Letter to the Community: Welcome CBA Dean Dayle M. Smith, Ph.D.

Message from the Executive Vice President and Provost: Welcome CBA Dean Dayle M. Smith, Ph.D.
December 27, 2017
 
Dear Colleagues:

Season’s greetings—I hope this message finds you well during the holiday break. I share good tidings: After considering many factors, including recommendations and feedback from our search committee, the Committee on Rank and Tenure, our faculty, and senior leadership, I am pleased to announce that Dayle M. Smith, Ph.D., will be the next dean of our College of Business Administration. Dean Smith brings the expertise, creativity, and vision to lead the CBA, and I am confident she is the right person to build upon its excellence and chart its promising future. She will succeed Dean Dennis W. Draper on June 1, 2018.

Dean Smith joins us from Clarkson University in upstate New York, where she serves as dean of the David D. Reh School of Business and is a tenured professor of consumer and organizational studies, holding the Elmer Gates Endowed Professorship for Innovation Culture. In her last five years at Clarkson, Dean Smith has been instrumental in growing a diverse faculty; developing new programs; merging two business schools; fundraising for student start-up funds, two new endowed faculty chairs, and the naming of the school. She successfully led the school through AACSB, ABET, CAHME, and Middle States accreditations. Dean Smith also co-leads the design and development of a boundary-spanning innovation hub and an innovation initiative at Clarkson with the dean of engineering. She was recently accepted into the international collaborative of deans and directors named to the Globally Responsible Leadership Institute (GRLI) to engage in dialogue and joint initiatives developing leadership and business practices worldwide. Last May, Dean Smith was elected chair of the Women Administrators in Management Education (WAME) Affinity Group at the AACSB, comprised of more than 600 business education leaders. She has been active in service learning in an academic environment, receiving numerous awards for her work in curriculum design and leading university-wide service learning curriculum initiatives.

Prior to joining Clarkson in 2013, Dean Smith was on the faculty at USC, Georgetown University, and spent 20 years at the University of San Francisco as professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior. While at USF, she served in many roles, including associate dean, department chair, and director of the Business Honors Program. As a Fulbright Scholar, Dean Smith joined an interdisciplinary team of scholars on a multi-year initiative with seven Hong Kong public universities to reform Hong Kong’s General Education Curriculum. She continues to visit Asia as a senior scholar and adviser to Hong Kong Baptist University. Dean Smith has authored over 25 books and numerous articles, primarily on her research on leadership, communication, and organizational behavior. She is passionate about social entrepreneurship, innovation, and the emerging role of B-Corps on a global scale.

Dean Smith earned her Ph.D. and her M.A. in organizational communication at USC in 1986. She earned her B.A. in communication studies at the University of Texas, Arlington. Her personal interests include traveling, kayaking, golfing, playing tennis, and spending time with her husband and grandchildren.

I thank our search committee, co-chaired by Michael Waterstone, senior vice president and dean of Loyola Law School, and Larry Kalbers, professor and Dreier Chair in Accounting Ethics, for conducting a rigorous and comprehensive search that yielded a competitive and outstanding candidate pool. Their professionalism and engagement provided me with invaluable insights during the decision-making process.

We are planning for Dean Smith to visit campus again in the spring semester to provide opportunities to meet faculty, staff, and students. In the meantime, please join me in congratulating Dayle and welcoming her to the CBA and our LMU community.

Sincerely,

 
Thomas Poon, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President and Provost