Meet The Minnesota Carlson MBA Class Of 2026

Q&A WITH PHIL MILLER, ASSISTANT DEAN OF THE MBA & MS PROGRAMS AT MINNESOTA CARLSON

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Miller: This coming year we have exciting new offerings in the analytics and artificial intelligence space. New electives like AI for Competitive Advantage and more technical analytics courses have seen strong MBA interest and uptake. Our incredible faculty in the area are consistently ranked among the best in the world as befits the school that is known as the birthplace of Management Information Systems (MIS) as a discipline. Creating future-ready leaders is an important program goal and clearly, leaning into the future of business and management is a priority.

Last year we were excited to announce the launch of our new certificate in Sustainable Environmental, Social and Governance Leadership. This year we can be excited about meaningful uptake from our MBA students as well as students from outside the university.
The significant collaboration with our Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Institute on the Environment to create a deep, interdisciplinary suite of courses that can be completed as a specialization in the important and emerging area has been rewarding and benefits our students. It has also catalyzed the addition of MBA electives in the space.

P&Q: Every January, P&Q publishes a “10 Business Schools to Watch” feature that highlights how schools are raising the bar and enhancing the student experience through innovation or expansion in programming or resources. What is one innovation that sets your school apart from your peer programs and makes you a business school to watch? Why is it so groundbreaking?

Miller: I am going to answer the question differently than it is asked. We think of our approach as more philosophical. “How do we center the learner’s goal?” is our primary program driver. This results in a historical lean towards flexibility and collaboration from the program.

We are very focused on how to take advantage of the scale of the University while maintaining a smaller (70-80 students) full-time MBA program (FTMBA). A key element of this is allowing MBA students the flexibility to structure both their schedule and their curriculum to best meet their needs. We do this in several ways:

● Program flexibility. Besides the ability to take up to 8 credits outside the Carlson School, we have a wide range of dual degrees, joint courses, and other collaborations that open up interdisciplinary opportunities for students.

● Course “Interoperability”. Within the school, MBA students may take a range of management courses not offered within the MBA program. Examples include our Human Resources program and Business Analytics programs which have strong interest from MBA students.

● Schedule flexibility. The interoperability theme carries over to format. Our FTMBA students may enroll in our part-time MBA, online MBA, and other programs as stated. From a schedule standpoint, this means they may shift some courses to online or other formats to accommodate their experiential learning, family, or work schedules.

P&Q: What types of programs do you offer to sharpen your students’ soft skills? What areas do you emphasize and how do you instill these skills in your students?

Miller: We offer a broad spectrum of ways for our students to hone their interpersonal skills. We don’t like to think of them as “soft” given how important they are to students’ individual success and ultimately career advancement.

There are straightforward course offerings, workshops, and experiential opportunities. Courses include a range of offerings for personal development including courses in leadership, cross cultural communication, presenting, and much more. We also offer courses more aimed at working with others like our teams course among several offerings.

Our signature offering in the space is our “Enterprise” experiential learning programs. Every MBA student must do two required semesters, with a third optional, of experiential learning. Each functionally organized offering has team interaction, external client engagement and presenting, and experienced professional mentoring then tied to 360° feedback. It is very rich in personal growth.

P&Q: What types of programming – through classroom instruction, extracurriculars, and treks – does your school offer to expose students to country-specific and global business practices? What have students told you were the most educational and fun aspects of these activities?

Miller: The Carlson School is a leader in global education and as such has an explicit global requirement of every student. Our Carlson Global Institute coordinates full-term study abroad with partner schools around the world as well as shorter-term school-led courses. Each short-term course has a theme tied to the location of study. For example, Global Development in Morocco, Medical Technology Evaluation in London, Global Sourcing in Ghana, and more.

The point of the curricular requirement is to ensure students develop and can apply a global lens to their career and business problems generally.

P&Q: What are the most exciting new courses that your school is offering to MBAs this school year? What makes them so unique and valuable?

Miller: Engaging with Boards for Effective Corporate Governance. We are thrilled that our former Dean, Professor Sri Zaheer, is offering a new course co-taught with former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger focused on effective board governance. Their slate of speakers and cases is exciting and the enrollment for the first offering is bursting. We are excited for students to get an intimate view into the boardroom from experienced and respected leaders.

Climate Change & Corporate Finance. This new course seeks to engage finance professionals in better understanding how the corporate finance community may have to adapt to climate change. For example, how do we compensate for and price the risks stemming from climate change, adjust policies to minimize a company’s own contribution to climate change, and proactively contribute to reducing the company’s impact on climate change? The course seeks to build finance leaders who can work within the rapidly evolving landscape with near-daily headlines reflecting the changes within finance.

P&Q:Who are two new professors who’ve joined your faculty in the past year? What do they teach and how will they be difference-makers in your MBA program?

Miller: The Carlson School’s two newest faculty members are Work & Organizations Assistant Professor Kalan Norris and Accounting Assistant Professor John Heater. With a focus on diversity and inclusion, Norris studies the individual and organizational factors that influence employees’ perceptions of belonging and inclusion in the workplace. Prior to earning his doctorate, Heater worked in New York as an auditor for KPMG. His experience inspired him to study how CEOs can influence the way the capital market and investors interpret their firm’s performance. Norris and Heater’s research enriches the extensive body of knowledge at the Carlson School that shapes the foundation for the MBA course content.

P&Q: What types of support does your career center and alumni provide to MBA students? How have these services and relationships made your graduates more competitive in the marketplace?

Miller: Our career center and alumni network are dedicated to supporting students and graduates in a variety of impactful ways. We offer comprehensive programming and services across all graduate programs, ensuring consistency and excellence. Key services include personalized 1:1 coaching—students meet with a coach an average of 8–9 times during their program—access to cutting-edge career technology tools, and participation in 300+ employer-facing events, many of which feature experiential components that provide firsthand insights into specific functions and industries. Students also benefit from site visits, both locally in the Twin Cities and nationally, as well as guidance from trained alumni “contract coaches” who are industry experts, offering tailored support for specialized job searches. The combination of offerings and comprehensive support not only helps our students explore available opportunities but also equips them with the tools needed to reach their desired career goals.

Additionally, our center is committed to supporting all Carlson alumni through a dedicated alumni coach who provides 1:1 appointments (virtually and in person), facilitates small job search cohorts where alumni collaborate and learn from one another, and delivers dynamic programming available on-demand or in real-time. With over 1,000 alumni appointments conducted annually, we ensure alumni have the resources they need to thrive and evolve in their careers.

Profiles of 12 Minnesota Carlson MBAs from the Class Of 2026

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Jack Buettner	Madison, Wisconsin	Colorado College	Carleton College
Waleed Cheema	Lahore, Pakistan	Oxford Brookes University	Ministry of Energy
Gagandeep Choongh	Rescue, California	California State University, Monterey Bay	University of Minnesota
Indri Dyrmishi	Tirana, Albania	University of Tirana	American University of the Middle East
Emily Johnson	Stillwater, MN	Whitman College	Target
Kevin Peña	Kasson, Minnesota.	San Diego State University	Vestas
Erika Schlosser	Apple Valley, Minnesota	Northwest Missouri State University	ECG Management Consultants
Stephany Smith	Monroe, Louisiana	Alabama A&M University	U.S. Army
Sam Borja Truax	Eden Prairie, Minnesota	University of Minnesota	Integrated Staffing Solutions
Calvin Watson	Dallas, Texas	St. Cloud State University	United States Air Force
Lantao Wu	China, Sichuan	University of Edinburgh	Lenovo
Winnie Nyamubi	Dar es Salaam, Tanzania	Institute of Accountancy Arusha	Gofor Company Limited

 

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