Anastasia Byrd would describe her life as anything but linear. She completed her associate degree and worked as an implementation project manager for a few years before getting her bachelor’s.

Deciding to grow her aptitude for data and STEM, she came to KU to study engineering physics with a concentration in aerospace systems. It was there that she worked with flight dynamics and control, which later introduced her to the Garrison Flight Research Lab, where she worked as an Agile project manager.

This gap led Byrd to consider a different path. She decided to switch her master’s program and get a KU MBA instead. There, she could combine her love of data with the bigger-picture thinking she enjoyed doing on the job.

During her time in the MBA program, Byrd began an internship at T-Mobile that would eventually lead to a career switch. She worked on the 3G network shutdown. Putting her new skills to use, she provided analytics and visual analytics to a variety of teams that helped the company understand how its customers were handling the service shutdown.

Now in a full-time position, she built off what she previously learned in her internship and the MBA program. If she could have any title, Byrd would want to be a team optimizer, something she advocates for inside and outside the classroom.

Byrd finished her MBA in fall 2022 after taking the full-time offer from T-Mobile. She is grateful for her cohort and the faculty and staff for helping her transition into a new career and industry.