In the past several years we have focused our School on two key themes: (1) Creating an environment of support and mentoring that enhances student learning and (2) Applying our faculty’s exceptional skills of discovery/research to take on big, meaningful problems.
Our students and their families expect us to be creative and dedicated in focusing on their success as students and their success in a lifetime of evolving careers. I am proud to say that the UAB School of Business faculty and staff are daily focused on the real needs of students. We measure our progress on this critical School theme by the use of well developed “Assurance of Learning” (AOL) tools—we inspect what we expect, and then take steps to make improvements where needed. Our accrediting organization (AACSB) calls this key last step “completing the loop” of AOL. Nationally, thought leaders and key educational observers are concerned that a big, meaningful problem for this economy is not having enough well educated employees with the technical, behavioral, and management skills needed for growth in the 21st century. We are completing the loop of AOL with new/revised and rigorous classes that add to our students’ skills in quantitative analysis, communication, rapidly changing technical areas, and critical thinking. We understand the importance of these efforts to the economic success of the many communities we serve. We call this translational mentoring and learning as we transition our students from great potential to productive leaders of commerce and society.
Our second key School theme is a dedication to participating with the many areas of research excellence at UAB—to address big, meaningful social, economic, commercial and health problems. Cross-disciple research at UAB is imbedded in the DNA of this exceptional institution of discovery. The solutions to Big Problems need many skills. The skill we in the School of Business bring to the process is more concentrated in what is today called translational research—how to materially move great discoveries/research findings far more rapidly into the communities of need. In the world of commerce, we study and implement creative ways to speed up the movement of awesome intellectual property created by UAB’s many exceptional scientists and engineers—move it from the “bench” of a lab into the communities we serve. We are also focused on commercializing these great discoveries and improved processes. We are building a team of teacher-scholars with real world experiences in creating and growing new companies—new companies that will create high paying jobs and tax revenue in Birmingham and the region. And we will soon be telling you more of our plans to create a multi-million dollar philanthropic private equity fund to be jointly managed by the Schools of Business and Medicine. This fund will provide proof of concept capital to aspiring UAB entrepreneurs.
