No one goes it alone: How Healthcare at Kellogg’s community fuels growth in the industry

By Claire Zulkey

“Fun” might not be a top priority when choosing a business in healthcare program to apply to. But for Kellogg students Erin Beacham ’25 MBA and Kate Herrington ’25 MBA, their experience getting their degrees has been valuable — and surprisingly enjoyable. What makes their journey so impactful isn’t just the academic rigor or industry insights; it’s the community.

Many backgrounds, but a shared purpose

Both Beacham and Herrington came to Kellogg with the intent to grow in their healthcare careers while building business acumen and leadership skills. But they also joined an active ecosystem of peers, mentors, alumni committed to collaboration, support and collective success and realized how much they wanted to contribute to its strength. 

Before Kellogg, Beacham worked in bioengineering and later pivoted into a non-healthcare role at Amazon before realizing she wanted to return to the field and accelerate her career. She chose Kellogg for its strong healthcare programming and support systems, including the Hawryluk Biopharmaceutical Scholarship, an endowed fund that supports MBA students with a proven interest in the field. 

Herrington, also a Hawryluk scholar, came from a life sciences consulting and biotech background and was drawn to the school’s cross-industry learning model. “I didn’t want a school where I’d only be surrounded by people in healthcare. I wanted to be in a finance class with former investment bankers or in marketing with people from consumer goods. That diversity makes you sharper.” And yet, she adds, “The healthcare community at Kellogg ended up being even stronger than I expected — it was the icing on the cake.”

Greg Hanifee, associate dean at Kellogg, believes that the robust and enthusiastic Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) community starts with the school’s commitment to cross-pollination among its programs. “We have strengths in healthcare programming and student representation across the Full-Time, Evening & Weekend and Executive MBA Programs,” he says. 

Full-Time MBA students who participate in courses and the conferences, internships exploring opportunities in the healthcare space writ large (ranging from private equity through medical device, pharma and consulting) exchange knowledge with Evening & Weekend MBA students, who include Northwestern Medicine residents and other healthcare staff in the program. They all learn from the mid-senior level executives in pharma, medical device, and hospital administration who want to round out their leadership skills in the Executive MBA Program.

“This portfolio gives Kellogg a strength that is hard to match by other schools of our caliber,” Hanifee says. “You throw in the Deep Dive where students interested in this space can take classes together, and it puts a nice wrapper on the ability for them to interact and engage and learn from each other as much as they’re learning from faculty.”

“These Deep Dive weekends mix people from across programs and verticals,” Herrington says. “You’re sitting at lunch with a practicing physician who happens to work at the company you’re recruiting for. That type of organic connection is powerful.” For Beacham, that scenario helped her navigate an offer from Oak Street Health with real-time insight from someone already in the organization.

Both students emphasize how learning with peers from varied backgrounds enhances understanding of the entire healthcare ecosystem. “I’m taking a digital health course not because I’ll work in that space,” Herrington says, “but because I want to understand how it connects to what I do. And I get to learn alongside people who live and breathe that world.”

The Healthcare Club: A gateway to connection

Student clubs at Kellogg aren’t members-only communities — they’re open networks. With the 400+ member strong Slack channel, HCAK students can tap into one of the largest and most engaged healthcare groups at any business school. “We have 68 people on the exec board alone,” Beacham says (she and Herrington are co-presidents.) “Many more consistently show up to events, even if they don’t hold formal roles.”

The Healthcare Club fosters authentic, interdisciplinary conversations between students from every corner of healthcare, creating space for casual curiosity and deep specialization. “The club is focused on consistent community building throughout the year,” Herrington says. 

Its nine committees stay busy, whether planning community events like an executive team retreat or a Whirlyball outing downtown, building partnerships with alumni and companies interested in recruiting Kellogg students to host lunch and learn informational type sessions, hosting interview prep groups for students getting ready for internships, or communicating with prospective students who have questions and want a one-on-one connection with a current student.

“That was really important, because it’s reflective of us as students, and the fact that we do all want to share and help and grow, and be there for prospective students,” says Herrington. 

The school funds club dinners to further facilitate these connections, often meeting to discuss an industry topic or recruiting. “There’s no better way to get people to come together and build relationships like breaking bread,” says Paul Campbell, co-director of Healthcare at Kellogg. “These small group dinners have accelerated the relationship building that can happen only in that kind of setting.”

The alumni effect: Paying it forward

The HCAK relationship doesn’t end at graduation. Alumni regularly return for panels, mentorship, and casual chats and engage in the online alumni network, which includes a searchable directory available to members of over 5,000 Kellogg  alumni in the industry.

“There’s something very special about the Kellogg mentality,” Herrington says. “The alumni I reached out to during recruiting not only responded, but they listened deeply. They offered intros, follow-ups and thoughtful insights. That’s rare.”

Beacham notes how, even as a current student, she already feels a deep bond with her fellow future alumni. “At my undergrad, alumni events felt transactional. At Kellogg, it feels like home. People show up because they genuinely care about the students and each other.”

Hanifee credits Campbell and co-director of HCAK Craig Garthwaite for actively incorporating alumni into the program. “The alumni are already high-achieving individuals,” he says. “They wouldn’t be where they are if they hadn’t stuck their necks out or worked hard at something. The culture of Kellogg is to see the value in being engaged and networking and understanding that the return is both short and long-term.” 

Garthwaite says the HCAK alumni community continues to build momentum, with former students regularly pulling their classmates back into the fold. Over 150 alumni attended a recent JPMorgan networking event, where he says different alumni cohorts were able to bridge gaps in age and specialty. “For the students, it makes it a much more vibrant healthcare program. The alums love engaging with the students,” he says. I do think Kellogg has a history of selecting people who are community-focused.”

Importantly for current students, knowledge-sharing is built in at every level at HCAK, from industry advisors to informal second-year connections. “I came in pretty open, unsure whether I’d go into pharma or medtech,” Beacham says. “An alum from the industry advisor program offered me a compare-and-contrast breakdown of both fields. He just got it. No judgment, no pressure — just help.”

For Herrington, mentorship turned into an ongoing relationship. She now meets regularly with two pharma leaders she connected with through school’s mentorship platform. “They’ve become real advisors and friends. We’re supporting each other through job searches and leadership decisions,” she says. “It’s collaborative and mutual.” 

Read next: Healthcare at Kellogg: Inside the Deep Dive immersion program