Advance, Cornell ILR School's publication for alumni and friends.
Issue link: https://advance.epubxp.com/i/524292
11 anet Woodfn's parents dreamed she would become a doctor. So, Woodfn, graduating this year with a Masters of Professional Studies degree from ILR, pursued a pre-med curriculum as an undergradu- ate at New York University. A self-described "geek," she took a year off after graduation to develop people skills before entering medical school. That yearlong break came with an unexpected beneft: it gave her time to discover — and fall in love with — the health and ftness sector and embark on a new career. Woodfn worked at a health and ftness chain for 12 years — as general manager, director of operations and area vice president — before moving into human resources as the club's national director of train- ing and development. In 2007, she was named vice president for human resources, training and development at the New York Health & Rac- quet Club, where she has been ever since. "Although I'd had great men- tors, I lacked classic training in the discipline," Woodfn says. "I yearned for an academic defnition of the practices that had become second nature to me." First, she completed the Master Certifcate in Human Resourc- es program through eCornell. Then in 2013, she enrolled in the part-time ILR Master of Professional Studies program, based in New York City. The timing couldn't have been better. The new CEO of the New York Health & Racquet Club, appointed a year earlier, was transforming the 900- employee company. "It was uncanny how every- thing I learned through course- work mirrored our company's evolution," she says. "The program helped me navigate through the transition and really anchored me." Taking what she learned in Professor Peter Bamberger's HR Strategy course, she worked with the executive team to change the compensation sys- tem for top-level general man- agers and membership con- sultants, revamp performance evaluations, and examine compensation bands within the industry to ensure the company was competitive. From Professor Sam Bacharach, she learned the concept of change leadership, which she found particularly valuable as the company transitioned from a directive leadership style to an inclusive one. "Professor Gary Fields' course in labor economics, which taught me to look beyond mar- gins to volume, changed the way I was fnancially wired," she says. Woodfn also credits Matthew Briggs' statistics course with helping her predict net mem- ber growth across the club's nine Manhattan locations. "The MPS program has allowed me to defne and crystallize objectives within my organization during one of the most dramatic culture and organizational shifts I've experi- enced," she says. "Our CEO's vision and my new toolkit offer a perfect com- bination to propel our brand forward and transform the industry further, and to have greater impact on communi- ties and on public policy as it relates to health and ftness." J