Shoutouts and updates from Director General & Dean of Thunderbird School of Global Management, Dr. Charla Griffy-Brown.
I hope everyone has had a productive but also rejuvenating summer. I have been excited to see the great research our faculty have been working on and publishing, the exciting new contracts we are executing in executive education, the absolutely extraordinary work our recruiting and branding and communications teams have done to ensure we meet our numbers in enrollment and of course the extensive work our alumni engagement team has been doing. We have new scholarships, we are activating we were able to ensure persistence through offering more student work, we are hiring more coaches to help our students succeed in a challenging market. We also have had our extraordinary GCL team helping us pivot to scale and more domestic projects given current realities. It has been a privilege to lead and walk alongside all of these efforts across Thunderbird this summer. I did get a brief vacation and I am so grateful for that as well. Here we are at the beginning of a new academic year and I can’t WAIT to greet our new students this week and next week!
Shoutouts
I’m incredibly proud of Professor Sophal Ear and the breadth of his global knowledge in critical geopolitics. He has recently been sought out by multiple news outlets to comment on the ongoing tensions between Cambodia and Thailand. His insights have been both eye-opening and deeply informative, and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you. Thank you, Sophal, for representing Thunderbird with such thought leadership and distinction on the global stage. BBC World on July 25, ABC (Australia) Radio, Newsweek, Henry Bonsu | Times Radio | The Times and the Sunday Times, Arizona State University’s Sophal Ear on latest clashes between Thai and Cambodian tropps, BBC TV.
A huge shoutout to Professor Mansour Javidan for his new book, Leadership for Organizations. I had the opportunity to join one of their interviews to share my leadership journey which I would like to share with you. Creating New Vision for Global Education
Thank you to Lena Booth and Jonas Gamso for their work in meeting with faculty as part of our new ongoing evaluation and development process! Thank you to the faculty for the great work you are doing.
Also, my gratitude to Jacky and Ghazal for keeping everything going this summer through an extremely complicated schedule that has enabled us to “stick the landing” amidst these disruptive times. I could not have done everything without your great work and continuous support.
Updates
The 14th cohort of Project DreamCatcher was on campus last week with the program graduation happening in the Global Forum on Friday, August 8 from 10:30 – 12:30 p.m. I hope you all got to join them to help celebrate the amazing Native American women entrepreneurs who are participating. The Freeport-McMoRan Foundation created Project DreamCatcher in partnership with Thunderbird to build the capacity of women business owners from regional tribes. Since its inception in 2015, the program has served 324 Native women from 13 tribal nations across Arizona and New Mexico.
We’re gearing up for an exciting Thunderbird Info Session with Kaplan Pathways Korea on October 15! This is a great opportunity to showcase Thunderbird’s unique value to prospective Korean students and strengthen our partnership with Kaplan.
We’re thrilled to share that Thunderbird has been selected as a beneficiary of the Hinrich Foundation Guide Global Trade Leader Scholarship Program! This prestigious recognition highlights our MGM program as a top international business and trade degree. The initiative will provide two co-funded scholarships of up to $25,000 each, strengthening our global partnerships and supporting the next generation of trade leaders. A proud moment for Thunderbird’s global impact and reach!
Impact
This week, I am happy to share Ann-Marie Lawler’s, Executive Director of Finance, impact story.
After eighteen years with Thunderbird, I currently hold the position of Executive Director of Finance. While the mission statement itself may have varied over these years the essence has stayed the same – to educate, empower and influence current and future global leaders to positively impact the world and its economy. I may not have fully understood this mission when I applied to work for Thunderbird, which I did because it was only a few miles from my Glendale, AZ home but it didn’t take beyond the interview to understand and want to be a part of it. My role has always been behind the scenes to empower the managers and leaders of Thunderbird to deliver on this mission. Much of my career was in Executive Education (EE) and now I serve all of Thunderbird. A favorite moment was when I stepped out of my comfort zone to lead EE to create a network of faculty around the world to scale the business. This role allowed me to travel internationally to Hong Kong, England, Switze
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