Kayla Hergott Heiny

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

“Curious, adventure-seeking optimist; believer in the power and responsibility of individuals to better the world.”

Hometown: Augusta, GA

Fun fact about yourself: I have been to all 50 states!

Undergraduate School and Degree:

• BS in Biomedical Engineering from Florida Tech
• MS in Engineering Management from Florida Tech

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? NuVasive Inc (acquired by Globus Medical) as a Staff Technical Product Owner

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Hologic as the Corporate Development Intern in Boston, MA

Where will you be working after graduation? Still recruiting for Corporate Development, Commercial-facing, or PE-Ops roles in the MedTech industry

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Dual degree student; Master of Public Health at Geisel School of Medicine
• Entrepreneurship Club Co-Chair
• Entrepreneurship Fellow
• Health Care Club Co-Chair
• Health Care Fellow
• Admitted Students Weekend (ASW) Co-Chair
• Tuck Mentors Club Co-Chair
• Tuck Leadership Fellow
• Tuck Bridge Fellow
• Tuck Ambassador

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? During my first year, I worked on my own startup, Luna Life, a digital health startup focused on personalized women’s health. Luna Life leverages women’s unique physiological data to deliver tailored insights, nutrition, guidance, and exercise recommendations based on their menstrual cycles. I applied to business school with a clear goal of working in women’s health innovation, and building Luna Life became my way of exploring the digital health landscape and identifying meaningful white space in providing actionable insights that are not readily available (but should be) for women.

Through Tuck’s First-Year Project, I led a team of classmates through customer discovery, surveys, A/B testing, and financial modeling to develop a robust business plan and go-to-market strategy that we were all proud of. This experience solidified my desire to work and lead a start-up one day. I really enjoy working on a high-talent team that works together to pursue a mission that solves a problem we believe in. There is something so invigorating about creating a solution or product whose sum is much greater than each of its parts.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? From 2020 to 2021 at Stryker, I helped build a new product transfer capability within my organization that ultimately became its own global division. What began as a small pilot team evolved into a 150-plus-person global function responsible for transitioning products between suppliers to mitigate supply disruptions and capture cost savings across major business lines.

I was early in my career, but I immersed myself in the end-to-end process, learning by doing and listening closely to the priorities of cross-functional partners across quality, regulatory, operations, and R&D. I helped design and formalize systems that were ultimately used company-wide, creating a repeatable and scalable approach to product transfers. Protecting revenue and driving savings were important outcomes, but what I am most proud of is helping build a structure and tools that prioritized quality and lasted beyond my time at the company.

That experience taught me how important it is to understand what motivates each person/cross-functional member, align around shared priorities, and create momentum through shared goals. This experience showed me that leadership is less about having all the answers and more about bringing people together to move something meaningful forward.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Tuck for two reasons. First, it was the community. I lived in six states throughout my 20s and had not felt rooted anywhere since playing college tennis. My husband, Andrew—also a T’26—and I wanted to invest deeply in a place and in people, and to feel that investment returned. That promise of mutual commitment set Tuck apart from every other program for us.

Second, I wanted a truly transformative experience. I came to Tuck wanting to push myself beyond what I felt comfortable. I wanted to try things I did not yet know how to do, step into roles that intimidated me, and put myself fully out there professionally and socially. I knew that in a community that constantly encourages and supports one another, I would be able to try, fail, succeed, and grow into the leader I wanted to be. It’s important to note that Tuck has far exceeded my wildest expectations in both areas.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? This is an extremely challenging question, as so many of Tuck’s professors are brilliant and embody Tuck’s values of personal, connected, and transformative each day. However, Professor Lindsey Leininger stands out to me for the way she teaches and intentionally designs the classroom experience.

She teaches at the intersection of health care and business, bringing extraordinary energy and conviction to every discussion. What I admire most is her ability to confront deeply rooted systemic problems in health care while remaining grounded in data and optimistic about the progress that is possible to improve health care in the U.S. She creates a classroom environment that makes health care accessible and understandable, and makes it clear that health care is everyone’s responsibility. She challenges us to move beyond critique, which is so easy to do nowadays, and think about solutions.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite thing about Tuck is that it is built upon people bringing their own skills and talents and contributing their time to create an experience for our classmates to enjoy. To me, this is the foundation of our social calendar and the traditions at Tuck. One example of this is Tuck Gives.

This is a gala and auction where people offer their skills for the Tuck community to bid on to raise funds that support students interested in working at startups, nonprofits, or companies that cannot pay for an MBA summer internship. Students contribute whatever they have to raise money. Last year, we could bid on dog-walking services, dumpling and pie-making classes, dinners from our more talented chef-classmates, a firearms safety course my husband offered, and even playing golf and tennis with professors. To me, this perfectly represents what Tuck is. It’s people who give their skills and their time to create an experience for their classmates, not just for a night in April, but to support opportunities that impact students’ summers.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I am still in denial that it is ending, but if I were restarting my MBA experience, I would have been more intentional in my second year and allocated more time to developing Luna Life further. Running clubs and completing the MPH dual degree offered a different type of coursework, leadership opportunities, and connections. However, being a founder during business school is a unique opportunity that is such a finite time to take advantage of. For anyone wanting to start a company, an MBA is a great time to do it. The willingness to help a student founder is unbelievable; faculty, alums, and investors are generous with their time and guidance in ways that are impossible to replicate post-graduation. While I am proud of the experience and investments I made into the Tuck community this year, I wish I had more time to pursue and drive Luna Life further.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school, and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? One of the most impactful cases I studied was the HBS Cipla case in Corporate Responsibility with Professor Paul Argenti. The case examined Cipla’s decision to provide low-cost drugs in developing countries, forcing us to discuss the tension between protecting intellectual property and expanding access to life-saving treatment.

Throughout my life, I have always felt that I had a clear sense of right and wrong, but this case, and several others throughout this course, challenged that. There was no simple answer. It made me realize that health care leadership often lives in the grey, where financial sustainability and patient access can be in direct tension, despite wanting to make the world a better place. What I learned most during this case and this course was the importance of judgment and trusted counsel. When facing complex, high-stakes decisions, you need colleagues and mentors who will push your thinking, broaden your perspective, and hold you accountable to your values. The case reshaped how I think about responsibility and leadership in health care.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Other than Hanover looking like a town that is straight out of a Hallmark movie – complete with its annual Christmas tree lighting – my favorite part of living here is the sense of calm that defines the Upper Valley.

Business school is hard. Recruiting is stressful. And as an introvert, the social scene can be overstimulating, which can quickly lead to burnout. What makes Tuck different is what happens the moment you walk out of the classroom. You step into a quaint college town surrounded by hundreds of miles of trails, woods that change color every season, charming coffee shops, and local farms where you can pick up fresh produce for the week.

Hanover creates the conditions for you to thrive academically, socially, and professionally because there is a calming, grounding force the second you leave Tuck Hall. People often talk about how special it is to create their own fun in Hanover, and that is true. But what we do not talk about enough is the real differentiation: living in Hanover expands your mental capacity to do and be more. The environment and the community support you.

What business leader do you admire most? Female entrepreneurs are deeply inspiring to me, but after having the privilege of speaking to Poshmark founder and T’05 Tracy Sun, she stands out most. Tracy is an incredibly wise and intentional leader. Her story of co-founding Poshmark reflects both grit and long-term vision.

What I admire most is her commitment to continuous learning, demonstrated by taking on roles across the organization to learn every aspect of the business, from product to operations to growth.

Over her tenure, she built fluency across functions to make better, more integrated decisions. She can also listen to different perspectives, synthesize ideas, prioritize with clarity, and set direction for others. Speaking with her, I was struck by her quiet confidence and the way she measures success not just by valuation, but by impact. Our conversation broadened my perspective on what strong leadership can look like and reminded me that influence does not have to be loud to be powerful. It is a mindset I will carry with me as I continue to grow in my career and think about the people I surround myself with.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into its programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? It is shocking how much AI has evolved since we started the program in 2024. Tuck has formally integrated tools like ChatGPT into our broader ecosystem and continues to launch new AI-focused electives each quarter. AI is treated as a tool we are expected to understand and use well, knowing that nearly every job will require some level of fluency moving forward.

What stands out to me is that AI has most enhanced how we work outside the classroom, not replaced what happens inside it. I use AI to pressure-test ideas, synthesize research more effectively, and explore alternative perspectives. It has sharpened my thinking, improved my efficiency, and helped me communicate more clearly.

In the classroom, Tuck has remained grounded in what it has always done best: developing wise, decisive leaders. The focus remains on rigorous discussion, principled judgment, and learning to think and communicate critically. AI can accelerate analysis, but it cannot replace the values-based leadership and human connection that defines the Tuck experience.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? There are truly so many classmates I admire, and I am a better friend, leader, and person because of my two years alongside the T’26s. I was told choosing my husband, Andrew, also a T’26, would be a cop-out, so I will highlight someone whom we both admire and who has shaped our experience from the very beginning: Zach Davies.

Zach was one of the first friends Andrew and I made in Sachem Village, and he quickly became the anchor of a close-knit group that has defined our time at Tuck. He is someone who instinctively looks out for others. He opens his home without hesitation and is the first to offer help because of who he is. Professionally, Zach arrived at Tuck with a clear goal of transitioning into sports CPG, and he pursued it with focus and discipline, executing it flawlessly. I deeply admire his ability to set an intention and execute against it, while encouraging everyone around him along the way.

I have no doubt Zach will be an exceptional leader and will achieve everything he wants in his career. However, more importantly, I know he will be an extraordinary teammate, friend, husband, and father throughout every life phase. It would be an absolute privilege to work professionally and build a community alongside someone like Zach.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? First, I want to build and lead a health care company focused on reducing health inequities for women. I am motivated and excited to improve access, outcomes, and innovation in areas where women have historically been underserved.

Second, I would love to teach. After building meaningful impact in the MedTech industry, I would love to return to Tuck to teach at the intersection of business and health care. I hope to equip future leaders to build healthcare companies that are not only profitable but truly transformative for patients.

What made Kayla such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“Kayla is an exceptional person. We first met nearly two years ago in March 2024, after she was admitted to Tuck and deciding where to pursue her MBA.

Since that moment, she has continually impressed me with her level of self-drive, her meaningful contributions to the Tuck community, and the intentional way she has approached making the most of her time here.

As a Tuck alum and career adviser, I have met with Kayla roughly once a month. She shows up energized, with ambitious goals and real plans to back them up, and she actively seeks feedback on how to achieve them. One example of Kayla’s drive is her decision to pursue the MBA-MPH joint degree at Dartmouth; she is earning both degrees in two years. She made this huge investment in herself while actively leading multiple clubs at Tuck, creating her own internship with a $4B women’s health MedTech company, and developing her own women’s health venture through Tuck’s entrepreneurship programming. Any of those things on their own are uncommon enough to make someone stand out a bit, and Kayla did them all in just her first year.

What impresses me most, however, is how she shows up for others. I frequently connect students with Kayla when they share her interests, and she always makes time for them. She is generous with her experiences, candid about challenges, and thoughtful in her advice. I often tell students that Kayla is a fantastic person to know and learn from, with the caveat that comparing yourself to her can be humbling!

I’m privileged to work with Kayla, and Tuck is a better place for having her here.”

Marc Aquila T’07
Director, Career Services

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