History of Annual Meeting Activities

Summary prepared for the Steering Committee
of the newly formed AACSB
Affinity Group for Woman Administrators in Management Education (AGWAME)

In response to requests for programmatic support for women in management education,  AACSB created a planning committee in January 1993 to develop a Gender Issues Workshop for the upcoming annual meeting.  Members included: Barbara Haskew, dean of the College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University; Dana Johnson, dean of the School of Business and Accountancy at Wake Forest University; Sidney Harris, dean of the Claremont Graduate School; Patricia Flynn, dean of the Graduate School of Business at Bentley College; and Jack Nesbitt, Director of Diversity Initiatives at AACSB.  Anita Craig, Director of Conferences, of AACSB also was involved with the initial group, and has remained actively engaged and supportive ever since.  [At the time there were six women deans at AACSB-accredited business schools.]

Following is an overview of the sessions related to women business school administrators held at subsequent AACSB annual meetings.

WAME 2005—Executive Presence and Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

Eda Roth, an actress, consultant and teacher in various MBA and EMBA programs, led a session focused on developing better understandings of presence and how thoughts, words and gestures are conveyed and interpreted.  As actors need to have a full range of expression so that they can enter and make circumstances real for others, so women in business need to have the full range of their own expression so that they can enter a set of circumstances and make it real for themselves and others. Acting is not about putting things on, it is about bringing things out; having the full range of expression and then being able to call upon all of the skills- physical, vocal and analytical- in order to create something for others that is believable and memorable.  Executive Presence is about having the full range of your own expression-being more of the real you- so that you can influence others effectively in a variety of situations.

In this session, Ms.Roth focused on various components of presence: the values that drive communication, using the body and voice, engaging audiences strategically, and identifying and breaking through barriers that would constrain and limit our own expression so that we can be the most compelling, authentic and effective in any given set of circumstances.

WAME 2004-Friend Raising and Fund Raising:  Relationship Building and Success

The Women Administrators’ in Management Education (WAME) group offered a special session focused upon the extraordinary importance of relationship building to the success of a business school.  Topics covered were the mechanics of the developmental “ask”, as well as the myriad of stakeholder relationships that are part of the business school culture and structure.  Where does one begin to build new relationships and build on those pre-existing?  How are these relationships best identified?  How do others play an effective role in both relationship building and in fund raising?  While the dean is the ultimate “point person”, myriad internal and external stakeholders play a role in the success of the business school effort.  How do these roles play out in practice? All of these questions and more were addressed in this thought-provoking session.

WAME 2003-The Executive Search- with Dr. Jan Greenwood

The Women Administrators in Management Education Affinity Group was very pleased to host Dr. Jan Greenwood as the featured presenter at their ICAM meeting on April 24, 2003 

Dr. Greenwood is widely recognized as an authority on career development, executive search and transitions.  She has conducted dozens of successful searches at the executive level and brings this expertise, as well as her own experience in academia, to the presentations that she makes regularly on these topics and others relative to career advancement and change.

WAME 2002-Negotiation Strategies for Women Leaders

Dr. Karen Cates, then a clinical professor of organizational behavior and management at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, presented a dynamic program that provided insight into various negotiating strategies and the applicability of these to the careers of women deans. With negotiating a frequent and key activity for managers and leaders, especially in business school academics and administration, this program provided frameworks and structures to help women in leadership positions at business schools learn to manage negotiations better with peers, faculty, vendors, and staff. 

WAME 2001-Leadership and Fellowship Opportunities for Women in Business School Administration

This session was delivered by representatives from the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Fellows Program and by staff from Catalyst, the organization that promotes women in leadership positions within for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as on corporate boards. 

A description was offered about the well-known ACE programs, that permit administrators to serve under the senior leadership of an institution other than their own for an extended period of time, or for shorter visits, depending on the needs and wishes of the hosting institution and the Fellow.  A discussion was undertaken as to how these Fellowships prepare women for the most senior leadership roles in American higher education, and a review was offered of the experiences of several women deans and presidents who had participated in the program.

The representative from Catalyst spoke about their activities in continuing to address “glass sealing” issues for women, particularly with respect to CEO positions and board membership in America’s largest business organizations.  They also discussed some of the surveys for which the organization has become extremely well known and respected, including those that analyze on an annual basis the representation of women in key decision-making roles.