Sarah Fairfield

As a seasoned professional in the medical devices space, Sarah Fairfield knows that world inside and out. But she wanted to know more about the full healthcare landscape and grow in her career, so she came to Questrom looking for the answers.

“I’ve been in medical devices for 15 years — from day one of my career — but I hadn’t been exposed to pharma, hospital administration and biotech,” says Sarah, a senior manager of regulatory affairs for Abiomed. “I hadn’t exposed myself to the business side — to finance and marketing. I love the Health Sector management coursework. It’s like a breath of fresh air to dig my teeth into the more granular aspects of healthcare and see where my role fits, and where else I can go.”

For Sarah, courses such as Drugs, Devices and Diagnostics have provided epiphanies. “I now see how my role fits into the healthcare cascade of events, from being sick to visiting the doctor to the doctor running a bunch of tests to treatment — with one of the devices I have helped bring to market,” says Sarah. “I’m now interested in the full continuum: if you hit a barrier even trying to see a doctor, how will you get to the device that can help you? What are the roadblocks and how do we remove them?”

Sarah is not the only one is enthusiastic about asking and answering those questions and more. “My classmates are just as excited to learn and to continue to develop in their careers as I am. It is really inspiring. Everyone is so engaged,” she says. “It makes the classroom experience really powerful.”

While there is no doubt that balancing a full-time job with the Professional Evening MBA program is challenging, Sarah is convinced that the rewards are significant. “Taking the time to invest in myself has given me a lot of perspective on where I want to go next. I want to progress to the director and then to the VP level in regulatory. With an MBA, I’ll have the right knowledge base to support and lead larger groups, and to manage people in a way that’s effective for the organization and aligned with our business strategy.”

“My classmates are just as excited to learn and to continue to develop in their careers as I am. It is really inspiring. Everyone is so engaged,” she says. “it makes the classroom experience really powerful.”

– Sarah Fairfield