Dowitcher Celebrates Newly Minted MBA: Congrats, Amber!

You know what they say: the early bird catches the, er, degree?

We’re proud and excited to announce that this week our intrepid CEO Amber Wallace earned a master’s in business administration from UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business! The executive MBA program is particularly rigorous and includes three intensive residential courses — one took Amber all the way to Vietnam and Hong Kong to study the impacts, issues, and challenges of global business.

The Merage MBA curriculum emphasizes three key drivers of business growth: strategic innovation, information technology, and analytic decision making. Students work within cohorts of other seasoned business professionals to build effective leadership styles and apply managerial concepts, frameworks, and techniques to the real world problems companies currently face.

“I won’t lie: working on my MBA was trying at times, but I’m so glad I took the initiative and dove in,” Amber said on a quick break between meetings. “The executive program has equipped me to take our business to a level I never thought possible when we first launched nine years ago. Better yet, it’s equipped me with a refined skillset that will help us serve our clients and our community in more ways than I ever imagined.”

Amber was one of just eight women in the executive MBA program, underscoring the importance of her ongoing participation in organizations like National Association of Women Business Owners and Women’s Economic Ventures.

And her efforts have not gone unnoticed — in April Amber was selected as a finalist in the Media/Communications category for The Spirit of Entrepreneurship™ Foundation’s Spirit of Entrepreneurship Awards™. The Awards are “designed to recognize the contributions of outstanding women entrepreneurs in Santa Barbara County to the economy as well as to support future economic growth through the recognition, financial support and education of student entrepreneurs.”

2015 is shaping up to be a big year for Amber — and it’s only half over! We can’t wait to see where she succeeds next.