Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Closet Full of Hats - Who's Who
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
Closet Full of Hats
Kathy Felker gets tired of people oohing and aahing over her
husband’s job as a flight controller at NASA’s mission control.
She’s got a pretty good job of her own. She’s a recruiter, an external
relations professional, a counselor, and more—all rolled into one. Felker
does a little bit of everything as the assistant director of the MBA for
Executives program at Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of
Management. And she’s so good at what she does that she recently was
recognized with the university’s Distinguished Employee Award. The
honor is presented to employees who go above and beyond their job
descriptions.
Felker was praised for her ability to work with students and faculty as well
as with other university staff to make the MBA for Executives program run
seamlessly. She started working in the field as an undergraduate at the
University of New Mexico, and she was the only Jones School staff
member who had experience working in executive education when the
program was initiated at Rice.
Kathy Felker, shown
above in front of the
Jones School building
that currently is under
construction, was
honored with a
Distinguished Employee
Award.
“Kathy has succeeded in winning respect and friendly cooperation from
both faculty and students,” stated Wil Uecker, associate dean for executive
education, and Kay Henry, director of MBA for Executives, in a letter
nominating Felker for the award. “She handles all her tasks with a spirit of
excellence as well as with considerable tact, diplomacy, and concern for the
feelings of co-workers and customers alike.”
“My diplomacy skills have been fine-tuned in this job,” explains Felker.
“These are often top-level managers, so I have to deal with them on their
level.” Her diplomacy likewise extends to faculty.
Felker is charged with handling the registration of students and
administrative responsibilities, such as ordering books and producing grade
reports. But she notes, “My job changes depending on what time of year it
is. During the admissions season, I’m a recruiter. During graduation, I’m
almost like a public relations/external relations staff person. But all year
round, I interface between the students and the rest of the university.”
She counts working with the executive education students as her favorite
part of the job. Students attend the program only on weekends, and they
must have at least 10 years of work experience, meaning most of them are
middle- and upper-level managers. Felker describes the students as
“incredibly demanding, but not in a negative way. They have high
standards; they challenge rules that don’t make sense because they work in
the real world. They certainly challenge our faculty, but the faculty love to
work with them.”
Felker adds that the environment in the MBA for Executives program is
like a family. “I’m here whenever the students are here, and it’s a smallenough
program that it really is like a family. We don’t just know the
students, we know their spouses and kids too.” She admires the fact that the
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