership is defined and what ways we can all play in reimagining who has a seat at the table of success.
Watch her TEDx Talk: “Accepting the Unacceptable: Living Through a Pandemic.”
Education
- B.A., Portland State University, 2022
Selected Publications

Exploring Life as a New Doctoral Student Through Film
Doctoral student Nya Mbock and a crew of Annenberg staff members made a short film about life as a first-year Ph.D. student.