At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kensey Johnson, Kogod MBA ’22, had quite the daily balancing act as she navigated work and school—all from home.
“I had two computers,” she explained. “Work would end, and I would turn my desk chair to the next computer, and then school would begin.”
Admittedly, that daily transition got more complicated when she and her classmates in the Kogod School of Business’ full-time MBA program returned in person. But with the help of her professors and the program's flexibility, she managed it all.
“People would laugh because I would be sitting in class, and I’m also on a Microsoft Teams call for work,” Johnson recalled, laughing. “Whenever I would have to speak, I would just walk into the hallway, speak, and come back to class.”
Her commitment paid off.
Two days after graduating as valedictorian of her cohort, Johnson accepted a job as senior paid marketing lead focused on audience development at Amazon.
In her position, she handles audience strategy for the web giant’s Prime Video and Amazon Music platforms as one of the first employees hired on a new team that sits underneath the corporation’s marketing division.
Now about a year into her role, she’s only just recovering from the intensity of her dual work and school commitment. “I feel like I’m still recovering from the burnout,” she quipped.
But she also marvels at how clearly her new degree has helped her set a bolder course in her career.
With her husband based in the DC area and her experience working on Capitol Hill as a congressional communications aide, Johnson felt attending business school close to the nation’s top policymakers made Kogod a natural fit.
“Having professors that used to do, say, central intelligence for the CIA—and that’s their data background—I love that aspect,” she said.