Julius Torres Kellinghusen ’16, the 2026 Young Inspirational Alumni Award winner, celebrates bringing running water to a rural Panamanian community with the Peace Corps (2017).
During his time at HealthRight International, Torres Kellinghusen traveled around the globe supporting local programs with community partners (Kenya, 2022).
As a Pomona student, Torres Kellinghusen was an active member of the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company (2015).
Volunteering with the Peace Corps in rural Panama shortly after graduating from Pomona College, Julius Torres Kellinghusen ’16 dug pipes and poured concrete under the punishing glare of the tropical sun. Sweating alongside members of his host family, he knew he was making a difference by bringing safe, reliable water to every local household.
But even as he labored to improve basic infrastructure for the community in that remote area, Torres Kellinghusen became aware of another overlooked crisis: the gap in mental health care for humanitarian and development workers like him.
It’s a problem that Torres Kellinghusen has pivoted to address in his own research. Now as an assistant teaching professor in the College for Community Health at Montclair State University in New Jersey, he has dedicated himself to improving workplace wellbeing for aid workers.
Torres Kellinghusen is a public health practitioner, educator and researcher whose work centers on advancing health, dignity and well-being for marginalized communities — and for those who serve them. A commitment to improving lives through service, advocacy and research has become a defining thread in his career.
Torres Kellinghusen is being recognized as Pomona’s 2026 Inspirational Young Alumni honoree, an award given by the Alumni Board to recognize the dedication, perseverance and consistency of a Pomona graduate within the last decade.
“Julius has extended Pomona's ideals of critical inquiry and social responsibility beyond individual interventions to the organizational systems that shape lives and livelihoods,” says classmate Kevin Wynn ’16.
“Pomona gave me an invaluable, diverse skillset that allows me to tackle really any challenge that I face,” Torres Kellinghusen says. “Even though my expertise is in public health, I find myself using the lessons from economics or engineering or computer science class to address these challenges. And now that I'm a teacher, I try to pass on those same skills to my students as well.”
Torres Kellinghusen earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations at Pomona, where he was an active member of the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company. He performed in showcases, choreographed routines, coached new members and competed in both pair and team events.
After he returned from the Peace Corps, Torres Kellinghusen worked in the nonprofit sector at HealthRight International, where he supported programs in Kenya, Uganda, Ukraine and New York. In a 2023 interview, he said the nonprofit focused on creating independent, locally operated NGOs. “I love their approach, which is 100% local,” Torres Kellinghusen said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Torres Kellinghusen helped expand telehealth services for vulnerable populations. Recognizing the toll of crisis work, he played a key role in developing and scaling “Caring for Carers,” a program supporting the mental health of humanitarian staff across multiple countries.
Dedication to workforce wellbeing became the foundation of his doctoral work at New York University’s School of Global Public Health, which he completed in 2025.
At Montclair State University, where he teaches the next generation of public health practitioners, Torres Kellinghusen’s current research examines the organizational drivers of staff mental health and wellbeing in the humanitarian sector, contributing to the growing body of evidence on how leadership structures, institutional culture and workplace practices shape resilience and effectiveness.
“One value that I gained at Pomona that still guides me today is to embrace challenges and not be afraid to fail,” Torres Kellinghusen says. “And that doesn't mean I always succeeded. There were definitely plenty of failures, but I quickly learned that I can learn just as much from my failures — maybe even more than from my successes.”
This lesson has been particularly formative for Torres Kellinghusen in his young career. He says: “Willingness to embrace challenges led me to join the Peace Corps, move to New York, to complete a doctoral degree, and eventually to try my hand at teaching — which is now not only my career, but my greatest passion.”
Visit our website to read about the 2026 Pomona College alumni award honorees and watch a video featuring their stories.