Josephine (Josie) Emanuelli

University of Notre Dame, Mendoza School of Business

“Accomplished and driven leader passionate about helping others and promoting positive change.”

Hometown: Montclair, NJ

Fun fact about yourself: Amongst other songs, I can play “Hey Jude” on the viola and it actually sounds pretty good.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Drew University, BA in Economics and Environmental Studies & Sustainability

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Prudential Financial, Senior Investment Operations Associate

Where did you intern during the summer of 2023? The Hershey Company, Hershey, PA

Where will you be working after graduation? Bristol Myers Squibb, Finance Associate

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: Head Chairperson of the Grow the Good Gala, VP of Corporate Finance for Finance & Investments Club, Kenneth R. Meyer Fellow, Brogan Fellow

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I am most proud of leading the second annual Grow the Good Gala (GTGG) this year. GTGG is a relatively new tradition at Mendoza and seeks to live out our “grow the good in business” mantra. Instead of having a winter formal, we hold a charity fundraising gala. This year, the Mendoza graduate programs raised over $17,000 and volunteered hundreds of hours for our partner, MercyWorks, a division of Notre Dame Campus Ministry. Volunteering was a new addition this year under my leadership to make the gala more than just a fundraiser, and my classmates really showed up and did great work for our partner. At the different volunteer opportunities, there was the chance to meet the people benefiting from MercyWorks programming. It was really impactful to meet people living in South Bend who haven’t had the same opportunities that we have had as Notre Dame students and walk alongside them for a few hours. These volunteering opportunities also turned into new partnerships for clubs or chances for individual students to get involved with causes that they care about. This made the impact of GTGG more than the money we raised or the volunteering leading up to the event itself, but a sustained and lasting impact on our South Bend community.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? In my professional career, I am most proud of a project that I was a part of while working at Prudential. While I was working, the transition from LIBOR to SOFR began, and I was working in a back-office job supporting a derivatives trading desk, so with this transition came a lot of changes to how we were settling payments. This was a new process for everyone, so there were no best practices or historical examples that I could look back on to make sure we were calculating our payment amounts correctly. There was a lot of collaboration with our trading desk, documentation team, and external counterparties to figure out how this change was going to impact the payment process. The first few days were really challenging, but I was able to work with our trading desk to make sure that all of our outgoing payments were paid in the correct amount and on time. Once we were confident in our process, I worked with some of our external counterparties to help them understand where we were getting our information, the terms of the trade agreements, and our calculations. After a few weeks, we were able to match our counterparties on the payment amount and due date every time on the first try and had a much smoother process despite the challenges that the LIBOR to SOFR change initially caused.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Notre Dame because I wanted to go to a school where people loved the school and loved what they were doing. Whenever I talked to someone about Notre Dame, it was clear that they were excited about going to Notre Dame and what they were learning. Going through my school search process, it was clear that being interested and engaged in what you were learning and being a part of the community was the expectation here, not the exception, and I loved the type of community that fostered. There’s nowhere like Notre Dame, and the students, faculty, staff, and alumni are what make Notre Dame a special place – and that love for Notre Dame shone through in everyone I met.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course as an MBA was Climate Resilience in Business & Communities, taught by Jessica McManus Warnell. I took it because I’m interested in ESG and sustainability, and the class brought together the ever-changing ESG landscape and the business behind sustainability. Jessica brought together several different perspectives. We looked at a papal encyclical, Catholic social teaching, and the new SEC disclosure rules. We talked to people working in the space and even talked about her own research on how business can help rebuild after environmental disaster to get a well-rounded view of debates and regulations that are changing daily. The class brought in a lot of current topics, and we were able to have interesting discussions about what ESG is trying to accomplish, and the role of environmental considerations in business decisions. Everything we talked about and learned was current and important to business decision-making, regardless of the company or industry.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Not that I’m biased, but the Grow the Good Gala is my favorite event at Mendoza. It’s for all graduate programs in the Mendoza College of Business, so it’s not just MBAs going, and it’s a great collaboration across all the different programs. It also really helps us to live our mantra of “Grow the good in business” by raising money for partners who do incredible work in our South Bend community and getting people out into the parts of South Bend that we don’t always see as students. Professors also donate experiences to the silent auction, and it’s really fun to see people bidding to spend time doing fun things with their favorite professors. I think it’s a real testament to how close the whole community is. Professors are so giving with their time and students are willing to bid on spending time with their professors outside of class and donate to a great cause.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back over my MBA experience, there isn’t a lot I would change. I would learn the rules of football before I came here. My undergraduate school didn’t have a football team, so I spent the first few football games lost about what was going on and football culture in general. Doing my research ahead of time would have helped. I also would have learned more about the traditions at Notre Dame. There’s a lot of tradition and history here and learning about it has helped me appreciate Notre Dame and my experience more.

What is the biggest myth about your school? The biggest myth about my school is that Notre Dame people love Notre Dame, and I’ve found that to be true in the best way possible. Notre Dame is a special place, and it’s no wonder that the students, alumni and fans love the school and continue to give back after they leave. Everyone who has visited me leaves a fan of the Fighting Irish, so there’s really something in the water here.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? I love the pride that South Bend has about having Notre Dame here. Everyone in town is an Irish fan, regardless of whether they went to Notre Dame or not. South Bend really comes alive when there are events at Notre Dame, and I love meeting people who come to South Bend from all over the country to visit. South Bend really embraces Notre Dame and all its traditions, it’s fun to see an entire city come together to rally behind the school and its sports teams and celebrate the wins. It makes it more special that it’s not just campus that’s involved and excited.

What surprised you the most about business school? I was most surprised by my classmates. The Notre Dame community is so warm and welcoming, and everyone is embraced regardless of their background or career ambitions. People really get to know you for who you are and not your career aspirations, and this has been one of the most supporting and caring groups I’ve had the privilege of being a part of. I was expecting my classmates to be really serious and focused only on class and their career search, and while those are both priorities here, people also prioritize getting to know their classmates and being a part of an inclusive, vibrant community.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? The MBA classmate I most admire is Sydney Oskin. As a part of the engineering dual-degree program, she has the challenging task of balancing her MBA coursework with completing her electrical engineering degree. There are often conflicts and competing priorities balancing the workload of both programs, scheduling and social events. Sydney does a beautiful job finding the balance between both and showing up fully for everyone. She’s also a fantastic advocate for those she cares about, supporting her friends consistently and thoughtfully, and always gives her time when asked, regardless of what she has going on. She carries herself with grace through all situations, and I think we can all learn from Sydney and the way she cares for others.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I would love to become a people manager, I’ve been fortunate to have some fantastic managers over my career. I’ve learned a lot about being a tender, strong and true leader at Notre Dame, and I would love to be able to pay that forward and lead my own team. I also want to try a role that’s different from anything I’ve done and outside of my comfort zone. One of the things that I really liked about BMS is that it is a rotational program, so I get to work in a few different departments early on. I want to take advantage of the opportunity to stretch and try a new role I normally wouldn’t choose for myself to stretch and learn something new instead of staying in areas that are more comfortable.

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

“Josie is not only an outstanding MBA student and early career professional, but she is an incredible human being. Josie has a vision for a better world and the drive to make it a reality. When many students use their mid-semester breaks as an opportunity to travel somewhere fun or relaxing, Josie spent her time in places like West Virginia and Uganda on community-driven solutions for social impact.

One of the things I admire the most about Josie is her ability to apply her business problem solving skills toward having an impact in communities so often excluded. As a student in my Frontlines in America course, Josie served nonprofit partner Coalfield Development in West Virginia. She worked tirelessly alongside her team interviewing dozens of entrepreneurs in rural Appalachia to provide recommendations to Coalfield on their newly established impact fund. Josie went beyond surface level data collection and took the time to listen to their life stories, learning from them, and allowing them to advance her perspective on the barriers to the dignity of work in rural Appalachia.

Josie went on from this course to the international Business on the Frontlines course where she served leading Ugandan education NGO Building Tomorrow. Again, Josie took the time to build solutions from a place of both humility and strong will while immersing herself in the local way of life for rural communities facing extreme poverty.

Josie is a leader among her peers in her approach toward co-creating solutions alongside multiple stakeholders. She is a true relationship builder and communicates well both professionally and personally, working to create a safe space for new ideas to blossom and take root.

Josie keeps projects organized, ahead of schedule, and focused on impact. Simply put, Josie is highly dependable. She can be counted on for rigorous business problem solving paired with the highest levels of professionally crafted deliverables.

When I think about the impact of business on our national and global society, I am encouraged by the prospect of people like Josie rising to the most influential positions in corporations. Josie is certainly among the best and brightest, and I look forward to watching the success she will have at the intersection of business and impact.”

Kelly Rubey
Assistant Teaching Professor, Management & Organization
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

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