Careers

Diarra
Role: Engagement managerHarvard Medical School

"It’s helpful and healthy at McKinsey that there is an expectation that not everyone will stay forever. In fact, the firm encourages you to do something different. It’s all about developing people."

Diarra_big

2001

Graduated from college

FMRI was becoming a hot technology in the ‘90s, and after seeing some cool images of the brain working, I knew what I was going to do.

2002 - 2007

Earned MBA and MD at Harvard

I was fortunate to have mentors who said if I really wanted to impact in public policy, I needed to understand how finances flowed.

2006

Worked at start-up

I ran business development at a start-up, and loved it. I had the chance to go back as an exec but decided to complete med school.

2007

Worked with Clinton Foundation

As a consultant in Liberia, on the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative, I did everything from writing guidelines to field work.

2007

Joined McKinsey

I came to McKinsey as a summer associate. There was something about the speed and immediacy of impact that brought me back.

While I was in business school, I discovered the level of impact I wanted to have, and also realized I wouldn’t find it in patient care. After I finished medical school I decided to come to McKinsey.

What brought me to McKinsey

There was something about the speed and immediacy of impact that brought me to McKinsey. The type of people I would work well with were also more likely to be at McKinsey. And when I say work well with, I don’t mean that they were exactly like me, but that they would challenge me and I would grow more. I have my days when I say, “I am like no other people around me.” Then I have my other days when I say, “Wow, we are from the same pea pod.” Both of those instances help me grow.

World-shaping impact

On a recent study, we were tasked with working with a particular state’s Medicaid program, which is a state and federally funded program to provide care for poor people, as well as some special interest groups, like people with end-stage renal disease and advanced HIV. We were asked to come and help them, without changing quality, to find $150 million in their program, to then be used to expand access to services. It’s a difficult order to fill.

They are now able to expand their program, to literally change their eligibility requirements—people who previously would not have qualified for Medicaid, people who would otherwise have fallen through the cracks, now are eligible for state and federally funded care.

Where I'll be in the future

Even though I decided not practice medicine, I believe that I am a physician first and everything else second. In the future, I will be in some sector where I am helping people. For the time being, if I look at the three important criteria for me—business, helping others, and changing on a daily basis—consulting is providing all of that for me.

Offices

Philadelphia

Education

Harvard University - Harvard Medical School MD 2007
Harvard Business School MBA 2006
Harvard University AB, Biology, Psychology 2001

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