Dear GWSB Community,
As we finish the third week of classes, I am excited to attend the first spring Graduate Industry Roundtable and GW Data’s Data-Driven Insights Conference this Friday — and I look forward to a semester filled with lots of fabulous events and sessions, especially in this momentous year as GW celebrates its 200th birthday!
Many of these events are organized by our remarkable student leaders, and I am proud to celebrate their hard work and generous efforts enriching our student experience. While volunteering in these positions, student leaders leverage their talents and interests to increase the knowledge, skills and connections for our entire student body. They also help promote the GWSB student experience by fostering a greater sense of belonging by celebrating student intersectionality.
And as our GWSB Event Calendar is filling up with upcoming events for this semester, we invite student leadership to continue adding their events through the GWSB Calendar Request and open these great events to the larger student community through the GW Calendar as well. Please leverage the resources on our GWSB current undergraduate and graduate student associations and clubs.
GWSB Good News
- Thinking Strategically: We must continue to innovate and respond to a rapidly changing world. To help us be prepared for the future, we have convened a GWSB Strategic Planning Task Force to inform our strategy, gathering input from all stakeholders, and guide us as GW moves into its third century! I am grateful that Drs. Susan Kulp and Scheherazade Rehman have agreed to serve as co-chairs of this important taskforce. Additionally, Associate Dean Liesl Riddle will represent GWSB on the newly convened university innovation task force to help inform the post-pandemic strategy for GW.
- Prioritizing Diversity & Inclusion: To advance our objective of creating belonging for all, I have appointed Leo Moersen as our school’s first Chief Diversity Officer. In this new role, Leo will chair the Dean’s Diversity Council. Working with the advisory council, faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders, Leo will lead our diversity and inclusion initiatives to put us at the forefront of our future in educating the next generation of business leaders. Leo brings more than 30 years of academic and leadership experience at GWSB and the depth of knowledge of our many stakeholders’ nuanced needs and values.
Awards & Recognition
- Rankings Rise Continues: We have been recognized again for our online graduate education, with U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 ranking of Best Online Programs. In addition to our Top 20 ranking for our Online MBA, we also rose to #24 for our non-MBA Online Master’s Programs. We moved up to #13 for Veterans for the best Online MBA and the best Online Master’s Programs for Veterans. For MBA Specialties we received recognition in Finance (#10), Business Analytics (#11) and General Management (#11). The Economist’s Which MBA? Ranking was also published in January, with the Global MBA ranking #45 among institutions around the world. High marks in Faculty Quality and Alumni Salary contributed to the top 50 ranking.
- Faculty Recognition: Congratulations to Chris Leinberger, Research Professor of Urban Real Estate, for being awarded the Lambda Alpha International Educators award for 2020-2021 by LAI, a major global academic organization.
Faculty Expertise
- James Bailey, Hochberg Professional Fellow of Leadership Development and professor of management, shared that, “Never have we been more in need of heroes than today,” in Why we need heroic leaders now, what makes them so valuable, an article he wrote for the International Business Times.
- Donna Hoffman, professor of marketing, Louis Rosenfeld Distinguished Scholar, and co-director of the Center for the Connected Consumer, recently commented in a Washington Post article about how consumers leverage reviews on sites like Amazon or Yelp as a form of online activism.
- Katina Sawyer, assistant professor of management, said “There’s a greater awareness that [inclusion] is a possibility... and that leads to a greater expectation that companies are going to do something about it” in the Washington Post article, Going deeper with diversity and inclusion.
Events & Reminders
- George Talks Business: The Spring 2021 schedule for our George Talks Business discussion series is now live!
- RSVP to join us on Wednesday, February 3 for the first session this spring featuring Stuart J. Russell, Ph.D., professor of computer science and Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, honorary fellow, Wadham College, Oxford, and author of “Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control.”
- Highlights from this season will include multiple interviews focused on Artificial Intelligence, Diversity & Inclusion, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. This semester we feature more women leaders in business than ever before.
- Graduate Industry Roundtables: On Friday, January 29 and Friday, February 26, we are hosting our signature graduate student engagement event. These events provide exceptional networking opportunities for our graduate students with alumni and industry leaders. Learn more about how the program design empowers unique career changing moments for GWSB graduate students.
- GW DATA’s Data-Driven Insights Conference: Join GW DATA for their 6th annual Data Driven Insights Conference on Friday, January 29, from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. EST. This year’s speakers and industry-focused panelists come from areas such as sports, hospitality, fashion, marketing, finance, tech, and more. RSVP here.
- GW’s Virtual Spring Student Organizations Fair: I encourage our students to get involved and learn more about the many student organizations available on campus. Attend GW’s virtual Spring Student Organization Fair this weekend on Sunday, January 31 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST.
- SINC: Sport Industry Networking & Career Conference will be on Thursday and Friday, February 18 and 19. SINC is the premier sports industry conference where college students and career changers come together with sports industry professionals to learn more about the industry and network with leaders across a variety of different areas including sport leagues, teams, media, eSports, venues, agencies and the Olympics. The conference includes keynote presentations, panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, small group networking opportunities, as well as case challenges. Learn more about the conference. Register here.
- Mini-Pitch George: The Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CFEE) is kicking off the New Year by hosting a Mini version of the Annual Pitch George Competition held traditionally in the fall. The Mini Pitch George Competition 2021 (MPG 2021) is exclusive to spring semester students enrolled in an entrepreneurial course at the George Washington University. Learn more about how to participate this February.
Stay well and stay strong,
Anuj Mehrotra, Ph.D.
Dean