Women Administrators in Management Education
How WAME Empowers Women in Business Education
Leadership
Joy Smith
Joy Smith is the Chair of the Department of Business and Economics at Elizabeth City State University and she is the current Chair of WAME.
Kathy Taylor
Kathy Taylor currently serves as the Dean of the Collins College of Business at the University of Tulsa and is the Co-Vice Chair of WAME. In addition to an active securities and franchise law practice, her previous positions include Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce, Tourism & Workforce, CEO of ImpactTulsa, an education equity nonprofit and Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Dollar/Thrifty Car Rental. Taylor has served as a board member of Sonic Corporation, Bank of Oklahoma, National Car Rental and Dollar Car Rental.
She is on the boards of the Tulsa Public Facilities Authority; 36°N, a basecamp for entrepreneurs; StitchCrew, a business accelerator and the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation. Taylor is the Ship Sponsor for the U.S. Navy, USS Tulsa LCS-16; a founding member of VEST, a network for expanding the pipeline of women in positions of influence; and a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Oklahoma Advisory Committee, co-chaired by former Oklahoma Governors Brad Henry and Mary Fallin-Christensen.
She has been honored by numerous civic and education organizations, including the University of Oklahoma College of Law, the Tulsa Historical Society,
WAME is a forum to engage with women leaders, aspiring leaders, learn from other leaders, discuss challenges, and realize we are not alone! We as leaders are doing great work. Additionally, it is an incredible support system!
The got your back program has helped me to have a great support system and come out of sessions energized and with new ideas
WAME has always been a very valuable organization to me due to the passion of its members and officers. Where else can you get so many leaders who support and assist each other in a collaborative way? Since the beginning, it was founded on connecting women and enabling them to network and learn from each other to the betterment of everyone.
WAME is my home in AACSB. It’s a community where I get to know women I admire, who challenge and inspire me, who give good advice, ask good questions and are colleagues and friends in the journey. I’ve been involved for more than a decade now and attending the sessions have always energized me and given me new and interesting perspectives and ideas. All with a sense of fun and camaraderie that can’t be beat.
It is great to have a safe space to talk to other Deans to get honest feedback and suggestions and share challenges!
“Having a network of women learning with and from each other and working to increase the number of women in leadership in higher education is empowering. The openness and support of other WAME members as I came into my position as a Dean from a nontraditional background has helped me to increase my effectiveness and the impact I have on our college, faculty and students”
“WAME is a wonderful opportunity to learn from other women leaders and help advance inclusion and equality in business education”
