Final School of Business dean candidate to present April 10

LAWRENCE — Sharon Alvarez will be the fourth and final candidate for the dean of the University of Kansas School of Business position to present her strategies for the school’s future.

Her public presentation is set for 4-5 p.m. April 10 in The Colloquium in Room 1010 of Capitol Federal Hall. The event will also be livestreamed, and the passcode is 800688.

Alvarez is the Thomas W. Olofson Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and associate dean for faculty affairs at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. She also is a professor in organizations and entrepreneurship.

Members of the KU community are encouraged to attend the presentation and provide candidate feedback to the search committee. Presentation recordings and online feedback forms will remain available on the search page through April 15.

Additional search information, including Alvarez’s CV, can be found on the search page.

As associate dean for faculty affairs, Alvarez manages faculty development and management at the Pitt School of Business. She leads the promotion and tenure processes and oversees faculty hiring, onboarding, contract renewals and annual evaluations. Her work also includes implementing collective bargaining agreements and other institutional policies.

Alvarez is a fellow of the Strategic Management Society and has been recognized for her contributions to the field. Elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management in 2020, Alvarez was the 2023 AOM president. She previously held several AOM service roles, including chair of the academy’s entrepreneurship division and associate editor of the Academy of Management Review.

Alvarez’s work, which explores the possibility that opportunities are created and exploited by those seeking to generate economic profits, has been published in several management and entrepreneurship journals and outlets, including Journal of Management, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing and Academy of Management Perspectives. She has won multiple related best paper awards. 

Alvarez earned her doctorate in entrepreneurship and strategy and bachelor’s in management science and human resource management from the University of Colorado, as well as her master of business administration from the University of Denver.

The School of Business Dean search committee, led by Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, and Jason Hornberger, vice provost of finance, will review all feedback and provide a report to the provost. The university expects a new business dean will be announced before the end of the spring semester.