Emily Donnery is a vital part of MBA Programs at Daniels, providing a helping hand to the College’s students
Emily Donnery is an East Coaster through and through. Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, and strengthened by an education at the University of New Hampshire and a job at Yale, she knows the reputation the region holds.
People are a little impatient, perhaps less understanding of a slower pace of life—or maybe just undercaffeinated. Car horns are a method of communication, and your personal life is often just that, something that should be kept to yourself.
So, when Donnery landed in Denver, she was surprised by the sudden change. Instead of quick meetings focused entirely on work, people asked about her life and hobbies, friends and family, and what was up for the weekend.
It helped her acclimate to a new city quickly, and she’s thankful for the relationships it helped her create.
Donnery has been at the University of Denver since 2022, joining the Daniels College of Business early in 2024 as assistant director of MBA Programs. In her current role, she supports full-time Denver MBA students and ensures they have a frictionless graduate school experience. She came to the College from the Yale School of Management, where she worked in the academic affairs and student life office.
But higher education wasn’t always her focus; she studied international affairs and anthropology as an undergrad.
A study abroad opportunity in Argentina further cemented her interest in international culture and ultimately led her to Washington, D.C., for a post-graduate internship with Amnesty International. The international non-governmental organization is focused on human rights and has more than ten million members and supporters worldwide. As a crisis prevention and response intern, she’d spend some days in press briefings on the Hill, while others were spent combing Google Earth looking for images of schools that were threatened by terrorist groups.
At the same time, she worked in events and marketing for ThinkFoodGroup, a restaurant company run by Jose Andres, founder of well-known nonprofit World Central Kitchen. It was a fun job for a time, but Donnery needed something a little more stable; she found it at Yale. She returned home, helping a group of students find their footing in a new place.
“I was able to showcase my hometown to hundreds of incoming students from all over the world, so I felt like that was a really cool lens that I was able to bring to my work,” she said. “I was showing them where to find really good bagels or this park that not a lot of people know about.”
Donnery has always been passionate about working with students and creating an inclusive environment for them. She attributes much of that nature to her older brother, Sam, who has a developmental disability called Williams Syndrome. Sam is extremely social and Donnery naturally slid into a quiet support role, something that has continued in her personal and professional life.
“I think he really influenced who I am personally, looking at inclusion, patience and disabilities, across the spectrum,” she said.
This winter, Donnery will return to Argentina for the first time since her study abroad with a Denver MBA cohort for their global experience. She’s excited to explore the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, satisfy her sweet tooth with a cookie-like dessert called alfajores and expose students to a place she recalls so fondly.
“I’ll get to see it through the eyes of this new group of students, just as when I was wide-eyed there, trying to get my bearings too,” she said. “To experience it with this new group, where many, if not all of them, will be going there for the first time. That’ll be really neat.”
When she’s not on campus, Donnery likes to explore Denver with her husband and 9-month-old son, seeing all that the local parks and playgrounds have to offer. She also enjoys yoga, running, pickleball and crossword puzzles.
And while she’s enjoyed the more relaxed lifestyle in the Mile High City, she remains a frequent visitor to the east coast. She recently spent time in New Hampshire at her family’s home on Little Lake Sunapee, swimming, sailing, strawberry picking and hiking.
And when asked to weigh in on the critically important, hotly contested debate over New Haven pizza, there was no hesitation on her favorite shop.
“I love Modern [Apizza].”