Two graduates of Eastern Mennonite University’s MBA and MA in Organizational Leadership programs have benefited professionally from their degrees.
Todd Campbell MBA ‘19 is now senior packaging and ingredients purchasing manager at Bowman Andros in Mount Jackson, Virginia.
Sandra Quigg MAOL ‘19 was named the new executive director of The Boys and Girls Club of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
Immediate payback on his investment
Campbell says his studies in the MBA program at EMU accelerated his career advancement, helping to prepare him to provide beneficial input on business decisions, as well as to apply project management and leadership theory.
Bowman Andros is a French-owned food manufacturing company with 30 factories around the world. The Mount Jackson facility specializes in the processing of applesauce in small cups, pouches and jars.
In his new management role, Campbell has two direct reports. He handles sourcing, price and contract negotiation. He also facilitates packaging development and vendor management of all primary packaging (packaging that touches the product), as well as secondary ingredients.
“This is anything not a whole fruit or puree such as sugar, high fructose corn syrup, ascorbic acid, flours and flavors,” he said.
He began the program while in his first position at Bowman Andros as a sales forecast analyst, seeing the degree as the best investment and the optimal way to learn more about accounting, finance and economics — “hard skills that make the MBA graduate effective in the business world.”
While in the MBA program, Campbell was promoted three times within the company: from procurement coordinator, streamlining material requirements planning, managing raw material inventories and facilitating timely delivery of ingredients for production scheduling, to the purchasing team, and then a supervisory role within the purchasing team.
“I chose EMU’s MA in Organizational Leadership program because of its unique emphasis on business with purpose. I came out of it understanding how to lead that purposeful business with your true self … that combination has had a huge positive impact on me personally and professionally.”
Prepared to lead a large organization
Quigg has worked for more than 20 years with nonprofit organizations, in a range of fields including higher education, arts administration and social services. Her interest in the Boys and Girls Club executive director’s position was driven in part by a desire to work with youth.
Her prior work has been with adults: most recently, as director of organizational sustainability at Friendship Industries, a nonprofit packaging company in Harrisonburg that employs people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. She had previously served the same organization as director of development for seven years, and also in positions with the Arts Council of the Valley and in the James Madison Corporate and Foundation Relations.
Quigg was drawn to the values of the organization. “The values that the Boys and Girls Club espouse are things that I absolutely believe in,” she said. “I CARE stands for integrity, collaboration, accountability, respect and excellence. The organization shares those values with youth and the broader community. I have a great opportunity to help them do that.”
BGCHR serves 1,000 children in the valley annually at seven sites, three in Rockingham County and four in Harrisonburg. Its main office is in the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center in Harrisonburg.
Quigg completed her final class, which included a 10-day exploration of sustainable organizations and community entrepreneurship in rural Appalachia, in between her second and third weeks in her new position.
The MAOL degree has given her new understandings about the many organizations she had worked in, and new vocabularies and theories that both supported and challenged her perspectives.
“I sought out more education because I felt like I was doing things innately and intuitively and I wanted validation and verification, but I also wanted to know that if I wasn’t doing the right thing, how to do it better, how to solve the problem. To suddenly have a word or phrase to describe an experience or an interaction, or to see how what I was doing was linked to a theory, that was huge. I still get goosebumps just talking about it.”
Quigg recalls several instances when she was able to apply a concept or skill she’s learned in class “the very next day at work.”
EMU’s organizational leadership curriculum is unique in that it requires “exploration of who you are, which leads to self-awareness and self-knowledge, which has for me led to more self-confidence,” Quigg said.
Though she wasn’t aware of that curricular emphasis before she enrolled, that related growth in her leadership capability has been just as important as her deeper understanding of organizational behavior, culture and development. “I chose EMU’s MA in Organizational Leadership program because of its unique emphasis on business with purpose. I came out of it understanding how to lead that purposeful business with your true self. I am happy to say that combination has had a huge positive impact on me personally and professionally.”
Quigg was selected from approximately 57 applicants for the position, according to an article in the Daily News-Record.
Learn more about EMU’s MBA program and MA in organizational leadership program.