Skip to main content
EDIT

Commitment, Community, and Family: One MBA Graduate’s Pathway to Success

Commitment, Community, and Family: One MBA Graduate’s Pathway to Success

With the support of a dedicated community at home and at school, Shiressa Johnson MBA ’24 excelled at USC Marshall.

by: Alexander Bernard
06.19.24
Shiressa Johnson speaking at commencement.

Shiressa Johnson speaks at Marshall's graduate commencement ceremony.

[USC Photo/William Vasta]

Stay Informed + Stay Connected

MARSHALL MONTHLY BRINGS YOU ESSENTIAL NEWS AND EVENTS FROM FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI.
SIGN UP

Throughout her professional journey Shiressa Johnson has asked, “Why not me?”

That question has pushed Johnson on each step of her career, from job to job, city to city, and finally to USC.

Last spring, Johnson MBA ’24 earned her degree from the USC Marshall School of Business. She didn’t just finish the program; she flourished. Thanks to her academic commitment and deep connection to the Marshall community, Johnson was chosen to speak at the school’s commencement ceremony for graduate students — an honor granted to just one graduate student each year.

An entrepreneur, a student, and a mother, Johnson has worn multiple hats. She is managing director at Elliott Reese Consulting Group and co-authoring the book Against All Odds with author and motivational speaker Lisa Nichols. During her studies, Johnson actively participated in several organizations, including the Marshall Leadership Fellows Program (MLFP), the Black Graduate Business Leaders, the Graduate Women in Business, and the Marshall MBA Ambassadors.

“Marshall’s a very special place,” Johnson reflected. “It’ll always hold a special place in my heart.”

As a young girl in Fresno, California, Shiressa already made up her mind what her future would be.

“Even as a child, people would ask, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Johnson recalled. “I would say a businesswoman.” When those people would laugh and ask why, Johnson would shrug and say, “I don’t know, I just want my own office.”

Johnson’s childhood enthusiasm, however, gave way to self-doubt. As a teenager, she applied for her first job as a restaurant hostess in a predominantly white neighborhood. Johnson told her grandmother that she was certain they wouldn’t hire an African American.

“My grandmother said, ‘So what? Then you’ll be the first?’” Johnson remembered. “Throughout my life, whenever I start to doubt myself, I can hear my grandmother saying, ‘So what, you’ll be the first. So what, do it anyway.’”

Johnson got the job and carried her grandmother’s words through to her undergraduate program at Prairie View A&M University, to New York for her first job out of college in Information Security at Kodak, and back to California to work for several of the world’s largest banks. With each new, unfamiliar setting, Johnson silenced her self-doubt, asking, “Why not me?”

Marshall truly set us up to succeed as long as we were willing to fully engage, put forth the effort, and not quit.

— Shiressa Johnson

MBA ’24

Over a decade, she built a family and a career, and along the way, became a fellow of the Multicultural Women’s Executive Leadership Program, an immersion program that develops participants’ leadership skills. Like with her grandmother before, Johnson was once again surrounded by strong women who wouldn’t take no for an answer — and the majority all had one thing in common.

“They were Trojans,” Johnson said. “I could see myself [at Marshall] being surrounded by all of these high profile professional women who not only have pride in the university but also had a loyalty and camaraderie that seemed to be unshakeable and unbreakable.”

Johnson felt pulled to Marshall for its deep sense of community, in addition to its academic prestige and the boost it could lend her career. After an encouraging conversation with her husband, she applied to just one MBA program: USC Marshall.

While driving to pick up her sons from school in 2021, Johnson got the call: She was accepted. She was so excited she had to pull over and collect herself. Later, her sons were even more excited than she was. As they exclaimed: “Now we can do homework together!”

Even with this affirmation, Johnson still felt old self-doubt creep up in her during the first few weeks of the program. Johnson mused, “Continuous education and continuous improvement are things that I value. I had to remind myself to reflect back on my values and stay the course.”

Johnson dove into classes on leadership, entrepreneurial mindset, and financial negotiations. She had a demanding schedule that made it difficult to see her family as often as she would have liked, but Johnson soon discovered another family in her core group of 60 students.

“I’ll never forget my Marshall core,” Johnson said. “We got to build relationships; we got to understand how each other thinks by the questions they would ask or the comments we gave.”

Just as important was her bond with her professors. According to Johnson, each faculty member devoted countless hours to help students absorb content and study for exams.

“Marshall truly set us up to succeed as long as we were willing to fully engage, put forth the effort, and not quit,” Johnson said.

Constantly communicating, Johnson and her husband used shared virtual calendars to organize the family’s busy schedule with her demanding school life. For her part, Johnson never wasted a minute at Marshall, all to ensure she could have time for the people who mattered most at home.

“While staying organized was beneficial, just as important was learning to appreciate progress over perfection and realizing that if I pour my best into everything, I won’t leave enough for the people and things that are most important to me,” Johnson explained.

The foresight paid off. She was proud that her sons could watch their mother speak in front of thousands of members of the Trojan Family at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“I just feel like it’s an extra motivation for them and something else for them to aspire to as they determine what they [want to] do with their careers and their lives,” Johnson reflected.

Johnson will continue to invest in the Trojan community after graduation as a Marshall Alumni Ambassador and member of the USC Black Alumni Association (BAA) Advisory Council. As an ambassador, she relishes the chance to help prospective MBA students with the same uncertainty she once faced.

“The biggest blessing to me is being able to realize the impact that I’m having on people before they even get here,” Johnson said. “My network has multiplied because of doing just that, just being a resource and making time for people who are struggling with a lot of doubt.”

In all of her new roles, Johnson is encouraging others to follow in her path. No, it won’t be easy, she admits, but it will be worth it.

“You will be a part of a strong network that’s going to support you when times get hard, that’s going to encourage you when you’re down on yourself,” Johnson said. “It's been a blessing to me that I can’t really put into words.”

RELATED