Bridge Program

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AACSB's Bridge Program is an immersive course offering the knowledge, techniques, and resources that shape the business professionals of the future. You will learn what it takes to teach college students pursuing a business education in a globalized world, and how to model the role of a faculty member.

This program is designed to model college teaching best practices and state of the art understandings of how adults learn. To that end, this program uses immersive, active and experiential learning, best practices, peer-to-peer practice and feedback, lectures, individual applications, individual reflections, authentic course documents, group activities, templates and insights from Master Teachers (via digital assets). The Capstone Event is an opportunity on Day Four for every participant to offer a 15-minute teaching and to receive 10- to 15-minutes of feedback from peers.

As a result of active engagement in the Bridge Program, you will be better able to:

• Gain insight into planning, organizing, and delivering business courses.
• Experience, firsthand, how to develop a course syllabus and learning measures.
• Develop business classroom management techniques and teaching skills.
• Engage and inspire today’s diverse learners toward excellence as a business professional.

View the Agenda

Who Should Attend 

• Business executives considering teaching in their futures
• Adjunct professors with limited teaching experience
• Newly hired “practitioner” instructors who want a strong start
• Business faculty looking to sharpen or refresh teaching skills
• Business professionals looking to teaching as an avocation 

Your Instructors

You will be led by outstanding teachers from AACSB-accredited universities who will share best practices and different styles for successful teaching and learning. The two primary facilitators have been teaching in this program for over a decade.

Shirley Maxey, University of Southern California

Shirley Maxey has been involved with the AACSB International Bridge Program since its inception in 2006 and serves as the academic director and facilitator for the program, including recruiting and working with the faculty from other business schools to present the distinct segments of the Bridge Program. She is an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Accounting and has most recently served as the associate vice dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs for the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. At USC for 38 years, Professor Maxey has taught business communication and professionalism courses to undergraduate and graduate accounting students, served as a department chair, and spent 16 years as associate dean of the highly ranked Master of Accounting and Business Taxation programs. In her associate vice dean role, she oversaw teaching quality for the Marshall School of Business as well as the hiring and promotion of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty. She has received teaching awards from the California Society of CPAs and in 2022 won the USC Leventhal School of Accounting Diamond Teaching Award voted on by graduate students. Before joining USC, Maxey worked for the California State Auditor General and with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) before opening a consulting practice to teach communication and leadership skills to accounting and financial professionals. Her clients included PwC, Grant Thornton, KPMG, and The Coca-Cola Company. She lives in Thousand Oaks, California, with her husband and their English Labrador Retriever, Ava.  

Rick Warne, University of San Diego

Rick Warne has been a lead instructor for the AACSB Bridge Program for the past 12 years. At the University of San Diego Knauss School of Business, Warne is professor of accounting. He enjoys leading students on international and domestic trips and is a big proponent of learning experiences outside the classroom and student engagement in the classroom. Prior to entering academia, Warne worked for the Office of the Utah State Auditor where he helped uncover the largest fraud of public funds in Utah’s history, at the time. He recently served as an academic fellow in the Office of Chief Accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C. In this role, Rick provided advice and research on public policy issues, including the Commission’s climate change proposal. Rick taught business students at George Mason University and the University of Cincinnati and has presented his research at conferences and published his work in academic journals. He has discussed his research as part of a National Public Radio program and submitted comment letters to regulatory bodies such as the IAASB and PCAOB. Professor Warne holds two professional credentials: Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). Outside of his professional activities, he is an NCAA football referee.

Before You Register

Prior to registering for the Bridge Program, we recommend getting in contact with the school you would like to teach at to get clarification on their requirements to become an adjunct professor. If you meet their minimum requirements, the Bridge Program will help to "bridge the gap" between your career as an executive to a university adjunct professor.

Group Pricing

For group pricing, please contact [email protected]