Shamra Hicks came to Mid-America Christian University (MACU) in the summer of 2024 with a clear plan: earn a master’s degree, learn new skills, and advance in her career in healthcare and insurance. She’d spent the prior 20 years working her way up from billing to administration. With a graduate degree, she’d be the ideal candidate for any number of higher-level positions.
“The Master’s in Business Administration program lined up with my goals in healthcare,” Hicks says. “At first, that’s what I thought I was meant to do.”
However, Hicks had recently started volunteering with a nonprofit called Arise Single Moms, an organization that has provided her with support and fellowship over the years.
“I wanted to give back and start doing more with them,” Hicks says.
Hicks had also been helping her church with its children’s ministry program. She had never considered a career working with children, but the experience made her realize she had a passion and affinity for it. A career in healthcare and an MBA started to seem less like a fulfilling future.
Sensing this shift, Hicks called her adviser for guidance. Together, they decided that MACU’s Master of Arts in Leadership program would be the best fit for her. Two years later, Hicks knows that was the right decision. She now has her master’s, a purpose-driven career, and a deeper relationship with Christ.
A Calling in the Making
With new goals in mind and the MA in Leadership program picked out, Hicks’ next order of business was deciding on an area of emphasis. MACU offers six areas of emphasis in this program, including Business Management, Higher Education Administration, and Public Administration.
But because Hicks wanted to pivot to a career helping children and to enhance her ability to serve Arise Single Moms, no single area of emphasis aligned perfectly with her goals. Instead, she customized her experience with courses from multiple areas.
“I got the best of all of it,” she says. “I got the ministry aspect, the nonprofit, the education, and the business.”
One of Hicks’ favorite classes was the Nonprofit Leadership course available in the Public Administration emphasis. This class taught her about the nuances of managing people, finances, and other resources in the nonprofit sector.
“My instructor pressed the hardest on the papers I was writing to really dig for the information, and it got me interested in nonprofits especially,” Hicks says. “I got to know more about the nonprofit I serve.”
Finding Support in the Classroom and Beyond
While Hicks felt challenged by the curriculum and assignments, she found the online format flexible enough to allow her to work full time and continue volunteering. At the same time, she felt that she always had the support of her instructors.
“I’m one of those people who used to be really hesitant about speaking up,” she says. “The professors here are always open to any questions you have. Any suggestions, any feedback, anything you needed to say or give them, they were open to it.”
A Serious Diagnosis
MACU’s culture of support became particularly important when Hicks went through a health crisis early in her studies. She was diagnosed with a Chiari malformation, a condition in which the cerebellum presses against the spinal column underneath.
“I was having stroke-like migraines and illnesses where I would lose my voice for weeks,” she says. “In March of 2025, I failed a neurological exam and had to move in with family.”
Hicks’ case was so severe it caused problems with her hand-eye coordination and her memory. She required brain surgery. Understandably, this affected her academic performance, but even before she disclosed the illness to her professors, they noticed something was off.
“They were probably wondering why I was sometimes late on papers,” she says, joking. “But my professors were amazing. They gave grace and worked with me.”
A Christ-Centered Approach to Education
With the support of her family, her friends, and her instructors, Hicks has made an almost full recovery and still graduated on time. But as remarkable as her case is, Hicks doesn’t think the support she received at MACU is unique to her circumstances.
“They embody everything Jesus stood for, the way they genuinely care about people,” she says.
In this Christ-centered environment, Hicks learned how to apply Christian principles to her new leadership skills and accomplished another one of her goals along the way: spiritual growth.
“I grew up knowing the Bible, knowing about God, knowing about Jesus, but it was all fear-based. That’s how I was taught,” she says. “I never knew that it was supposed to be relationship-based until I was an adult and never grasped that concept until about five years ago. … I grew even more in my studies.”
A New Career and a New Chapter
Emboldened by the skills she learned, the support she received, and the closer relationship to God she developed, Hicks wasted no time following her calling. In November 2025, the same month she finished her degree coursework, she left her health insurance job and became a paraprofessional working with autistic students in a public school.
“Most of them are nonverbal with severe profound behaviors,” she says, adding that she will soon be pursuing special education teacher certification. “No matter the day, even when they’re all dysregulated, I love doing what I’m doing.”
One day, Hicks would like to use this firsthand experience and the leadership skills she learned at MACU to get into special education administration. She’d also like to take on a more formal position at Arise Single Moms or a similar nonprofit.
But, for now, Hicks is using her new skills frequently in a classroom environment.
“I’m carrying those skills into what I do now,” she says. “We have two autism rooms where I work, and I’m trying to help everybody come together as a team. Because, if we can do that, then our kids will be more regulated. Nobody’s a silo. There needs to be cohesiveness no matter where you’re at, because we are all in this together for these kids.”
Find the Mentorship and Build the Skills You Need to Become a Leader
Through the Master of Arts in Leadership program at Mid-America Christian University, Shamra Hicks learned the skills she needed to embark on a new career filled with purpose and impact. Delivered in a flexible, accelerated online format, the program is geared to help you do the same.
Over the course of 18 months, the master’s program prepares students for leadership roles in business, education, ministry, the nonprofit sector, or the government. No matter which of MACU’s six areas of emphasis students choose, they learn how to utilize servant leadership principles to meet goals, navigate change, and create cultures built on collaboration.
To find out more about the online MA in Leadership program, request information from Mid-America Christian University today.
Recommended Readings
Developing Global Leaders: A Conversation With Dr. LeAnn Brown
Servant Leadership Training: How Can Leaders Learn to Serve?
The Role of Ethical Decision-Making in Business Success