Deanna Blanchet studied business administration and marketing with minors in art and advertising at Chapman University from 2008 to 2012. While at Chapman, Deanna was chapter president of Kappa Alpha Theta, Eta Sigma and she worked at the business school as a front desk student assistant. Throughout her four years working at the Business School, Deanna built relationships with former director of  graduate business programs, Debra Gonda, and associate professor Bruce Dehning, Ph.D. Both Gonda and Dehning encouraged Deanna to work for a few years and then return to pursue her MBA–a goal she’d always had.

Deanna also knew she wanted to work with nonprofits. Thanks to the Argyros School Career Services team, she landed an internship during her senior year with THE Breast Cancer Fundraiser, a local Orange County organization. Upon graduation, the internship turned into a job offer to become a project manager. Over several years, this led to her becoming the director of operations.

As an active Chapman alumna, Deanna heard about an opportunity to join Chapman’s alumni engagement team, and in October 2015 she was hired at Chapman University as an alumni engagement manager.

Back on her home turf, Deanna once again started thinking about a secondary degree. While other graduate programs were shorter or less expensive after Chapman’s employee tuition remission program, she kept going back to the fact that she worked with so much data and strategy. No degree would help her advance her career and expertise as much as an MBA would. As someone who is passionate about growing as a leader within nonprofits, Deanna knew it was finally time to start her MBA.

Deanna with President Struppa and Garrett Aanestad ’16 (M.A. ’19) at closing convocation 2019.

Deanna started the Flexible MBA program in the fall of 2016 and describes her experience as completely different from her first four years at the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics. While studying as an undergrad, so much of her focus was on the social aspect of college–there were so many things to learn about herself and outside opportunities and activities to take part in. But coming back after a few years out of school, her MBA courses took on a whole new meaning. Her years of work experience magnified and enhanced the curriculum and classroom discussions.

You may also recognize her smiling face from some of the recent business school advertising campaigns.

Adding to her accomplishments, just before graduation, Deanna was offered a new role. As of March 2019, Deanna is the assistant director of the Chapman Fund. As the assistant director she manages programs to raise funds for student scholarships, emerging opportunities, and the most pressing needs of the University. In this role the most important skills she needs are data analysis, marketing, and collaboration. She credits her Strategic Management course and group project experiences in the MBA program with giving her the tools she’d need to be successful.

We can’t wait to see what Deanna accomplishes next!

To learn more about earning your Flexible MBA as a Chapman employee, Deanna is happy to answer your questions. For all other inquiries, please contact Serena Healey, Assistant Director, Graduate Business Programs at (714) 516-7190 or .