Raven Byars

University of Pittsburgh, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

“Graduate student pursuing my MBA and Master of Health Administration; aspiring health industry leader.”

Hometown: Louisville, KY

Fun fact about yourself: I lived in Spain for two years as an English teacher! During this time, I traveled to some beautiful places including Mount Teide in the Canary Islands and Plaza de España in Sevilla.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Louisville, Bachelor of Arts in Pan African Studies, Spanish, Latin American and Latino Studies

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?

Penn Medicine—Department of Dermatology

Administrative Coordinator to the COO

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Bristol Myers Squibb Commercial Leadership Development Program Intern, Princeton Pike, NJ

Where will you be working after graduation? Bristol Myers Squibb. Commercial Leadership Development Program Associate

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

UPMC Junior Health Care Explorers Program Guest Speaker | February 2026

Spoke to ~200 middle schoolers about graduate school and careers in business administration and health administration.

Katz Graduate School of Business Inaugural Ankur Goel Fellow | January 2026-Present

Continued work with my Berg Fellowship client to implement consulting recommendations (description below).

Katz Graduate School of Business Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership Diversity and Inclusion Fellow | August 2025-December 2025

Business consulting project for a local Pittsburgh small business. The organization I worked with, skin mind health by Dr. Alaina James, provides healthcare access through offering affordable dermatological services to the Pittsburgh community. Consulting included recommendations on organizational design and product development.

Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Pittsburgh Chapter Panel Moderator | December 2024

Wilma F. Tabisz Memorial Award | December 2024

Awarded to the student who reflects behaviors that exhibit helpfulness to others and a selfless concern to achieve progress in tasks at hand. Recipients will be known as model of equanimity and productivity in times of stress and difficulty.

National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) Pittsburgh Chapter | Chair, Community Engagements and Partnerships Committee | January 2024-Present

Organized local chapter community service events with organizations like Shepherd Wellness Community, Camp H.O.P.E., and Best of the Batch Foundation.

National Black MBA (NBMBAA) Case Competition Team Captain | October 2023

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? It was my position as Chair of the Community Engagements and Partnerships Committee for the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE). I have served in this role since January of 2024 and have mobilized our chapter to serve at many of the amazing non-profit organizations here in the city. Some of the organizations we have partnered with include Shepherd Wellness Community, Camp H.O.P.E., Pittsburgh United Way, and Best of the Batch Foundation. It has helped me feel more deeply connected to the city and allowed me to deliver immediate grassroots impact. Additionally, participation in this organization has grown my local and national network of healthcare business professionals.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Most recently, as part of my internship at Bristol Myers Squibb, I contributed to a novel patient experience pilot aimed at improving access and outcomes for patients with neurological conditions. I’m most proud of this because it combined commercialization strategy with health equity initiatives in efforts to increase patient medication adherence. It deepened my interest in the pharmaceutical industry and reinforced my commitment to equity in the health industry.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Katz for its established dual MHA/MBA program, which blends business acumen with healthcare system knowledge and understanding. I knew that because of Pittsburgh’s strong health sector ties, I would be surrounded by ample academic and professional opportunity. My experience in these programs has extensively prepared me for post-graduate work and future health industry leadership.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Elise Boyas. She made a subject that I didn’t have much interest in (Financial Accounting) much more approachable and understandable. I appreciated her teaching so much that I pursued additional accounting electives during my time at the business school, which I really enjoyed.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? It’s tough to pick just one, but I would say my Lean Six Sigma course. We had a surgery center client within a local health system, which perfectly blended my interests in both business and health administration. I learned so many useful daily work tools like project charters, various root cause analyses, and process mapping. Most importantly, I learned to rigorously define and quantify the customer’s problems, goals, and deliverables before moving to the next stage of a work project.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My MBA Capstone was such a great experience. Developing my own innovation project allowed me to integrate skills and experiences I gained throughout the program. We also toured a few Pittsburgh businesses and learned how they innovate in their respective industries, which reflected Pittsburgh’s dynamic business ecosystem.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I wish I had taken more finance courses! I was interested in a few finance electives, but I was intimidated by the pre-requisite course. However, I try not to be too hard on myself because I pushed myself out of my academic comfort zone in countless other ways.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? In my Organizational Behavior class, we studied a case about the outdoor apparel and gear company Patagonia, which highlighted how they implement social responsibility, sustainability, and mission-driven work. This approach was in sharp contrast to the view of Milton Friedman, whom we also learned about, as he argued that social responsibility is misguided and the only responsibility of a business is to increase profits. I found it compelling to see Patagonia operate as a profitable, successful company with loyal customers while still centering its values of environmentalism and justice. It was an important lesson that profitability and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive and to pay attention to what companies choose to prioritize.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Pittsburgh has an extensive arts and culture scene. Since I moved here, I’ve visited the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and Heinz Hall, just to name a few! These experiences have truly enriched my time living in this city.

What business leader do you admire most? I recently learned about Bob Chapman, CEO of multi-billion-dollar company Barry-Wehmiller, and I really resonated with his leadership approach. He is famously known for avoiding layoffs at his company, even during the 2008 recession, by implementing innovative strategies. He is extremely critical of layoffs, seeing them as dehumanizing, destructive to people’s lives, and a sign of business model failure. He views leaders as stewards entrusted with their employees’ lives with a duty to help them thrive. Because of this, he prioritizes a safe business model for employment security and cultivates an environment where employees feel genuinely cared for, which had led to extremely high retention and tenure at his company. While it shouldn’t be revolutionary to see employees as people instead of disposable resources, it is a mindset that too often forgotten in business. Bob’s people-first approach is admirable and what I strive to emulate in my own leadership journey.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Professors have frequently integrated AI into class concepts to explore its uses and risks. In Marketing Management, we used AI to create company ad concepts then critiqued them. In Business Ethics and the MBA Capstone, we’ve read articles and held class discussion about implementation. One of my key takeaways is how useful AI tools are for idea generation, yet we should be abundantly cautious due to the lack of regulation and unclear impacts.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? My now-graduated classmate, Kyle Wyche. While earning his MBA, he served as cofounder and COO of Ecotone Renewables. It was inspiring to watch him seamlessly apply classroom concepts to scale his successful business. Quite literally experiential learning in action!

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. Secure an international opportunity (short- or long-term) to enhance my cultural understanding and grow my global perspective in the health industry.

2. Later in my career, I would love to give back by teaching business and/or health administration students. I would want to share my industry knowledge and mentor the next generation of leaders.

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

“It is without hesitation that we nominate Raven Byars for Poets&Quants‘ Best & Brightest MBAs. Raven consistently and quietly elevates everyone around her, not because it serves her professionally, but because it is simply who she is.

Raven carries a 3.68 GPA across a demanding dual MBA/MHA (Masters in Health Administration) program. She is distinguished not just by the GPA, but the intentionality behind her learning. Before applying to business school, she identified gaps in her preparation and, while working full-time at an academic medical center, she enrolled in evening economics, accounting, and statistics courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Rather than waiting to be told what she needed, she identified the gaps herself and took action. That same proactive rigor defines her approach in the classroom, leading her to earn and maintain a full academic scholarship. She obtained a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and served as a Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership Fellow, through which she provided business consulting to Skin Mind Health, a Pittsburgh dermatology practice offering affordable, sliding-scale services to underserved communities, helping with organizational design and product development for an emerging haircare line. She was subsequently selected as the inaugural Ankur Goel Fellow at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, where she advanced her Berg Fellowship consulting project from the recommendation phase to real-world implementation.

Raven’s extracurricular record is extensive, and what stands out is the consistent sense of purpose connecting each commitment. As Chair of Community Engagements and Partnerships for the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) Pittsburgh Chapter, she organized meal packing events at Shepherd Wellness Community, spoke to students about careers in healthcare at Camp H.O.P.E. (a program for underserved youth), and coordinated a holiday toy drive with the Best of the Batch Foundation. She was a member of the Health Policy and Management Association (HPMA) for two years and participated in the Deloitte Future of Work Institute. In addition, she moderated a Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association panel at the inaugural Pittsburgh Chapter launch event. She served as captain of the 2023 NAHSE National Case Competition and, as a National Black Scholar, participated in the 2023 NBMBAA Case Competition team and then mentored the 2024 team. None of these roles were passive. Each one required her to build something, sustain something, or show up for someone, often all three at once.

What may be hardest to capture on paper is Raven’s impact on the people immediately around her. In December 2024, she received the Wilma F. Tabisz Memorial Award to recognize a student who best exemplifies helpfulness to others, and models of equanimity and productivity in times of stress and difficulty. It is the most fitting recognition for her, because her generosity is structural, not occasional. She has helped classmates prepare for interviews, edited personal statements, coached case competition teams, and connected peers to industry leaders through her personal network. She has spoken on student panels, met with prospective students, and served as a Katz Student Ambassador, all while managing her own demanding academic and professional load. She does this not for recognition but because, as she has said herself, she has benefited from mentors who poured into her, and she refuses to keep that to herself.

Raven’s path to business school is also genuinely singular. She began her career teaching English in Málaga, Spain, drawn there by her undergraduate studies in Spanish, Pan African Studies, and Latin American and Latino Studies. Returning to the U.S., she took an entry-level patient registration role to use her Spanish skills and discovered a calling. She moved through clinic operations, patient experience, and project management before becoming Administrative Coordinator to the COO of the Penn Medicine Dermatology Department. It was there, watching healthcare leaders navigate complex systems, that she recognized the gap in her own training and decided to pursue a dual MBA/MHA. Her undergraduate background, which might seem unrelated at first glance, is in fact foundational. It led her to ask whose perspective is missing, to challenge the status quo, and to approach problems with both rigor and equity in mind. That lens now shapes everything she does, from her consulting work with underserved populations to her career pursuits in health equity in biopharmaceuticals after graduation.

Professionally, Raven completed internships with the UPMC Health Plan Medicare Advantage Division and a competitive internship with Bristol Myers Squibb’s Commercial Leadership Development Program (CLDP). She has accepted a full-time position with BMS as a CLDP Associate. Raven Byars is the kind of student who makes a program better simply by being in it. We recommend her with enthusiasm and full confidence.”

Renee Schiffhauer, MA
Assistant Director, Career Development

Jennifer O’Toole, MA
Associate Director, Career Development
University of Pittsburg School of Business, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

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