Meet the New Director of Admissions

My road to Yale has been circuitous, but it all started just a few blocks up the road from Evans Hall. A bit of background: my father is a proud alumnus of Yale College (Class of 1968), and my childhood home is less than a mile from my new office. After obtaining my bachelor’s in environmental sciences and my master’s in geology at Boston College, I began my career as an environmental consultant in Boston. However, after several years I realized that, while I had a solid scientific background, I was lacking the business and management skills that my job demanded. I decided to pursue my MBA at night, part-time, after work. I can relate to our EMBA students who must balance a demanding professional and academic workload along with personal and family commitments.  

Similar to the Yale EMBA students who venture out on a Global Network Week as part of their program, I had the chance to travel to Asia during my MBA as part of a three-week course in international business. I had never been to Asia before, had limited international experience, and this trip completely turned my worldview on end. I decided that once I finished my degree, I needed to get out and explore the world. 

After graduation, I found a job teaching at a small business school in Nanjing, China. I packed up two suitcases and boarded a plane for what I thought would be one year. However, things did not turn out exactly the way I planned. I loved the challenge of living in a new country where I did not speak the language and had only a limited understanding of the history and context of my new friends, students, and co-workers. I started to teach myself Chinese and quickly realized that 12 months would never be enough. For the next nine years, I lived and worked in China as both an educator, a school administrator, and, quite randomly, a TV talk show host. I studied and taught myself Chinese, and even though my accent and grammar are far from perfect, I was able to communicate with those around me.

From China, I moved to Seoul, South Korea, for several years where I worked as a school administrator before returning to the United States. For the past seven-plus years, I have served as the director of graduate international admissions at Sacred Heart University. I have had the chance to travel both personally and professionally to more than 50 countries and have worked with thousands of students as they have made the decision to further their education and pursue new academic and professional goals. 

I look forward to utilizing my experiences to help bring future EMBA students to Yale SOM and support our mission to educate leaders for business and society. 

Keith Gallinelli
Director of Admissions 
MBA for Executives