Creating a New Imaginarium for Business Majors
This fall, the doors to the Maria Bradley’ 73 Business
Innovation Hub will open. This exciting new space for business majors in University Hall is thanks to the vision and generosity of alumna Maria Bradley’ 73.
" I think of it as like an imaginarium. I love the idea of students having a place and an opportunity to explore out-of-the-box thinking,” she said.
The Hub will be a dynamic, modular, tech-enabled space that can serve as a mindset incubator, a collaborative playground, and creative lab. The Hub will expand GMercyU’ s emphasis on applied learning by intentionally creating an environment that connects students with community partners to drive local innovation, and create opportunities to co-create solutions.
Maria also created one of the first endowed positions at GMercyU, the inaugural Maria D. Bradley’ 73 Director of the Business and Innovation HUB. But if students are looking for inspiration while in the new space, they can take it from Maria’ s own storied career path.
After earning a math degree at GMercyU, Maria taught at parochial schools before joining an actuarial firm in Philadelphia in the 1970s, eventually relocating to Chicago with her three young children as a single parent. Despite gender barriers, she built a 25-year career there, helping modernize the company with early computer adoption. In 2000, seeing unmet potential in internet-based benefits administration, she left her
20 CAMPAIGN IMPACT REPORT senior vice president role to start a new company, called Benefit Express, with an angel investor. The company grew into a leading HR tech provider, even gaining its former company as a client. Maria successfully led the business until selling it in 2021.
Maria believes her math and teaching background shaped her skills in organization, delegation, and mentoring, supporting her success in business. She also credits her parents with inspiring her.
Growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, Maria and her female siblings were the only ones on their street to attend college. Maria’ s older sister attended GMercyU, which drew Maria to the school; she also was attracted to its smaller size. Having attended Little Flower Catholic High School, then a much bigger high school, Maria knew she wanted a more close-knit environment for college. Years later, her younger sister transferred to GMercyU from a bigger school for the same reason.
Coming full circle, Maria later generously created the Maria Bradley Scholarship at GMercyU, which supports outstanding graduates of Little Flower Catholic High School with financial assistance.
As for being a lifelong learner, that comes from Maria’ s father, who advanced from a meter reader at the Philadelphia Gas Works to the head of its computer department, through a mix of correspondence courses and self-learning.
Her GMercyU Influences What Maria appreciated most about GMercyU is familiar to all alumni and students: the opportunity to form personal relationships with your professors.
“ You could talk to them. If you had a problem or a question, it was easy to access them. That ' s just so important in a school,” she said.
“ I was also impressed with how knowledgeable they were,” said Maria.“ I loved Mrs. Tannenbaum; she was so very easy to talk to and work with. She was in the education department. Also, Sister de Mercedes Breen … I just moved into a new home and came across a Bible she gave me with a lovely note in the front of it. She was such a sweet person.”
Read Maria’ s full story here!