Rebecca Durr, Ph.D.

MIT, Sloan School of Management

“Curious, joyful, competitive, self-assured. I love fly fishing, skiing, and assembling furniture (aka adult LEGOs).”

Hometown: Portland, OR

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have traveled on all seven continents.

Undergraduate School and Major:

University of California, Berkeley: Ph.D., Chemistry

University of California, Santa Barbara: B.A., Chemistry

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: R&D Program Manager, Global Innovation; Columbia Sportswear Company

What word best describes the MIT Sloan MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far and why? Sharp. The community is clever, observant, communicative, quick-witted, lively, and driven. It’s an outstanding group to call my peers, mentors, and friends!

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of MIT Sloan’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Sloan is located in what could be considered the biotech capital of the world. The programming, community, and network are all positioned for students to accelerate into this innovative and technology-driven environment, and I plan to fully utilize those resources. Also, data is one of my love languages, so the curriculum emphasis on data-motivated decision making and logic appeals to me.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at MIT Sloan? I am excited to get involved in the Sloan Pride organization! As a queer female scientist, I understand the value of increasing the visibility of historically excluded communities, and I hope to use my career and leadership to this end as well. I can’t wait to meet other queer Sloanies and allies, and connect with LGBTQ+ leaders from other MBA programs and industries as well.

Action Learning Labs are one of MIT Sloan’s biggest attractions. Which lab interests you most? How does it fit with your interests? Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab). I was drawn to Sloan because of the emphasis on bringing learning out of the classroom into real project-based experiential learning. G-Lab takes that hands-on learning to an even more practical yet complex level by focusing on the dual factors of both culture and economics in growing a startup. One of my goals in getting an MBA is to promote more female-led ventures in STEM, and G-Lab will help build my skillset in problem-solving within a unique cultural and often intersectional analytical framework.

When you think of MIT, what are the first things that come to mind? How have your experiences with the Sloan program thus far reinforced or upended these early impressions? From the early stages of the application process, I was attracted to the low-ego environment of the MIT Sloan student body, and that comes to mind as a defining characteristic of MIT Sloan. You hear often Sloan is a place of “Sloanies helping Sloanies,” and that core value seems to trickle down to every aspect of the program experience. Although I haven’t yet started the program, all of the students, alumni, and staff I have met with so far have been brilliant and motivated, yet also humble, conversational, and just plain friendly! My impressions thus far have reinforced the low-ego nature of Sloan, and I am excited to participate in and contribute to a community where we are always learning from and being lifted by others.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I developed a sustainable consumer product innovation, which will be the first-of-its-kind product in the United States, set to hit the market in Spring 2022. It is a big accomplishment to develop and commercialize the product itself, but I am particularly proud of managing the international supply chain and materials palette in unprecedented detail at scale. Even more, I am proud to have led the cross-functional efforts to navigate the regulatory landscape for this product, both of which were crucial to successful product commercialization.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? As with so many others during the pandemic, I had a lot more time to walk my dog, feed my sourdough starter, renovate my basement (paint sprayers are so fun!), and build giant LEGO kits on my dining room table. Lock-down also afforded me the time to reexamine my career. Being only a few years out of my Ph.D., I was already an exceptionally qualified bench chemist and materials innovator. Still, I wanted to more purposefully pivot to be a leader, not just a leader in STEM. I have always been a competitive, high-level thinker and team manager, and COVID gave me the space to examine how my natural skillset and interests could be profoundly impactful in the business sector. Thinking of my future career with this lens was really exciting, and eventually I decided to pursue my MBA in order to accelerate my career in this direction.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? My ultimate goal is to promote more female-led ventures in STEM, both as a founder and as a funder. During my MBA, I plan to gain exposure to operations and entrepreneurship, and explore the venture capital and new technology evaluation sides of the start-up sector as well. In the short-term post-MBA, I’d like to lead an early-stage venture. I could have a substantial impact on multiple ventures as an investor, and it would be exciting to move into that space in the future.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Stanford GSB, Wharton, Berkeley Haas, Harvard

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into MIT Sloan’s MBA program? Talk to numerous current and former students in order to build a colorful picture of a school’s culture, programming, and dynamics. These conversations will not only help you evaluate which schools are a great fit for you career and culture-wise (and which are not!), but also put into personal and meaningful words why you are interested in attending Sloan, specifically. More data is always good data.