Maryland Smith EMBAs Among Poets & Quants Best and Brightest for 2019

Gretchen MacLeod and Dr. Janis Green, representing the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, are spotlighted among the world’s “Best and Brightest Executive MBA Graduates” in the class of 2019, by Poets & Quants, the digital news outlet dedicated to global coverage of business education.

MacLeod, director of finance and administration for PATH (an international health technology nonprofit), recently helped facilitate contract and budget negotiations to build a network of 13 clinical research centers supporting largest-ever malaria vaccine clinical trial in Africa (involving GlaxoSmithKline and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). She described “Data Modeling” as her favorite course in the Maryland Smith EMBA program: “I was initially petrified of this course. Afterward, my feeling is completely the opposite. The fear dissipated as soon as I began learning the theories and running the models. The course not only sharpened my ability to examine data and understand trends, but I also find myself more critically considering the information at work as well as findings reported in the news.”

Green, a gynecological surgeon, said she chose Maryland Smith’s EMBA program for two reasons – executive coaching and leadership projects -- and explained why both delivered: “[Both] engage you with local companies on real-life cases. For example, during our Leadership and Human Capital course, we developed an employee engagement and development initiative with, and for, the developer and operator of a health benefit exchange system for Washington D.C. and Massachusetts. The company’s critical involvement in the healthcare industry made the experience especially valuable and further reinforced the skills I developed in the course to make an impact, in real time, on the management of human capital in my role with Kaiser.”

Both MacLeod and Green also contribute to the main article overviewing and introducing the profilees in a “Not an Easy Path” passage:

… “Although there were many times that I felt I wouldn’t get through the endless hours of reading and class preparation, I kept going,” writes [MacLeod]. “I made it to every class, on time and (nearly always) prepared.”

… “I’ve witnessed Individuals in my cohort endure with poise adversities from losing a parent or job to dealing with workplace or family crises and receiving a cancer diagnosis and initiating treatment just weeks into the EMBA program,” says [Green].

Read more – from the complete profiles of Gretchen MacLeod and Dr. Janis Green and about Maryland Smith’s Executive MBA Program.