Rochelle Zarzar

University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

Age: 36

“Mission-driven physician leader who is passionate about advancing healthcare quality, access, and operations.”

Hometown: I grew up in Oakton, Virginia but have lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the past 10 years

Family Members: Johnny Tran (husband)

Fun fact about yourself: One of my hobbies is rockhounding and my favorite place to collect crystals is in Mount Ida, AR

Undergraduate School and Degree:

• Duke University – B.S. in Biological Anthropology & Anatomy (2009)
• University of Virginia, School of Medicine – Doctor of Medicine (2014)
• University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine – Master’s in Academic Medicine (2019)

Where are you currently working?

• Hennepin Healthcare, Department of Emergency Medicine
  • Assistant Medical Director & Emergency Medicine Physician
• University of Minnesota Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine
  • Assistant Professor

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles:

• Carlson Executive MBA Class of 2024 Student Representative
• Hennepin Healthcare, Department of Emergency Medicine Diversity Committee Faculty Chair
• Mpls St Paul Magazine Top Doctor Rising Stars – 2023, 2024
• Medical Staff Honors Award for Outstanding Contributions in Clinical Care, Hennepin Healthcare – 2022

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? As part of our business school curriculum, we took an Entrepreneurship and Innovation class where we had to develop an idea for a product and do a pitch presentation. This was completely outside of my comfort zone. Had it not been for this class, I likely would never have explored the start-up space. In the end, I really enjoyed this work, and thanks to the encouragement of our professor, I was inspired to enter a local pitch slam with some of my classmates. Regardless of how far we get with this idea, the entire experience has been a great learning opportunity, and I am proud that we took this leap. It was invigorating to create something new and to define a potential solution for an issue I encounter every day in the emergency department.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Throughout my professional career, I have continued to grant myself the grace to shift directions and pursue new interests. This was not always easy, especially coming from a background in medicine with years invested toward the goal of being an emergency medicine physician. This has led to a somewhat scenic route (with more graduate degrees than my husband would like). At the same time, it has allowed me to build my agility and honor my personal drive to tackle new challenges with the potential to make a broader impact. This choice to continually invest in myself has influenced my personal development and expanded my potential career pathways in directions that I would have never expected. It also now puts me in the unique position to hopefully help inspire and sponsor others to explore beyond the traditional definition of a career in medicine.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Dr. Roz Tsai – she taught our Human Capital Management course and centered it around the question: How can you get the most out of humans? She brought a wealth of real-life industry experience to the class and helped me see talent strategy through a new lens. Building highly effective teams drives business impact, and this requires organizations to be intentional in how they hire and grow talent.

Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? It was Carlson’s strong academic reputation along with the opportunities it afforded me in terms of local networking, career services, and industry exposure.

What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? We succeed based on our signature strengths, and it is critical as leaders to not only identify these for ourselves but also to help identify these for our team members. We each need to understand and be able to articulate the value that we uniquely bring. While traditional educational paradigms and performance reviews have trained us to concentrate on improving our weaknesses rather than investing in areas of competence, the opposite may have a greater impact on our development. Growing areas of competence into signature strengths is critical to leadership effectiveness. Helping others identify these potential strengths in themselves and reinforcing these behaviors through positive praise can help advance team members and organizations.

Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family, and education? Completing an executive MBA while working full-time as an emergency medicine physician definitely required organization and prioritization. Because my “day job” involves working evenings, nights, and weekends, I had to be really intentional about scheduling and planning ahead. This meant mapping out meetings and assignments well in advance and setting benchmarks for myself along the way. Scheduling also allowed me to protect family and friend time. My husband and I adopted a weekly routine of comparing calendars so that we had a shared understanding and expectations about the week ahead. While there were certainly times when I had to make a choice and decide where I was going to allocate my time and effort, proactive calendar management was critical not just for myself, but also for my family.

What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? As one of my mentors said, there are only a few things that no one can take away from you, and your education is one of them. Pursuing an executive MBA is a great investment in yourself, and thereby in your family, organization, and community. There will never be an ideal time to enroll, so now is as good a time as any.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Shane Zutz. Shane left his prior job as a high school principal to join Digi-Key as their Vice President of Human Resources. He has an incredible presence as a leader and embodies the notion of leading with humility. His patience, poise, and professionalism are truly admirable, and he has a natural ability to build rapport. The way he shows up for his team and builds up others is something we can all learn from.

What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? I wanted to have the opportunity to learn from and network with professionals in other industries who had substantial prior work experience. The cohorts in the executive program offer a degree of intimacy that is not found in traditional part-time or online MBA programs. This enriches the learning environment and provides for a more immersive experience.

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? Ironically, this might be more unclear to me now than before I started the MBA program. This is entirely because the MBA program opened a lot of doors to opportunities that I previously did not know existed. I originally pursued an MBA with the plan to move toward healthcare executive leadership. While I still plan to remain in the healthcare space, I am now beginning to consider other professional opportunities where I can combine my interests in medicine and business. Ultimately, I want to be doing work that is both challenging and makes a positive impact on my community.

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