Susquehanna University recently hosted its fall Gates-Mueller Leadership Initiative Panel with two alumni and a faculty member.
Nancy Acker ’11 Alexander, Stacy Koppenhaver ’92 and Chanin Wendling highlighted how creativity and entrepreneurship can foster innovation at work.
Innovation leads with simplicity. We tend to think of innovation as a big project, but it can be a small project with high impact.
Nancy Acker ’11 Alexander, Tesla
As Alexander, a training program manager at Tesla, pointed out, innovation can seem overwhelming, but it does not need to be a big task.
“Innovation leads with simplicity,” she said. “It’s not always a large idea. Some small tweaks and changes can help with the day-to-day. We tend to think of innovation as a big project, but it can be a small project with high impact.”
One of the largest and fast-paced innovations in the modern landscape is artificial intelligence. Koppenhaver, a financial crimes manager at Members 1st Federal Credit Union, discussed how AI is slowly making its way into her job.
“You have to be very careful with AI,” Koppenhaver said. “It helps staff review suspicious activity alerts, but it doesn’t make the final decision — we still need human skills. Whenever we bring on a new employee, I ask, ‘Can this be turned off?’ I don’t want them to rely on it; I want them to learn the knowledge first and then use AI as a tool.”
The Gates-Mueller Leadership Fund was endowed by Signe S. Gates ’71 and Dawn G. Mueller ’68 in 2019 with the goal of connecting students to alumni who inspire them to pursue leadership positions within their chosen career field.
“I really valued hearing from people with real-world experience,” said Alexander Cardwell ’28, a management major. “It’s inspiring to hear directly from alumni who are out there working right now and seeing what business looks like today.”
