O’Neill SchoolBloomington

In this interview, 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award honoree Ami Tully Lotka, BSPA’82, shares advice for O’Neill students and alumni considering careers in the financial services industry — and encourages them to view finance as a helping profession.

A lot of people dream about starting their own company. What would you say are keys to starting a successful financial services business?

It is a big leap to leave a company that provides you with income and benefits like clockwork to full on self-reliance. It’s a little scary. So, here are 3 keys:

1. Your “want to” is bigger than the miracle of direct deposit. This is not about money — it’s bigger than that. There is a greater need served by the decision to start a business: freedom. Choice. Family. Flexibility.
2. Your value proposition is solid. Your idea is good, specific to a market that you know well, and you a perceive a need for your idea in that market.
3. You have a plan. You have a network. You are willing to work your plan every day and use your network like your life depended on it – because it does!

You’ve worked in financial services in a wide range of roles. What roles have you found most rewarding and why?

I enjoyed the autonomy of being a salesperson with a sales goal. Just me. I can do it!

I also enjoyed the strategic role of launching a new product line for a large asset management company. It was very exciting to get a new business off the ground. Lots of teamwork. Lots of collaboration. Lots of failed attempts followed by big wins to celebrate. I loved the team. We can do it!

But the best role has been helping other people find that thing inside themselves that leads to BETTER. I love helping people find that pathway. It’s there. You can do it!

What skills do you feel are most important in your work?

All skills I learned at IU:

• Discovery skills.  Ask questions. The better you know your client, the bigger advantage you have.
• Listening skills. It’s really about your client, not about you. Hear what they say. Hear what they need. Really listen with your whole being. Hear what they are not saying. Perceive. Take notes. Remember what you heard.
• Clear and concise communication skills. Write it. Stand up and speak it. Propose it. Defend it. And be brief.

How do you schedule your day for success?

EAT, PRAY, LOVE. Take care of myself and my family. Connect spiritually with the world around me. Care about what is most important that day. Be grateful for the day and all there is to do. Then make a list, of course, and do ALL THE THINGS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! Very zen — I know.

How did the pandemic change the way you work? Will it continue to be different post-pandemic?

My pre-pandemic work required that I travel every week to facilitate meetings, host workshops and events, and connect with clients in person. I logged about 200,000 air miles per year. So, that ended abruptly and truly overnight. We converted our business model to be 100 percent virtual. Our business was ready for that. The technology already existed, but we were never quite ready to make the switch to virtual connections. The decision was made for us. We won’t go back to the inefficiencies of the past. We will continue to thrive going forward with this better mix of virtual and in-person client engagements.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in exploring public and private sector finance or consulting?

The financial services industry is a helping profession. After health, financial care is a critical public need. It is not all about numbers. It is really about people. If you have an interest in the technical side of investments, there are definitely options to pursue — but don’t let “I’m not good at math” be the reason you don’t pursue a career in financial services. You can help municipalities manage budgets, raise capital, or create better communities. You can do that at the local level, or you can work at a community bank. You can help individuals with their financial health by working for an advisory firm. You can create investment solutions on a large scale by choosing to work for an asset management firm, global insurance firm, or global bank.

My advice is to choose how you want to help others, and then connect with alumni who are helping in that way. The question to ask is, “How do you help people in your work, and how do you recommend I get started so I can offer that kind of help to others?”

A career in wealth management or financial services can be extraordinarily fulfilling. You have the opportunity to leverage a vast range of products and resources to deliver solutions that meet the unique financial needs and goals of individuals and families – which increasingly are in alignment with their personal and social priorities. What you do for clients can make a critical difference in their lifestyles and their legacy.

You are passionate about encouraging women to consider careers in finance. Why?

Finance is about more than just money: it’s about making a difference.

Women are under-represented in client-facing roles in the financial services industry, like sales and relationship management. These roles create a pathway to senior leadership, and I want to encourage women to participate. Sales gets a bad rap. Women tell me selling is too harsh, too pushy, and too competitive. But I am here to tell women to stop telling themselves that story.  It is an exciting profession with many ways to be of service to others AND be highly compensated.

Ami Tully Lotka, BSPA’82, started her career selling municipal bonds. After holding several different positions in financial services, she and her husband co-founded Maximum Impact Partners, a firm that provides sales and marketing strategic consulting for financial services companies in North America and Southeast Asia. Learn more about her work and other O’Neill distinguished alumni on our website.

Two O’Neill graduate students recently helped communities in Indiana take an important step toward promoting environmental sustainability: creating a climate action plan (CAP).

Carolyn Townsend, MPA-MSES’21, and Madeline Miller, MPA-MSES’20, were part of the Resilience Cohort through IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute. Through this program, Townsend and Miller were matched with different Indiana cities to help them prepare for environmental change by setting science-based emission reduction goals and developing a roadmap to significantly reducing emissions by 2050.

As an Indiana Climate Fellow in the Indiana Sustainable Development Program during the summer of 2020, Townsend worked with the City of Evansville to develop practical, achievable strategies and establish community buy-in. She and her colleague Timothy Weir conducted a public survey which received over 1,800 responses, hosted public town halls, handled media, and met with a variety of community and external stakeholders.

“I’m most proud of the extensive community engagement we did to create a truly community-driven movement,” said Townsend. “I strongly believe that a strategic plan developed by any city will not succeed unless the entire community is included throughout the planning process and implementation phase.”

Evansville unveiled their CAP in February 2021. The plan included 58 specific recommendations for action related to transportation, buildings and energy, waste and local food, agriculture, and green space.

Townsend says she is “excited to watch cross-sectoral partnerships implement the CAP moving forward,” particularly as they relate to buildings and agriculture. “The Evansville community is already making strides to reduce emissions by retrofitting buildings with more energy efficient devices, including LED lighting, HVAC, and solar. There is also a newly established Food Commission, which will help increase access to fresh, healthy food through the farmers markets, community gardens, and education initiatives noted in the CAP.”

Townsend is currently working on a CAP with the City of Carmel as a research associate with the Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, a women-owned, Bloomington-based consulting firm run by O’Neill graduates.

In Zionsville, Miller contributed to the town’s CAP by helping to forecast future greenhouse gas emissions against the community’s projected population growth. She helped to conduct an inventory of the energy currently used in buildings, transportation, and waste disposal, and used this information to create tangible recommendations for lessening the community’s environmental impact – like encouraging curbside compost pickup for Zionsville residents.

“I am very proud that I could help the Zionsville community take these important first steps towards building climate resilience here in Indiana,” said Miller. “This experience deepened my interest in climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice. I plan to keep all the information I learned about these topics in mind as I start my post-graduate environmental career and continue learning about them moving forward.”

For Cheryl Sullivan, waiting a year to officially celebrate her doctoral degree from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs was the easy part. The COVID-19 pandemic may have kept her—and every other 2020 graduate—from the traditional Commencement ceremonies at Indiana University, but she’ll return this weekend for the doctoral hooding.

After 14 years in the program, and at the age of 69, Sullivan has earned it. She will join thousands of other 2020 and 2021 graduates in Memorial Stadium to participate in an official IU graduation ceremony.

The road to get there may have been long, but, as Sullivan notes, she had some really good excuses.

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in biological sciences, she became a research assistant at the University of Notre Dame and later at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in Washington, D.C. She and her husband Frank moved to Bloomington while he attended the Maurer School of Law (the Hon. Frank Sullivan, Jr. would go on to spend nearly two decades on the Indiana Supreme Court). Health policy had always been an interest to Sullivan, who took a role with the Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis after Frank graduated from law school. It was while she was working there that Cheryl discovered the O’Neill School.

“I continued to explore opportunities around health policy, and SPEA fit my interests,” she said. She enrolled in the school’s Master of Science in Environmental Science (MSES) program, commuting back and forth from Indianapolis to Bloomington, all while managing the daily routines of the Sullivans’ three children.

“The SPEA program was unique,” she recalled. “I learned how to think critically about issues, how to frame policy issues accurately with appropriate data, and how to formulate reasonable policy alternatives. It was the MSES that launched my professional career in health policy.”

And what a career it has been.

After earning her MSES in 1986, Sullivan began a long career trajectory that put her in the center of some of the state’s and nation’s biggest policy challenges.

Gov. Evan Bayh asked her to serve as his executive assistant on health policy, and later he appointed her as cabinet secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the state’s largest agency. There she helped restructure Indiana’s Medicaid program to reign in expenditures while still maintaining quality care for the state’s neediest citizens; linked federal and state resources to local planning councils to improve children’s services; directed the development of the nation’s most comprehensive welfare reform project; and oversaw the closure of a 400-bed mental health hospital while transitioning its patients to community-based care.

“I put into practice what I learned at SPEA every day,” she said. “I was able to think critically about issues that were incredibly important to citizens in this state and propose solutions.”

Following Gov. Bayh’s term, Sullivan was appointed vice chancellor for external affairs at IUPUI during which she worked with the IU president and Medical School dean to garner statewide support for funding biomedical research. She took a leave of absence from IUPUI, when then-Vice President Al Gore tapped her to be the national issues director for the 2000 Gore/Joe Lieberman presidential campaign, where she directed policy production and communications. After the tumultuous election fight between Gore and eventual winner George W. Bush ended, she returned to IUPUI. While there, she began taking graduate courses, exploring whether a doctoral degree was something she wanted to do. It was.

And so, in 2006, Cheryl Sullivan became an O’Neill School doctoral student.

By then she had been serving as deputy chief of staff for policy with Senator Evan Bayh, playing a central staff role in the development of major healthcare-related legislation, including the Nurses’ Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act, the Children’s Health Care Quality Act, and the Health Care for Members of the Armed Forces Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act.

When Bayh decided not to seek re-election in 2010, Sullivan was offered the opportunity to become the chief executive officer of the American Academy of Nursing.

“It began what was essentially an eight-year commute from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. every week,” she said. Sullivan would board the 7:30 a.m. flight from Indianapolis International Airport to D.C. every Monday morning, returning on the late flight Thursday night.

Every week. For almost eight years.

“With each of these professional opportunities, I felt like I had to jump into them, even if my knees were shaking,” she said. “The positions were all so fascinating, yet time consuming. But I wanted to finish the Ph.D., and was challenged to find blocks of time to write while commuting.”

She left the Academy in 2018 and finally had the time and resources to devote to completing her dissertation. She had passed her oral and written exams years earlier.Her inspiration for the research and dissertation, was a significant issue that she had worked on while with Sen. Bayh.

“We became aware of National Guardsmen who had been exposed to sodium dichromate during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” she said. “A similar pattern began to emerge of military service members who decades earlier during the Vietnam War had come into contact with Agent Orange.”

Sullivan’s dissertation, Exposure to Complex Healthcare Challenges, used complexity theory to inform risk management of those occupational and environmental challenges. It was successfully defended in 2020.

And now, on May 7, Sullivan will finally walk across the IU Commencement stage as Dr. Cheryl Sullivan, Ph.D.

“I was the first person in my family to graduate from a four-year college,” she said. “My mother was the first in her family to graduate from high school. It was the support of my family, and my SPEA advisors like J.C. Randolph and Jim Perry, among other faculty that gave me the motivation to know I could reach the finish line. SPEA gave me the opportunity to develop and refine all of the skills necessary for an exceptionally fulfilling career. It took 14 years to earn the Ph.D., but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Two members of the O’Neill School community are scheduled to speak Saturday, April 17, at TEDxBloomington — a local, independently organized TED event “committed to the goal of spreading big ideas in Bloomington and beyond.”

The theme of this year’s annual event is “The BIG Questions.” Speakers will take an out-of-the-box approach to challenges across society, health, creativity, and leadership.

“Train your brain to improvise and solve life’s essential problems”

Monika Herzig is a senior lecturer at the O’Neill School, where she teaches arts administration. She’s also a touring jazz artist who has performed at prestigious jazz clubs and festivals around the world and released more than a dozen albums.

About her talk:

Jazz musicians train their brains to improvise on a daily basis and practice taking risks during every performance. Improvisation is also at the core of solving problems and moving forward in uncertain situations, it’s an essential life skill. Just like jazz musicians, everyone can train their brain to improvise and solve life’s essential problems.

“Raise and reinforce awareness of how we talk about mental health in black men”

Malissa Sanon, O’Neill’s assistant director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, will provide helpful tips on how to support someone who is struggling with their mental health. Sanon recently successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, which explored mental health issues within the Black community, particularly in Black college men. She is passionate about using her research to help her community and the students she interacts with through her work in student affairs.

About her talk:

After talking with six Black male college students discussing their experience with suicide ideation, “If you Can’t Make A Sound, Make a Peep” was a quote that one of the participants explained is important to share with other Black men dealing with mental health issues. It is important to emphasize when a Black man makes a peep, how would you respond?