Exploring the Capstone with Heather Sheehan

The impact of the Capstone Seminar is not something everyone gets to see.  We discussed the course structure and its value with Heather Sheehan, Adjunct Faculty and Board Member.  Here is what she had to say...

"The Senior Management Executives and Issues Seminar, also known as the Capstone Seminar, is designed to integrate the students’ prior learning plus those of guest speakers into leadership lessons to enhance their career journey. We bring in a wide variety of successful industry leaders, some of whom are alumni, to share their experience and advice on topics including crisis management, mergers and acquisitions, environmental/social/governance, cross-functional collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and corporate purpose. Students are expected to think like CEOs and use their critical thinking skills while learning about how to deal with amorphous global business problems, create breakthroughs, lead cross-functional international teams, integrate complex acquisitions, deal with major disruptions, align strategies and exemplify company values. We maintain an academic environment where our guest speakers can be more candid than a traditional public speaking engagement. The leaders speak in a more intimate, in-depth way about the realities of being successful in our industry. This seminar builds on the rest of the TSCI program in developing strong, decisive leaders who are asking the right questions, addressing relevant issues, and putting the focus on people, whether they are customers or employees or shareholders or other stakeholders." 

Heather Sheehan joined TSCI's faculty in 2019 and, upon starting, redesigned the Capstone to make it what it is today.  Her approach was to establish a topic framework each year, secure new speakers, add speaker diversity, select case studies and exercises, add rigor to the assignments, and include some of her own content on leadership, decision-making, and collaboration. Heather delivered the course for four years and is now a member of TSCI's board of directors. 

Heather began her tenure as AWESOME’s Executive Director in 2018 after serving as Director of Member Engagement and Sponsorships from 2015-2018. In that role, she led the growth of the AWESOME community from 200 leaders to more than 1200 leaders and significantly increased the number of AWESOME sponsors. Prior to joining the AWESOME team, Heather was selected as one of two recipients of the first AWESOME Legendary Leadership Award in 2014. At that time, she was the Vice President Indirect Sourcing and Logistics for Danaher Corporation, serving as co-chief procurement officer. She also served on the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional (CSCMP) board of directors for 11 years and is past Chairman of the Board.

Heather received her undergraduate degree from Penn State University and MS from Carnegie Mellon University. She teaches in university programs and is the owner of Crispy Concepts LLC where she consults on leadership and supply chain.

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