Some might say that going from nursing to business was a big leap. For Ciara Demings, a desire to understand how things worked behind the scenes led her straight to the Iowa MBA.
RN…DNP…why not MBA?
Nurse pursues MBA.
Not what you were expecting? Maybe that’s because Ciara Demings is better than expected.
Originally from Michigan, Ciara arrived in Iowa City seven years ago for her nursing residency and never looked back. From the moment she arrived in Iowa, the university and the state had her heart.
“I've made a lot of lasting friendships here and so many connections. I can't leave. People talk about Iowa Nice. It’s real.”
Ciara reciprocated the Iowa Nice working at Iowa Health Care, first as an RN and next as a nurse practitioner. Her heart was in the right place.
Then came a pivot…
…toward an MBA from Tippie.
“My pursuit of an MBA stemmed from questioning why we were doing the things we were doing. Being on the front line of healthcare, I started to wonder, ‘Why is it we do things this way?’ I really wanted to be a part of those decisions. I had a lot of clinical knowledge, but not an understanding of what was happening behind the scenes.”
Now just weeks shy of graduation with her business degree, Ciara is keeping her options open but hopes to find a role that combines administration and nursing.
“Since joining the MBA program at Tippie, with the knowledge I’ve acquired, I’ve come to realize there are so many opportunities available to me. I'm not leaving any option out, whether that's exploring a new field or even starting my own business.”
The value of education
Some might say that going from nursing to business was a big leap. For Ciara, not so much. She wanted to further her education and realized, once she had her MBA, it would showcase that she wasn’t afraid to branch out.
“I just value education. I like passing along to others what I know so they can learn from what I've gained. If it's not in a hospital setting, or something within health care or healthcare adjacent, that’s okay.”
Even though her focus is healthcare, Ciara has been able to interact with people at Tippie from different fields and diverse backgrounds, connections that first came as a surprise and then became a trusted resource.
“Coming from healthcare, I was worried initially that I wouldn't be able to really connect with my fellow Tippie students. That I’d be an outsider. But I’ve made contacts with many others in my classes. I’ve even found peers from healthcare. That was surprising and welcome.”
She continues, emphasizing the importance of connections inside and outside the classroom.
“I’ve learned from them and then they’ve learned from me. I had nothing to lose by pursuing higher education. There’s just so much support at Tippie that any fears I may have had in terms of not knowing what's going on or not having a certain background didn’t matter. The professors support you no matter where you're starting from.”
Ciara then calls out two faculty members. First Associate Professor Daniel Newton.
“He was super helpful. His classes, even though they lasted two hours, felt like 10 minutes. He was so engaged with his students. I'd be, like, ‘It's already over? We're having such a good discussion.’”
Then she mentions Business Analytics Lecturer Ben Margolin.
“He did such a good job with making data and decisions understandable. I'm decent at math, but that was a whole new field, a whole new realm, and he walked me through it.”
The road not taken
Ciara’s path to an MBA has been less than traditional, so what do Ciara’s healthcare co-workers think now that she almost has her degree?
“My coworkers always joke with me. Mine wasn’t the traditional way by any means. But I'm hoping that whatever path I take, I'm able to inspire somebody else, showing them it's okay not to fit the mold. If I just keep going with what I feel is best, I’ll find my way in this world.”
A path and a way we’re all so glad Ciara found…to Iowa and the Tippie College of Business.