Tina Masciarelli

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After years of being a full-time mother, Tina Masciarelli, “writer, photographer, entrepreneur, explorer, and optimist,” found herself at a crossroads, ready to branch out from earlier careers in social work and higher education. Seeking a degree program that would prepare her for pursuing interests she had developed over the prior twenty years, she found the MLAS Program, which offered “an interdisciplinary graduate program designed to develop the intellectual methodology necessary to craft a degree for the next phase of my professional career.”

Armed with skills honed through enhanced critical thinking and research, through seminars that fostered construction and deconstruction of complex arguments, through a program that rewarded innovation and ingenuity, and through participation in rigorously challenging old ideas and developing new ones, Tina launched a digital media and marketing company, which she still owns and operates today. The flexible and diverse MLAS curriculum allowed her to analyze issues and solutions from many angles, leading to implantation of best practices in her field and contributing, she believes, to “making me a stand-out entrepreneur.”

On a personal level, Tina treasures the wealth of experience and knowledge her professors and peers shared. “I feel as if I’ve taken away a little piece of everyone in my cohort in what I choose to read or write about. I see the world around me through new eyes because I’m informed about so many thing that I knew nothing about before. It is like having twelve little geniuses in my head all the time.”

A North Carolina native, Tina follows the path of her grandfather, searching out “undiscovered ecosystems hidden in the Great Smokies” and hiking with her family.

Tina is married and the mother of three teen-aged girls and two beloved dogs.