News Releases 

A growing body of research shows that a student’s sense of belonging can have a significant positive impact on academic performance, retention and mental health. With that in mind, professors at BYU and Texas A&M recently asked BYU students how they anticipated their experiences on campus would impact their feelings of connectedness to BYU.

Eva Witesman believes in creating a better world, and she works toward it through her position as a professor in the BYU Marriott School of Business’s MPA program. Teaching courses on statistics, social impact, and prosocial business strategy, Witesman emphasizes to students the importance of unity with one another and the organizations they will work for.

In his first semester at Brigham Young University, Aaron Scribner sustained severe facial injuries in a grisly zip-lining accident. He then overcame a steep recovery and found a renewed drive to positively impact others.

According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 96 percent of MBA graduates will enter management roles within 15 years of receiving their degrees. So for most MBA students, learning to be effective and responsible leaders is essential. But at the BYU Marriott School of Business, associate professor of organizational behavior and human resources Taeya Howell prepares MBA students to be Christlike leaders when they enter the workforce.

In order to help global supply chain management (GSCM) students prepare for the disasters they will respond to in the workforce, associate professor Barry Brewer invited Kathy Fulton, executive director of American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), to run a disaster simulation at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

When Jacobo Ignacio Grimaldo Alvarez was five years old, his family moved from Monterrey, Mexico, to Mesa, Arizona. Though navigating the world as an immigrant can be a struggle, Grimaldo continues to press forward through life’s wilderness. Now a global supply chain management senior and a copresident in BYU Marriott School of Business’s Student Leadership Advisory Council, Grimaldo helps others find belonging and community by leaning on the lessons he learned growing up.

As an art student, Laurel Galli-Graves could not have imagined that in a couple years she would end up working for the Department of Defense. In fact, before she began the Master of Public Administration program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, she had never written a piece of code and didn’t know what a data scientist’s job was. Now, as a US Digital Corps Data Science Fellow, she combines her artistic creativity, passion for public service, and love of analytics and machine learning to help further the public good.

Twenty years ago as a student, Ian Wright made connections with people that changed the course of his life. For Wright, now the finance program director and an assistant professor, these mentors helped him find career and life success and modeled the encouragement he now gives to his own students to be “awesome in everything they do.”

As an educator, learning was always a priority for Brenna Porter. After being an elementary school teacher for two-and-a-half-years, Porter decided she needed to further her education by earning an MBA at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Porter’s background in teaching helped her forge her own path in the MBA program and bring her true identity to the workplace.

In conjunction with Brigham Young University’s yearly presidential review of the Army and Air Force ROTC cadets, Brig. Gen. Derek O’Malley received the 2023 Patriot Award for his dedication to the values of duty, honor, country, God, and family.

When Aaron Miller talks to students about success in business, he says that future business leaders should focus less on climbing the corporate ladder and more on creating a positive impact in the world. As a teaching professor for the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, Miller equips students with the skills they need to put their ideas into action in an ever-changing business world.

In October the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics invited Senator Mitt Romney and Ann Romney to BYU Marriott to share advice with MPA students preparing for careers in the public sector. The Romneys drew on their years working in government and nonprofits as they answered questions ranging from personal ethics to marriage in the public eye.

As a senior in marketing at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Kirsten Keith has embraced the program’s emphasis on community. This has helped her succeed in her studies and build a network of connections—with industry professionals as well as her peers and mentors in and out of the program.

Information systems professors at BYU have created a technology using JavaScript that can detect online identity fraud simply by measuring interaction behaviors like keystroke speed.

The BYU Marriott School of Business and Brigham Young University honored John E. Waldron with the 2023 International Executive of the Year Award. Waldron is the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, a member of the Goldman Sachs Management Committee, co-chair of the Firmwide Enterprise Risk Committee, and chair of the Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee.

In an increasingly connected world, learning how to interact with different groups of people can open doors of opportunity and learning. That’s why Bryson Schellenberg, student at BYU Marriott, spent a year studying and working in Germany where he connected with people from all over the world.

Flexibility is the key to success for Lulu Gilbert, a new Student Leadership Advisory Council (SLAC) copresident at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Her busy schedule requires an alternative take on a balanced schedule that helps her prioritize the most important parts of her life.

In a lecture hall full of students and future leaders, MBA alum Christopher Clason explained how inspired leaders create value in their professional and personal lives. Awarded the BYU Homecoming 2023 Alumni Achievement Award representing the BYU Marriott School of Business, Clason shared attributes of leaders based on his professional career working in six industries, living in seven different cities, and managing teams in twenty-four countries.

As a young girl growing up in North Carolina, Liz Dixon marveled at the floor-to-ceiling books that lined the office of her father—a professor of political science at a small liberal arts college. “Have you read all these books?” she asked him, “I mean all these books?” Her father replied: “All of them. Twice.”

Joseph Edmund wants to become a fighter pilot someday, but he knows that is no small task. Now as a current member of the Air Force ROTC (AFROTC) at Brigham Young University, his hard work over the past 10 years is paying off as he steps closer toward making his dreams become a reality.