Lisa Sheridan

Yale School of Management

(Joint degree with Yale School of the Environment)

“Yoga instructor from Irish farming family, blending business and environmental for equitable, impactful climate finance.”

Hometown: Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Fun Fact About Yourself: My high school summer job was to lead cave tours, guiding international visitors through our beautiful collection of stalactites, stalagmites, and other ancient limestone features.

Undergraduate School and Major: Princeton University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: World Bank, Communications and Knowledge Management Consultant

The Yale School of Management is regarded as a purpose-driven program. What is your mission? How will your MBA at Yale SOM help you fulfill that mission? My mission is to maximize the impact of financial resources for climate action. I aim to enable companies to fund the restoration of forests and other natural landscapes as part of managing their carbon footprint. Yale SOM’s integrated curriculum, combined with the vast expertise in environmental management across this campus, will equip me to design innovative, scalable climate finance solutions. The school’s emphasis on cross-sector collaboration and global impact will allow me to bridge the business and environmental communities, ensuring that land stewards are equitably compensated for their valuable work.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Yale SOM’s MBA curriculum or programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? A key part of Yale SOM’s curriculum that drew me in was the variety of joint degree options with other Yale schools. This flexibility supports SOM’s mission of serving business and society by integrating important perspectives—like environmental management—with business expertise to address societal challenges. Pursuing a joint degree with the School of the Environment allows me to combine rigorous business training with best practices in environmental management. This experience will help me to achieve the impact I aspire to create through my career in natural climate solutions.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at Yale SOM? The Yale SOM Consulting Club excites me most. My public sector experience has fueled my passion for using financial resources to achieve efficiency, maximize impact, and drive social good. I’m eager to hone my skills in analyzing consulting cases alongside fellow club members, learning how to apply strategic thinking to real-world challenges.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2027? Coming from a farming family in Ireland, I’ve seen firsthand what it takes to run a profitable business while stewarding natural landscapes. I’m excited to bring this grassroots perspective to class discussions, as we explore how to apply business concepts to create effective and equitable interventions.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The culmination of my work in climate finance in the international development space was orchestrating a 4-day, international conference on advancing social inclusion in climate finance. The agenda was developed by expert representatives of Indigenous communities, and conference attendees represented a diverse set of perspectives, including Indigenous and local communities, civil society, academic, and development agencies. I was humbled by the collective wisdom shared, and proud that the valuable lessons from the conference were presented at COP28 to help inform global climate negotiations.

What do you hope to do after graduation? After graduation, I hope to work in consulting at the intersection of finance and environmental management, helping companies fund the restoration of forests and other natural landscapes while managing their carbon footprint. I aim to scale nature-based solutions, ensure land stewards are compensated fairly, and serve as a connector between business and environmental communities.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Yale SOM’s MBA program? Don’t be intimidated if you come from a “non-traditional” MBA background. Make it clear how your experiences position you to leverage the business acumen and network you’ll gain at Yale SOM to achieve meaningful business impact and advance social good.

DON’T MISS: MEET YALE SOM’S MBA CLASS OF 2027

© Copyright 2026 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.