Chris Lites

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College

“MD/MBA candidate with aspirations of contributing positive impact in our broken health care system.”

Hometown: Cold Spring Harbor, New York

Fun Fact About Yourself: I train in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and compete on the national and international levels.

Undergraduate School and Major: Columbia University, Neuroscience

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Before coming to Dartmouth to start medical school, I managed a private medical practice in New York.

What has been your first impression of the Tuck MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best Tuck story so far. At Tuck, you spend a lot of time with your peers. You can’t hide here. I was told before arriving that the Tuck community provided one of the strongest professional networks and I now see why. I am only two months into my Tuck experience, and I am sure that the friendships I have made will exist far beyond graduation.  “Tuck nice” is a saying on this campus for a reason.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? For me, it was the small classroom size. Each class has roughly 285 students with four sections. Every professor therefore can offer their time to meet with students for lunch and coffee. The chance to get to know my professors is not something that I’ve been able to do throughout my time in school, but it is entirely feasible here because the classroom sizes are so intimate.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Dartmouth Tuck? Tripod hockey is an age-old tradition at Tuck: hockey for those that don’t play hockey.  It is a complete mess, with everyone falling over themselves, but that just adds to the hilarity and fun. There is no better way to get to know your counterpart than through sports. Tripod hockey is one way our community is strengthened even further.

What excites you the most about coming to live in Hanover? What is the one activity you can’t wait to do? I have been in Hanover for about three years attending medical school at Dartmouth, but the transition to business school at Tuck was a major change. I now live in the dorms, fully amongst friends, and every waking moment is full of challenge and excitement. There is always something to do and I am always pulled in a million direction. However, one activity that I’m really looking forward to is Winter Carnival, an annual event that brings together MBA students from more than 15 schools to celebrate the winter season.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Near the end of my first year of medical school, I became the CEO of a small nonprofit called Medicine in Motion, founded at Harvard Medical School. Over the following two years I helped grow it into an international organization with global reach. Medicine in Motion is an organization geared toward reducing burnout within the medical community by promoting fitness events. As a medical student familiar with burnout and a competitive athlete, I was fully committed to the cause.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson paints a disturbing picture of a world ravaged by the effects of global warming. While terrifying, I believe this book to be a necessary read for anyone interested in sustainability and climate change, two areas that are being contended with by almost every industry today.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? Medicine is in dire need of systemic change. Racial disparities in health outcomes persist, access to health care is inconsistent, and insurance coverage is sparse. It’s my intention to become an agent of change in this flawed system—to start with a small workable problem, address it with possible solutions, prove the efficacy of a solution and scale up. At Tuck, I hope to discern the most effective starting point. I hope to learn about the pain points of a variety of industries and how to effectuate the most substantive change. My desire is to manage people, policy, and finance adeptly. I believe a Tuck MBA to be most aligned with these aspirations. While medical school teaches us a lot, I do not believe it imparts adequate business savvy. You can have the best business plan in the world, but if you are not able to lead effectively and manage finances adequately then you are not maximizing your potential.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I only applied to Tuck

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA program? Your focus should be on community. The Tuck community is one of the school’s major assets. If you don’t intend on becoming an active member in it, then this may not be the place for you. In applying, feel free to reach out to me and other Tuckies. We understand how stressful this process may be for you and we’re here to help as best we can.

DON’T MISS: MEET DARTMOUTH TUCK’S MBA CLASS OF 2024