News Releases

MBA student has medicine on her mind

Monday, September 28, 2009

BY WAYNE LARSON

"I thought I wanted to be a doctor when I started college, but the first time I saw blood, while volunteering at a hospital, I fainted," said second-year MBA student, Katherine Ferro. Ferro has maintained her passion for healthcare, despite having a low tolerance for blood.

Ferro will spend her final year in the School of Business MBA program working on a project with the University of Kansas' Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation (IAMI) Fellowship Program. She is one of eight graduate students at KU to be assigned to the $16.1 million project, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Kansas University Endowment Association. Most of the graduate students will be working on medical technology and engineering projects. However, Ferro's assignment is a little different.

The Kansas City, Mo. metro native is the only graduate student from the School of Business working on the project. "Katie's business background will help to diversify the group," said KU Engineering Professor and Director of the IAMI Fellowship Program Elizabeth Friis. Ferro will be helping the rest of her colleagues, called fellows, who are graduate students with medical academic backgrounds, strategically market their intended life science technologies. "The technology-based fellows will learn to work with business-based thinkers and Katie, as the business fellow, will learn how to work with technology-based innovators," said Friis.

"My dad and my aunt were both pharmacist entrepreneurs, so medicine was always the dinner table talk," said Ferro. A deep-rooted understanding of healthcare and a passion for entrepreneurship helped Ferro earn the IAMI position. She also conveniently interned for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation while pursuing her undergraduate degree in Spanish and Economics at the University of Notre Dame.

The School of Business' MBA program has provided her with skills that she will be putting to use at the IAMI. "The School's finance and accounting classes have provided me with a more broad understanding of the subjects, which has made me a lot more comfortable in business scenarios," said Ferro. "I feel a lot better about Ôplugging and chugging' numbers on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet now."

Ferro acknowledges she will be extremely busy in the coming year. She will be spending two to three weeks with each fellow, developing the framework of business plans for each fellow's product. "It's a big role, and it will take the collaborative efforts of the other fellows, professors, and me," said Ferro. Despite the heavy workload, Friis is certain Ferro, and her School of Business background, will be a big help to the team. "I am confident that Katie will step up to the challenges put before her and increase her knowledge and experience base tremendously, "said Friis.