"Without my UNLV Executive MBA, I may have simply stayed in my lane," said Sheree Goins (Cohort 12), director of business development with Valley Health System's Valley Hospital Medical Center. "The EMBA experience gave me the confidence to not only seize new opportunities, but to create them. An advanced degree from UNLV differentiated me from colleagues opening doors that once were closed."

 

Change has come fast for Goins since she stepped away from her 15-year hospitality career with MGM Resorts International. Nine months after her 2014 graduation from the UNLV EMBA program, Goins changed both jobs and industries.

 

When Goins began her EMBA, she was very happy at MGM having held numerous front-desk management roles. "At the time I thought I would be in hospitality forever," said Goins.

 

With an added sense of self-assurance gained from the early days of her EMBA experience, Goins began further satisfying her quest for new knowledge. "I started seeking out senior MGM executives in departments outside my own to ask why and how business decisions were being made. When I explained that I was pursuing my EMBA, they were more than happy to spend time walking me through the processes and reasoning." During the EMBA program, Goins was promoted to an MGM corporate-level position as senior learning consultant.

 

But further change was brewing as Goins progressed through the EMBA program. "My fellow cohort members, and the program overall, broadened my thought-processes in terms of what is out there. I began to re-evaluate staying in hospitality. I no longer wanted to be limited in my career choices."