Ohio University Leader Lounge

Unconventional Paths and Innovative Education: A Conversation with Dr. Amy Bianco

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In the inaugural episode of The Leader Lounge, Nick Winnenberg welcomes Dr. Amy Bianco as the guest. Dr. Taylor-Bianco is the director of the Online Master of Science in Management program at Ohio University. She expresses her passion for helping people reach their potential and discusses her unconventional journey from studying anthropology to working on Wall Street. She eventually found her calling in values-based leadership and joined the field of higher education.

The conversation shifts to the creation of the online Master of Science in Management (MSM) program, which aims to fill functional gaps in the job market by offering a combination of specialized knowledge. The incredible program allows students to merge different disciplines, such as human resource management and sales, through three certificates and one degree while engaging in deep personal and professional leadership development. Dr. Amy emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of belonging and connection in the online program, which includes community events, executive coaching, and fireside chats in a comprehensive, exclusive MSM package. 


For more information about the Ohio University MSM Program, click this link!

Check out the Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership program here.

OnBrand Podcast Studios produced this episode. Special thanks to Audio Engineer Alex Winnenberg, Producer Nick Winnenberg, and Marketing Specialist Cori Stokes.

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UNKNOWN:

you

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the inaugural episode of whatever we're going to call this podcast by the end of it. I'm here with Dr. Amy Bianco. How are you doing today, Dr. Amy?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm doing well. It's great to be with you this morning.

SPEAKER_00:

I know eventually you're going to join me on this side of the table. We're going to interview multiple different people, both inside and outside the organization. But do you want to take a second to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm Amy Taylor Bianco. I... I'm the director of the Masters of Science and Management here at Ohio University, a place I absolutely love. And we're excited to just talk to guests about the program, about the experience that we offer. It's not really a program, but just a whole set of experiences that I think have made me better and I hope make all of us who go through it better.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey and what eventually led you to OU?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So in undergrad, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, landed someplace trying to figure it out. And I wrote a thesis on maximizing human potential. And that was, I've always known I wanted to do something, just helping people be their best. I didn't know what that would lead to. Also, always wanted to live in New York City, work on Wall Street. So I started that journey. So after college, I went into New York. I worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where in consulting, I learned just a ton about business and management. I was not a business major. I had no background and no business being there.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Really? I thought you were a business major. What did you major

SPEAKER_01:

in? Anthropology.

SPEAKER_00:

And you went to Wall Street.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so take this story back further then. You walked into college. What college was it?

SPEAKER_01:

Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_00:

And you said, I'm going to go into anthropology.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. It just never occurred to me that I would do anything else but business. And to be honest, it also never occurred to me to study business.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I just can't imagine like when I think of anthropology, I think of like Laura Croft, the Tomb Raider, like digging around and like studying ancient cultures and everything. Yeah. But for you, you went into it from a business mindset. So you said you always knew you're going to be in business

SPEAKER_01:

then? Yeah, I just felt I was. And I studied a lot about what then was the Carlyle Indian School, which is kind of controversial and in many, many ways, but it really was the studying of of leadership for better and for worse. And I knew I wanted to do something in a values-based leadership. So why that led me to Wall Street, I'm not sure. That

SPEAKER_00:

was the next question, so go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

But I did end up going to PricewaterhouseCoopers in Midtown. And I had a blast because I got to meet so many different people. I worked with accounting and finance majors. And I just had to learn all the time. I took classes at night. My mom was like, yeah, you better take some accounting if you're going to work in an accounting firm

SPEAKER_00:

oh yeah right i should do that that makes sense

SPEAKER_01:

let's do that take that at night and uh and i just had really great managers and people who wanted to think differently and wanted to create new products that um that they needed um there was one english major in the firm and myself and um i think we were able to to help oh yeah in our in our way so and then i um thought well you know i need to go in-house to So I went down to J.P. Morgan before it was J.P. Morgan Chase, so I'm dating myself, went down there and didn't like it more. They were doing some neat things, but there was also a lot that wasn't for me. made some great relationships. But that's when I started to take graduate classes and kind of found where I was headed.

SPEAKER_00:

And then eventually, would you always want to get back into like the higher ed space? Or were you looking? What was your graduate program?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I wasn't looking to get back into higher ed, but eventually did. My older brother tells me it was my destiny. He told me that my whole life. So possibly that had something to do with it. And I started working with With Torrey Higgins and Warner Burke, who are two kind of tremendous names in the field of higher education, in the field of really studying the way the brain works, human behavior is Torrey's side. And then on Warner's side, it was he also started a change management company that Wow. Yeah. And I think that that's what I really liked. I've learned I like doing things the hard way so that I can teach other people the shortcuts. They really care. They're, you know, I'm going to this one's house for dinner. I'm doing this. And I was like,

SPEAKER_00:

yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01:

And I came out and it was absolutely true. It was absolutely true. And my now husband was with me and he'd never been outside really of New York City and couldn't believe how much he liked it.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Yeah. So a New Yorker came to Athens and was like, this is great.

SPEAKER_01:

It was a New Yorker came to Athens. He was literally afraid of the drive between Like if somebody stopped him, what he would do or how he would get gas going through all these rural places. Are you serious? I'm completely serious. I

SPEAKER_00:

hope you still give him like crap for that. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

I give him crap for it all the time. Because he would never leave here. He would never leave now. Like, you know, now that he's settled, he would never leave. It took, you know, a lot of years to say that, but he would never leave. And it's the people. I mean, it's the people and the way we have set up so that we can learn and innovate here without you can make mistakes you can make lots of mistakes but they're small ones and you can grow and grow and then you can travel you know all over the world but live here in Athens Ohio and it's incredible

SPEAKER_00:

it is and looking at the MSM program which you started three years ago four years ago

SPEAKER_01:

yeah we conceptualized in 2018 it started in 2020 okay

SPEAKER_00:

cool and then what led to that conversation what led to that decision your interest in it

SPEAKER_01:

yeah so there There was a number of people involved in it actually at the time, Luke Pitaway, eventually Heather Lawrence Benedict, Phil Taylor, a bunch of people bringing it forward. It was really the best thinking of a lot of creative people, Gary Coombs, just a ton of creative people. my thinking there and not just mine but our thinking there was let's look at the open jobs for for people who have a graduate degree and see what's just not getting filled what weird combinations aren't getting filled and so it was early on just looking at i find myself always on the edge of boundaries a little bit about this a little bit about that and you make yourself valuable by merging those things And I think that's what the MSM is. You can take a little bit about human resource management, and then you can take a little bit about sales and put those together, or analytics. HR and operations, there are still so many positions vacant.

SPEAKER_00:

HRIS is a brand new thing that back when I was in school wasn't even a thing yet, right? Yeah. So you're right, all these functional gaps never existed before. And

SPEAKER_01:

most people, we think of you'd have to get two degrees, right?

UNKNOWN:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But you actually don't. You can get two certificates, one degree, and be able to fill those gaps if you're a continual learner. We'll hear from Paul Benedict and maybe Luke Pitaway in business venturing. So as you know way better than I do, you can't have your own business without understanding operations. That is the other piece or another piece that's so critical. So those are often paired together. So people get to pair together what they need at that point in their career.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, you started officially in 2020. And where we're at now, again, three years into it, going on four years into it, what has been some of the major takeaways? Have you changed the program at all? Or has it been basically the exact same program that when you, you know, I came up with the idea?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So when we started, it was going to be a fully... asynchronous online program. I will say everyone had a different idea, but that was the charge in the end. What we found is that people like to connect. They like to connect, but they don't want to have to. I don't know. I can really I don't like to be told what to do. Right. None of us do. I don't think I mean, maybe some people do, but I don't know too many people that do. So, yes, you have to do your coursework. You got to keep going with that. But it's those experiences that meeting other students, those fireside chats. executive coaching, all those kind of community events that can happen online. And I feel like in this program, our biggest or my biggest goal has been to create a sense of belonging online, a sense of belonging virtually. And with all the things that we're doing that we'll talk about, I think we're doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

You are, for sure. How did COVID impact those plans? Because again, 2020 was not a great year for innovation outside of pivoting very quickly, right? So I'm sure, did that hamper, did that slow you down, that speed you up?

SPEAKER_01:

COVID actually didn't have much of an impact on the program at all. We were set up, so we had spent two years teaching. So what we did is chose our best teachers and taught them to teach online rather than People who knew how to teach online, we went with the best. And so it was a big ramp up. We were ramped up and ready to go online for 2020. So I kind of don't remember much of COVID because we were just doing what we were supposed to do. And maybe it gave us a little extra time or a little... more interested audience um but no it didn't have much of an impact

SPEAKER_00:

nice and now i know that we do all kinds of different things like the firesides and getting the different speakers to come in and this weekend we're doing ldc so there's all these different fun events when you were designing that was that a centerpiece or was that something that kind of happened naturally

SPEAKER_01:

that was i would say that is somewhat my personal signature that's the stuff that isn't in the The LDC is planned. Nothing else was in the requirements of what we're supposed to do. And it really wasn't done in online programs. It was done in in-person programs, but not in online. And just reading all... All that I'd been reading about the virtual workplace and how things were going to work with, you know, before COVID, we were still hitting a trend where people wanted more flexibility working from home. And I was just curious to get into this experiment and get feedback. And the feedback that we're getting is that people really, really like this format and they really feel part of something while they're learning at a very high level.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think a lot of it, too, just as a student in the program is the experience. Yes. And that goes into OU's mission. Right. So what kind of response have you got from the university? Because I know we're talking to the Walter Center as well today. So how does that all work with university?

SPEAKER_01:

So the Walter Center has been really helpful in letting us innovate. Also, our graduate programs, like they've been letting us, you know, I'll be like, okay, crazy idea of the day.

SPEAKER_00:

We're gonna break something. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And they've been phenomenal. And I think the university has given us the latitude and freedom to come up with something innovative. So long as we eventually do well with it, which we are actually from the beginning. But still, there is accountability. But I think all the way up through the president, they're excited about the program. Other programs with sort of different certificates have come out since then. And we really created, ours was the first kind of where the barrier for the Higher Education Commission took us quite a while to get through that. And it was seen as, you know, just sort of different.

SPEAKER_00:

Radical. How dare you change our education?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly. And now I think a lot more people are doing that work. And so the university has been just phenomenal. And the college in particular has supported that innovation. I mean, you know, Mike Snavely, our director of kind of technology operations, really, he's really a genius. teacher of instruction, and he's brought us all kinds of things, reviewed everything, looked at ideas. We have completely opposite opinions many times, and it's great.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. In a healthy way, not an unhealthy way. Yeah. It's a

SPEAKER_01:

beautiful thing to have people that kind of push you to be better. Jill Nice is the assistant dean of graduate programs. She's just supported us in every way, including the PassionWorks event that you know, that we're doing different things like that. Sure, you want to do something on campus, even though you're an online program? Absolutely. Why not? Here you go. So we're just, we've been really, really fortunate to have good leaders all above us and around us.

SPEAKER_00:

That's fantastic. Final question, kind of looking towards the future. So we're three years in, four years in. We're learning a lot of lessons. We're developing this really nice online presence. I think we're going in the right direction. What's your vision 10 years from now? Are you still expecting the same capacity? Is it more students, less students? What do you think? Can I

SPEAKER_01:

go back to the other question? Oh, yeah, for sure. So in one... When we talk about sort of the best leaders and the support for innovation, I want to say that the actual students in the program have been some of the biggest innovators. One of our first students that came in that had a PR background, she taught us kind of the branding and all of that. You know, you with your kind of human capabilities and podcast background and all these different things and how to start something up. So there's room for students who are passionate and who want to put the time And I think that that is really unique where you get hands-on leadership experience, and they may very well change our direction, which is exciting. For sure. So the program in 10 years. I see that we will be– Quite a bit bigger, not big, but a lot bigger. And the way we'll be bigger is we'll have different certificates. Oh, interesting. It's a scientific degree. It's not just, you know, pick topics in management, but it's learning these topics and pulling them together in a capstone experience where you really analyze and can use the different pieces, you know, from, again, just to stick with, say, it's, you know, HR and analytics where you're using all of that together so we'll stick with that but they'll just be different pieces different inputs because you know we know that when when anyone graduates they're gonna have to you know what they know is gonna last them a few years but what they learned how to learn is gonna last them a lifetime

SPEAKER_00:

especially in data analysis and the tech world like it changes so fast

SPEAKER_01:

absolutely

SPEAKER_00:

so no spoilers but what's from those other certificates are considering have you do you have anything can you talk about it or is it still confidential

SPEAKER_01:

we do have some things um i think think I'll just wait on that

SPEAKER_00:

okay nice well keep posted then I'm excited to hear and then final question I think this is actually my final question now so I have been incredibly impressed with everyone from the faculty and the teams that I've talked to I mean just some very brief shout outs I mean Professor Paul Benedict I just got out of his course and it was absolutely incredible and going into it it was a completely different structure than the course that you talked about or that Professor Camilli talked about Right. So they're all different. They're all unique. They bring their own attitude. So when you are picking who you wanted on your MSM team, did you look at that skill set diversity or like how did you decide that who you wanted to get involved?

SPEAKER_01:

I absolutely did look at the skill set diversity and looked at people who are really good at communicating their trade, whatever it is. Right. And I want to learn from them. So I want to see how they do it differently. Right. I would say, again, our resource people, our instructional technology people are really there to help folks create courses that reflect them. We all have some basics across the line, but we're looking for great innovators who are– you're taking Paul Benedict now, and he's phenomenal– 10 years from now, he may be, he will be phenomenal, but he may be doing different, you know, teaching in a different way. And we hope so, right? Like he's somebody who's going to keep trying new things. So we're definitely looking for that.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Is there anything else you want to talk about with an introduction to the MSM program?

SPEAKER_01:

Just in the introduction to say that that first certificate where you come in management and leadership, if people want to try anything, a kind of low risk try, and that most companies take tend to pay for at least a small amount of education. And most people seem to be able to fit one certificate in within what they get in a year, or the better part of it. So that is a certificate that that's one that I lead with Gregorius Lavanis and Jana Tomelli. And we are three very different people.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh, are you different people? Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's how we picked this, or I picked the certificate, people that have completely different backgrounds. So you've got an economist, you have a cognitive behavioral analytics psychologist, and myself on the sort of human behavior psychology side. So to put three very different people, three very different sets of information together to cover management and leadership, that was our goal. I think we're doing it well. And if you're not sure what you want to do, join us there and see how it goes. See what you like. And yeah. And, you know, you may just stay with us.

SPEAKER_00:

This is a fantastic first episode of whatever we're going to call this podcast. So is there anyone else you want to thank or any other closing thoughts?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Dean. Jackie Reese Ulmer, has been supportive in every way. Like, what do you want to go learn? How can I help you to be as innovative as you want to be? Chair Ana Rosado-Fager, former chair Ashley Metcalf, Luke Pitaway before that, Gary Coombs before that. This is really a collective of many, many people. And the key professors in it have been Mary Tucker and Hazel Dadenlar Steve Musser, John Atamelli, of course, that I mentioned, and Gregorius Lavanis that I mentioned. And then Tim Reynolds is joining us kind of in that strong crew. And of course, we have our folks in different certificates. The HR certificate is the only certificate that is just part of the MSM. So that's Tim and Tammy Reynolds, who many of you may have had in undergrad, a great duo, and Laura Drake. who is also phenomenal so those are just some of the many people I'd like to thank