Elizabeth Bradshaw

University of Tennessee, Haslam College of Business

“Steady, analytical, service-minded leader pursuing growth while staying human.”

Hometown: Oak Ridge, TN

Fun fact about yourself: Almost every year I go on a week-long canoe-camping trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness!

Undergraduate School and Degree: Berry College – B.S. Economics and University of Tennessee, Knoxville – MBA, Finance

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Camp Wesley Woods in Townsend, TN as the Office Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Knoxville Utilities Board in Knoxville, TN as a Business Analytics Intern

Where will you be working after graduation? The Trust Company of Tennessee as a Client Specialist

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Vice President of Golf Programming for the Women’s Organization of MBAs
• New Member of the Junior League of Knoxville
• Board Member, Camp Wesley Woods
• Alumni Ambassador, Berry College
• Leadership Service Award – UTK Full-Time MBA Program

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I was most proud to serve as the Vice President of Golf Programming for the Women’s Organization of MBAs (WOMBA). The main program I coordinated was Grads to Golf, which provided 6 golf lessons to WOMBA members throughout the school year. Golf is something I already loved coming into the program, so I was grateful for the opportunity to share it with the women in my program. Many of the participants had never swung a golf club before and were somewhat intimidated by the game. Having a space where they could learn in a non-judgmental and supportive way helped equip them with new skills that they can take into a professional setting.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? During my time at Camp Wesley Woods, I took on the project of updating our camp store. When I began, it was a folding table with a few t-shirts, sweatshirts, and water bottles that were available only at check-in and check-out. My vision for the store was to have it be its own physical building open every day and have more items that would enhance the camp experience. We were able to have a building donated; implement a system for parents to load funds into student accounts; develop a way for scholarship campers to go to the store without worry about having funds available; and manage the budget to expand the inventory. Since its implementation, campers have consistently listed visiting the store as their second favorite part of coming to camp (second only to the pool), and it has generated funds that meaningfully fund sponsorships for additional campers to be able to visit the camp. I really loved the opportunity to gain experience with growing a business segment in a way that helped support the ministry in which I operated!

Why did you choose this business school? I chose the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) because of how ingrained it is in the Knoxville community. As I knew I wanted to stay in Tennessee after graduation, I wanted to choose the school that would provide me with the most opportunities here. As I went through the program, I took advantage of opportunities to network and really get involved in the community. I know I would not have been able to end up in the position I’m in now without my network and connections I developed in the program.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite professor in my MBA program was Dr. Ryan Farley. He was my professor for Torch Fund, which was a class in which teams managed real investments. He had real world experience working in New York prior to coming to the University of Tennessee and held us to very high standards but gave us the resources to be successful. I gained such a deep understanding of investments and the options that were available to me in the finance industry. The main ways he assessed our performance were if we had a continued desire to learn and grow and that the work we did today was better than what we did yesterday. He got to know each student individually, would know when we weren’t doing our best, and he would push us to do better. As a result, I had the most personal and professional growth during my time in his class.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course as an MBA student was Torch Fund. This was a two-semester experiential learning course in which students worked on teams to manage investments using real money – my fund started with about $850,000. Each student is assigned a sector in which they are responsible for conducting research and monitoring holdings. Additionally, we generated reports each semester and presented to fund donors and other stakeholders annually. Because we were managing such a large amount of money, we were held to extremely high standards and were expected to spend a significant amount of time reading news and conducting research. As part of this course, I learned how to use a Bloomberg terminal and was able to earn a Bloomberg Master certification. We dug into how what is happening in the world affects investments and how to research efficiently. I learned so much about finance, investing, and business in general. I felt very accomplished and more prepared to enter the workforce when my time in the class ended.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA event was our MBA awards ceremony. We had several alumni return to participate and speak. It emphasized that the community found at the University of Tennessee doesn’t end when you graduate. Additionally, the time spent by faculty and staff to host a special night celebrating students was so special.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? If I were to do anything differently over my MBA experience, it would have been focusing more heavily on the social aspect of the program sooner. When I first started, I was very focused on classes and completing coursework. However, I sometimes said no to more “fun” opportunities with my classmates because I was so focused on tasks. However, I would argue that the most important thing you can get out of an MBA program is a strong network. The more you can bond with and get to know your classmates, the better. Therefore, it’s important to find a balance here.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? We had a case study about leadership in crisis where we discussed Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton never achieved his goal of crossing Antarctica, but he is celebrated for his leadership during this time. The biggest lessons I learned from this are that developing trust amongst your team and being flexible are critical when you are a leader. While you may feel lots of emotion when a goal you set for yourself falls short, you still need to make sure you are taking care of your people.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? The thing that I love most about Knoxville is the community here. At the University of Tennessee, we are known as volunteers and this bleeds into Knoxville as a whole. During the last semester of my MBA program, I joined the Junior League of Knoxville. As part of this experience, I met women spread all throughout the city doing meaningful work to make our community better. If you are someone who wants to get involved, you can find a community to support you and grow with you in Knoxville.

What business leader do you admire most? The business leader that I admire most is Mr. Jim Haslam. While he is very successful in his business endeavors, I most admire his philanthropic efforts and attitude towards community. If you spend any amount of time discussing Mr. Haslam, you are likely to hear the phrase, “You’ve got to pay your rent”. I take this to mean that we all operate in a community that directly or indirectly has helped us grow into the people we are today. Therefore, if we are blessed with resources, whether that be time or money, we should stop and look back at how we can support our community and help make a way for the next generation to be successful as well.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? During my program, the attitude towards AI in most of my classes was that we could use it as a tool as long as we cited where it was used. One of the places I found it most helpful was generating a list of resources in the initial research stage of a project. Once I had a list of potential sources, I could go in and review documents myself. Prior to entering the program, I had never used an AI chatbot. After using it more heavily, my approach towards AI is a sort of cautious optimism. It can make certain tasks much more efficient, but I have also seen it hallucinate enough times to know it can’t yet handle all tasks and should always be checked. I also learned the importance of specific prompt generation. It relies heavily on what you feed into it, so you need to ask for what you want specifically rather than feeding it broad statements. I also love the tip of telling it to “think like” a researcher, CEO, or finance manager to point answers in the direction you’d like them to go.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? The MBA classmate I most admire is Priscilla Hammermeister. What I admire most about Priscilla is that she has one of the strongest characters of anyone I have ever met. Anyone who knows Priscilla knows that she values her faith as paramount in her life. She is a go-getter, but will not sacrifice her morals and beliefs just to make her path easier. She is also willing to stand up, even if she is standing alone, against any injustice that she sees occurring. I am lucky to call her my friend and know she will always be a solid, grounded source of advice when I need it.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? The top two items on my professional bucket list are to get to a place where I can successfully serve as a mentor in my industry and then see that person become a leader themselves and to serve on an executive leadership team. I have had several impactful mentors in my life that have helped me grow and who have given me great perspective. I want to be able to serve as that person for someone else. Additionally, I am a firm believer that the human-side of business is so important. If you only focus on statistics, you’ll miss out on some major places of impact and growth. Therefore, I want to be in a position where I can help lead a team while keeping perspective on what really matters.

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

“I am delighted to write in strong support of Elizabeth Bradshaw for the Best & Brightest MBAs Award. I have had the privilege of working with Elizabeth in the Torch Fund, the Haslam College of Business’s experiential, student-managed investment program, where she has been a standout contributor across two semesters. Her combination of leadership, sustained service, innovation, and deep professionalism aligns exceptionally well with the qualities described in this award: trailblazers who elevate their peers, servant leaders who take on the most demanding responsibilities, and indispensable members of their MBA community.

Elizabeth is one of those rare students who consistently volunteers for the tasks that others avoid—not because they are glamorous, but because they are hard, critical, and require genuine commitment. In the Torch Fund, we produce a comprehensive portfolio performance report once each semester. The document is complex, highly visible, and extremely time-intensive, requiring the coordination of multiple analysts, data sources, and review cycles. Elizabeth served as project manager for this report two semesters in a row, and her work was nothing short of exceptional. She organized the full workflow, established clear deadlines, held peers accountable with tact and respect, and elevated the quality and accuracy of the final product. Her attention to detail ensured that the report not only reflected sound analysis, but also met the professional standards expected by our donors and external stakeholders.

Her leadership is of the kind that genuinely lifts a team. Elizabeth does not seek the spotlight; she seeks results. She steps forward early, asks the right questions, and mobilizes others to contribute meaningfully. She is a natural problem-solver who identifies points of friction and then develops better systems. Indeed, she has introduced workflow improvements in the Torch Fund that have already made our processes more efficient and more reliable. This blend of initiative and operational excellence is precisely what makes her such a valuable presence in any demanding environment.

Just as importantly, Elizabeth’s influence extends far beyond task execution. She is a culture-setter. She raises the level of professionalism around her, models high standards without pretension, and brings a generosity of spirit that encourages others to do their best work. When Poets & Quants describes its Best & Brightest MBAs as the “voices of their classmates,” the ones who “raise the level of everyone around them,” Elizabeth is the sort of student who comes immediately to mind.

Finally, Elizabeth embodies the maturity and poise we hope to see in future business leaders. She is thoughtful, dependable, and quietly driven. Her classmates trust her, faculty rely on her, and the programs she touches are better because of her.

It is without hesitation that I offer my strongest recommendation for Elizabeth Bradshaw’s selection as a Poets & Quants Best & Brightest MBA. She represents the very best of our program, and I am confident she will continue to distinguish herself throughout her career.”

Dr. Ryan Farley
Torch Fund Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2026

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