St. Thomas taps entrepreneurship chief as next dean of Opus College of Business

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Laura Dunham, an entrepreneur-turned-professor, has been named dean of the Opus Faculty of Small business at the College of St. Thomas, the next-greatest enterprise university in Minnesota.

Dunham for the previous 5 several years has been associate dean in demand of the Schulze University of Entrepreneurship in the small business faculty. She succeeds Stefanie Lenway, who led the Opus Higher education of Organization because 2014.

“The Opus College or university requires an entrepreneurial leader, who will continue on to develop a tradition of innovation in all corners of the higher education,” Lenway claimed in a statement. “Laura is this entrepreneurial chief with deep working experience generating applications in the Schulze University that have gained national recognition.”

With Dunham at the helm, the Schulze Faculty grew almost three moments in measurement as calculated by the number of majoring pupils and total credit rating hours taught. Entrepreneurship is now the fifth-premier major at the University of St. Thomas.

In that time, the Schulze University went from unranked to No. 23 on the Princeton Review’s list of undergraduate entrepreneurship systems. Dunham aims for St. Thomas to be between the leading-rated Catholic company educational institutions.

“We have a actually good faculty and workers who are devoted to educating our pupils and supporting our neighborhood,” Dunham reported in an interview. “What is terrific about the rankings is that they enable men and women know about our work.”

Dunham joined St. Thomas 19 several years in the past right after co-founding a studio theater as a youthful grownup. She assisted produce interdisciplinary encounters at the St. Paul-based university, which include a workshop for initial-calendar year learners that matches, for occasion, engineering college students with finance majors on tasks.

Dunham worked with some of the university’s leading benefactors, like Best Invest in founder Dick Schulze and Liquid Investments CEO Ron Fowler, to create 4 small business competitions that reward students with scholarships and seed funds.

Far more recently, she helped the Schulze Faculty produce relationships with the Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce, the Latino Economic Improvement Centre and other people to create much more alternatives for possible students and business leaders of coloration in Minnesota. As a result, Opus College or university started to catch the attention of a extra assorted pool of candidates to scholarship plans and increase school diversity.

“We are really fully commited to building an environment that draws in a far more numerous set of learners,” Dunham mentioned. She mentioned that the Twin Towns area, like considerably of the nation, faces a lack of talent and a population that is more and more assorted.

“We have to have to make sure everyone is getting entry to educational prospects,” she said. “It really is a ethical crucial and an financial vital.”

Lenway will keep on being at the Opus College or university, starting to be a faculty fellow in its Company in a Digital Earth initiative.

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