Elon MBA graduate April Dudash G’24 used the confidence and leadership perspective gained in the program to pursue work that aligns with her values and serves her community.
April Dudash MBA ’24 did not leave Elon University with a next step. Instead, she graduated with the confidence to pursue work that reflects her values.
“I don’t feel like my career trajectory post-graduation is the norm for an MBA graduate,” Dudash said. “I had to do some soul searching and pursued something different that aligns with my values.”
Before enrolling in Elon University’s MBA program, Dudash worked at Duke Regional Hospital as communications manager, serving as the only communicator on site for the entire hospital and supporting more than 2,000 employees.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped support emergency preparedness efforts, including a command center that operated for months, and later supported community vaccination clinics.
“I learned so much throughout that experience,” she said. “I saw the best of the best and the worst of the worst and saw health care workers give their all.”
As the pandemic unfolded, mentors encouraged her to return to school. A nurse manager would ask her regularly, “When are you going back to school?” Dudash also had two mentors who recommended Elon’s MBA program.
“She would say, ‘It’s never a good time to go back to school,’” Dudash said. “They encouraged me to take the step.”
For Dudash, the MBA offered the flexibility to build leadership skills while keeping her options open.
“I can apply it across industries,” she said. “I wanted to strengthen my leadership skills and get a broader view of how organizations operate.”
She started the program in September 2020, a decade after graduating from the University of Florida with a journalism degree. Returning to school felt like a significant transition.
“I remember being nervous,” she said. “I was 10 years out of school and didn’t know how it would feel to be a student again.”
Rather than rushing through, Dudash took one class at a time and completed the program over four years, graduating in May 2024.
“I wanted to fully immerse myself in each course and build relationships with my classmates and professors,” she said.
She also described the program as a place where she could participate fully and grow, especially in courses that challenged students to share ideas and respond to feedback.
“It opened up my confidence in pursuing new ideas,” she said. “Your ideas are valid.”
As graduation approached, Dudash began thinking more intentionally about what kind of work would be fulfilling.
That summer became an opportunity to reflect. Dudash leaned into theater, a longtime passion through improv, including teaching improv comedy and pursuing operations work in the arts nonprofit space.
This past year, she balanced roles between Durham arts nonprofit Mettlesome Theater and nationally recognized DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) while also serving as chair of the Meals on Wheels Durham board.
But most recently, she was appointed Mettlesome Theater’s first full-time operations director.
April Dudash on the DPAC stage
April Dudash volunteering with Board Treasurer Meals on Wheels
“My Elon MBA gave me the confidence to say, ‘I want to help with this, and I want to pursue this,’” she said. “My dream job was to be an operations director or executive director of an arts nonprofit, and the program gave me the high-level perspective to lead that work.”