Meet Phebe Cornell, MTM Class of 2024

Q: What made you want to enroll in the MTM program? 

A: I was an active-duty Air Force officer working at Los Angeles Air Force base and was selected to be a part of the Advanced Academic Degree Program. It is offered through the Air Force Institute of Technology. Only a few people in the Air Force are selected from my career field every year to take advantage of this amazing opportunity. 

I was so honored and humbled to have been asked to do this degree. 

And the Air Force, because they were sponsoring me to do this degree, they had some requirements and wanted me to get a Master of Technology Management. When I started to look at who was offering this degree, UC Santa Barbara was one of the very few places offering this degree, and it worked out perfectly because of the timing and the location—my husband is also an active-duty military member stationed at Los Angeles—it just made sense based on the curriculum that the MTM program was offering, and also based on the location and timeline. It aligned perfectly with what I was looking for and what the Air Force was looking for me to do, and so that's how I found out about MTM and decided to apply, and I’m so happy that it worked out.

Q: What are some highlights of the MTM program? 

A: I think the obvious one is being in Santa Barbara. I believe that is a huge draw and I would say to anyone that hasn't been to Santa Barbara, it is just a bucket list place to be.

Aside from that, I'd say the biggest thing for me was the people that were involved in this degree, not only my cohort, which was extremely diverse, I think I was one of the few people who was a first-generation American, so just a huge diversity of thought and I learned so much from my classmates because of that. And then also the professors–not only did they have the academic background, but many of them have the industry background, and they're so approachable that it just made learning so easy. The class was just so cohesive. We were such a tight-knit unit, we all got along. 

Q: How did your military background give you an advantage in attending the MTM program?

A: I think the biggest thing that I was able to bring to the MTM cohort was my experience managing people. So again, like I mentioned, the cohort was very diverse -- not only in just backgrounds of places that we were all coming from, but also of where we were at in our lives. 

Some people had 15 years’ work experience, and some people were just coming out of undergrad, which was awesome. 

I think one of the things for me probably being in the middle of that group, work experience-wise, was that I had a lot of experience managing people. You're coming onto active duty and you may be managing 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200 people right out of the gate, and I think is a very unique experience compared to my friends who have worked in the civilian sector. 

I think that's what I was able to offer in classes like leadership and HR, and in a group setting as well. You learn so much from leading people to be able to work better in a group and I think that's something that my military background lent to me in this program.

Q: Tell me about your current role and how MTM helps you in what you do today. 

A: Yes, this is something that I've just been so excited to talk about because when you're getting a master of technology management, you want to be able to go into that field and help the team you're on with the skills you've learned. I'm currently working at the Pentagon; I'm working for our headquarters Air Force A1, which is our human resources sector of the Air Force at a headquarters level. I'm a Policy Analyst, so I'm working heavily in data analytics and I'm using Python in particular to analyze data. I think that it's just incredible that I learned with Professor Matt Beane about how to use AI as a co-pilot in helping you code specifically in Python. 

Another very helpful class was Professor Jessica Santana's class in data analytics, where we learned about using data to be able to tell a story and how to appropriately analyze data and the many different methods to do that. Having those two classes in my toolbelt has just been invaluable to me coming into this role. 

My background was in hospitality management undergrad, so I have no prior experience in coding and very limited experience with data analytics, so the things that I learned in MTM were really invaluable in helping me be successful in my current role working at the Pentagon.

Q: How was your experience with the MTM field project?

A: Yes, so the field project was fabulous.

I think that for me it was beneficial on many fronts. The first thing I would say is that it was great for me, something I was looking for outside of bettering myself as an Air Force officer, was also this exposure to the civilian world and thinking about maybe eventually getting out of the Air Force…it’s a daunting thing. So, the field project exposed me to what working in the civilian workplace would look like, and I think that experience was invaluable. 

Connect with Phebe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phebe-cornell-2394aba8/

Learn more about MTM: tmp.ucsb.edu/mtm