By Nathaniel Luce
The Executive Director of Project Return has been awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Vanderbilt Business’ Executive MBA program.
Bettie Kirkland was selected by the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management to receive the two-year scholarship, awarded each academic year and valued at over $100,000.
“Bettie exemplifies the qualities we look for in a Vanderbilt Executive MBA student,” says Juli Bennett, Executive Director of the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program. “We are excited to welcome her to the Owen family. We believe that the vast experience and perspective she will bring to the classroom will inspire her Executive MBA peers. Our hope is that her EMBA peers will choose to dedicate their time and resources to transforming their local communities too!”
Bettie Kirkland
Kirkland assumed the role of Executive Director of Project Return in 2011. She leads agency initiatives and social enterprises, overseeing staff, fundraising, and promoting the organization’s missions and vision, all while growing awareness of the issues stemming from mass incarceration. During Kirkland’s time at Project Return, the organization has started two social enterprises around transitional employment and affordable housing to help people find work and places to live after being released from prison.
“We’re leveraging business principles and the spirit and methodology of the market and using that to the advantage of the people we serve,” she says.
Project Return was founded in 1979 by Nashville ministers Bill Barnes and Don Beisswenger. The nonprofit, non-faith-based organization has grown to an expansive, employment-focused agency with an extensive array of supportive services, assisting hundreds of returning men and women each year. Its mission is to provide services and connect people with resources needed to return successfully to work and community after incarceration.
As an organization, Project Return sees an opportunity to create more enterprises – “we aspire to be bigger, to be replicated, and to be in more than one urban area,” she says. For Kirkland, earning an MBA is something she needs to be “the smart leader to lead that effort.”
“There’s so much I can gain from the Executive MBA program,” she adds.
Vanderbilt Business launched the sponsorship program in 2006 to give career assistance to one deserving nonprofit executive each year. Applications are open to executives and senior staff members of any 501(c)(3) organization who have demonstrated a strong commitment to serving in the nonprofit sector. The scholarship is offered in partnership with the Center for Nonprofit Management. Kirkland was chosen from a pool of admitted applicants coming into the highly ranked Executive MBA program.
To learn more about Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA program, click here.
To learn more about available scholarship opportunities for Executive MBA students, click here.
