(IBJ photo/Chad Williams)
When Anna Beaty ’23 arrived at Butler University from Minnesota, she didn’t think there was anything particularly extraordinary about her.
She was anxious. Moving across the country was a big step. And, by her own admission, she saw herself as “pretty ordinary.”
Then she got to the Lacy School of Business.
Professors and mentors challenged her to speak up, take risks and consider possibilities she hadn’t yet considered for herself. Over time, those experiences changed more than the direction of her career. They changed the way Anna saw herself.
“The biggest change is probably my self-confidence,” she says. “I feel like when I came into Butler, I was pretty anxious and I saw myself as pretty ordinary. I didn’t feel like I was special.”
By the time she graduated in 2023, Anna had begun to see herself differently: as someone who could meaningfully contribute to an organization, take up space in a room and build a career around work that mattered to her.
Today, she works in employee benefits consulting at NFP, helping organizations across Indiana navigate decisions that affect their people, their finances and, in many cases, their ability to fulfill their missions.
She also co-hosts The Work Dad Podcast, where she talks with business leaders and industry experts about workplace culture, mental health, innovation and risk management.
And in August 2026, the Indianapolis Business Journal named her one of its 20 in Their Twenties, recognizing her impact in the Indianapolis business community.
The recognition was especially meaningful because Anna learned that people she respected at work had nominated her without telling her.
“Knowing that people that I respect and look up to thought highly enough of me to nominate me was really meaningful,” she says.
It is a fitting recognition for someone whose career has been shaped by people who saw something in her before she fully saw it herself.
One of those people was Randy Brown, an Executive Career Mentor at the Lacy School who helped Anna see that her career didn’t have to fit neatly into the path she had originally imagined.
Anna had entered Butler planning to pursue marketing. At the same time, human resources had always been part of her world. Her mother spent nearly 30 years in HR, working in areas including learning and development, compensation and benefits, so Anna understood the field – even if she hadn’t initially pictured herself working in it.
Randy had a background in HR, and through their conversations, Anna began to see how the skills she was developing in marketing could translate to a different kind of career.
“He really helped me understand the similarities between marketing and consulting and HR,” Anna says.
What started as career exploration became something more personal. Randy taught Anna about executive presence, authenticity and becoming the strongest version of herself — lessons that would stay with her long after she graduated.
“He really poured into me,” she says. “He always talked about being your authentic self, being the strongest version of yourself as a person and as an employee, and just being optimistic and lifting other people up.”
At NFP, many of the organizations Anna serves are small businesses or nonprofits without a dedicated HR professional. Her role often goes beyond explaining employee benefits. She becomes a trusted advisor, helping organizations understand their options, make informed decisions and improve the experience for their employees while protecting their bottom line.
For Anna, the most rewarding part is seeing what happens when those decisions support something bigger.
She recalls working with Girls Inc. and helping the organization access a nonprofit benefits arrangement that saved money on its medical renewal.
The savings weren’t simply savings.
“They’re able to put that money back into their mission,” she says.
That is what she loves about consulting: understanding what an organization is trying to accomplish and figuring out how she can help.
Anna has taken on increased responsibility for the growth and retention of multiple employer arrangements, including a nonprofit-specific benefits program through the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance.
“I’ve never been more fired up,” she says.
The work may look different from the marketing career she originally imagined, but the skills she built at Lacy continue to show up every day.
Emeritus Faculty Dr. Deb Skinner helped Anna think about her personal mission and taught her that entering professional life shouldn’t require leaving her values behind.
Professor Matthew Caito encouraged her to explore supply chain, even though she had never considered herself particularly strong in math or science.
“He really encouraged me to not count myself out,” Anna says.
Emeritus Faculty Dr. Bob Mackoy’s marketing research courses gave Anna a foundation in working with statistical models and data – skills she now uses regularly in consulting to interpret complex information and explain it to people who aren’t necessarily experts.
And Dr. Eileen Taylor from the College of Communication pushed her to become a stronger communicator.
Today, when Anna sits across from a CEO or COO, she can still hear some of those lessons about speaking, presenting and executive presence.
“I remember all the little things she taught me about not fidgeting and how to present yourself,” she says.
Individually, those lessons may seem small. Together, they changed the way Anna showed up in the world.
One of the clearest examples came during her junior-year internship at NFP.
Anna found herself in a focus group with Indiana employers discussing employee engagement and retention. She was a college student sitting among experienced professionals when a leader in the room turned to her.
“Anna, what do you think?”
Someone wanted to hear her perspective.
“That was a really big confidence boost for me,” she says.
The moment also shaped the way Anna thinks about young professionals.
“I think interns and recent grads are never too young to add value,” she says.
That belief has followed her into her career.
Since graduating from LSB, Anna has helped connect Butler students with opportunities at her office. Several students have ultimately joined the organization through those connections.
It is a full-circle version of the mentorship she received.
Someone once took a chance on Anna. Now she is becoming that person for someone else.
That may be the most meaningful change since the anxious student from Minnesota first arrived at Butler. Anna didn’t suddenly become someone different. She learned to believe in the person she already was and to recognize that she had something valuable to contribute.
That confidence has allowed her to do more than build a career. It has allowed her to help organizations put more resources toward their missions, help clients navigate complicated decisions and create opportunities for the people coming behind her.
Her advice to current Lacy students is simple: stay curious.
“Just be open to different things,” she says. “Your major doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.”
She knows that firsthand.
A marketing major led her to employee benefits consulting. A mentor led her to a career she hadn’t considered. A podcast became another classroom. And a Butler connection eventually helped open the door to her career.
Sometimes, she says, “it’s easier to get a job when somebody is vouching for you.”
But Anna’s story has come to mean more than having someone open a door for her. It is about what happens after someone believes in you.
Someone once asked Anna what she thought when she was a college student sitting in a room full of experienced professionals.
Now she is helping make sure other students know their perspectives are worth hearing.
Anna didn’t become extraordinary because someone told her she was.
She became confident enough to discover it for herself – and generous enough to help other people discover it, too.
