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Alumni MBA MPA 2023 2016
Awarded a BYU Homecoming 2023 Alumni Achievement Award, MBA alum Christopher Clason explained how inspired leaders create value in their professional and personal lives.
David Tanner brings the skills he gained through BYU Marriott's MPA program to the state of Georgia, where he consults state leaders, community organizers, and county and city elected officials.
Clark Pew has learned over the course of his life that persistence pays off. The EMPA alumnus now lives in India working for the Department of State.
EMBA program alumnus Shawn Pace finds and meets people’s real-world needs, whether he’s in a Ukrainian refugee camp or an executive board room.
Jeffrey Burningham, adjunct faculty and partner to the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, believes the creative process is pivotal to a fulfilling life.
“Go, Cougs!” is still Adam Vandermyde’s enthusiastic cheer more than a decade after graduating from BYU Marriott’s MBA program in 2008. Through the years, Vandermyde has continued to support his alma mater by cheering for BYU sports and by hiring more than 150 BYU graduates to work at his companies.
In December 2022, BYU Marriott alum Scott Adams retired after 30 years of service as the CEO of Pullman Regional Hospital in Washington state.
Steve Thacker, city manager of Centerville, Utah, was honored for his legacy of exceptional management in governmental positions for over the past thirty years.
MPA alum Kena Jo Mathews has built her life around volunteer and nonprofit work, though she started out on a different path. “Sometimes you end up where you’re supposed to be even if you don’t realize that’s where you want to be,” she says. While studying political science at the University of Utah, Mathews worked for a senatorial candidate. But when he lost the election, she changed course, volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, where she laid the foundation for her career.
“Reach for the stars” is a figurative goal for most of us, but for Kevin Watts, a 1986 graduate of the BYU Masters of Public Administration program, it is an everyday reality.
Whether it be climbing the tallest mountains in Europe and Africa or climbing the ladder toward a successful business career, Charles Barrett, a 2009 graduate from the Marriott School strategy program, reaches the top one step at a time.
Morgan Edwards has always been a builder.
Each spring, world-language teacher Lori LeVar Pierce’s work takes her out of the classroom and into the gladiator ring. There, after months of studying Latin, her students take on a different side of ancient culture while competing at the Junior Classical League Convention, participating in gladiator fights, footraces, javelin throws, and even a student-built chariot race. “It’s a lot of fun to act like the ancient Romans and the ancient Greeks,” Pierce says.
A group of seasoned farmers sit facing Rebecca Loveland, a recent college grad in her mid-twenties, as she leads their discussion on everything from daily planning to marketing to an upcoming potato audit. Loveland feels inexperienced but plows forward, relying on the leadership skills she developed with her Marriott School training to make decisions and collaborate effectively.
By day, Arie Van De Graaff is a public servant, but by night he is an accomplished cartoonist.
For some, the path less traveled is the wisest course. For Reid Neilson, it was traversing two seemingly disparate paths that made all the difference.