Paul L. Newby

“In a business world that is grappling with what’s next, the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is paving a path forward.” So begins the school’s introduction of 11 new faculty members at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.

“Today, organizations have to be agile and team-focused. They need to optimize technology to meet demands, and they need people who can develop creative solutions to problems not yet realized,” write Paul Smirl and Clare Becker. “To meet the challenges of today’s economy, WSB is investing heavily in its faculty and bringing in scholars and teachers with future-focused outlooks who are ready to shape the next wave of business research and grow the next generation of business leaders.”

The 11 new faculty members at Wisconsin represent “research expertise, innovation, and teaching excellence,” says Vallabh “Samba” Sambamurthy, WSB’s Albert O. Nicholas dean. Two hail from Yale, and one each from Harvard, Wharton, and Booth; seven of the 11 are women. Their areas of expertise include DNA used in marketing, data science, human-bot collaboration, how racial identity influences decision-making, how gender bias affects professional outcomes, the dark side of social networks, and the concept of grit. From marketing to management to operations to finance, they will develop new classes, including one on social media marketing and another on technology product marketing management.

“I am thrilled to welcome such an impressive class of faculty to the Wisconsin School of Business,” Sambamurthy says. “Each person is an excellent scholar and teacher, and I’m excited by the amount of new talent joining our learning community this year. Not only do we bring in researchers with in-demand expertise, but our new faculty’s knowledge in data science, marketing, technology, finance, and management will help us transform the curriculum of our undergraduate and graduate programs.”

In addition to touting the new faculty’s bona fides, WSB — the No. 34-ranked school in the U.S. in Poets&Quants‘ most recent ranking — is promoting its growing investments in STEM and data analytics, part of the school’s strategic plan, Roadmap 2025. The new hires will p[lay a huge role in making that plan a reality by supporting recent growth in the school’s undergraduate and graduate programs, the launch of a new hybrid MBA program, and WSB’s new one-year specialized master’s programs.

Wisconsin School of Business

Second U.S. health secretary joins Florida faculty

Alex Azar, the nation’s top health official under Donald Trump, will undertake a teaching and policy research position at the University of Miami this month — the second Health and Human Services secretary on the school’s faculty.

A former pharmaceutical executive, long-time government executive, and practicing attorney in addition to his recent cabinet position, Azar assumes a teaching and policy research position this fall as an adjunct professor and senior executive in residence at the Patti and Allan Herbert Business School. He joins former University of Miami President Donna Shalala as the second former U.S. health secretary with the school’s Department of Health Management and Policy.

“Adding a second former health secretary to our faculty and especially someone with Alex’s vast expertise in other areas of the industry offers a tremendous opportunity to our students to learn from top leaders in the health care field—and that experience is invaluable,” Dean John Quelch says. “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Alex to the University of Miami.”

Shalala, the longest-serving health secretary in history, noted that while she and Azar served under different political administrations, the two coincide closely in terms of key policy priorities and complement each other with their different perspectives.

Penn Medicine & Wharton Social Impact Initiative launch new $5 million investment to improve health of Philadelphians

Three start-up companies will be the first to receive investment from the Fund for Health, a joint partnership between Penn Medicine and the Wharton Social Impact Initiative of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School that seeks to invest in early-stage businesses striving to strengthen the social determinants of health of economically disadvantaged Philadelphians. The Fund for Health plans to invest a total of $5 million over the next three years to push for measurable progress in socio-economic factors that can have lifelong effects.

The three companies receiving a total of $750,000 in the first round of funding are:

• Kinvolved, a leader in developing communications software to reduce absenteeism in underserved school districts.
• Uptrust, a customer relationship management tool that helps keep people out of the criminal justice system by avoiding unnecessary technical violations, like missing court dates or probation appointments
• RecoveryLink, a telehealth and electronic recovery records platform that improves the availability and delivery of recovery support services to people experiencing substance use and mental health disorders.

RIT Saunders breaking ground on new campus expansion

Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology will kick off its $19 million expansion and renovation of Max Lowenthal Hall with a ceremonial groundbreaking. Read more here (subscription required).

In 2020, Poets&Quants named the RIT Saunders online MBA one of the top 10 OMBAs in the country.

DON’T MISS AN EARLY PEEK AT COLUMBIA’S NEW B-SCHOOL CAMPUS

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