After 39 years with the Federal Reserve System, Cathy Minehan AWA ’96 retired from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 2007, having served as President and CEO since 1994.

As a new college graduate applying for financial services jobs, Cathy recalls interviewers telling her that management training programs were strictly reserved for male employees. Now, she serves as Dean of the School of Management at Simmons College — the MBA program ranked #1 in opportunities for women by the Princeton Review.

“In our view, this [gender inequity in management] is a problem in the business world that needs to be addressed now more than ever if this country is to continue to be the competitive innovator that it has been.   The United States needs a workforce that uses every ounce of its brainpower, and wastes none. This is the only way to effectively address the fiscal, demographic and global challenges facing us and threatening this country’s position in the world.”

Read Cathy’s blog post, “Two Voices, Forty Years, Same Problem,” on what sparked the creation of the School of Management at Simmons College.