Lorna Patches Directs Executive MBA, Executive Education Programs at Gatton

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 3, 2017) — “I am striving to empower women and men to dream big and not back down from a challenge.”

That quote belongs to Lorna Patches, director of the Executive MBA and the Don and Cathy Jacobs Executive Education Center (EEC) in the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Patches is working to achieve this goal as UK's director of the UK-UofL (University of Louisville) Executive MBA. A point of pride for Patches, with the still-young program’s third class of entering students, is that 50 percent of current Executive MBA students are female. This balance has been achieved in spite of statistics that show the global average for women enrolled in executive MBA programs is only 28 percent.

Patches came on board just after coursework began for the first cohort of students in August 2014. “I intuitively knew this would be a perfect fit for my career aspirations and professional background,” she said.

Two years later, Patches was named director of the Exec MBA and the EEC, succeeding Joe Labianca, Gatton Chaired Professor of Management and founding director of the Executive MBA program, when Labianca chose to devote more time to his research and teaching duties.

A native of Carmel Valley, California, Patches earned her bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, doing archaeological fieldwork in a remote region of Jordan.

“I feel that every student should have the opportunity for an overseas travel experience,” Patches said. “It changed my world view, and frankly, changed my life.”

After graduation and relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area, Patches accepted an offer to work with a joint venture of British Telecom and AT&T, as a customer service manager responsible for the company’s relationships with executives from companies such as Visa, AMD, Microsoft and Toyota.

“I had the opportunity to work with colleagues all over the world. Toyota is what brought me to the Bluegrass originally, as their manufacturing arm’s IT (information technology) purchasing headquarters was at the time located in Georgetown,” Patches said.

After moving to Kentucky, Patches realized that in order to open up additional career options, earning an MBA was a necessity. While continuing to work full time, she enrolled in the Professional MBA program at UK and completed her studies in two years, graduating in 2007. She stayed with AT&T for several more years before leaving the workforce to focus on her family, which includes two daughters, Sarah and Evelyn, and her husband, Jeremy.

Around the same time Evelyn was starting school full time, the opportunity to join the Gatton College staff presented itself and Patches enthusiastically jumped in.

“The timing worked out very well. Plus, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Joe Labianca, Dean David Blackwell and others at UK working together with our counterparts at the University of Louisville, the difficult task of actually getting the program underway was done. I was able to focus on making the experience for our students outstanding,” Patches said.

The UK-UofL Executive MBA draws upon the talented faculties of both institutions, and the geographic aspects of this joint institution degree make it easier for individuals from across the Commonwealth and beyond to attend classes without extensive travel, while still tending to their busy professional and personal lives. Class meetings alternate between Lexington and Louisville, primarily on weekends, and the program takes 20 months to complete. Students also participate in an immersive global experience, traveling to locations including the Czech Republic, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Japan, among others.

“Launching this joint Executive MBA program has truly enhanced the career development opportunities for professionals across the region and their companies,” said Ken Troske, Gatton College’s associate dean of graduate programs and outreach. “Lorna’s global business experience continues to be essential to the success and growth of the program.”

“This is the first truly comprehensive executive MBA in the region,” Patches said. “And we are the only program in the region to have been awarded a Tier One Global Executive MBA ranking by CEO Magazine in 2016. The same publication just released its 2017 global rankings and the UK-UofL Exec MBA is ranked 28th in the world. The small size of the cohort we admit to the program each year is a huge plus. Students bring firsthand industry insight to compliment the academic environment, while really getting to know each other and building a tremendous professional network.”

Patches also serves as director of the Don and Cathy Jacobs Executive Education Center, which provides custom and outreach programming for the greater Kentucky region.

“This can include particular areas of focus, including our annual Supply Chain Forum and Economic Outlook Conference, as well as training designed to meet the needs of specific organizations,” Patches said. “And we partner with other colleges, including UK’s colleges of Education and Engineering, to design a range of offerings.”

Patches is delighted with the positive impact the newly renovated and expanded Gatton College building is making on both the EEC and the Executive MBA.

“The facility is an absolute game changer for everyone here at the university,” Patches said. “We now have the technological tools we need to successfully deliver programs, the amenities to make students comfortable, and the surroundings that create a feeling of community between our students, faculty and staff. In addition, the group study rooms are a tremendous resource for teamwork and collaboration.”

Patches believes that women are making more opportunities for themselves in the workplace, through tireless professional advocacy coupled with rigorous personal development.

Currently in the midst of recruiting the Executive MBA’s fourth cohort of students, who will start classes in the fall, Patches and her staff are excited.

“Now that I am in a position to help others realize their career aspirations, I am passionate about engagement within the community as a mentor,” Patches said. “We have an outstanding group of applicants so far, and we look forward to developing another group with a wide variety of business and industry backgrounds.”

To apply to the UK-UofL Exec MBA program, visit http://execmba.com. For more information on the Don and Cathy Jacobs Executive Education Center, go to http://gatton.uky.edu/executive-education.