Meet Washington Foster's MBA Class of 2019

Katie Tinker-Langenfeld

University of Washington, Foster School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Adventurer with passion for creating change, exploring the world and laughing through awkward situations.

Hometown: Fayetteville, AR

Fun Fact About Yourself: My sense of adventure and love for travel was inspired early in life, and in an RV. My parents were brave enough to take me and my 7 siblings on long road trips in our motorhome. I saw 46 of the 50 states in the United States before I was 14 years old, and we visited all major preserved presidential homes along the way.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Arkansas, B.A. and M.A. in Communication

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Walmart Stores, Inc. – Specialist, Manager, Senior Manager, Director

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment so far has been building an accelerated development program to create a talent pipeline in Walmart’s emerging and developing international markets. I worked with technical experts and senior leaders across the business to build a robust program for key functional areas in the retail industry: Supply Chain, Merchandising, and Real Estate. In this role, I had the opportunity to recruit, hire and work with exceptional foreign national students who obtained their Masters degrees in the United States and wanted to return to their home countries of China, Mexico, India or Brazil to be local ambassadors of change. Building this new, innovative program allowed me to exercise my entrepreneurial spirit inside a Fortune 100 company. And most importantly, the experience of working with aspiring global leaders opened my eyes to the tremendous ability to use business as a force to positively impact the world.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? Have fun and learn about yourself in the process! If you’re considering b-school, there’s a good chance that you are already more ambitious than your peers, meaning you usually know the answer or know how to get to the answer before anyone else does. Unfortunately, that also means we’re often the people who forget to have fun and experience the moment. When you apply for b-school, it presents a unique opportunity to sit back and ask yourself who you are, where you want to be, and determine how you will get there. While it can feel overwhelming, the opportunity to take a pause and reflect is a luxury. Take the time – it’s a valuable experience!

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Collaboration. I chose Foster School of Business because it offers a unique culture and one that I feel represents the real world business environment. I believe in competition and each person striving to be the best they can be, but I also believe collaboration and the ability to work in a team present a more compelling business case. Foster provides the right balance of both dynamics. From my first interaction with the students and faculty, I was impressed with the willingness to share, learn from, challenge, and better each other. It’s a rare gem when people are equally as concerned about becoming the best they can be while making sure you are also becoming the best you can be.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? Success after my first year looks like making a bigger impact with more confidence than I had before starting business school. This looks like exercising my leadership skills with a broadened perspective, utilizing enhanced finance and analytical skills to solve business problems, and continuing my passion for helping meet customers’ needs.

Meet Washington Foster’s MBA Class of 2019

Katie Tinker-Langenfeld

University of Washington, Foster School of Business

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