I’m fanatical advocate of the MBA and graduate management education. I have supported more than 1,000 pre-MBAs and MBAs, most of them women and minorities, in their application process, during business school and in their post-MBA careers. With the number of online and other resources now available, it continues to shock me that (1) candidates are just as overwhelmed about the MBA application process as when I was and (2) that the number of women and minorities in MBA programs has not significantly increased since I finished business school fourteen years. We must resolve to tackle this now so we can move past simply the diversity we can see and onto the diversity of thought that we require within business schools, in organizations, and in society more broadly.

Nicole Lindsay is a recognized expert in career development and diversity in graduate management education. She is a non-profit executive, and former MBA admissions officer and corporate MBA recruiter. Nicole is author of The MBA Slingshot For Women: Using Business School to Catapult Your Career and MBAdvantage: Diversity Outreach Benchmarking Report.

Through her work and writing, Lindsay has two aims: (1) increasing diversity in MBA programs and (2) making the MBA work for business school students and graduates. Nicole earned her BS in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut, JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, and MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Nicole began her career in Corporate Finance and Community Development Finance before pursuing her then-emerging passion for career development, becoming the Associate Director of Admissions and Student Affairs at the Yale School of Management, where she oversaw minority and women admissions and diversity student affairs. She then joined Goldman Sachs, where she managed MBA recruiting initiatives at Wharton, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, and Tuck. Nicole then spent more than three years at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) in various roles including as Director of the Career Prep program, Director of the MBA Prep program and as Vice President of Talent Development, overseeing all program-related activities. Nicole then served as the founding Executive Director of New York Needs You (NYNY). She now serves as the Director of Leadership Development for a family foundation in Connecticut.

Nicole serves on the UVA Darden School Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of New York Chapter of the UConn Alumni Association. Nicole is a contributor to TheMuse.com, which was named by ADWEEK as “one of the 10 emerging female-founded start-ups you should know.” She has been featured in CNN Black in America II, US News & World Report, Lifehacker.com, Forbes.com, ClassyCareerGirl.com, MadameNoire.com, TheGrindstone.com, and Hispanic Business. She is licensed to practice law in Connecticut and Georgia.