Stories from BYU Marriott
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Tackling Challenges and Making Friends
When Brittley Eldredge was a senior, she flew 20 hours to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for an accounting internship. This time spent living abroad wouldn’t be her last. Now an assistant professor, Eldredge tells students, “Don’t close any doors until they’re closed.”
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A Pivot to New Opportunities
Ryan Bingham sees attending the BYU Marriott School of Business as a pivot point in his journey that opened up opportunities that he would have never thought possible—and he’s working to help current students have those same opportunities.
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Designing Dreams
Arriving in Milan was a dream come true for fashion enthusiast and strategy student Jordan Faust, who is focused on learning from the people and opportunities placed in her path.
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Family Time Over the Bottom Line
For Dave Parkes, an alumnus of the BYU Marriott School of Business, wealth management is more than just finances—it is a faith-based practice. “Money is never the outcome; money is a tool that allows us to live a life that we want to live and give back,” he says.
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Confidence in the Learning Process
Being a wife, mother, and grandmother are the best jobs in the world to Alison Bawden. But the best job on campus, she says, is being program manager for the Department of Aerospace Studies at the BYU Marriott School of Business.
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Provo to Parliament and Back
Leveraging his network led strategy student Charlie Rhodes to London, where he discussed issues surrounding religious freedom in Nigeria with members of the UK House of Lords.
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Finding Belonging by Creating It
Information Systems student Annabelle Baker remembers crying in her professor’s office, overwhelmed by how much more qualified her peers seemed than her. Less than a year later, she accepted a scholarship from the information systems program that those same peers had nominated her for—and she couldn’t help but think of how far she had come.
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A Career of Connection
After 37 years of teaching at the BYU Marriott School of Business—including seven years as a department chair—Michael Swenson retires this summer, concluding a career he says was highlighted by finding connections with students, both in marketing and in their lives.
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Progression at Every Altitude
Brian Adams watched military jets fly over his childhood home in Littleton, Colorado, and dreamed about becoming a pilot. And after committing to the Brigham Young University Air Force ROTC program, Adams says he learned to see new and uncomfortable situations as opportunities to grow.
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BYU Marriott Names Isaac Smith as New Department Chair of Management
Brigitte Madrian, dean of the BYU Marriott School of Business, has announced the appointment of Isaac Smith, associate professor of organizational behavior and human resources, as the next chair of the Department of Management. Smith will succeed Paul Godfrey, who will return to full-time teaching and research, on July 1, 2026.
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The Marriage of Education and Life
Romantic interest wasn’t the only connection between Bryant and Mandy Bingham when they first met in spring 2011: Both were pre-business students interested in the organizational behavior and human resources program at Brigham Young University. Fifteen years and three children later, Bryant and Mandy say they’ve grown professionally and personally because of their experiences at BYU Marriott.
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The Sacred Experience of Connection
Marylis Fantoni had her first child one week before her final exams as a first-year MPA student in the BYU Marriott School of Business. Having been both a mother and an international student throughout her schooling, Fantoni says that her experiences have prepared her to connect and empathize with her students now as an assistant professor.
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Thinking Through Life
Jason Whetstone has led an HR team of two for a company with 200 employees and an HR team of sixty for a company with 8,000. But regardless of the size of his role, he says that the critical thinking skills he developed during his MBA from the BYU Marriott School of Business have been key as he works to add value in both his professional and personal life.
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A Space to Create
Known for its entrepreneurial minds and soda bar, the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the BYU Marriott School of Business also offers studio offices—rooms to support growth and progress for student-owned businesses.
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Clocks and Clouds: The 2026 Cornia Award Recipient
The Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics at the BYU Marriott School of Business presented Tina Nabatchi with the 2026 Gary C. Cornia Award. In her acceptance speech, she reflected on the responsibility of public service professionals to address social issues and the power that comes from collaboration.
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To Sit with the One
Whether Ben Beck is sitting in the bright green leather recliner in his office at BYU Marriott, at the bishop’s desk of his church building, or in the cramped storefront of a small business in Cambodia, Beck says his goal is the same: to support and encourage the individuals he meets.
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Finding a New Start with an MBA
When Millie Rapp reentered the workforce, the difference between the experience at the first two businesses she worked at sparked her curiosity in business, so she applied to BYU Marriott's MBA program. She says that her experience in the MBA program has not only opened up new career paths for her but has also helped her grow into the person she wants to become.
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Stewarding the Way Forward
Alumna Jenica Sedgwick left a strategy job in New York City to work for the Church in Salt Lake City. Now as the Church’s first-ever sustainability manager, she is charting new territory in her quest to tend the Earth.
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