Dr. Cynthia Cooper, acting provost, announced that Dr. Aneil Mishra will be joining Towson University as the Dean of the College of Business & Economics. Dr. Mishra was selected as the top candidate after an extensive national search and begins his appointment on July 5, 2023. He will oversee programs that are collectively recognized as critical workforce providers to the greater Mid-Atlantic region and as a national leader in academic and inclusive excellence.
Dr. Mishra joins TU after most recently serving as the Dean of the School of Management at the University of Michigan-Flint where he helped secure more than $250K for scholarships and internships. His previous posts include serving as the Thomas D. Arthur Distinguished Professor of Leadership at the College of Business at East Carolina University, where he helped spearhead more than $6M in philanthropy to endow the College’s graduate programs and student success center, as well as helping win a $2M National Science Foundation grant to foster innovative teaching. He also served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at North Carolina Central University, and Vice President of Curriculum and Faculty Relations for 2U Inc., where he helped successfully develop and launch the UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler School of Business online MBA program, MBA@UNC. Dr. Mishra also has been an award-winning faculty member at Wake Forest, Duke, Penn State and Michigan State.
"Dr. Mishra's vast experience in education, research and philanthropy made him the perfect fit to join Towson University as our institution works to strengthen these very pillars," said Interim President Melanie Perreault. "TU's College of Business and Economics is already nationally recognized for its excellence, and Dean Mishra's leadership will undoubtedly enhance this college's impact and our university's growing culture of entrepreneurship."
Dr. Mishra is a member of the Academy of Management. He also consults with a variety of startups, Fortune 100 firms, financial institutions and health care organizations, as well as leading associations and nonprofits around the globe on building trust-based cultures, leadership development and strategy and innovation development. He has been a faculty member of the Wharton School/American Bankers Association's Stonier Graduate School of Banking since 2017, and a finals judge for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Global Student Entrepreneur Awards since 2016. He also serves on the board of the Carolina Headache Foundation.
“I am incredibly honored to serve as the next Dean of the College of Business and Economics at Towson University,” said Dean Mishra. “I am especially excited to work with President Perreault, Provost Cooper, colleagues at the college and my fellow deans to ensure student success and make alumni proud.”
Dr. Mishra’s impressive career in academia includes published research in many leading management, healthcare and medical journals, with 16,000+ Google Scholar citations to-date, and his work is regularly profiled by leading news outlets. He has served as an associate editor or editorial board member of leading several research journals, and currently is on the board of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Dr. Mishra is also the coauthor of three books on leadership.
Dr. Mishra earned his A.B. cum laude, in economics, from Princeton University. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in business administration from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, he worked for the General Motors Corporation as a manufacturing engineer and human resource specialist.