Kristin Brown

Kelley Direct Online MBA Program, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business

“A futurist with heart. A strategist for the long game. A leader who serves.”

Age: 44

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

Fun fact about yourself: I waited tables for 17 years. I learned so many priceless lessons – how to engage strangers; how to cultivate empathy; how to make others feel welcome and heard; how to craft a truly memorable experience; how to keep going when it feels impossible to handle the volume; and how to adjust your systems so that the volume is manageable next time. 5 out of 5 – recommend!

Undergraduate School and Degree: BA in English, Colgate University

Where are you currently working? Executive Director and Chief of Staff, Institute for Clinical Innovation, Providence

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The wins I’m most proud of are cultural wins. I once worked on a team that had done a lot of promoting from within. The individual managers were all well-intentioned, but there was a lot of management by feel, habit, and intuition – there was no management practice. I created a managers’ community, developed standards, developed trainings, and created communications guides. I knew we were getting somewhere – we were starting to commit to how we manage here. But I was totally unprepared for what happened when we got our employee engagement scores. 100% of employees rated 100% of our managers favorably across a dozen items – from “my supervisor is good at explaining the changes that happen in our organization” to “my supervisor acts ethically and responsibly.” It was a huge turnaround, and it was the first time that I fully realized that I was capable of leading big change.

Why did you choose this school’s online MBA program? I looked at a lot of programs, and I wasn’t afraid to look off the beaten path. What I wanted most of all was two things: learn from truly excellent faculty, and participate in a vibrant community. Plug-and-play programs weren’t going to do it for me. I wanted a school that would shape me meaningfully, but that would also invite students to shape its culture and its future. Classes at Kelley are taught by full-time faculty – you’d be amazed how many online MBA programs make this kind of claim but don’t deliver. I could tell that the quality of the online instruction was absolutely top-notch.

Everyone goes through the core curriculum, and I liked the idea of going through the program with a cohort so that I could make friends. Also, you need to attend live classes, and I was attracted to the opportunity to engage in live discussion and breakout sessions. Kelley Direct is technically a hybrid program – there are two required in-person weeks, and I was so excited to be with my classmates in person. And there are a lot of ways to get involved, whether through student associations or global immersions. I found no other online program that could offer that level of quality and vibrancy, at any price.

What was your favorite part of being in an online MBA program? I’m convinced that there is no better way to actually learn business – from the fundamentals to the more complex strategic stuff – than to learn something in class that you can practice the next day at work, where the pressure is on and the stakes are high.

I took a pricing class while working on pricing a new product at work. I took a negotiation class while supporting my boss in navigating a very complex transaction. I took a strategic entrepreneurship class while assessing an opportunity to sell a part of our business to private equity. This isn’t just book learning – it’s a catalyst for transformative impact.

How did your online experience compare with your in-the-classroom experience as an undergraduate student? As much affection as I have for my time as an undergrad at that beautiful school high on the snowy hill, the experience was special and separate. It was supposed to be. Try reading Chaucer on a noisy downtown train – it does not work. The rarefied air of my undergrad years helped me learn how to learn, and I’m grateful for it. At Kelley, no one is pressing pause on the real world. You are spending your evenings online with teams of hungry, ambitious people from all over the world – people who come to class after a full day of real work, and who bring that real-world experience to tough and timely questions about what’s happening now and what will happen next. Everyone at Kelley is currently a part of change that is happening under our feet, even as we speak. It’s so exciting to learn alongside people like that.

What is your best piece of advice to an applicant for thriving in an online MBA program? Don’t just take what you’re given and pay the tab! Be flagrantly generous. Help others muddle through. Lift up and celebrate your classmates. Connect people who should be connected. Create something – a meetup, a moment, a ritual or tradition – that enhances the experience for everyone. Tell your professors how much their class meant to you. It’s amazing how rich the experience can become when everyone is bringing gifts.

How has your online education helped you in your current job? There were so many days over the last two years when I found myself thinking, “Wow, I could not have started this MBA program one day later.” Almost every week I was putting something into practice that I had just learned. But the biggest impact was the education I received through KD’s Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation program. I took a lot of electives in this area. The coursework gave me a framework and a language to articulate both the strategies available to my company in terms of innovation and the role I could play in executing. It helped me to advocate not just for the job that I wanted, but for the impact that I wanted to make.

Did you earn a promotion while in the program or immediately after graduation? About a year into the program, I was promoted to executive director for the Providence Institute for Clinical Innovation, a brand-new institute within our health system. It’s a dream job! My boss directly connected the promotion to the way I’d been able to level up in terms of contribution since starting my MBA. I was better able to connect my efforts to the organization’s objectives, and he really appreciated the difference.

Why did you pursue an online MBA program instead of a full-time residential or executive MBA program? I was much too late in my career to press pause and go to a full-time program. I was accepted into some high-profile exec education programs, but ultimately I had to check my vanity – I could not justify the cost. So, I made a promise to myself: I would choose a school that was reasonably priced, but I’d get an experience worth $250K.

I went early to the in-person events so that I could get to know Bloomington and meet up with people and make friends. I created study groups. I went to alumni meetups – even those outside my town – so I could meet alumni in other cities. I joined associations and served in student leadership. I joined the IU Angels Network as an educational member. I attended conferences, webinars, and career workshops. I met with career coaches, and I took professors up on offers to meet outside of class to talk through challenges at work. I did these things because I wanted every dollar I spent on my education to go as far as possible. I had so much fun along the way!

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One of the things I love about the faculty at Kelley is that they are as excited about the future as we are. Most professors were curious about the possibilities and wanted to explore and experiment alongside us. This showed up at Kelley on Innovation – a weeklong in-person event that’s run like a Startup Week. Many teams used AI to create really clever prototypes for our trade show expo – it was incredible to see what people could come up with. I learned so much from what other teams did with AI.

Number of Hours Per Week Spent on an Online MBA: 15-20, but I took an accelerated course load and I was involved in a lot of extracurriculars. You could do it on less!

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? I’m passionate about the place where culture meets innovation, and I’m energized by the challenges and possibilities that we’ll face as the world changes in the years to come. I’m not motivated by titles, but I am motivated by the chance to make a difference. I want to help my health system become the most innovative health system in the country. If you can google us in 10 years and find that result, I’ll be a very proud woman.

DON’T MISS: BEST & BRIGHTEST ONLINE MBAS: CLASS OF 2025

© Copyright 2025 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.