Madelyn Flores

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

“Globe-trotting Texan with Latin roots, hiking boots, and a passion for workplace equality.”

Hometown: San Antonio, TX

Fun Fact About Yourself: I converted a van to live out of post-MBA and take weekend adventures in across New England!

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Texas at Austin, Finance

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Lean In, Global Programs Manager

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. I feel an overwhelming warmth when I interact with students and alumni at Tuck. It doesn’t matter if it’s a quick greeting while we pass each other in the hall, or an evening spent together eating and drinking. The Tuck community is engaged and truly interested in who you are. I think one of my favorite Tuck stories so far was spending the evening in a neighbor’s backyard—every half hour another person or couple would show up and we ended up staying around the fire sharing stories for almost six hours. Time flew by and I felt like I ended the night with a whole new group of friends.

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? Taking two years to fully invest in yourself and take yourself out of the workplace is no easy decision. One of the most alluring parts of Tuck was the idea of getting an MBA “in the woods.” This stuck out to me because of the importance of reflection during every step of the journey. Time feels different here and being able to take walks and be surrounded by nature creates the perfect environment to reflect on my experiences and process them in a deeper way.

Outside of the interest in being in a more remote area, my husband sacrificed his career and life in Spain to move to Hanover as I pursue my MBA. We both went to Admitted Students Weekend and he bought a Tuck sweatshirt and took the iconic Tuck photo before I even decided which program to attend! He felt like he was a part of this community in that short time, and he has gotten to know so many people since we moved to Hanover, which was one of my biggest hopes for my MBA experience.

What excites you the most about coming to live in Hanover? What is the one activity you can’t wait to do? Being in nature and hiking have been the best things for my mental health. Hanover overdelivers in this area and presents one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve had the pleasure of exploring. It has been such a joy to go on hikes ranging in difficulty and get to know myself and my classmates better. I was also blown away by the caliber of ice cream… coming from Texas I didn’t realize how good ice cream could be!

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Dartmouth Tuck? The course Leadership Out of the Box is one I cannot wait to take next year! The prospect of learning about different, unique leadership styles to help me better understand my own feels like an activity we should all do, but sometimes don’t prioritize.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Being a Latina in corporate America is lonely. I’ve attended countless recruiting events where no one looks like me and have yet to work at a company with more than one Latina in senior leadership. I’m not alone in these feelings and I knew the power of data and research to validate experiences. While at Lean In, I challenged the organization to take the initiative and be the first to publish a report on Latinas’ experiences in the workplace. It took almost two years, but I persuaded leadership, led the initiative and partnerships, and made strong connections to bring the report to life! I am extremely proud of my efforts and that there is now objective data and research to support Latinas’ experiences in the workplace.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? My long-term goal is to bring innovation to the HR function as a chief people officer. I want to build workplaces that work for everyone by creating human and research-focused policies. In the short term, my goal is to further develop my strategic decision-making and inclusive problem-solving skills by securing a position as a chief of staff to a chief people officer.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA program? Take the time and do the prework of defining your “why” for an MBA and your non-negotiables. If having a deep community is most important to you, you may want to think about a smaller MBA program. I also highly recommend having coffee chats with current students and alumni to hear which aspects of the culture are consistent over the years. This was hugely helpful for me to understand the programs at their core. And remember this is a decision for you. I ruled out schools that were very popular with my friends because I knew they didn’t hit the criteria most important to me. However, it was difficult to stick to this decision when everyone around me was talking about a question specific to these schools. I’m so glad I did it though, I ended up exactly where I should be!