Business school students work to address opioid crisis

With more than 10,000 emergency room or hospital visits involving opioids and 373 opioid-related deaths in 2023, Hennepin County continues to feel the effects of the national opioid crisis.

In response, the county has partnered with the Carlson Consulting Enterprise (CCE), a program at Minnesota Carlson. This past school year, CCE students consulted for local organizations receiving opioid response funding from the county, helping to ensure that resources are used effectively.

“If there is a good example of non-traditional business school work that’s being done in the community, this is probably it,” says Hennepin County Director of System Design Lolita Ulloa, who leads the county’s opioid response. “The opioid crisis overlaps in so many different areas of government and social services. … When the Carlson School students come in, they’re evaluating all of those pieces and how they’re connected and recommending areas that can be shored up.”

Embedded in harm reduction

The partnership began in fall 2024 with student teams working with the Aliveness Project and Community Access for New Immigrants and African Refugees.

For the Aliveness Project, efforts focus on its harm reduction van, which parks at strategic locations so workers can distribute Narcan (an opioid overdose reversal drug), first aid supplies, and information about treatment programs.

MBA student Emily Oates, who led the team for Aliveness, spent time in the harm reduction van to learn firsthand about the challenges facing the community.

“It was really impactful,” Oates says. “People who don’t understand harm reduction may have the perception that it’s helping people do drugs. But it’s actually helping people be safe and making sure people are well. You’re reducing overdoses, and you’re creating a structure for linkage to care. It was hugely important for my own personal development and growth to learn about this.”

Oates and her team focused on growth strategy, financial sustainability, and public communication, including evaluating salaries and mapping data to demonstrate impact to funders.

“They were able to evaluate and make suggestions,” says Jay Orne, prevention/harm reduction manager at the Aliveness Project. “They helped map some of our data… which helps us to show that we’re doing a good job and continue to hopefully get funding to do this great work.”

Providing a business lens

In spring 2025, the partnership expanded to three more organizations: the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, African American Survivor Services (AASS), and the Alliance Wellness Center (AWC).

MBA student Gayathry Pradeep led the team consulting for both AASS and AWC. “AWC is more focused on inpatient, outpatient, mental health, and residential treatments, and AASS is more focused on assessments, harm reduction, and community education,” she says.

Her team focused on evaluating staffing, operations, and financial management. “The clients are really passionate,” Pradeep says. “The clients are the ones who know more about this issue… we just bring in the business knowledge.”

Carlson Consulting Enterprise Managing Director Siddharth Chandramouli hopes the partnership continues.

“I think Carlson School students in many ways are uniquely wired. They truly have a social conscience, and they truly feel that need to serve the community,” Chandramouli says. “These projects help the students understand that business principles can be applied in the community to make things run more efficiently, maximizing and optimizing limited resources, aligning people toward the same goal and mission.”

Carlson Consulting Enterprise is primarily an opportunity for MBA students, but each year a small number of undergraduate students are selected to participate, too. Divided into teams and guided by faculty who have consulting and industry experience with leading companies, the students consult for a variety of clients, from corporate to nonprofit.

“One of the reasons I decided to come to Carlson was the experiential learning,” Pradeep says. “Actually working with clients is a lot different than classroom simulation. It just gives us more exposure and context. It’s been really great to expand our network and learn more, too.”