‘My Voice Is My Superpower’: The Black MBA Experience At Emory’s Goizueta Business School

On a warm fall afternoon outside Emory’s business school, three MBA students talk over one another, laugh mid-sentence, pause to wave off a passerby, then lean back in. The conversation drifts from recruiting stress to Atlanta’s geography, from national politics to faculty diversity, and from Detroit to Howard University to rural Pennsylvania.

For Tanysha Young, Natalie Henderson, and Danielle Maner – leaders of the Black MBA Association and Consortium at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School – this is Black life as a graduate student in real time: candid, communal, and shaped by questions of voice, belonging, and responsibility.

“This is a place where you can be honest,” Young says. “That matters.”

CHOOSING EMORY – AND FINDING COMMUNITY

Each of the three arrived at Goizueta by a different route.

Maner, an Atlanta native, grew up just minutes from campus but never seriously considered Emory until business school. A Howard University biology major on the pre-med track, she spent several years working in healthcare and health equity before realizing she wanted to address systemic problems from the business side.

“When I started thinking about business school, I had to think about my life holistically,” she says. “Location mattered. Community mattered.”

That sense of community crystallized during Goizueta’s diversity programming, particularly Inside Goizueta Weekend, when current Black women MBAs asked faculty and staff to leave the room and spoke candidly with prospective students.

“They were honest about their experiences as Black women,” Maner says. “They affirmed that this was a place where they felt welcomed and heard. That really solidified my decision.”

Henderson’s path ran through Detroit, local television newsrooms in New York and Michigan, and eventually global marketing. A Forté Fellow and Consortium Fellow, she applied only to schools in major cities and admits Emory was not her first choice at the outset.

“But once I got here,” she says, “I realized it was exactly what I needed.”

Scholarship funding played a role, as did visible leadership support.

“Having leadership that looks like us and understands what it takes to get through this process – that’s huge,” Henderson says. “I came here with no family, no network. This was a fresh start.”

As Maner says, “My voice is my superpower. Using it through these leadership positions allows me not only to grow personally, but to pour back into my community.”

NAVIGATING POLITICS, PRESSURE, AND SAFE SPACES

That sense of belonging was tested during a turbulent political season, when national elections and debates around DEI rollbacks created anxiety for many students of color at predominantly white institutions.

“For Black students, especially Black women, that moment was heavy,” Maner says. “You don’t know how people around you are going to react.”

What mattered most, she says, was how the school responded. Goizueta’s dean issued a statement, opened listening sessions, and invited students into conversation.

“That kind of outreach isn’t universal,” Maner says. “I didn’t hear friends at other MBA programs talking about leadership showing up that way.”

Young arrived with a corporate trajectory already taking shape. An MBA candidate, Consortium Fellow, and Forté Fellow with prior experience at Cardinal Health, she quickly stepped into campus leadership as president of the Black MBA Association.

She says the ability to walk directly into leadership offices without ceremony has been central to Goizueta’s culture.

“We’ve created real safe spaces,” she says. “You can talk to the dean. You can talk to the program office. You can say, ‘I’m not okay,’ and be met with support.”

Goizueta’s investment in the Consortium has been particularly visible. This year’s Consortium cohort is the largest in the school’s history, with roughly 70 students across programs and class years.

“That speaks volumes,” Young says. “We’re invested, and we’re not pulling back.”

LEADERSHIP AS ADVOCACY

For all three women, leadership has become both a responsibility and a coping mechanism.

Maner serves as vice president of the Black MBA Association, social media lead for the Consortium, and a John Lewis Initiative Fellow. She describes those roles not as résumé builders but as extensions of her values.

“When things feel uncertain, I put my energy into what matters,” she says. “That’s how I stay grounded.”

That leadership often includes educating peers.

“Sometimes people don’t fully understand the magnitude of what’s happening,” Henderson says. “But once you explain it, people want to support and sustain the community we already have.”

Young says the Black MBA Association and Consortium provide spaces where students can simply breathe.

“We can come together and say, ‘I need support,’” she says. “That’s powerful.”

WHERE GOIZUETA CAN DO MORE

The students are candid about where progress remains incomplete. Faculty diversity stands out as the most significant gap.

“When you look at the faculty, there’s still a lack of representation,” Maner says. “We’re in Atlanta – a city full of Black success and Latino success. There’s room to grow.”

Microaggressions still occur. Voices are sometimes overlooked in group settings. Growth, they argue, requires moving from stated values to sustained action.

“Leadership is responsive,” Young says. “But we’d like to see more proactive leadership – taking the first step rather than waiting for students to push.”

Those conversations, she adds, are already happening directly with administrators.

“The difference here is that we actually have channels,” she says. “What we say doesn’t disappear.”

A NETWORK THAT KNOWS YOU

This year, the Black MBA Association counts roughly 110 members across Goizueta’s full-time, evening, and specialized master’s programs – its largest footprint in years. Programming spans recruiting preparation, conference support, and community service, ensuring no one feels isolated in a small cohort.

“We were all trying to find each other,” Young says. “This year, we made that easier.”

That intimacy extends beyond affinity groups. In a school that prizes being small by design, students say the network functions differently than at massive MBA programs.

“We may not have tens of thousands of alumni,” Henderson says. “But the ones we have actually know us.”

Maner agrees. “You don’t need ten thousand people,” she says. “You need one person who knows your story.”

For prospective Black MBA students weighing where they might feel seen, supported, and empowered, the message from Goizueta’s student leaders is clear.

“This place isn’t perfect,” Young says. “But it’s real. And here, your voice actually matters.”

DON’T MISS REVISING THE MBA PLAYBOOK AT EMORY GOIZUETA, ONE PRESSURE POINT AT A TIME

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