Marlyne Fahey , MBA

New York state’s highly-competitive Excelsior Service Fellowship places recent graduate degree recipients into two-year, full-time leadership roles throughout state government. Several Sage graduates have participated in the program, including Marlyne Fahey, MBA, ’18, who was also selected for the state’s new Women Lead Fellowship for Women in Government.

As an Excelsior Fellow, Fahey is a project manager in the disability benefits unit at the New York State Insurance Fund. She is involved with several projects to improve business processes and claims handling and strengthen relationships with policy holders. She also had the opportunity to help implement an electronic platform for formerly paper-based processes at the Department of Motor Vehicles. As a Women Lead fellow, she will be mentored by Sandra Beattie, deputy budget director, New York State Division of the Budget.

Fahey learned about the two opportunities through Sage’s Office of Career Planning, and said that Career Planning also helped her prepare to present her education and leadership experience – which includes a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army – to the selection committees. “I met with Carleen Pallante, director of Career Planning, on numerous occasions for interview and resume prep,” Fahey said. “I believe that the extra preparation sessions provided me with the confidence I needed when I interviewed for the Excelsior program. I received positive feedback from the fellowship office after the interview.”

Fahey said she was attracted to Sage for her MBA because of the community feel that she loved and the project management courses that she needed to boost her career. “At this point in my life, I had certain career goals, and one of my long-term goals is to become a certified Project Management Professional, a goal I am already pursuing with this opportunity.”

Candidates for the PMP exam must have significant, documented education hours and work experience. Fahey said her Sage MBA gave her a solid foundation for the professional experience she’ll obtain at the state government. “The Excelsior Fellowship, I know, will take me one step closer to achieving my goals.”