Jessica Essel

Emory University, Goizueta Business School

“From Ghana to Goizueta: A rising human capital transformation strategist with a global heart and people-first lens.”

Hometown: Tema, Ghana

Fun Fact About Yourself: I recently traversed Lake Victoria in the middle of a storm with a global team of 12 people from 8 countries to refurbish a classroom unit in a remote village on a Ugandan island. It was just pure grit, cross-cultural teamwork, purposeful mindset, and a commitment to making education more accessible where it’s needed most.

Undergraduate School and Major: Ashesi University, BSc. Business Administration

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Human Resource Specialist

What makes Atlanta such a great place to earn an MBA? As a lover of good food and growing up Ghanaian, food has always held a deeper meaning beyond nourishment. It’s about culture, a meeting place for good conversations and it’s how we build community. For me personally, it’s also my comfort thing. I know things get challenging and intense during the MBA program, whether it’s finals week, recruiting, or life in general. During these times, I will definitely need a warm soulful flavorful meal to help me slow down, pause, recharge and then keep going. Atlanta’s vibrant and legendary soul food scene offers me that and more.

Looking beyond that, Atlanta is a diverse city with a thriving business landscape that focuses on technology and innovation. It’s home to Fortune 500 companies and startups. It’s the kind of city that will feed both my ambition and soul. I’m happy to call this city home for the next two years.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Emory Goizueta’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Aside from Goizueta’s intentionality with being a small-by-design program, which meant I wouldn’t just blend into the background or hide in the back row, the defining factor for me was the Goizueta IMPACT course. Discovering it was the moment I said yes. I wasn’t only looking for academic rigor; I wanted a space where I’d be pushed to lead, analyze, and collaborate on real business problems. IMPACT offers exactly that. It’s not theory in a vacuum. It’s live, client-facing work with real consequences. It’s Goizueta’s unique approach to experiential learning.

For someone aspiring to build a career in strategic human capital transformation, IMPACT is the proving ground where I get to test the knowledge and experience I’m gaining. Right from the first semester with IMPACT core, I’ll have the opportunity to grow my voice, skillset, and confidence to help organizations truly transform.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Emory Goizueta? It has got to be ‘Goizueta Gives’.

After years in people-focused roles, I’ve seen how impact doesn’t always show up in titles. It starts with showing up, very often by quietly demonstrating service. I believe this club would give me the chance to be a part of something bigger. It’s a space to roll up my sleeves, step into local needs, and use my skills beyond the classroom, possibly for causes that wouldn’t always get the spotlight.

Having previously participated in similar initiatives, Goizueta Gives would allow me to continue that practice in a new city, with new stories and new challenges. I’m excited to serve alongside peers who care about impact; impact not merely on a resume, but in showing up daily as a way of life.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At GIZ Ghana, I led the design and rollout of a scalable learning and development strategy that upskilled over 100 employees across several projects. I collaborated with project leads to identify role-specific needs and implement targeted capacity-building trainings.

This was a quiet but meaningful leadership moment for me because what I’m most proud of wasn’t just the practical learning outcomes. Instead, it was how I had to push and stretch beyond my formal scope of work. To ensure a smooth, timely rollout, I stepped into logistics and procurement coordination, managing things from vendor relations to on-site execution. It taught me that adaptability isn’t just about filling gaps; it’s about owning results. Even behind-the-scenes efforts, when done with care, can elevate both performance and perception. This is the most far-reaching initiative I’ve led professionally so far, and it’s the moment I truly began to understand the kind of strategist and servant-leader I want to be.

Looking ahead two years, what would make your Emory MBA experience a success? Success would mean graduating from Goizueta with the clarity and courage to lead strategic people transformation at scale. It would mean being equipped to step into consulting with the practical insights, skills, values, and tools, working in tandem to reimagine the future of work.

Additionally, success also looks like walking away with lifelong collaborators who challenge and inspire me. This is particularly true if they are peers who aren’t afraid to ask, “what if?” – and then go do something about it. Through Goizueta’s experiential learning, small-by-design culture, and human-centered leadership focus, I hope to expand my thinking, build capacity, and grow into a more agile, purposeful leader.

If I can leave this program knowing I’ve built community, tackled real business problems, grown into a strategist who aligns business with humanity and is ready to help people and organizations thrive, then I’ll know I’ve done it right.

DON’T MISS: MEET EMORY GOIZUETA’S MBA CLASS OF 2027

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