2 - Meaningful Impact Through Leadership w/ Melissa Bizzari

Humans of Tepper

Welcome back to the Humans of Tepper Podcast, a show about the MBA experience at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. Today, our hosts Cynthia and Rohit are chatting with Melissa Bizzari. She’s sharing why she chose Tepper, what’s surprised her most as a grad student, and how she went from Division 1 Hockey player and hopeful coach to finding a passion in data analytics and becoming a community leader.

Melissa’s journey to Tepper started when she discovered a passion for analytics while working with the Women’s Hockey Team at Boston College. During her time there, she pivoted from a career path towards a head coaching job, to a more rigorous analytics environment.

When she came to Tepper, she expected the typical MBA experience--classes, an occasional event, and things of that nature. What surprised her was the amount of collaboration and community that has found a home here in Pittsburgh. Even outside of the school, alumni are willing to lend a hand and share their experiences. The size of the program at Tepper allows that to happen--everyone knows everyone, and conversations become easy to have.

The MBA track tends to lean towards a male population. The experience that you have on campus though, Melissa says, doesn’t necessarily reflect that. Leadership in the program is female, club leadership has promoted female figures, and though the numbers may be slightly lower, the presence is not lacking. Peers see the strengths women bring to the program, including the Tepper Women in Business Club. Melissa also was elected President of the GBA, further demonstrating her philosophy.

A driving force to running for GBA president for Melissa was her passion to get involved and contribute in a meaningful way to her program. As she got more exposure to clubs and built relationships, she wanted to seize the opportunity to help her peers get what they need. The impact that she could have in the position became reason enough to run. Of course, with the pandemic, leadership has to pivot. Without the ability to interact in person, Melissa had to get creative and build online programming. Through working to overcome challenges, opportunities to connect continue to come to fruition.

Melissa is a Schwartz Fellow, which is part of an entrepreneurship program in the Schwartz Center that is available to students of all disciplines. The cohort of 12 students from across campus host a seminar where prominent figures in entrepreneurship speak in fireside conversations with students. They share their successes and failures and speak on their experiences and lessons learned. (Yes, Mark Cuban).

Tune in to hear what Melissa is working on now, and more!