Jaclyn Field Mathai
University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
Age: 32
“Interdisciplinary data science leader blending creativity and AI to amplify stories and human connection.”
Hometown: Kingsburg, CA
Family Members: My husband, Tejas Mathai, is a brilliant scientist, passionate chef, and the love of my life. My parents Jeff and Susan Burge are two of the hardest-working but also fun-loving people I know, who have always inspired my work ethic and values. My younger sisters, Julia and Sophia Burge, are both incredibly driven and dear to my heart.
Fun fact about yourself: My parents both studied Finance at the USC Marshall School of Business and moved from a beach town to rural California to become farmers after I was born. They thought it would be romantic after reading A Year in Provence, but quickly learned how unglamorous it is driving a tractor in 110-degree heat! My first job was picking up trash around the farm before being promoted to grape harvester and then “quality control” for the packed boxes. In more recent years, I helped bag hundreds of baby lemon trees with my sisters to protect them from frost and helped my dad prune 1,000 young almond trees, shaping them to build resiliency against the wind. Farming is not for the faint of heart!
Undergraduate School and Degree: University of California, Berkeley, Cognitive Science, B.A.
Where are you currently working? Senior Manager of Data Science, Applied Science & Machine Learning at The Walt Disney Company
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles: Outside of my professional life, I’ve remained dedicated to a diverse range of passions that keep me grounded and connected. Since age 19, I’ve practiced Chinese martial arts, earning gold and silver medals in advanced Tai Chi and Baguazhang at international tournaments. Since 2022, I have hosted a local book club bringing together diverse perspectives across generations for evocative literary discussions.
My commitment to education extends to guest speaking for university club events like Cal Poly’s Quantitative Analysis Club and the Interdisciplinary Business Honors Program at UMD. Last year, I was interviewed as an industry leader to consult on AI and workforce readiness for NYC Public Schools with the Education Strategy Group. I’ve enjoyed designing data science curriculum reaching over 2,500 students on DataCamp and presenting at major industry events like the Disney Data & Analytics Conference and the upcoming Snowflake Summit.
Additionally, I am an avid artist always thinking about my next creative project, ever since studying Traditional East Asian Painting for a summer at Ewha Womans University and having several paintings formerly featured in a gallery in Seattle. I also support several charities with missions that are deeply meaningful to me, such as Liberty in North Korea and Blood Cancer United. Previously at UC Berkeley, I was a Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar (awarded to the top 2% of incoming students) and honored as an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor for my work in The Beauty and Joy of Computing course.
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? My most rewarding academic achievement was the Entrepreneurship action-learning class project, where my business concept was one of 8 selected from a pool of 41 to proceed to a final Venture Capital (VC) panel pitch. This offered an immersive opportunity to apply business rigor, encompassing everything from evaluating riskiest assumptions and conducting comprehensive market size analysis to testing core hypotheses through dedicated customer discovery. I was particularly proud of leading our awesome 5-person cross-functional team – using GenAI development tools to deliver a rapid prototype for a creative AI application – and conducting our successful presentation to the VC panel!
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The professional achievement I’m most proud of is founding and scaling a high-performing data science team at Disney, with a zero percent voluntary attrition rate. Since becoming a people leader during the pandemic, I‘ve built this team with a deep focus on culture to foster genuine belonging and real collaboration across screens and time zones. More recently, this has included scaling our culture of knowledge-sharing and AI enablement through several leadership initiatives and training sessions across the organization, with the goal of making complex tools and ideas easier to understand, easier to use, and less intimidating for others.
Over time, our scope has grown dramatically, from supporting tens of millions in ad revenue across two brands to billions across one of the most recognized media portfolios in the world. We’ve delivered modern data products, automated forecasting pipelines eliminating 60+ hours of manual work per cycle, and migrated legacy systems to scalable cloud infrastructure. While in business school, my team size doubled and I was promoted to Senior Manager, leading strategic AI product and analytics initiatives spanning content performance, audience insights, and monetization. But beyond the impact of our work, building a team where people have genuinely wanted to stay and grow feels like the most meaningful thing I’ve accomplished.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? This is a really tough question, as there were so many memorable professors. One who stands out was Professor Cristian Dezso, whose class I also visited as a prospective student. Global Economic Environment was one of the most conceptually new fields to me, so I valued the way he dedicated time in every session to connect the dots between lessons while breaking down complex real-world scenarios. He also infused each lecture with a vibrant sense of humor and wit that the cohort really enjoyed. Research indicates that humor enhances focus, recall, and retention in educational settings, so it didn’t hurt in solidifying the concepts of macroeconomics too!
Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? Having worked at Disney for 10 years now, I wanted to expose myself to new ways of thinking and problem solving across industries so I could be more strategic and creative in my own role. I chose the Smith School’s Executive MBA program because I wanted the in-person cohort experience, especially after recently moving to Maryland from Seattle with a remote job and wanting to build a local professional network. When visiting as a prospective student, I was especially struck by the collaborative culture, diversity of the students, and the caliber of the faculty. The accelerated time frame (54 credits in 16 months), STEM-designated curriculum, and dedicated focus on leadership development made it an easy choice for me.
What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? A major thread throughout the program was crafting our own Purposeful Leadership Journey, which gave us the time and space to reflect on our own visions for how we want to contribute to the world. Professor Rajshree Agarwal and Dr. Neta Moye guided us through creating a purpose statement and building actionable strategies to move us forward. One of the deepest lessons was that great leaders are comfortable in uncertainty, don’t have to be the expert in the room, and create conditions for others to thrive. Over the past year, this program gradually shifted how I show up as a leader, learning to integrate kindness with authority and empathy with boundaries as a necessary balance. I’ve brought this mindset into how I lead my team through uncertainty, advocating more intentionally for both the people around me and for myself.
Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? My time in grad school has coincided with the most challenging time of my career, navigating AI adoption while leading my growing team through multiple reorgs, CEO changes, and layoffs. Balancing this with school was tough while also dealing with several health issues and a minor surgery halfway through the program. All of this would have been far more difficult without the support of my husband who drove me to endless doctor’s appointments, kept me well-fed, and cheered me on when I thought I couldn’t do it all. My team and leader at work were thankfully also flexible with my schedule while I pursued this program. Ultimately, this experience reminded me that my resilience and grit run deeper than I tend to give myself credit for.
What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? Be very clear about your motivation for pursuing an EMBA, as this will help you get through the hardest moments. Having a full course load while maintaining a full-time job takes a lot of time, and you need to be upfront with your friends and loved ones about the sacrifice it will take. If you lean into the experience with a growth mindset and vulnerability, it will be transformative.
What was your biggest regret in business school? I can’t say I have any regrets. While I was dedicated to mastering the coursework as a chronic overachiever, I was also intentional about building meaningful relationships both in and out of the classroom each weekend, which I believe is the greatest reward from this program. My cohort is full of brilliant, passionate, and kind leaders who continuously inspire me and it was so special to have gone through this experience with them.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? I appreciated how every professor wove the implications of AI into the material and discussions, whether it was Data Models & Decisions or Marketing Strategy. The AI & Business Strategy course with Professor Balaji Padmanabhan was a particularly excellent deep dive, from the underlying mechanisms of Large Language Models to the strategic, ethical, and organizational dimensions of AI adoption and the future of agentic systems. Some of the richest learning happened alongside the cohort that was genuinely enthusiastic about sharing best practices and new tools, whether experimenting with research synthesis or vibe coding and deploying AI apps.
What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? I actually applied to UMD’s part-time flex program first. However, once I was accepted, the recruitment team highly recommended I pursue the EMBA instead given my level of experience and leadership, offering me the chance to learn from more senior executives with the cohort experience. I am incredibly grateful they pushed me in this direction.
How did you finance your EMBA and what did you do to make tuition and associated costs more affordable? Being a spouse of a federal employee, I was able to qualify for the FedGrant at UMD, offering a 30% discount on tuition, which was a huge help. Otherwise, I leveraged some educational reimbursement from work and personal savings.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My professional goal is to lead a multidisciplinary technical organization where humanity and rigor coexist, and the AI systems we build amplify creativity and foster genuine human connection at scale. When I look back on my career some day, I hope that I can point to ways in which my work had a positive impact developing new generations of leaders and improving the lives of others, whether through empowerment, storytelling, or breaking down barriers to make technology more accessible.
DON’T MISS: BEST & BRIGHTEST EXECUTIVE MBAS: CLASS OF 2026
© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.
