Former Army officer builds on military background for future career success.

With eleven years of Army experience to her credit, Erica Courtney, the first woman selected as scout helicopter commander in her unit at Fort Drum, could have slipped easily into an administrative position. Within another nine years, she could have looked forward to a comfortable pension. Instead, she opted to leave the Army and prepare herself to start her own company—possibly a helicopter transport business.

Erica Courtney

Her first step is to complete a master’s degree—the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) in the College’s Chapman Graduate School—even though her Army experience had already led to six-figure job offers.

As her brigade commander’s logistical and budget officer, she dealt with contracts, handled multimillion dollar deals, and did accounting. In Afghanistan for five months in 2003, she managed logistics, helping supply the battlefields. And as part of her logistical work, she subsequently prepared a brigade for deployment to Iraq.

The Army offers a generous program that could have given Courtney the background she is seeking. It pays a salary and pays for school, making it a very attractive option. However, it lengthens the person’s term of service and she was eager to start her civilian life.

The College’s Executive MBA offered a number of advantages.

“It was a convenient choice since we live in Miami,” she said. “I liked the fact that the program would be a challenge right from the start with a rigorous application process.”

She also knew that she would learn from her classmates since the EMBA program requires eight years of management experience. For example, she credits a classmate with helping her improve her math skills.

“He’s a GE engineer who was a physics tutor,” she said. “The way he worked with me is an example of how we succeed as part of team, helping each other through our different strengths.”

She was confident that she could contribute to her team based on her knowledge of contracts, legalities, and making presentations as well as her leadership, management, and accounting talents. Plus, she felt that she would offer a different perspective because she has not come up through the business world, as many of her classmates have.

In addition, because she loves to travel, she was drawn to the idea of the mandatory EMBA trip, which, for her class, will be to India. Florida-born, Courtney grew up in California, earned an undergraduate degree in communications in 1997 from the University of Hawaii, and has traveled to Germany and Korea.

Once armed with her degree, she looks forward to taking on her next challenge with the launch of her business. Miami is an ideal place in which to contemplate a transportation-related enterprise.

“All of Miami’s transportation offerings are hard-pressed to handle the volume of the population,” she said. “There’s a need for additional services.”

She is thinking about creating a company that would lease helicopters to local law enforcement agencies, to assist firemen, or for tourism, among other possible contributions, and she credits the Army with giving her a number of appropriate contacts, such as mechanics and pilots she trusts.