Whitney Owen

• School of International Affairs

• B.S. INTA 2003

Whitney Owen is currently employed as the director of University Business Consulting and has also previously been the director of LMI’s HHS Market. Owen is a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Project Management Professional. She is also a Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees Member, a Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration Advisory Board Member, and has received the Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumna award.

What the Ivan Allen College Taught Me

The analytical skill set that I developed in the Ivan Allen College and at Georgia Tech is invaluable. I think the Ivan Allen College is really a step ahead of other liberal arts programs because we're required to take those harder skill classes like computer science and calculus. We don't get the option to sidestep those courses like many students at more traditional liberal arts colleges.

In my current job, we hire Georgia Tech grads. We're looking for those hard skills. People who can pontificate and write long academic papers are great, but my clients don't want that. They're looking for people with real analytical skills who can write a two-page memo and get to the point. I think the Ivan Alan College taught me how to pull out the salient points in policy and then provide that information to stakeholders.

Interests and Hobbies

My job keeps me fairly busy, although in the consulting world I have great hours compared to a lot of other firms. I have two little boys, a 4-year-old, James, and a 17-month-old, Andrew. They keep me quite busy as well.

I love spending time with family and friends. I love to cook, entertain, and host parties, and I do a spin class once a week to try and stay healthy. I'm on the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s board of trustees, so I come down to Atlanta quarterly to meet with the board. I enjoy staying connected to Tech. In addition, I serve on the advisory board for my graduate program at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. 

Advice for Current Students

Ivan Allen College students definitely need to have internship experiences or participate in a co-op program. Everybody has work experience now, and if you don't have it you are way behind the curve. But in addition to just competing with your peers, I think it really can help you identify what you want and don't want in your career before you commit to something. It kept me from going to law school when I thought that's what I really wanted to do with my life, and I learned that I wanted to follow a different path. Internships and co-ops are great opportunities to kind of feel that out.

I would also advise students to make sure that they try to take some courses that will give them some more analytical or tool-based skills that they can translate into a job. The job market is very competitive these days, and there are a lot of people that come out of school and are good writers, analysts, or communicators. But if somebody can do all of those things and knows SAS or is an advanced user of Excel or something else that is popular in the workplace, then that would put them leaps and bounds ahead of other candidates.