The Dean's Corner

• Foremost is the opportunity for our business faculty to find synergies across disciplines. For instance, Dr. Karti Puranam (operations management) and Dr. Briance Mascarenhas (strategy and entrepreneurship) are collaborating on projects, one of which was recently published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), that are providing alternative solutions to medical practices including national resident matching.
• Second, the research clusters lend an opportunity to bring together faculty across schools and colleges. This extends the possibility of joint grant writing and collaboration around progressive and impactful areas such as sustainability, workplace wellness, and health equity.
• Finally, the clusters will enable us to expand partnership with industry through joint projects, faculty externships, consultation, and professional and executive training and development. Importantly, these industry engagements are deeply valuable as they come full circle in equipping our faculty to deliver applied knowledge and pragmatic skills to our students.

Across industries, trends that were visible in the horizon have expedited, sometimes exacerbated, over the past couple of years. Higher education is no different. Technological disruptions, evolving student preferences, andexpectations of a more meaningful impact have mandated that we at Rutgers School of Business–Camden (RSBC) reimagine our charge as a leading public business school in New Jersey.

The timing of this mandate couldn’t be better. This year, we launch our new strategic plan, a roadmap to 2028, that underscores the impact, flexibility, and agility that are so essential to the success of our vision to serve as a catalyst for transformation through research, academic excellence, and engagement. This vision is built on three strategic goals:

• Deliver societal impact through student transformation, research excellence, and partnerships.
• Enhance RSBC’s growth and reputation.
• Grow internal capabilities to deliver on strategic goals.

Foremost, we must intensify our efforts to empower through high-quality business education. Delivering high-quality, affordable education that intellectually and economically transforms our and students has been our missionand will remain an area of continuous improvement. Fundamental to this is caring for the whole student and delivering opportunities that build on their grit to grow their personal and professional selves.  

Our new plan extends this goal of intellectual and economic transformation to our business and community partners. In the next five years, we will strength our partnerships, convene thought leaders, develop our communities, and serve as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.

Academic and research excellence is built on a strong foundation of excellence – of people and infrastructure. Translating our faculty’s high-caliber research for impactful consumption by industry is a key priority. Our staff, deeply rooted in our communities, will grow as thought leaders. And our alumni and friends who have experienced first-hand the transformative work at RSBC, will be engaged as crucial partners.

This strategic plan is about relationships. And your relationship with will be crucial to our success. Join us in actualizing our vision and making a difference, one student at a time.

These past 18 months have been about transformation driven by technology, human relationships, and our relationship with nature, to name a few. Rutgers School of Busines­­­­s–Camden was poised for this transformation due to our continuous investments in innovative programming, a strong and positive internal culture, and our commitment to student success.

There is great excitement at the RSBC as we look to another exciting phase of our transformation – and for reasons that are better than the past 18 months! RSBC is preparing to launch our new strategic plan that will chart our course for the next five years. The data-driven process has engaged multiple stakeholders and includes initiatives that integrate social impact, capability enhancement, and the growth of our regional and national footprint. Beyond the Rutgers-Camden stakeholders, our advisory board members, alumni, and corporate partners have provided valuable insights into these initiatives. I look forward to sharing this plan with you later this semester and welcome your engagement with it.

At RSBC, we are proud that our business school imbues responsibility in everything we do: preparing students to strengthen the workplace, conducting path-defining research, and fostering social impact by empowering communities, businesses, and families. Our initiatives this year will continue to build on that foundation.

On behalf of the RSBC, I extend our profound gratitude for your engagement. For what lies ahead of us, I look forward to your partnership and will lean on you to help realize our vision.

We are back on campus, as expected, with mixed feelings. While there is elation about the campus returning to some normalcy with in-person classes, seeing students in our hallways, and having real-time faculty exchanges, our mask mandates are a reminder of our transitionary state. As a society, we have come a long way since last year with the pandemic, even as more needs to be done.

The same is true of our work at SBC. We accomplished much last year – new and revised graduate programs and certificates, a greater emphasis on student engagement, and a developing strategy for deepening our positive impact on our stakeholders. Our faculty have remained prolific with their research, even as they have balanced the demands of pivoting to online and care for loved ones at home. It gives me great pride to share that this past year, our faculty published nearly 60 articles in high-quality journals such as JAMA, Journal of Management, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Journal of Marketing Research – top journals recognized by The Financial Times. Our faculty’s impact outside their academic disciplines is recognized through research features in outlets, such as The Economic Times and BBC, as well as invitations to serve on boards and as subject matter experts for policy makers.

Our past accomplishments have strengthened our foundation for the work that lies ahead. Our efforts this year are directed to updating our undergraduate curricula to reflect currency and student preparation for future jobs and graduate education. An important part of our undergraduate experience is student development outside of the classroom. Our prior Student Experience Center (SEC) is being re-envisioned to provide a more holistic approach to student development. This office, now known as Student Engagement, Empowerment, and Development (SEED), has created a student journey that delivers transformative co-curricular opportunities, including a pilot peer mentor program, case competitions, and career management skills to our students. Your support of SEED is crucial to its success.

An exciting and important accomplishment for us this past year has been the formation of our Rutgers School of Business Alumni Association (RSBCAA) I am deeply grateful to Suzy Swartz (SBC’85) and Cal Maradonna (CCAS’74, SBC’79) for leading the charge on this. Suzy has graciously agreed to serve as the inaugural President of RSBCAA. Our officers are busy planning events for this upcoming year and I look forward to your participation, as alumni and friends, to make this a long-lasting community for our current and future alumni.

As we wrap up our strategic planning this Fall, I am excited – as I hope you are – for the future that lies ahead of us. For what we have accomplished this past year, I am deeply thankful to our students, SBC faculty and staff team, our advisory board members, alumni, and corporate partners who have provided valuable insights into our initiatives. For what lies ahead of us, I look forward to collaborating with you and will lean on you to help realize our vision.

Throughout the challenges of the past year, the Rutgers School of Busines­­­­s–Camden has met this crisis head-on by evaluating the impact that we make in delivering on our mission and planning for the work that lies ahead of us. Some of this impact is quantifiable – our Online Bachelor’s Degree in Business has been ranked #11 nationally and #1 in the state of New Jersey by U.S. News & World Report and our Online MBA was ranked #76 and #2 by the same measures. A new online graduate certificate in Modern Financial Technologies will debut later this year and our recently launched Online MS in Business Analytics enrolled over 35 students in its very first year.

The accomplishments of our alumni and their positive impact on our communities are the best testaments to our mission as a public higher education institution. One such exemplary alum of the Rutgers–Camden business school, Kris Kolluri, was honored last month by the AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as a 2021 Influential Leader. With much pride, I note that Kris is one of only 25 outstanding graduates of AACSB-accredited business schools from around the world. These honorees are recognized for being influential catalysts for social change.

We began this month by celebrating Women’s History Month to recognize the important role that women play in furthering our progress but also to raise awareness around issues that women continue to face worldwide – from access to education and healthcare to equity in the workplace and in representation. Despite progress made over the past several decades, much more work lies ahead of us. At the School of Business–Camden, we continue to take important steps in developing and supporting women leaders. This year, we reinitiated the Women in Business Alliance student organization, which provides a forum to develop and empower our women business students and attain personal and professional success. The business school also partnered with Wings for Growth, a non-profit organization with a deep commitment to empowering women through positive mentorship. Four students from our Professional MBA and Online MBA programs were selected as Wings for Growth mentees. These students will enhance their leadership skills through a 10-month collaborative project with Wings mentors.

Additionally, featured in our newsletter today is Dr. Kristie McAlpine, one of our many promising faculty, whose research has important relevance to industry and design of work. Finally, I am delighted to welcome three new members to our Dean’s Leadership Council; all women leaders who are making a difference in the lives of others through their work: Veronica Hawkins, Vice President for Talent Strategies and Solutions at NFI Industries; Toni Pergolin, President and CEO of Bancroft Inc.; and Chaya Pamula, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of PamTen Inc. as well as a non-profit, SheTek.

More than ever before, equity and inclusion are driving leading brands and organizations. I am proud that our business school imbues these critical attributes in everything that we do: preparing students to strengthen the workplace, conducting path-defining research, and fostering economic growth by empowering communities, businesses, and families.

On behalf of the Rutgers School of Business–Camden, I extend our profound gratitude for your engagement. There are many ways that you can continue to support our work: supporting student scholarships through the Dean’s Academic Excellence Fund or the Responsibility Challenge Fund,; hiring our students for internships and full-time positions; or serving as a guest speaker, to name a few.

Nearly eight months ago, I began my new role as Dean of the Rutgers School of Business–Camden, just as universities shifted from in-person to remote instruction. The year 2020 has certainly tested us in many ways, as individuals and as a society. As we continue to deal with the pandemic and its social and economic ramifications, and as we reflect on the unrest stemming from a fundamental expectation of equal rights for all, we recognize our critical role in developing a generation of future leaders who can positively impact their professional and personal worlds.

It is time to reimagine our impact as a business school at a leading public institution. At RSBC, we are focusing our efforts on using past innovations as a springboard to envision the next decade so that our students, industry partners, and community think of Rutgers School of Business–Camden first – as a world-class leader in research and education, and in developing thoughtful leaders who can shape the future of our organizations and our communities. Our initiatives this year include strategic planning, expanding our student experiences, revising our graduate and undergraduate offerings, and heightening the visibility for Rutgers and our School of Business. As a friend and partner of Rutgers University-Camden, you will be a crucial partner in this re-imagination.

We build this foundation on you – our alumni and friends. You support our efforts through scholarships and by opening doors for our students to see a world to which they can aspire. I hope you will continue to endorse these initiatives by contributing to the Dean’s Academic Excellence Fund which goes to support our student scholarships, by creating internship opportunities for our students, serving as a guest speaker, or supporting the Dean’s Strategic Initiatives Fund that go toward creating new opportunities for our students, faculty, and community partnerships. Our partnership will strengthen our ability to prepare the business professional who can deliver value to business and to society as an innovative, thoughtful, and empathetic leader. On behalf of Rutgers School of Business-Camden, I extend a deep-felt gratitude for your continued engagement.

In this newsletter, we feature our students, staff, and faculty – all of whom have demonstrated tremendous creativity and commitment through these fluid times. Their stories highlight not only how Rutgers School of Business–Camden delivers impact in unique ways, but also the character of our institution.