Tsung spent the first part of her career focusing on business development and project delivery for a wide range of clients, working at Mitchell Madison Group, where she ultimately earned a partnership, and then at Accenture, where she focused on financial service strategy as an associate partner.

When based in Atlanta, her corporate journey also took her to the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. While visiting campus to recruit students, she volunteered at the school, and shared her thoughts about enhancing services and strengthening corporate relationships. One conversation with the dean led to an offer to join the MBA Career Management Center (CMC) as associate dean and executive director of the CMC.

In leading the CMC, she worked both with students, helping them realize their career goals, and with companies, helping them find the talent they needed. Tsung developed and conducted outreach programs with recruiting firms, more than doubling the number of companies recruiting on campus and more than quadrupling job postings. She also launched a corporate sponsorship program and restructured career services programming and student engagement, among other highlights.

In 2017, she moved to program management at Goizueta as associate dean, Working Professionals Program, responsible for the Evening, Weekend Executive, and Modular Executive MBA Programs. This role brought her closer to the classroom where she immersed herself in the overall student experience.

“How you design a program can really affect its success,” says Tsung. She collaborated with faculty to identify opportunities and adjust offerings in ways that supported learning outcomes and prepared students for greater responsibilities and leadership roles.

Tsung also returned to the classroom herself with the aim of gaining greater insights on higher education leadership. She previously completed her MBA in marketing and management at Columbia Business School, and while at Emory, decided to pursue her doctorate in higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania.

“While I was working on my dissertation, I profiled Yale as one of the more innovative business schools,” she says. “I was impressed with how mission-aligned they were.”

Ultimately, her conversations with Yale led to a new job opportunity as assistant dean, MBA for Executives Program. Shortly after arriving at Yale, she faced a new challenge – a worldwide pandemic.

“We were the first program for Yale to fully come back in person,” she says, and it happened quickly. The program transitioned to fully online in March 2020 and by July 2020, students returned to the classroom.

“There were many hoops that we had to jump through from health and safety perspectives, including classroom layouts and student vaccinations, among others. We were able to do that successfully and had, for the most part, a safe and successful in-person program throughout the pandemic.”

One of the advantages of the Yale program was that it was well-prepared from a technology perspective. Yale already had what they call an extended classroom, equipped to allow a limited number of students to attend virtually. “When we went into the COVID shutdown, it was a relatively easy transition for us from a technology perspective because our faculty were already used to a hybrid classroom, and we had the technology in place.”

Last year, Tsung led a program redesign, which takes effect starting with the now-entering class of 2026. Early in their program, Yale students choose from three areas of focus – asset management, health care, and sustainability. Students now will have more options as they pursue their required area of focus or to explore across these areas. “In the redesign, we were able to create much more flexibility in the second year to allow students the opportunity to design their own path.”

The program also includes a course called Colloquium, where senior executives or faculty experts share their experiences. In the redesign, all EMBA students, no matter their focus area, can attend all Colloquium sessions instead of only the sessions for their area of focus.

Students in the program form quite an amazing group and one Tsung enjoys getting to know and watch as they grow and achieve even more during the program.

“I like that students are more mature and they’re here to learn because they want to learn,” she says. “Many of them are already extremely accomplished. More than half of our students have advanced or terminal degrees and are already top in their fields.”

Tsung discovered EMBAC when she worked in career services at Emory. She first attended the EMBAC Conference in Paris and has participated in EMBAC activities and presented at conferences since then. In 2022, she was elected to the EMBAC Board of Trustees and currently serves on the research committee.

“I’ve gotten so much out of the organization, and I love the people. I always learn so much from EMBAC members, and I just wanted to give back through service. I love the fact that we share so much with each other.”

Tsung also shared the following insights with EMBAC Voice:

• My hobbies include: “I don’t have time for hobbies right now, but my second job includes driving my children to their various sports and school activities.”
• My favorite city is: “I just came back from Vienna, Austria, and had a wonderful time listening to music, seeing friends, eating and drinking! Prost!”
• I'm most proud of: “My kids.”
• I’m reading: “The Red Helicopter,” by James Rhee.
• I’m passionate about: “Finding the right path and taking it, no matter how difficult.”
• My next project is: “Training my puppy to fetch my slippers, not just chew on them.”
• You may not know that: “I grew up in Hawaii.”
• When I think about the Executive MBA Council, I think: “Of the community and just the amount of support and caring that you receive from the community.”

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