A Houston native, Ruy Lozano worked for 25 years in the Houston Fire Department, the third-largest municipal fire department in the country, where he was an assistant fire chief and managed a multi-million dollar budget for transportation, logistics, procurement and infrastructure.

After speaking with the Houston Fire Department’s fire chief and realizing the chief’s progressive and innovative mindset was a result of his MBA journey, Ruy decided to pursue an MBA himself. In March of this year, after a nationwide search, he was appointed as the fire chief for the New Braunfels Fire Department. 

Ruy joins host Christine to look back at their time in the MBA program together, the diversity of their class, the business element of public service and some of the toughest times Ruy experienced during his work with the Houston Fire Department.

Episode Quotes:

On balancing school and being an assistant fire chief: 

Reflecting on his time at Rice:

What makes Rice different:

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript 

Guest Profile:

• Ruy Lozano on LinkedIn

Robyn O’Brien never called herself a foodie. That’s until her son had an allergic reaction one morning, and it sent her down a rabbit hole of uncovering what goes into the food we get off the shelves.

With a 20-year career in food and finance, Robyn has been called “The Erin Brockovich of Food” by the New York Times and Bloomberg. She is recognized as one of the most visionary voices in the food industry. 

She’s the co-founder and managing director of rePlant Capital, a financial services firm scaling climate solutions and transitioning farmland to regenerative and organic agriculture by focusing on soil health and farmer profitability. Robyn is also an adjunct professor of strategic management at Rice Business.

Robyn sits down with Christine to talk about her relationship with the real Erin Brockovich, the loneliness of this kind of pioneering work, marrying intuition and analytics, and the importance of women mentoring women.

Episode Quotes:

How to keep doing work in this field when everything seems so dire

It's catastrophic but at the same time, the scope of opportunities in front of us to be part of that solution, to create a solution, to innovate, to drive change, is also enormous. So that's where I tend to put my energy.

Intuition & analysis

Women mentoring women

I think a lot of reasons women have imposter syndrome is because these systems were not created for us. They were not designed for our leadership. They were not designed for our roles as mothers. And so of course there's imposter syndrome, because guess what, you weren't actually the person they had in mind when they were creating, C-suite executives and the board of directors.

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Jones Graduate School of Business
• Robyn O’Brien Website
• Robyn O’ Brien on LinkedIn
• Robyn O'Brien on Twitter
• Robyn O’Brien on Instagram
• rePlant Capital Website

At the time of this interview, Raisha Smith was set to graduate from the full-time MBA program in less than a month and was celebrating four years as founder and chief visionary of EveryDopeGirl, a platform that highlights the achievements of everyday women. 

She’s passionate about helping women of color reach their full potential professionally. And she’s on the brink of seeing her hard work pay off.

Raisha joins host David Droogleever to talk about life in the corporate space, how she shifted her career path, starting and building EveryDopeGirl, and why it's so important to cultivate support and mentorship between women in business.

Episode Quotes:
How attending Rice has grown EveryDopeGirl:

The mission of EveryDopeGirl:

On the future of EveryDopeGirl:

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript

Guest Profile:

• EveryDopeGirl Website
• Raisha Smith on LinkedIn
• Raisha Smith on Twitter

A Texas native, Casey Sherrod joined the Army ROTC at the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies. A year after graduating, she deployed to Afghanistan as a platoon leader, later becoming an executive officer, then a commander of the largest U.S. Army recruiting company on the West Coast. But she felt a strong desire to return to Houston and decided to pursue her MBA at Rice Business while on active duty.

During the pandemic, Casey and her wife, Amanda, began partnering with animal rescues in Houston and elsewhere to foster animals in need, including dogs, cats, goats, pigs and calves. Casey started a TikTok account (@caseyriveter) to document their animal rescue journey and she now has 1.9 million followers.

Casey and David talk about what drew her to serve in the military, her impressive career with the Army, the parallels between business school and the Army, and how she got into the world of TikTok.

Episode Quotes:
Parallels between business school and the Army

One thing you learned at Rice that has helped you become a leader

On her new viral TikTok fame

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript 

Guest Profile:

• Casey Sherrod on TikTok
• Casey Sherrod on LinkedIn
• Casey Sherron on Twitter
• Casey Sherrod on Instagram

There has been no shortage of challenges for Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez in his six years in the role: Hurricane Harvey, a global pandemic, and a deep freeze. Peter not only led the school through these crises, but managed to foster major growth milestones along the way. He sits down with host Christine Dobbyn to reflect on the last few tumultuous years and discuss the future of the business school, who his mentors are, and a new appointment that will give him a front-row seat to what’s happening in the economy.

In addition to being the dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, Peter is also an economist and professor of strategic management. He teaches classes on global macroeconomics and economic growth and development.

Episode Quotes:

How COVID affected business school education:

In large part, what you're training to do is to be prepared for things that you weren't prepared for, to be ready for things that were unforeseeable, and to have that ability to think clearly, mobilize a team, stick true to a mission or some objectives, and hold to some values while you do the very best. And it's a challenge to do.

On decision-making:

On mentorship:

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University
• Dean Peter Rodriguez on LinkedIn
• Dean Peter Rodriguez on Twitter

In this special episode, get to know Christine Dobbyn’s story. She talks with guest host and Rice Business alum Scott Gale '19 about her passion for storytelling, how most of her work today is from the Rice Business network and her advice for prospective students.
 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

In this special episode, get to know David Droogleever's story and why hosting a podcast is an act of building self-trust. Rice Business alum and guest host Scott Gale '19 finds out why joining the Navy was everything David expected and more, and why he starts every day by asking an important question: “Which frog do I eat first?” Check out the episode to find out what that means.
 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Aruna Viswanathan '01 joins host David Droogleever to discuss her pivot from engineering to tech investing and entrepreneurship, provide essential tips for beginner investors and talk about AlphaX Decision Sciences, the energy AI software company she co-founded.
 

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Lynn Lednicky graduated from Rice twice, getting an undergraduate degree in chemistry and then an MBA. He tells host Christine Dobbyn about the breadth of his career and how transferrable job skills can take you to places you might not expect. He also shares advice for startup founders and growth-stage companies.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Omar Matuk-Villazon, M.D. '18 joins host David Droogleever to discuss the direct primary care model, innovation in healthcare and what it looks like to build a medical school from scratch.

A transcript of this episode is available here.