U.S. Navy’s Michael D. Knoell chose UTSA to help him reach next step in his career

Knoell sped through M.B.A. program in less than two years

Meet Michael D. Knoell. He’s not your average graduate student.

Employed by the U.S. Navy as an Active Duty Healthcare Administrator, Knoell will graduate this month with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) and a concentration in Project Management after just one year and one semester in the program.

In January, he will begin his new job at the Navy Medicine Information Systems Support Activity (NAVMISSA) right here in San Antonio where he will manage enterprise level IT projects.

“After looking at all the universities in the area, it turned out that the project management-focused M.B.A. here at UTSA clearly beat all the other universities for my needs and my future employers’ needs,” stated Knoell.

In addition to his project management classes, the electives he took allowed him to concentrate on a few additional areas of analytics, including big data, that he knows will make a big impact on his career.

He credits his advisor, Tammy McDaniel, for helping him navigate the administrative aspect the program to complete it so quickly.

“Michael is one of the most positive students I’ve met, and he put a lot of energy into completing his degree as quickly as he did,” said McDaniel. “On average, our M.B.A. students take between two-and-a-half and four years to get their degree.”

At age 46, Knoell has traveled across the world through his career in the military, including several deployments out to sea and a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan where he managed strategic communications and IT services for the country’s preeminent Level I trauma facility.

Father of two children, Knoell is “stoked” to be graduating and starting the next chapter of his life with Navy Medicine. Down the road, he anticipates that he might get the opportunity to work for the newly formed Defense Health Agency.

– KC Gonzalez

Do you know a fascinating UTSA student who is planning to graduate in May 2014? Share that story with us at news@utsa.edu.