Susan Opalka, MA in Public Administration
Director of Marketing, Sage Software
Teaching Field: Marketing

Where I come from

I never had any really good teachers or mentors myself. That was one of the reasons I became a teacher originally - the desire to give kids what I never got. For the first ten years of my career, I taught 8th and 9th grade in the Kalamazoo public schools, which I truly loved. Then I moved to California, where I could not find a teaching job. Instead, I ended up as an analyst for a research company in Palo Alto, and liked it. Because of teaching, my presentation skills were really advanced, so I did well there.

I segued into working with the company's ad agency, Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco, where for five years as an account planner, I worked with the creative, media and research teams and for a large number of consumer and industrial clients. I was responsible for understanding who the clients were, defining their target markets and market segmentation, and explaining all that to the creative team so we could create some great advertising. That was fun.

With the computer background I gained at the agency, I moved to Apple Computer and was there for five years. I helped set up their market research department. My boss moved to a position at a computer company in Arizona and brought me along as part of his team. Through the years I have held a variety of marketing positions around Phoenix, including at Motorola and the utility company, Arizona Public Service. I am now the Director of Marketing for Sage Software, which provides business management software and services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Teaching is relating

I have taught marketing courses at the Keller Graduate School of Management for the last 15 years. The part of teaching at Keller that I like the best is relating to the students. I understand their work issues because I've worked for companies of various sizes in various industries. I like their questions; they keep me sharp. I like the interaction with Keller students, their spontaneity and interest in learning.

I am perceived as a hard grader, but also as approachable and flexible. I have high standards of what graduate work should be. As to skills, students should be able to write effectively, solve problems, and present information. I am still in touch with students from 10-12 years ago. I help them with resumés, I serve as a resource, I help them find jobs. Whenever job searches come by my desk, which is frequently, I pass them around to students who are out in the work force and still looking.

Everything changes all of the time

The world of work is very different today from what it was even five or ten years ago, and the challenges of being in the work force are completely different. There is no such thing now as being with the same company for 25 years and getting the gold watch and retiring. Our students have a whole different view of the world of work than we had at their stage of life.

I can understand that. I've been laid off four times; I was working for Motorola as Director of Business Intelligence when our whole division was shut down. Reorganizations and restructures, changing business climates and global sourcing are key factors in the world of work today. If you don't understand that, it is hard for students to relate to you. That is why having practitioners teach their expertise and their business experience is a major advantage that Keller offers.

From the job to the classroom, and back again

When I talk about market research, I can hand out a study I did that day or a survey we completed among our users last week. Students can see what the study objectives were, how we asked the questions, and what the results were. In the advertising class, we look at strategies I helped create at the advertising agency, from strategy through to execution. I show them the actual commercials that ran on TV and discuss results. It's really important for students to have relevant material, not something esoteric and theoretical. They can take a lot of their class hand-outs and use them immediately on the job.

Why Keller?

My graduate education was pretty traditional and I had professors who had not been in the work force for years. Keller faculty are different. We live in the world every day. We know what the work force is like, about the pressures on the job, and job security or lack of it. We are into a reality situation, the same as the students. We provide current, practical, professional knowledge and career information.

Keller students are very motivated. They come not just to get a degree, a credential, but to learn something. Direct contact with the faculty is Keller's competitive advantage over many other schools. Keller is really a wonderful teaching/learning environment.

My colleagues and I really do want to know what your thoughts are. We support our students as learners and as people. We know what's going on in their lives, what their travel schedules are, and when they marry or have babies. I go to all the graduations. I have a feeling of accomplishment when I see students graduate.