Dear GWSB Community,
Our GWSB community came together again this last month, supporting one another as we experienced grief for the loss of a member of our student community and also in celebrating great achievement in our alumni community.
We were all deeply saddened by the passing of Deborah Berezdivin in the tragic Surfside condo building collapse in South Florida. Through academics, friendships and involvement in GW Hillel Deborah was a vital part of our student community. Our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones. Several of Deborah’s friends spoke with GW Today about the impact Deborah had as a beloved friend and classmate.
Nothing raised our spirits more this month than celebrating the expedition of alumna Sirisha Bandla (MBA ‘15) who was a mission specialist on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 flight. Sharing the story of her lifelong dream to go into space, Sirisha explained on the Today Show that she joined Virgin Galactic to make space travel available for everyone - especially to scientists so they can conduct research in space.
GWSB Good News
Where Women Lead: Fortune interviewed Liesl Riddle, Vice Dean of Strategy, in an article focused on women in business education. Dr. Riddle noted that women comprise more than fifty percent of graduate students in nine of our fifteen programs. We are GWSB proud of our female leaders that believe in giving back to the next generation of our students. Dr. Riddle credits our history of attracting leading female scholars that nurture and challenge our students to be the change they want to see in the world to the success of the school creating a community of women business leaders.
Top of the List: Love as a Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging & Success is a new book by Chris Pitre (BBA '06) that reached #2 on the Wall Street Journal's bestseller list. Chris shared a video about his book with GWSB alumni.
Faculty Expertise
Herman Aguinis, Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar & Professor of Management, published new research on “Talent Management challenges during COVID-19 and beyond: Performance management to the rescue” in the Business Research Quarterly.
Gil Appel, Assistant Professor of Marketing, published “Gender Differences Communicative Abstraction and Their Organizational Implications” in Rutgers Business Review.
James Bailey, Hochberg Professorial Fellow of Leadership Development and Professor of Management, was recently quoted in a CNN news article, titled "Jeff Bezos is Stepping Down as CEO. He'll Still Have Huge Power at the Company."
Lisa Delpy-Neirotti, Director of the MS in Sport Management Program and Associate Professor of Sport Management, provided expertise on topics across the Olympics in Tokyo for many news sources across the U.S. and around the world, including a Q&A with GW Today, an interview with CGTN (at seventeen and 25 minute marks), answered “What’s the hardest Olympic sport?” for Gizmodo and CTV News, discussed the attraction of new Olympic sports with ABC News, explained to Yahoo Finance why the lack of an Olympic Games audience is not a loss for organizers, was quoted by Sportico in the article, "Sha'Carri Richardson's Olympic Absence About More Than Marijuana” and answered the question, "Why Are People Obsessed with the Olympics?” for Popular Science.
Danny Leipziger, Managing Director of The Growth Dialogue and Professor of Practice of International Business, provided analysis in a blog for The Bretton Woods Committee asking “Can the West Counter the BRI?”
Annamaria Lusardi, University Professor of Economics & Accountancy and Academic Director of GFLEC, was recently quoted in a Pensions & Investments article discussing the state of women's financial well being before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) research was mentioned by CNBC in an article focused on the effectiveness of personal financial education in school; and a Forbes article, "Covid-19 Exacerbated Financial Disparities And The Retirement Savings Gap."
Larry Yu, Professor of Hospitality Management, recently wrote an article for GW Today, as part of GW’s bicentennial series. In his contribution to the series, Yu discusses the future of travel and tourism.
Awards & Recognition
Ethical Business: Congratulations to two outstanding faculty Vontrese Pamphile, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management & Public Policy, and Katina Sawyer, Assistant Professor of Management, on recognition from the Society for Business Ethics Conference Best Practical Solutions Award of 2021. GWSB faculty were two of three winners for Making the Case for Diversity and Inclusion: The Role of Business, Fairness, and Leader Identity.
GW Summer Start-up Accelerator: The summer cohort participants prominently included GWSB students and alums, with 75% having a connection to the school. We congratulate: Shanice Black (GWSB MBA '20), Vinuri Dissanayake (GWSB MBA '22), Brett Guterman (GWSB BS '22), Brendan Jones (GWSB MBA '21), Carter Pew (GWSB BS '23), Jaime Sarmiento-Monroy (GWSB MBA '21), Leelie Selassie (GWSB MBA '21), Michael Tadesse (GWSB MBA '22) and Simone Vaillancourt (GWSB BBA '23). Learn more about their innovative ventures.
Events & Reminders
GWSB Proud podcasts released in July featured “Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Resilience in Life Abroad” with GWSB alumna and life coach Linda Mueller; “How we Prepare Students for Successful Careers in HR” with Dr. Chris Kayes, Professor of Management; “Applying Business Analytics in the NFLPA” with Adam Richelieu, GWSB alum (MTA ’19); and “IFC-Milken Institute Graduate Certificate in Capital Markets” with Dr. Phillipe Delquié, Director, Capital Markets and Associate Professor of Decision Sciences.
Away We Go with G&EE: Applications to study abroad in Spring 2022 are open. Follow and engage with Global & Experiential Education on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for a deep-dive into the experience of studying at a GWSB partner university.
We are only a few weeks away from the first day of fall classes, and our faculty, staff and I are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to campus. As we prepare to return to in-person instruction and services in the fall semester, kindly review the university policies and guidance on returning to learning and connecting in person. I am excited to see you soon!
Stay well and stay strong,
Anuj Mehrotra, Ph.D.
Dean