By Lisa Stewart
Prior to becoming a student at the UVA Darden School, Catherine Melsheimer served as a staff member in Congress and worked on political campaigns. Now in her second year of the MBA program, Catherine is a member of the UVA Tri-Sector Leadership Fellows program where she has spent the past year engaging with peers in UVA’s Darden, Law and Policy graduate programs, as well as participating in conversations with high-level practitioners about leadership challenges they have faced dealing with issues that cross the boundaries of social, private and public sectors.
This year’s speakers ranged from heads of government agencies and government affairs departments, to academic, foundation and corporate presidents, board members, and an acting CEO.
Catherine’s key takeaway from a recent session with Shamina Singh, President of Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, was “that the diversity of experiences in corporate, government, and social sectors makes one’s leadership skills more relevant, and that thinking about how money moves along with public opinion and government policies gives us a competitive advantage in whatever job we hold next.”