Allison Walters earned her Iowa MBA on the road—traveling the country while working full-time and building the confidence to pivot into strategic finance leadership.
An MBA from the road
Allison Walters worked in accounting-focused roles, but she knew she wanted something more strategic: more leadership, more influence, and a broader business perspective. Then the world went remote.
While working full-time in Des Moines, Allison and her husband spent six months traveling the country, working remotely from Airbnbs in different cities while she began her Iowa MBA.
“The fully online program gave me the flexibility to live the life I wanted but also get to where I wanted to go career-wise.”
For Allison, flexibility wasn’t just convenient. It was essential. Balancing full-time work, travel, and grad school meant she needed a program built for her life — not one that forced her to choose between career growth and everything else she cared about.
The Iowa MBA’s flipped classroom format immediately stood out. “I really liked having the class content beforehand and then using the live lectures for conversation and collaboration.” That structure allowed her to keep moving — literally and professionally.
From details to decisions
The Iowa MBA helped Allison move beyond the day-to-day details of accounting work and think more strategically about business decisions. Through the finance concentration, she developed a stronger understanding of strategy, leadership, and financial decision-making.
“The MBA gave me that bigger lens,” she says. “Instead of just focusing on the details, I’m thinking more strategically about the business as a whole.”
Instead of simply analyzing numbers, Allison now focuses on connecting financial performance to broader business strategy — understanding not just what happened, but why it matters.
The network that showed up fast
Almost immediately after graduating, Allison was impacted by a company layoff. What could have been an isolating moment quickly became proof of the network she’d built through the Iowa MBA.
Classmates reached out with referrals. Professors connected her to opportunities. Professional relationships she built during the program quickly turned into real career opportunities. “I was happily surprised with the amount of support I received from the Iowa program itself and also all my classmates that I met along the way.”
She was unemployed only briefly before landing her next role. Today, Allison serves as an Associate Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Group 1001, where she helps leadership teams understand the story behind company performance. The biggest shift wasn’t technical; it was perspective.
For Allison, the experience completely changed how she viewed online education. “You always think with an online program you may not be able to meet people,” she says. “But it was a lot more collaborative than I thought it would ever be.”
A bigger worldview
One of the defining experiences of Allison’s MBA happened thousands of miles from Iowa. Through the Iowa MBA’s Global Learning Opportunities (GLO), Allison traveled to Iceland alongside classmates from across the country, working directly with international companies on real business challenges.
The experience pushed her outside her comfort zone while reinforcing something she had already learned throughout the Iowa MBA: perspective matters. “Things are different,” she says, “but ultimately we’re all going toward the same goal.” The trip also transformed online classmates into lasting friends. “Going somewhere that no one’s ever been kind of bonds you in a way that you don’t normally get.”
Confidence to make the leap
What started as an MBA completed from the road became something much bigger: a career pivot, a broader perspective, and the confidence to pursue leadership opportunities Allison once saw as out of reach.
Today, she’s building momentum in Financial Planning and Analysis and helping shape business strategy at a higher level than ever before.
“The impact of the Iowa MBA is undeniable because it gave me the confidence to pivot in my career.”