Kelli Kilpatrick joined Mays Business School as the MBA Program director this fall, arriving in September from her previous role as director of recruitment and admissions for Duke University’s top-ranked Executive MBA Programs.

Kilpatrick, who has spent much of her career in enrollment management consulting and strategy, is charged with helping expand the Mays MBA Program’s outreach to attract a broader base of students. She says that in turn will strengthen the program for students and faculty alike.

This year, 29 percent of Mays’ domestic MBA students were from outside Texas, and 46 percent of those seeking employment were hired by companies outside Texas. As Mays seeks to expand its appeal beyond Texas to recruit great students from a broader geographic base, Kilpatrick says the character of the MBA program will also change to reflect the input of new students.

The value of an MBA degree is directly related to what each student and faculty member brings to the overall experience both inside and outside the classroom, the new director says.  “We already have a great program, and we want to attract, retain and graduate outstanding students whose demographics reflect the ever expanding global landscape in which we live and work,” Kilpatrick explains. “We’re going to keep doing the things that work well for us, and we’ll bring in new ideas to continue moving student satisfaction in the program in an upward trajectory while maintaining the high placement rates of our MBA graduates.”

Of the MBA graduates seeking employment in 2006, 92 percent had offers at graduation and 98 percent accepted offers within 90 days of graduation. That already puts Mays’ MBA Program among the top programs on the globe in terms of placement: Mays was tied for 1st public program in the nation and tied for 3rd worldwide in that category in the London-based Financial Times‘ 2006 rankings.

Mays’ MBA Program enrolls 75 students a year in a compact, 16-month course of study that’s ranked among the top 15 public programs in the U.S., according to the 2007 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Kilpatrick, who takes over the director’s duties from Mays Associate Dean Bala Shetty, holds a master’s of education in higher education administration from the University of South Carolina. She spent six years consulting for enrollment management firm Noel-Levitz, and most recently served as recruitment and admissions director for Duke’s MBA-Global Executive, MBA-Cross Continent and MBA-Weekend Executive programs.