Time for Change

Hi,

This week marks the end of Duke University’s Academic Year 23-24.? It also marks the end of my 3-year commitment as Duke’s MEM Executive Director.? Back in January, I communicated to my supervisor my desire to not seek an extension of my MEM ED role and instead transition back to full time faculty in our program.? Why? I want to spend more time doing what I love (teaching) and gain more time and flexibility to invest in my growing family.?

After a comprehensive, nationwide search, a new Duke MEM ED has been found & hired.? More details about the new leader will be announced soon, but the new ED is scheduled to start on August 1.? To ensure continuity of leadership, I have agreed to extend my tenure through the end of July.

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Nevertheless, I want to use this note as my official farewell from the role.? With your indulgence, I want to take time to summarize some of our accomplishments over the last three years and recognize some of the people that made it possible.? While I know I made mistakes (decisions, actions), I have no regrets as I passionately gave this role 3 of the best years of my life.?

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First of all, I’m proud to say that the state of our program is really strong!? 26+ years since its founding, interest in our program (measured by applications) has been at or near record highs for the last 3 years.? This allowed a 33%+ growth in our campus enrollment, a corresponding growth in our faculty ranks, course offerings and to a lesser extent our staff.? At the same time, students are reporting improvements in our sense of community and support.

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Our journey began in July of 2021 with the tail end of the Covid pandemic still present.? The first order of business was the definition of the 5-year vision for our program that we called “MEM Vision 2027”.? With active participation from our whole community (staff, students, faculty, alumni), after 6 months, we converged on a future vision of our program that had 5 elements (see below).? Since then, MEM Vision 2027 became the guiding principle for our annual program priorities.? Here are some of our accomplishments in the context of our 5-vision elements:

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1)??? How we teach: We enhanced our practical, case-based teaching with more real industry-based projects in existing courses and new offerings

2)??? What we teach: We have significantly expanded our elective offerings.? Not only did we offer more sections of popular electives, but we introduced new ones in areas such as software management, digital transformation, product development, energy transition/sustainability, design, operations, sales engineering, etc.

3)??? Who we are: We have focused on increasing the diversity of our community through new faculty hires and expanding the demographics of our applicants.? A particular focus has been increasing the applications from United States citizens both from Duke as well as outside.? For example, we partnered with Cisco to introduce the Cisco Fellows Program designed to increase applications from NC A&T.? We also made a concerted effort to engage our 4000+ alumni community to mentor current students, serve as interviewers in admission process, and invite them back to campus to share their journey and job opportunities.

4)??? How we work: We have tried to simplify and optimize many of the operational processes that underpin our program including admissions, registration, town halls, etc.? On admissions, we eliminated the Spring campus admission intake cycle to reduce burden on our staff, we introduced application readers for the first time ever at Pratt and we introduced alumni as interviewers.? On registration, the introduction of the cohort model streamlined the way our students get into core courses (automatic mass enrollment based on cohort).? On townhalls, we introduced Net Promoter Score as a way to systematically measure and trend student sentiment around three areas – overall satisfaction, student journey and culture.

5)??? What we believe: We have fully integrated “Professionalism and five principles” into every aspect of our MEM journey, from admissions, to orientations, to courses, to townhalls, to student awards.? We have also focused on creating a community where everyone feels seen and cared for.? With the introduction of the cohort model, we expanded our faculty mentors, introduced student mentors and added community building time (and associated programming) to enable human-human interactions.

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Of course, we did not accomplish any of these things through my efforts alone.? I had the fortune of having a number of engaged & committed individuals that leaned in and made things happen.? While always afraid to leave deserving people out, I want to specifically name folks that made my journey successful.

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Bosses: I’m in eternal gratitude to Dr. Jeff Glass and Dr. Brad Fox for having the confidence in me to lead this important program.? Brad, thank you for your patience, giving me discretion to act and for being a constant source of advice and institutional knowledge for me over the years.

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Faculty: I have always considered myself one of you and I look forward to being part of the faculty team for years to come.? We innovated together on course offerings, we partnered together on student well-being and policies, etc.? I want to particularly recognize the following faculty for their dedicated support: Dr. La Tondra Murray, Dr. Dina Requena, Prof. Allegra Jordan, Prof. Dean Hering, Prof. Kathie Amato, Dr. Ted Ryan, Prof. CJ Skender, Dr. Seth Watkins and Dr. Daniel Egger.

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Staff (Current & Past, Direct & Extended): I appreciate your care for & dedication to our students, your professionalism, your hard work and your patience with me.? We were not only running a program, but we were also transforming it.? Those are two distinct skill sets, but you rose to the challenge and delivered for our students.? I want to particularly recognize the following individuals for their impactful contributions: Rebecca Kelley, Allyson Jones, Xiaoyan Hu, Rei Best, Kelly Green, Cherie Creten, Bridget Kerwin, Susan Brown and Jenny Johnson.

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Students: You are the reason why I took this job in the first place.? I truly, deeply valued our interactions regardless of circumstances. You represent the future and I hope that in a small way I was able to make your future brighter and better.? I hope we can stay in touch and engage in my new capacity.

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In closing, I look forward to the next phase of my career.? As a full-time faculty, I will continue to teach my two technical electives (Software Quality Management – Fall, Improving Customer Experience – Spring), I will co-teach the MEM seminar (with Dr Xiaoyan Hu) and I will teach sections of the MENG 540 Management class (to non-MEM students).? I’m committed to ensuring a smooth transition, to support and to do what I can to make my successor successful.

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To the Duke MEM Community and my many partners inside & outside Duke, I want to say thank you for the last 3 years.? Leading this community has been one of the most fulfilling roles in my 35-year career and one of the greatest honors of my life.

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Regards,

Luis E. Morales

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