Featured Senior: Lori Nunemaker, M’12

Master of business administration
Hometown: Findlay

Lori Nunemaker had applied and been accepted to Findlay but was reluctant to take the final step and enroll in classes. “I felt like I was too busy to actually make time to get my MBA,” she said, with a full-time job as a professional healthcare representative for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. But after a chance introduction to Scott Freehafer, Ph.D., director of the MBA program, a few weeks prior to the start of fall classes in 2009, Nunemaker did take the next step. With Freehafer’s help and encouragement, Nunemaker decided which courses to start with and began classes that fall.

Because Nunemaker has a job that involves some travel, the flexibility that Findlay offered was one of the reasons she chose the program. “UF has an excellent graduate program for working professionals like myself,” she said. “Classes are held in the evening, and many are offered online. UF also offers a flexible payment program that allowed me to defer payments until I was reimbursed by my company.”

Nunemaker also appreciated the ability to take three sessions, plus a summer term, each year to accelerate completion of the program. As she approaches graduation in May of this year, Nunemaker is “100-percent happy with my decision to get my MBA from UF. I have been so inspired by my professors and classmates. I truly feel I have been surrounded by excellence during my time at UF.”

Though she credits others for their inspiration, Nunemaker’s successes have not gone unrecognized. Nunemaker earned Pfizer’s 2011 Summit Award for achieving among the highest yearly sales in her regional business unit. Also this year, Nunemaker presented “Reforming the U.S. Organ Donation System: Policy Insights from the Experience in Other Countries” at the Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity on April 12. Josephine Kershaw, Ph.D., associate professor of health care management, had contacted Nunemaker regarding a research paper she wrote on the same subject for a class with a different professor and suggested Nunemaker submit it for publishing. Nunemaker worked with Kershaw to prepare the project for presentation and publication.

Within the community, Nunemaker is involved as an avid runner, her neighborhood block watch captain, a leader of a ladies’ life group through Gateway Church and a volunteer at the City Mission of Findlay. In her volunteer role at the mission as director of volunteer efforts, Nunemaker looks forward to the start of each semester “because I know I will be contacted by many new students who are looking for ways to get involved in our community. We also have many UF students who come back year after year to volunteer.”

Reflecting on her experiences at Findlay, Nunemaker said she has enjoyed getting to know other professionals from a variety of industries. She also appreciated the opportunities to integrate her work experiences with the course content and learn from other students.

“The leadership and management skills I have gained during my time at UF have opened my eyes to future possibilities I had not considered in the past,” she said.