People and Places: November 7, 2023
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 Sonia Dalmia is the new dean of the College of Business at Governors State University in University Park, Illinois. She comes from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, where she served as the associate dean of graduate programs, new initiatives, and outreach in the Seidman College of Business. Dalmia began her academic career in 1999 as an assistant professor of economics at Grand Valley, and she held several leadership positions before being named associate dean. At Governors State, she takes over from Jun Zhao, who retired earlier this year. |
 David Taylor has been named dean of the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He first joined the university as an assistant professor of marketing in 2010 and eventually took leadership positions as department chair and associate dean. For the past five years, he also has headed the university’s former campus in Luxembourg. As dean, one of his goals will be to integrate more technology into Welch College’s programs. |
 This fall, Karen C. Miller was announced as the new dean of business for Union University’s McAfee School of Business in Jackson, Tennessee. Miller, a longtime professor at the school, had been serving as interim dean since January. In her role as dean, she will be overseeing the construction of a new building dedicated to business, engineering, and computer science. She also will focus on student leadership opportunities and alumni outreach. |
 Brian Gillespie, associate professor and associate dean of the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, has been selected as the new dean of the college. Since coming to MSU, Gillespie has taught classes, managed faculty resources, overseen the AACSB accreditation process, and orchestrated a faculty-led study abroad program in Germany. Before his time at MSU, Gillespie was the associate dean for student success at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He will begin his new position on January 1, replacing Dan Miller, who has been interim dean of the college since 2021. |
 Lisa Jepsen has been named the new dean of the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. She has 23 years of experience as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls. She served for five years as associate dean in UNI’s College of Business and also held positions as MBA director and NCAA faculty athletics representative. She presently is the Robert James Waller Professor of Economics and an administrative fellow at UNI’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Prior to her time at Northern Iowa, she taught at Vanderbilt University, Rockhurst University, and the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Jepsen will join UW–Eau Claire on February 1, 2024. |
 John Emery will be the new dean of the School of Business and Public Administration at California State University in Bakersfield (CSUB). He most recently was dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas–Pan American in Edinburg, and he previously was dean of the College of Administration and Business at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. Among his goals at CSUB will be strengthening ties with local industry and creating programs for nontraditional learners. Emery begins his new role on March 1, taking over from interim dean Mark Evans, an economics professor.
Honors and AwardsThe Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable has announced winners for the 2023 Innovator Award, which is sponsored by BusinessCAS. In the Early Stage Innovation category, the winners are Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. In the category of Leadership in Graduate Business Education Curriculum, the winner is Valerie Suslow of Johns Hopkins University. The Innovator Award, which was created in 2011, raises awareness of curricular and co-curricular improvements in MBA and specialized master’s programs. New ProgramsWits Business School at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg is launching a new MBA in the field of healthcare leadership. The program targets medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, as well as managers and administrators. Among the 12 core courses are classes on healthcare economics, entrepreneurship in healthcare, managing the healthcare value chain, and ethics in healthcare leadership. Students in the program also participate in the Leadership Quest, a personal development journey that is focused on ethics and continuous learning. In addition, they join a global study tour to gain exposure to international best practices in healthcare management. The new MBA program, which welcomes its first cohort in March 2024, will be offered in a hybrid format on a part-time basis. Grants and DonationsIn October, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business in Charlottesville received a 50 million USD gift from alumni David and Kathleen LaCross. A year ago, the LaCrosses had given the school 44 million USD. Because the university provided 6 million USD in matching funds in 2022 and 7 million USD in 2023, the combined donation of 107 million USD has become the largest in Darden’s history. The LaCrosses’ initial contribution launched the Artificial Intelligence Initiative at Darden; the new gift will expand funding to the school’s Institute for Business in Society and the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics. The money also will help pay for a residential college at the business school. David LaCross is a fintech entrepreneur. The College of Business at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls has received a 25 million USD naming gift from David Wilson. The David W. Wilson College of Business will be the first named college at the university. The contribution also establishes the Wilson Endowment for Integrity and Excellence and the Wilson Scholars Fund. Previously, Wilson provided funding that created the Wilson Chair in Business Ethics, which was founded in 1999. Wilson, an alumnus, is chairman and CEO of Wilson Automotive. The A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in New Orleans has received a 5 million USD gift from Todd and Gina Schwartz. The money will fund programs and a building renovation to create the Schwartz Family Center for Experiential Business Learning, which provides students with opportunities to work with corporations on market analysis and consultancy projects. Todd Schwartz, an alum, is the founder and CEO of fintech platform OppFi. Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., has received a 5 million USD gift from Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and his family. The donation will provide permanent support to the Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize “Bark Tank” Pitch Competition held at the McDonough School of Business. The money also will establish the Leonsis Family Venture Development Program to support student startups, incubator programs, and other entrepreneurial programming across the university. Since Bark Tank’s inception, 975,000 USD in prizes have been awarded to 60 different ventures; those ventures have gone on to raise more than 295 million USD and create more than 1,000 jobs. The C. Aubrey Smith Foundation has donated 1.35 million USD in endowment funds to support students and faculty members in the accounting department within the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. The gift will enhance both the C. Aubrey Smith Accounting Education Excellence Fund and the C. Aubrey Smith Center for Auditing Education and Research. It also will support student recruitment, faculty research, conferences, and scholarships. Smith served on the school’s department of accounting faculty for 48 years; he retired in 1972 and died in 1994. Centers and Facilities
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