According to a recent press release, Kate McCall-Kiley, who is enrolled in the joint MBA/MA Design Leadership program between Carey Business School and the Maryland Institute College of Art, has been named by President Barack Obama as a 2015 Presidential Innovation Fellow.
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program pairs talented, diverse technologists and innovators to work with federal employees on improving government programming. According to the program’s website, these teams of government experts and private-sector doers take a user-centric approach to issues at the intersection of people, processes, products, and policy to achieve lasting impact.
“It is such a profound honor to be serving my country as a Presidential Innovation Fellow,” McCall-Kiley said. “To have the opportunity every day to get up and work to make our government more user-centric, nimble, and responsive is a dream come true really.”
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program launched in 2012 and was recently made permanent by President Obama. Fellows spend a “tour of duty” collaborating with government employees to create innovative solutions to government issues. McCall-Kiley was one of six new fellows named to the program last month.
McCall-Kiley will be taking a temporary leave of absence from the Design Leadership program to pursue the fellowship. Students in the MBA/MA in Design Leadership program master creative approaches to strategic decision-making and learn to apply these skills to the most complex management challenges and business opportunities. Upon completion, students earn two degrees at the same time for less money and in less time — a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Art (MA) from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).