A peer-to-peer discussion with Marianne Lewis, Dean of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business and Professor of Management at the University of Cincinnati.

🎙️ Marianne Lewis, Dean of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati shares her creative and global approach to leadership in today’s uncertain higher education and business landscape. Now serving the second of two deanships in two countries, she has infused her experience from across the pond at the University of London’s Bayes Business School at her current institution in Ohio.

Lewis makes a case for more collaborative research and its broader impact on a business school’s and university’s value proposition. In the U.K., academic research must demonstrate its impact, employing greater intentionality by questioning what is being asked and why. It was practice at Bayes to engage faculty, doctoral students and boards of industry executives in discussions throughout the research process, developing a productive and interesting interplay that proved worthy of publishing in major research-oriented publications, including the Financial Times—increasing the exposure of the research to a wider audience.

“I think people are right now really questioning the value of higher ed, says Lewis. “And certainly that's happening with research. … How is it ever going to be applied [in the U.S.] if we're not helping them see why it matters, and we're humble enough to ask them if it does, right?”

Integrating applied learning is not new at Lewis’ current home at the University of Cincinnati, where a cooperative (co-op) education system has been widely employed and embedded into the culture for more than 100 years. Though, she is leaning into it—and expanding Lindner’s co-op programs to include smaller companies and startups and exploring alternative co-ops for students who need additional career readiness support before entering the workforce.

From better leveraging research for a school’s bottom line and leading faculty through budgetary challenges to building a fundraising and philanthropy strategy from the ground up, there’s much to glean for business school leaders from our conversation with Dean Lewis in episode 62.

Photos courtesy of Kroll and Temple University.

Read more about Dr. Marianne Lewis here.