Shana Singer Leverages Leadership Skills With an MBA and International Business Certificate

Looking back at her 14-year tenure at Boeing, Shana Singer (’23 MBA) wanted to diversify her career as a supply chain analyst. She was passionate about supply chain work and the aerospace industry, but wanted new challenges outside of these areas.

She took advantage of every opportunity the company offered for growth and advancement. This included leveraging their tuition assistance program.

“I finished my undergraduate in strategic communication in December 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic,” Singer says. “With no impending promotion in sight and a tremendous amount of free time, I decided to pursue my MBA.”

Singer says she and her husband were both dedicated Cougs, and it made sense for her to explore the WSU online MBA program. The positive reviews and national ranking also helped her decide it was the best choice.

“The program fit my lifestyle and schedule,” she says. “It’s designed specifically for the working student who is already in their career, but just needs the extra boost to get them to the next level. I felt less overwhelmed with my MBA curriculum than I did with my undergraduate courses. It’s where I was meant to be.”

Singer also completed a certificate in international business to complement her MBA, a decision that would later impact her career path.

Nine months into her MBA program, she received a promotion increasing her Boeing salary by 29 percent. But going to school in the pandemic really drew Singer’s interest toward immunology and immune therapy.

Within months, she was offered a higher position as a senior business process analyst at Adaptive Biotechnologies, a Seattle biotech startup pioneering new medical technologies.

International business certificate enhances global perspective

At Adaptive, Singer leverages her MBA training in management and leadership to lead a team in identifying approaches to drug treatment and discovery. Through patient sample research and development, her team performs sequencing and produces data pharmaceuticals and academia can access for research and development purposes.

She says the international business certification has helped her concentrate on the global impact of her work.

“In preparation for the next pandemic, thinking globally is the only way to be proactive,” she says. “We have expanded to Australia, the UK, Europe, and India. Knowledge sharing between cultures and countries can lead to more scalable treatments.”

Singer’s typical day consists of managing schedules, budgets, scope of work, and supply chain team dynamics. She is constantly searching for ways to make her department and unit more efficient.

“I am on my second implementation of software that improves demand, accuracy, and inventory management. It also reduces the manual data exchange between internal organizations,” Singer says. “That’s a big deal in the industry.”

She plans to eventually relocate to San Diego and continue working in supply chain processes supporting biotech.

“I am extremely interested in the software solution space and would love to work with biotech warehouses to improve inventory accuracy, reduce manual processes, and integrate quality and compliance,” she says.