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Eric Hoernemann is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, currently serving within the Office of Training Workforce Performance and Development in Washington, D.C. Hoernemann oversees program curriculum, budget and policy, and conducts measurement and analysis of program operations and results. I was selected by the US Coast Guard following a tour as a captain of an icebreaker on the Great Lakes to pursue a graduate degree in organizational leadership. I was attracted to Northwestern for several reasons. I’m from Ohio so I enjoy living in the Midwest. But more importantly, I was drawn to the MSLOC program because of its focus on education and strategic change practices. The three pillars of the program — learning and performance, knowledge management and strategic change — combined very well with the organizational leadership position that I had been selected for. I was going for personal enrichment but this was also my chance to develop skills that would be really helpful in dealing with the changes occurring in the Coast Guard. At that point in my career, I needed to be able to provide value to the organization as a whole. These skills would help me develop further strategic goals and advance my career within the organization. I really enjoyed the small group camaraderie of MSLOC. Classes are small. The discussions were always very rich because the students are all successful professionals from a wide range of industries. I also like that this is not a degree that you can get immediately following your bachelor’s; it requires you to apply your work experiences to your learning. I can honestly say I use the skills I learned in the MSLOC classes pretty much every day. There is a lot of strategic change management — persuading people to do something differently. I also rely on the knowledge I gained in learning and performance. I like to use the icebreaker metaphor [to describe the skills developed through MSLOC]. Before I enrolled in the MSLOC program, it would be “OK, let’s smash through that ice as quickly as we can.” Now it’s more “Let’s slow down. Let’s think about where we need to hit this ice. How can we do it more strategically?” The program has really helped me to take a little bit of extra time to really figure out what we are trying to accomplish. Back to Student Profiles |
