Part-time Aggies

Getting a Master of Business Administration was something Rusty DeBlassie had always considered, but going back to school as a working professional felt daunting. “When you’re working 55-plus hour weeks, adding coursework on top is tough,” says DeBlassie, a first line manager in the Detonator Production division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. But when he learned about the Master of Engineering Technology Management (METM) Program, he began to reconsider.

Offered through Texas A&M University—a member of the Texas A&M University System, which is one of the three institutions that together operate Los Alamos—the METM program is designed for people already established in their careers who aspire to become technical leaders. The mostly online, two-year program includes two short residency sessions in College Station, Texas. “When I discovered that METM was completely asynchronous with my work schedule and that the Laboratory would cover tuition,” DeBlassie says, “it was a no-brainer. The curriculum is similar to an MBA but with a stronger technical emphasis.”

Despite not having been in an academic setting for 27 years, DeBlassie settled in more quickly than he anticipated. “When I was in undergrad, I had to physically go to the library to conduct research and type reports,” he says. “The learning environment now is so much more efficient because of the online tools available.” Those tools proved especially useful during the program’s final year, when students complete a capstone project that supports their work at the Laboratory.

Los Alamos group leader and METM graduate Jun Gao currently serves as a capstone professor for the program. “The projects I have supervised span a broad range of areas, including weapons engineering, quality assurance, scientific research, facility improvement, and supply chain management,” he explains. “I draw on my technical background to ensure that each project demonstrates sufficient technical rigor for a graduate-level program and that students apply the skills and knowledge gained during their first year to achieve successful outcomes.”

Both Gao and DeBlassie agree that a highlight of METM is its emphasis on team building and emotional intelligence during the first residency period. “The focus on emotional intelligence and communication prepares students not only to become effective professional leaders but also to enhance their interpersonal relationships in all aspects of life,” Gao says.

Equally important, DeBlassie says, is developing practical project management skills, such as making sound decisions without having all the information. “As engineers, we always want all of the data, but operationally that’s not always possible,” he explains. “Making an operational decision and understanding its future impact is hard, but the courses teach you how to weigh those risks appropriately and logically.”

Gao and DeBlassie earned their degrees in 2022 and 2025, respectively, and are among more than 100 Los Alamos employees who have completed the METM program. DeBlassie says the program was exactly what he needed at this point in his career. “It is very comparable to an MBA, but in my opinion, somewhat better because it focuses more on the practical aspects of management,” he says. “After all, management is not only about operations but, more importantly, about the people who make those operations successful. The METM provides a good, solid balance.” ★