Get to know business professor, ‘Accomplished Under 40’ winner Goede

Leah Goede, adjunct professor in the Boise State Professional MBA program and Director of National Learning and Talent Development at Albertsons, was recently honored with the Idaho Business Review's "Accomplished Under 40" award.

And for good reason: Goede works overtime to serve the Boise community. In addition to her full-time role at Albertsons, she works with the Rotary Club of Boise and sits on the board of Upward Inertia, a nonprofit that provides wellness resources to marginalized communities.

Goede's road to success wasn't linear. Before establishing her career in Boise, Goede worked in Seattle at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in global agricultural development. Following that, she worked as a full-time actor in Los Angeles while pursuing a graduate degree in psychology at Pepperdine University. She planned to become a therapist. But in her graduate-level classes, she accidentally discovered a passion for organizational psychology - the study of human behavior in the workplace.

Since then, Goede - who grew up in Melba, Idaho - has held organizational leadership positions in Boise State's Department of Human Resources, St. Luke's Health System, Northwest Lineman College and, most recently, Albertsons.

She spoke about finding the ideal job, teaching at Boise State, and the psychology of work.

You've had a rather non-traditional career path. Were there any challenges along the way?

"I would say in my twenties, I was concerned I would never find my path forward. I was seeing friends of mine take linear paths. They had a lot of confidence in where they were going, and I was just finding my way.

It feels very meandering, the path, and a little bit ungrounded. But I think the beauty of that is the process, really learning a lot about what I liked and what I didn't like in different roles and opportunities, and letting that shape my next step, and ending up honestly in a place that feels very aligned to what I enjoy and feel skilled at. I get to help people grow and develop in their careers and their personal lives. The crossover is really fun."

Your current role as Director of National Learning and Talent Development at Albertsons focuses on leadership development. What exactly does this entail?

"My team does multiple buckets of work, including leadership development, learning and development - which is anything skills-related that you would need to do your job effectively but also grow into other opportunities in the organization - and onboarding. In addition to that, we facilitate anything compliance-related that helps people do their job accurately, safely and legally.

People who feel valued, engaged and equipped to do their job well create good customer experiences and business outcomes. At Albertsons, we always try to lead people-first, knowing that business outcomes will follow."

On June 9, the Idaho Business Review honored its 2026 Accomplished Under 40 recipients at the Boise Center downtown. How did it feel to get onstage and accept this award?

"Oh man, it's a good question. I do a lot of presenting and speaking to large groups of people, and so I thought it was actually really funny that it made me nervous to go up there. I think that the attention being on me as a person, as opposed to me as a presenter or me as a professional delivering content, was a really different experience. It was both nerve-wracking and fun. I also felt really grateful for the opportunity."

What is it like adjuncting for Boise State's Professional MBA program?

"I really like teaching and giving back to our community in that way. And I think it's a really cool way to understand what's going on in different industries. I feel like it's a mutually beneficial agreement between [the students and me]. I get to learn from them, and hopefully they can learn something from my experience as well."

Is there a particular important lesson you try to relay to your students?

"I try to stress that there is no one formula for success. Leadership or communication isn't a specific procedure. It's more of a human process that takes a lot of self awareness and self reflection."

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