Mariah Harris

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School

“I’m inquisitive and love to read. I once read 52 books in a single year.”

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was voted most likely to win the Hunger Games in high school.

Undergraduate School and Major: Yale University, B.S. in Biomedical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: The Campaign Against Hunger, Development & Communications Associate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The greatest accomplishment of my career has been leading Forecasting 101 training as an Analyst at ClearView Healthcare Partners. This was a particularly proud moment for me, as prior to working in healthcare consulting, I had no experience coding in Excel. Within my first six months on the job, I had successfully designed and built two complex Revenue and P&L models for new clients. Soon after, I was approached by leadership and was asked to co-lead Forecast Training for all new hires in the firm. By the end of my tenure at ClearView, I had trained over 100 new employees across three different U.S. offices.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Open to Growth. From day one, I have been impressed by my classmates’ open-mindedness and willingness to learn from one another.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I was drawn to Goizueta because of the values it represents. The core values of Goizueta – Courage, Accountability, Integrity, Rigor, Diversity, Team, and Community – are not just for recruiting pamphlets. The students, faculty, and staff have truly bought into these values. This was clear to me from the very beginning. Through all my pre-matriculation interactions with the school – the application and interview process, speaking with current students and alumni, Welcome Weekend, etc. – I felt an overwhelming sense of support. As a member of a small class, I never felt like I would be a cog in the B-school machine. I chose Goizueta because I knew I would be in a place filled with people who were just as invested in my success as I am, and vice versa.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Goizueta Net Impact and Entrepreneurship Club

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? “Why are you pursuing a dual degree?”

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? As a dual-degree MBA/MPH candidate at Emory, I am interested in how I can bring business skills to the area of public health. For me, an MPH provides the What – the content knowledge about the areas I want to address. An MBA provides the How – it will teach me the business strategies I need to refine my skills and become a leader in the public health industry. Given the current political climate and the U.S. healthcare system, I knew that there was no better time to make the switch to jumpstart my career.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Johns Hopkins (dual MBA/MPH program), all other graduate programs I applied as purely MPH

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I knew I wanted to be in a program with a tight-knit community, so I began looking at smaller schools. I made sure to speak with as many current and former students to hear about their experience at each university. It was especially important that I got an accurate sense of how alumni of MBA/MPH programs felt about navigating through each graduate school, and what job opportunities were available for them post-graduation. Geography and breadth of resources were also important factors.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My connection to food was inspired by Sunday afternoons spent canning pickles with my family. Every fall, we would walk to the local farmers’ market to buy our ingredients for the day; tomatoes for spaghetti sauce, peaches for chutney, McIntoshes for applesauce, and a fan favorite, cucumbers for dill pickles. Growing up, this tradition taught me the power that food has in bringing communities together. To this day, cooking serves as my own personal meditation and a way to bond with friends. It was this passion, combined with my background in biomedical engineering and healthcare consulting, which inspired me to pursue an MBA/MPH.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In 10 years, I hope to be in a leadership role at a company or organization focused on improving public health.