GUSTAVO PAYAN
MA/SID’03
Empowering people in developing countries has been a constant theme for Gustavo Payan. Though he was able to attend private schools through scholarships, Payan was aware of the social and economic exclusion around him in his hometown of Juárez, Chihuahua, in Mexico. Even while he pursued an international business degree, he spent his spare time volunteering with youth and indigenous people. Not long after graduating, Payan decided to pursue an MA in Sustainable International Development at the Heller School. As part of the program, he completed a practicum with Educational Development Center (EDC), a global nonprofit organization that designs, delivers and evaluates programs in education, health and economic opportunity in 35 countries. Payan now serves as a project director in EDC’s International Development Division, providing managerial and technical support to programs around the world.
KATE
FITZGERALD
MBA’12
Working for the GreenLight Fund, which identifies and supports the expansion of high-performing nonprofits, Kate Fitzgerald meets impressive social entrepreneurs. Often, they have creative, promising ideas but lack sound implementation strategies. “It’s frustrating to see a really innovative initiative fail because no one could point to the indicators they were working toward, or they were failing to evaluate results,” she says. Fitzgerald hopes to use her MBA to provide expertise in strategy and quantitative evaluation to some of these visionaries. She believes her skills will be in demand in both the nonprofit and the corporate worlds. As she puts it, “Nonprofits can do good and be profitable, just as corporations can be profitable and do good.” Currently, Fitzgerald is working with the Heller School’s Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy to demonstrate the importance of board members to nonprofits and identify best practices.
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PEOPLE