Leading with Pride: Goizueta Hosts Prominent ROMBA Leadership Summit for LGBTQ+ MBA Students

In April, Goizueta Business School partnered with Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) to put on one of the most prominent leadership summits for LGBTQ+ MBA students. Here, we sit down with Tyler Dinucci 24MBA to learn more about his journey, LGBTQ+ initiatives and support systems available at Goizueta, and the ROMBA summit.

Can you tell us about yourself and your journey as an MBA candidate at Goizueta Business School, class of 2024?

I had a non-traditional path to business school. I’m originally from the Hartford, CT, area and received my undergraduate degree in English Literature and Political Science from Bucknell University. Before coming to Goizueta, I worked as a television writer, mainly within the sci-fi and fantasy space. The pandemic was the catalyst towards me doing some internal reflection on what I wanted out of my career and the overall changes within the entertainment industry. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in management consulting and that an MBA could be an accelerant that I needed to achieve this goal. I chose Goizueta because of its academic rigor and its consulting pipeline.

What inspired you to become involved with LGBTQ+ initiatives at Goizueta, and what role do you currently play in these initiatives?

I’ve always wanted to be involved in LGBTQ+ initiatives because there were many people who came before me who worked hard to foster an environment where it’s possible for me to be out in business school, something that would’ve been significantly more difficult 20 or 30 years ago. That inspired me to serve as the Vice President of the Goizueta Pride Alliance for the 2023-24 school year and pay it forward.

Could you share some insights into the LGBTQ+ initiatives and support systems available at Goizueta Business School?

One of the most important things that we do is prepare LGBTQ+ students for Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA)’s annual conference. This is a chance for students to connect with companies and recruiters looking to hire LGBTQ+ MBAs and is a great opportunity for our queer students to network and potentially score internships for their summer. We also host social events as well as co-host events with other groups, such as GWIB (Goizueta Women in Business).

The ROMBA Leadership Summit took place on April 13^th, and was hosted at Goizueta! Can you tell us a little about ROMBA (Reaching Out MBA)?

Reaching Out MBA or ROMBA is the largest professional organization for LGBTQ+ business students and alumni within the country. Besides their networking conference in the fall, they also host a yearly leadership summit where they gather LGBTQ+ MBA club leaders from across the world to network and share insights into what initiatives their clubs are doing and how to succeed at their respective schools.

What sets ROMBA apart as the largest LGBTQ+ MBA program in the country, and why is it significant for Goizueta to host its leadership summit?

This is the first time Goizueta has ever been asked to host the leadership summit – it’s been held in Chicago for the last few years and has never been held in the Southeast. This was a great opportunity for Goizueta to showcase Atlanta, which has a large LGBTQ+ population, as well as Goizueta itself. 

From your perspective, how has hosting ROMBA’s leadership summit at Goizueta impacted the overall diversity and inclusion efforts at the school? 

Hosting this event showcases the diversity of the Goizueta community. Not only is our school a destination for top talent to recruit students out of, but it is also a place where the largest national LGBTQ+ MBA organization chose to host its summit. It’s a testament to Goizueta as an MBA program and the Goizueta Pride Alliance’s work to foster an inclusive community of queer students and allies. 

Looking back on the summit, what were some key takeaways or outcomes you observed?

One of the key takeaways we saw was how different organizations foster their alumni connections in order to keep their LGBTQ+ alumni engaged with current students after graduation. It was great to hear about the tools that other schools leveraged. It was also great to hear the nuances of how different programs approached ROMBA’s fall networking conference, and how individual schools chose to prep their first-year students. This is the type of insights we were hoping to glean from the summit, and I’m happy that the Goizueta Pride Alliance can adapt some of these insights moving forward.

Can you share some highlights or memorable moments from the event?

Every year, schools compete for a $5,000 gift from ROMBA for programming at their universities. Each school needs to present a business case for what they plan to do with the gift. ROMBA’s programming teams chooses the top four proposals,  and then those schools present their plans to the entire summit. It was amazing to see the passion that other schools had and the programming they wanted to accomplish with that money, and we planned on taking some of these ideas and seeing if we can adapt them for Goizueta. 

How do you believe students and faculty members can continue to support the success of LGBTQ+ initiatives at Goizueta Business School moving forward? 

It’s important to have allies – our community is numerically too small to succeed without allies who understand the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ students face, especially those members of our community who are also racial minorities, women, or trans or non-binary individuals. Even if you don’t think an event thrown by the Goizueta Pride Alliance might be something you would normally go to, I would encourage everyone to step out of their comfort zone. Part of business school is understanding the power of diversity of experiences and learning how to bring those experiences with you into the business world.

Tyler Dinucci is a 24MBA graduate of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He will be working for Deloitte Consulting as a Senior Consultant in their Human Capital operating portfolio post-MBA. Prior to business school, he worked as a television writer.

At Goizueta, diversity is a commitment to nurture and challenge the unique perspectives that will shape the future of business. It’s a commitment to innovate in traditional fields and embrace emerging insights. It is the foundation of our intentions and actions. It is one of the core values by which we lead. Learn more.