Meet Carnegie Mellon Tepper’s MBA Class Of 2025

A COMMUNITY THAT PULLS TOGETHER

Another piece of advice from alumni. Think community. Christopher Elston lauds the closeness of his class – a group he says was always there to “support one another, grab a coffee, or organize a fun event.” His classmate, Tyler Knittel, also felt the class didn’t fit the introverted outlier stereotype of supposed quants. Instead, he says, his classmates brought a “team over me” mindset to campus.

“I never felt a competitive nature between the students; instead, it was extremely collaborative, and everyone was supporting each other. I wanted to be a part of this type of alumni base and know that I was a part of a community that wanted to grow together rather than individually.”

That esprit de corps is best symbolized by Tepper’s Friday B**rs tradition. According to Keyon C. Powell, it is a time when MBAs, faculty, and alumni gather in the Master’s Commons for food, drink, and networking. For many alumni, it was the highlight of their week.

“This tradition reflects the community feel of the Tepper program – we like each other so much that we’d come all the way to campus on the day we don’t have class to share a drink together,” jokes Christopher Elston.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSISTANT DEAN

This summer, P&Q reached out to C. Tad Brinkerhoff, Assistant Dean of Tepper Masters Programs. Here are his thoughts on the newest developments and signature experiences in the MBA program.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year?

Brinkerhoff: “A focus on career outcomes. In the last two years, we have had a realignment in our organization that focuses on career outcomes for students. While we have always spent time and effort in helping students with their career goals, we wanted our organizational structure to reflect our goals with career outcomes. We instituted a weekly leadership meeting within the master’s office to ensure we were focused on the same outcomes. We adopted the Objective and Key Results (OKR) system and aligned our OKRs with student outcomes. We offered training to all master’s staff so they were aware of the overarching goal and then measured how we are doing in each area. The leadership team is referencing the book, Measure What Matters, for content. The Career Center is aligned with admissions, student services and the leadership center on career outcomes. The Career Center and the Admissions offices were moved into the same space so there could be ongoing dialogue about the students who are admitted and their career goals after graduation. We began a weekly alumni connection event for master’s students with Tepper School alumni to enhance the relationships with current and former students as well as kick-starting mentoring and professional relationships. When a student comes to the Tepper School, they can be assured that the master’s team is focused on their long-term career outcomes and success.”

P&Q: What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs? 

Brinkerhoff: “A commitment to inclusive leadership. In the spring of 2022, Tepper School leadership surveyed our master’s students to understand how students felt about DEI&B in our MBA program. This survey indicated areas where we were doing well and other areas where we could improve. The results from that survey were the basis for our new “Inclusive Leadership” programming that we added to our existing Leadership Development Certificate (LDC). Our Executive Director of the Accelerate Leadership Center (ALC), Rebecca Lamperski, spent months benchmarking, interviewing experts in leadership and DEIB, and working closely with our Associate Dean of DEIB, Dr. David Major, and Colleen McMullen, Executive Director of Tepper Community and Inclusion, to develop a proven training model that would enhance the preparation of our students to lead diverse teams. Rebecca and others from the ALC have become trainers in programs like Cultural Humility and Constructive Dialogue. They will not only work with students who earn the LDC, but also train the master’s team so they are aware and are practicing these important principles. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that graduates of the Tepper School master’s programs are prepared to lead diverse teams effectively, understand the importance of principles such as emotional intelligence, cultural humility, and constructive dialogue, and have a commitment to practicing inclusive leadership every day.”

P&Q: What are some key elements in your teaching of leadership? What types of options does your school offer that deepens student experience with leadership and makes them more competitive in the marketplace?

Brinkerhoff: “At CMU’s Tepper School of Business, we believe that leadership skills are crucial to our students’ long-term success and career impact. We help our students to learn about themselves, learn about others, and learn how to communicate and relate to others to build productive and positive environments and relationships. We use self-assessments to provide insights to our students about their baseline leadership abilities. We conduct experiential workshops and programs to expand knowledge and we offer 1-on-1 coaching to dig deeper into strengths and remove obstacles. To build an inclusive leadership mindset, we focus, specifically, on building emotional intelligence, cultural humility, and constructive dialogue knowledge and skills. The powerful combination of these learnable capabilities will help our students be the most inspirational and impactful leaders of the next generation and it is a key competitive differential of a Tepper graduate.”

P&Q: Two years ago, P&Q asked you to share how you’ve integrated AI, STEM, analytics, and digital disruption into your programming. Since then, what types of enhancements have you made in these areas?

Brinkerhoff: “Over the last few years, the Tepper School has offered courses in Machine Learning and Programming in R & Python for MBA students. Last year, we developed a new course in Ethics & AI to keep up with the increasing demand for talent in this quickly evolving field. MBA students at the Tepper School may also take an unlimited number of graduate level courses from other CMU schools, which provides opportunities to secure a truly interdisciplinary education.

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability across its curriculum?

Brinkerhoff: “Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business offers an interdisciplinary sustainability concentration, which involves graduate courses from our business school as well as CMU’s School of Engineering. From sustainable operations and energy policy to environmental politics and sustainable buildings, our sustainability concentration includes electives from the Tepper School and more than a dozen electives from other schools across campus.”

P&Q: How many courses outside the business school can MBAs take during your program? To what extent has your business school embraced coursework from other schools and departments at your university? Are students from other schools and departments at the university allowed to take MBA electives?

Brinkerhoff: “Students have no limit on the number of courses they can take outside our program. However, only TPR courses can meet program requirements for things like required courses, analytical depth electives, capstones, and most concentrations. But almost all CMU grad courses can count toward MBA units, and we see students taking great classes in CS, Design, HCI, AI, Public Policy, Health Care, etc. Students from other CMU grad programs can take our courses. We curate the available options each semester.”

P&Q: What is your biggest student-run event of the year and what does it reflect about your school?

Brinkerhoff: “Our biggest student run program this year was our Lunar Gala event hosted by the Asian Business Association. It was a return, for us, to the type of cultural celebrations our community frequently hosted pre-pandemic. Food, music, dancing, education, and pride were all on display for this wonderful community event.”

Click on the links below for in-depth profiles of the Class of 2025. 

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Taylor Blanchard	Rancho Santa Margarita, CA	Brigham Young University	Shell
Caroline Campbell	Indianapolis, Indiana	Purdue University	Cognizant
Paul L. Grech	Beacon, NY	Marist College	Bloomberg LP
Maressa Guynn	Uniontown, PA	United States Naval Academy	U.S. Navy
Tatiana Imler	Miami, FL	Carnegie Mellon University	ABM Industries
Jack Martin	Chanute, KS	United States Military Academy	U.S. Army
Keyon C. Powell	Wilmington, DE	Delaware State University	Deloitte Consulting
Ruben Antonio Quesada	San Jose, Costa Rica	Auburn University	ZGF Architects
Emily Torrealba	Arlington TX	Arkansas Tech University	EBI Consulting

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