![\"Beth_Torres\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/i\/BethTorres400x312.jpg\" "\\"BethTorres400x312\\"")
<\/a>As a teenage athlete, Beth Torres once dismissed the prospect of a business career as boring.<\/p>\n
A job at Reebok after college was a huge turning point for the competitive gymnast. \u201cOnce I figured out business was competitive and I could figure it out, I wanted an MBA,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
But it took a move into the nonprofit sector with Junior Achievement in Nashville to make business school a real option. Six months into a job with JA, Torres learned that Owen and the Center for Nonprofit Management offered a full scholarship to Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA program for a nonprofit executive. With her boss\u2019s encouragement, she applied and in 2009, earned the scholarship.<\/p>\n
Her appreciation for Owen was immediate and lasting, and it began with its faculty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwen has unbelievable professors,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re engaged. They\u2019re accessible. There isn\u2019t much they taught that I\u2019m not using, and they still answer our questions three years out. We were very lucky to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making the move to CEO<\/h4>\n
She is as effusive about her fellow students, particularly her five-person study group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are without question the people I call and bounce ideas off,\u201d she says. She sought their counsel when she was offered the CEO position at Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee in 2012. They helped her reach the decision to accept the role and she\u2019s never looked back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had that moment where you think, \u2018How do I not do this?\u2019\u201d she says, of joining the organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. \u201cMake-A-Wish is an amazing brand and at my first meeting with the board, I saw the vision they had for growth. I realized I would draft off that energy and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
She brought every bit of her competitive nature to bear on the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nonprofit sector and the traditional for-profit are not that different and they shouldn\u2019t be,\u201d she says. \u201cToo often we\u2019ve made exceptions for nonprofit, saying, \u2018If we don\u2019t reach as many people, if we don\u2019t raise as much money, it\u2019s okay. We tried really hard.\u2019 That can\u2019t be okay. If we miss on fundraising or on our mission, people don\u2019t get served. We should be holding ourselves to higher, not lower, standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge of human capital<\/h4>\n
Leadership, she says, begins with resources\u2014having the knowledge and manpower to succeed, something Owen facilitates.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToo often we\u2019ve made exceptions for nonprofit…That can\u2019t be okay. If we miss on fundraising or on our mission, people don\u2019t get served.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSomeone in my office says, \u2018We need this to be successful.\u2019 Well, I know someone who runs a business, who may have access to that resource and I call somebody in the Owen network,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge, she says, is human capital. \u201cLeadership involves keeping people motivated, inspired and engaged. Can I teach my staff to lead each other? If I have to go in every day and I\u2019m the only cheerleader, it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if they can lean on each other and help each other succeed, the results are unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n She also wants to see in them the adventurous spirit she brings to the table.<\/p>\n “In the culture we\u2019re building, it\u2019s okay to make a mistake,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not okay to do nothing. I\u2019d rather try something new and if it fails, we don\u2019t do that again. If it works, how do we build on it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Preparation, she says, should begin with the individual.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me,\u201d she says, \u201ccollege was about the things I could try, organizations I could join. That\u2019s where you learn about networking and about contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n She sees Owen as another rich opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe onus is on the student. It\u2019s our responsibility to meet as many people as possible\u2014classmates, professors and administration. This is the chance to pick their brains,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been a true student, by the time you hit a leadership role, you can trust your gut.<\/p>\n \u201cI had good business instincts before Owen, but Owen gave me the language to communicate. If something didn\u2019t make sense, I learned to ask questions immediately\u2014where I may have waited before. Owen gives you that. You\u2019re in a room with 50 of the smartest people you\u2019ve ever met and they\u2019re asking questions. If they\u2019re asking them, I have no excuse. I can admit what I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Just as in athletics, setbacks can be key to development.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019d been told how tough that first year as CEO would be, I don\u2019t know if I would have signed up,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if I hadn\u2019t had those challenges the first year, I wouldn\u2019t love it as much today. Owen prepared me to make important decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beth Torres, EMBA\u201911 CEO, Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee Career Path Milestones: Vice President, Junior Achievement Middle Tennessee and Account Marketing Manager, Reebok As a teenage athlete, Beth Torres once dismissed the prospect of a business career as boring. A job at Reebok after college was a huge turning point for the competitive gymnast. \u201cOnce I figured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":10642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-acts","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8435,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7723\/revisions\/8435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Prepared to make important decisions<\/h4>\n