BRITE WOMEN PROJECT

An initiative supporting gender diversity on nonprofit boards is gaining momentum through the efforts of Mendoza’s Nonprofit Professional Development office. The BRITE Women Project (Board Readiness Initiative to Empower Women Project) seeks to equip women to provide nonprofit board leadership in their communities.

“Diversity of thought and perspective helps nonprofit boards and their associated organizations serve their communities better when all the voices are around the table,” says Angela Logan, the St. Andre Bessette Director of Nonprofit Professional Development.

The project kicked off with a sold-out Networking Night Out event in August and hosted a BRITE Women Boot Camp, which organizers plan to take on the road. The boot camp covered topics including board governance, nonprofit financials, executive presence and professional networking. The team is also hosting a series of individual workshops on campus throughout the year.

“Many women have extensive professional leadership experience that would be a great asset to a nonprofit board, yet they may be uncertain about how to leverage those skills to obtain a seat at the table,” said Joan McClendon, operations program director for Nonprofit Professional Development. “The objective of BRITE is to help women broaden their understanding of nonprofit boards and how they might participate.”

BRITE WOMEN PROJECT PRIORITIES

• Offering training and networking opportunities for aspiring, first-time and veteran nonprofit board directors.

• Connecting nonprofits with women who want to serve.

• Preparing men to be allies in increasing female representation on nonprofit boards.

To sign up to receive news about future opportunities, go online to Mendoza.nd.edu/BRITE.

INVESTMENT GRADE

Finance majors have a new certificate option available through the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing. The 15-credit-hour Investment Management Leaders Certificate’s training, leadership and service requirements encourage students to take advantage of the educational opportunities at Mendoza and help them bridge the gap between theory and practice.

CLEARSIGHTED CAREER

Several Mendoza folks have shared career development insights on the new think.nd.edu platform curated by the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Business ethics professor Joe Holt discusses how to become a more effective and ethical negotiator; Brett Beasley of the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership shares practical strategies to make work more meaningful in the automated world; and design thinking professor Wendy Angst unpacks how to map your life’s journey for a life well-lived and meaningful career.

DATA DRIVEN

Mendoza grew its portfolio of analytics programs with the launch of its Certificate in Business Analytics through the Stayer Center for Executive Education. The two-and-a-half-day course offers business professionals a firm foundation in how to make smarter, more informed data-driven decisions and how to communicate effectively with an analytics team. The next session will be March 16-18, 2020.

“I would argue that the Silicon Valley playbook is ill-suited to medicine. And it’s something to bear in mind because I think there’s increasingly going to be a convergence between medical innovation and what I call the traditional Silicon Valley. More and more people who succeeded in Silicon Valley. . .are setting their sights on health care and on medicine. And if there isn’t an attitude adjustment, potentially we’re in for some more trouble.”

John Carreyrou, author of “Bad Blood: Secrets and
Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” spoke as part of the
Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership’s
Berges Lecture Series in Business Ethics

IN THE RING

Natalie Achonwa (BBA ’14) became the sixth Notre Dame women’s basketball player to be inducted into the prestigious Ring of Honor, an award established in 2010 by the ND Athletics Department to honor former and present men’s and women’s basketball coaches and players who have made distinguished and noteworthy contributions during their careers at the University.

The Guelph, Ontario, native helped lead the Irish to four straight Final Fours from 2010 to 2014 and boosted ND to three national title games. “She was a great leader on and off the court, and one of the smartest players I’ve ever coached — just a highly intelligent player with great vision,” said Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Muffet McGraw.

“She was a great leader on and off the court, and one of the smartest players I’ve ever coached — just a highly intelligent player with great vision.”

Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Muffet McGraw

GENERIC RECALL

Research by Kaitlin Wowak, an assistant professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, won the Journal of Operations Management Jack Meredith Best Paper Award for significant research published in the journal in the past year. In their paper, “Product competition, managerial discretion, and manufacturing recall in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry,” Wowak and her co-authors considered the effect of competition on recalls of generic drugs. They found that greater product competition among generic drug manufacturers leads to a higher number of manufacturing- related recalls, suggesting that manufacturers may be cutting corners to lower drug prices.

‘O’HARA’S HEIRS’

The Hesburgh Library added a digitized version of “O’Hara’s Heirs: Business Education at Notre Dame 1921- 1991” by Kerry Temple to the CurateND web portal. It is publicly available for download at curate.nd.edu/show/gb19f47885p.

ONLINE RESEARCH

Forget test tubes and microscopes. When it comes to studying workplace behaviors, Mendoza faculty members can now tap into the Mendoza Behavioral Lab Research Panel. Members of the panel receive email alerts inviting them to participate in different Mendoza research studies online and can opt in to those that interest them. Researchers in the Department of Management & Organization conducted three studies in the last half of 2019 and are looking to expand the research pool for upcoming studies.

To sign up, go online to MendozaBehavioralLab.nd.edu.

“And even as we continue to see the pace of technology change accelerate, we hire more people every year, not less. Deloitte just crossed over in our U.S. partnership over a hundred thousand people. It is absolutely not coincidental that what we’re seeing is this wave of technology disruption only brings about more opportunity, not less. This is about pairing up people with machines to optimize the end value proposition.”

Deloitte U.S. CEO Joe Ucuzoglu spoke as part
of the new Dean’s Speaker Series. His lecture, “A
bigger impact: The promise of professional services
in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” can be viewed
online at Mendoza.nd.edu/deans-speaker-series.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Mendoza launched a new four-week online course that prepares women to build strategic leadership skills, lead effective change, practice ethical
decision-making, negotiate and resolve conflict, and build relationships through mentorship and networking. The course, offered through the Stayer Center for Executive Education, is intended for women with a range of professional experience, including those in the first stages of their careers or senior leadership as well as those re-entering the workforce. Three Mendoza faculty members teach the course: Amanda G. McKendree and Angela Logan, associate teaching professors, and Alice Obermiller, director of Experiential Learning and Leadership Development in Mendoza’s Graduate Business Programs. The next course starts Jan. 1, 2020.

“Women in Leadership was designed with a specific focus on topics related to gender diversity and inclusivity that are critical to an organization’s success.”

Robin Kistler, the director of non-degree programs at Stayer