Jessica Jesse Mambula

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

“I am a curious, adaptable learner with a passion for building strategy plans that connect diverse perspectives.”

Hometown: Borno States, Nigeria

Fun fact about yourself: I like to study nature. I love to take pictures of the little details in creation, like butterflies, and birds.

Undergraduate School and Degree: I attended the Windsor University School of Medicine and graduated with a medical degree.

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? I was a primary care physician at St. Ann Bay Health Centre in Jamaica.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2023? I interned with Salesforce in San Francisco, California. I was an industry advisor intern with the health care and life science team.

Where will you be working after graduation? I don’t know yet. I’m weighing several opportunities.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: In my first year, I joined Carey’s Women in Business group and served as an ambassador. We have an annual storytelling event where we share our experiences as women and as leaders in organizations, and how we’ve been able to pivot through life. I also served as an alumni coordinator for the African Public Health School and volunteered in the Africa Business Club at Carey.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m most proud of my participation in the Annual Minority Case Competition at Howard University, which was sponsored by the NobelReach Foundation. My team won first place. I enjoyed being able to connect with the part-time MBA students. We had just a week to prepare and develop a strategy for Leveraging Innovation and Entrepreneurship for National Competitiveness. It was a very good experience and we spent three days in Washington, D.C. That’s one of my most memorable experiences.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I’m very proud of an organization I founded called, the Jessicare Foundation. It’s a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that reaches the most vulnerable in society by providing health care and economic development for self-sufficiency and education. 

Through leading a foundation and being in an MBA program, I’ve been able to navigate and learn the role of leadership in the nonprofit world. Leading a nonprofit involves different stakeholders. Even working with my team to navigate through projects, we are doing and seeing how we can expand our funding and our community engagement. I think that’s one of the biggest highlights of my professional career.

Why did you choose this business school? I’m enrolled in the MPH/MBA dual degree program. At the same time, I’m earning my Master’s in Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and my MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. There aren’t many programs like that.

I chose Carey Business School because it really aligned with my goals and my vision of a school in terms of innovation and having humanity in mind. One of the school’s core values is unwavering humanity. I think it’s very easy in the professional world to get carried away with productivity and to forget about the human aspect of it if you are just focused on the figures. It’s important to have that central core. We are not just building our leadership skills to be the best business leaders out there and not caring about the people we are working with. At Carey, we are a big impact community, the faculty, the staff, the students, and we have that opportunity where we can learn from one another. I love that.

Over the past two years, I’ve developed a psychologically safe space with those that I’m working with. Coming from my background, women are not so much known to be in certain positions in my country. Carey Business School has given me a platform to use my voice to make changes in the areas that I am working in.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor was Christina DePasquale. I think she was great at putting together all the pieces from all the courses we took throughout the semester. She helped me see how interested I am in strategic roles and what we could bring to a new business or organization. I really liked that.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Competitive Strategy was my favorite course, and I also liked Global Immersion: Leadership Through Crises – United Kingdom. In an ever-changing world, where innovations are constantly being built, competitive strategy trains the lens through which you see industries and how to weigh the pros and cons of becoming entrants. It’s like chess: it trains you to think one step ahead of the market. In leading organizations crises are inevitable The Global Immersion: Leadership Through Crises – United Kingdom expanded my knowledge of the effect of Brexit and COVID-19 on UK industries and the ways they navigated it. These courses make you think of the intrinsic motivation of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite tradition is The Stoop Storytelling event organized by Carey Women in Business. I think it’s a platform that allows people to come together and share their stories. Many times, we see people, and we don’t see what they’re going through. By sharing these stories, we learn how they can navigate life. It’s one of my favorite events. It reflects how invested Carey is in being inclusive in leading women and providing a forum for expression.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back, I think I would allow myself to realize how much capacity I have and not just try to limit myself. The MBA studies, teamwork, learning team dynamics, and traveling make you see that there’s not just one lens to life. I am from a health care background, and so most of my decisions are going to be health care related. Working with people from different backgrounds, gave me the opportunity to understand the perspective in which every other person in the program is coming from here.

What is the biggest myth about your school? I think the biggest myth would be that Carey Business School is small or limited in some way. I think this is a myth because the quality of the education and our curriculum structure are phenomenal. I really do like how the courses have been arranged – not just having classroom knowledge, but having experiential lessons and working with external organizations. I worked with McCormick Spice Company for the Big Data Consulting Project course. I worked with the U.S. Veterans Administration for my Innovation Field Project. Students’ teams also worked with Siemens and other organizations. I think that’s one great experience that we have here.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? I really do like Baltimore. I think it’s not as busy as some other cities. Even the weather is relatively fine for me, and the people are very beautiful. I love to have conversations with people from here. The campus is right on the water so there’s just this peaceful atmosphere that I personally enjoy.

What surprised you the most about business school? What surprised me the most is your character is going to be tested. I say that because when you’re faced with different challenges, working with different teams and you have deadlines. You have to remain confident and professional. I never thought I would get to that point, that stress level, while trying to make decisions. I think that’s one thing that really surprised me how much of a challenge it would be to build myself and build my capacity.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Selecting just one classmate is challenging as I’ve gained valuable insights from all. Upasana Nayak’s admirable qualities stand out—her unwavering dedication, relentless pursuit of excellence, and resilient transition from an economics background to the healthcare sector. Her meticulous and collaborative approach, complemented by a calming and caring personality, serves as a remarkable inspiration within our group, especially as she contributes to improving healthcare administration and access.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I envision the Jessicare Foundation transforming into a nonprofit organization that delivers evidence-based solutions to address public health challenges among vulnerable populations, specifically focusing on reintegrating those out of school and providing economic empowerment programs for underserved communities. On a personal level, I aspire to emerge as a prominent advocate for women in business, particularly within healthcare markets, driving positive change and enhancing healthcare access for all.

What made Jessica such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2024?

“When Jessica speaks, her peers listen. Her words are often full of wisdom, demonstrating her ability to reflect on the multitude of perspectives around a particular topic.”

Stacey Lee
Professor of Practice
Academic Program Director, Full-Time MBA
Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2024