Master of Business Administration,
Elms College Class of 2013
Elected Sheriff 2017
I was out of college for probably 20 years when I decided I wanted to have a master’s degree in business administration. At the time, I hadn’t been elected sheriff but I was working as superintendent of one of the housing units at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow.
I looked into other schools but at Elms, I found all the instructors in the MBA program, all the professors and teachers, were practitioners of what they taught. One professor was also the director of human resources at a local company, another was the CEO of a local manufacturer. I was being taught by these people who were already in the business world. They gave us practical experiences, and examples of their successes and failures, and applied it to the coursework. And I thought that was the most valuable thing about the program. I really valued being in the classroom. That is where you get the one-on-one engagement, that’s where you get the stimulating conversations, where you get to work in groups or with a partner.
I took two classes a semester while working full-time at the Sheriff’s Department. Each week, one class would meet in person and the other was online, and then they would flip the following week. At the time, I was working as a day-shift supervisor. So I would go to work, come home, make sure the kids were all set, and then I would turn on the computer and do my classwork. It wasn’t easy by any means but it was manageable. It took commitment and it took time but it was manageable.
As sheriff, I’m in charge of an agency with a $26 million budget that has more than 1,300 staff. One of the biggest things I gained from my MBA is the knowledge that I have nowhere near the number of answers required for all the questions that come up each day. I learned I don’t have to make all the decisions all of the time; that’s why you hire good people. I give credit to my MBA because it forced me to understand that I don’t know everything – not even close. And maybe my staff doesn’t know everything but when you get everyone together, everybody will know a little bit about a lot of it. Every promotion I make, I tell them that no matter how new or seasoned they are as a manager, if you get a couple of people in a room and talk about a problem, you get better solutions than you would by trying to figure it out alone. The more brainpower you get into a room, the better your solution will be.
My advice to anyone deciding if they want to seek an MBA would be don’t just do it to do it; do it because you want to be a better leader, manager, or supervisor. If you decide to do it and you decide to go to Elms College, know that you will be taught by successful people who have been in their field for a long time. For anyone who wants to get into business, I would recommend the Elms College MBA program unequivocally. It is fantastic.