Tag: Mitzi Montoya

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Impact at Work highlights student success

Oregon State University President Ed Ray and Sara Hart Kimball Dean Mitzi Montoya both noted the challenges and importance of accessing higher education May 2 during the College of Business’ Impact at Work event at the Portland Hilton and Executive Tower.

The reception and dinner, attended by 150, were aimed at honoring scholarship recipients and the donors who help fund their education.

Student success is a top initiative of both the college and the university. Ray pointed out that young people who grow up in families in the lowest quartile of income distribution have just a 9 percent chance of accessing higher education — that’s a better chance than 40 years ago, but only 3 percent better, and he and Montoya are determined to speed up the rate of improvement.

Montoya, who was a second-generation college student in her family, noted that when someone can break through and become the first person in his or her family to graduate from college, it changes the family for the better for generations.

Other speakers included Presidential Scholar Annemarie Lewandowski, a senior in management who will go to work for Boeing as a project manager following graduation, and Dean’s Council of Excellence member Ken Thrasher, former chief executive officer of Fred Meyer.

Lewandowski expressed gratitude for being able to graduate debt free, and Thrasher noted how he hadn’t planned on going to college until his mentor, legendary Portland businessman Bill Naito, helped make it possible — with the proviso that he work hard, do well and then similarly help others someday.

The evening also included recognition for six high school juniors selected for the College of Business’ Future Business Leader Scholarship.

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A quick look back at 2015’s top stories

Welcome to 2016 at the College of Business, and we wish all of you the greatest successes in the year ahead.

But before we all get too immersed in the coming 12 months, here’s a quick look back at the top 10 highlights the college experienced in 2015. In no particular order (we’ll leave the rankings to you), here they are:

— Guest speaker lineup that includes design-thinking guru Barry Kudrowicz, international business CEO and ethicist Joe Lobbato and Israeli diplomat Ido Aharoni entertains and enlightens Austin Hall audiences.

— Online/Portland hybrid MBA program produces first class of graduates.

— Seaweed that tastes like bacon, the subject of an MBA student group’s integrated business plan, takes the nation by social media storm (the celebrated plant is known as dulse).

— Business Expo packs every floor of Austin with potential employers.

— Change in leadership atop the college as Mitzi Montoya takes over as dean following Ilene Kleinsorge’s retirement.

— COB students organize, stage TEDxOregonStateU, which packs the LaSells Stewart Center for a night of “Disruption.”

— OSU students dominate Duck counterparts in Civil War Shark Tank.

— Celebration of Excellence crowns new Hall of Famer (Stephen Bailey) while honoring college’s best and brightest.

— Oregon State Investment Group contingent meets “King of Private Equity” Stephen Schwarzman during annual trip to New York.

— Marketing professor Jim McAlexander receives KEDGE Business School’s “20 Years On” research prize for his 1995 ethnography on Harley-Davidson consumers. The prize recognizes research that has “paved the way for significant development within a field or a scientific approach.”

Best of the rest: COB alum Jaymes Winters serves as the kickoff speaker at the opening of the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center; OSU Advantage Accelerator continues work with entrepreneurs, startups; employers fill loge level at Reser Stadium to network with students.

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Popcorn, iPad greet COB newcomers

On a sun-drenched afternoon already full of good cheer and start-of-the-school-year enthusiasm, Kelsey Walker of Philomath received an extra boost Wednesday afternoon when Dean Mitzi Montoya announced her as the grand-prize winner of the annual College of Business Popcorn Social’s taste-test contest.

Walker, a sophomore transfer from Linn-Benton Community College, was the only contest entrant to correctly identify all four flavors used to enliven the popcorn offerings: Coffee, dill, ketchup and pumpkin pie.

Her prize: an iPad mini.

“This is quite a welcome,” she said. “More than a welcome.”

Walker was joined by dozens of her fellow first-year COB students – of whom there are more than 600 – as well as college faculty and staff on Austin Hall’s north plaza for an hour of refreshments, mingling and games.

This school year, which starts Thursday, marks the college’s second year in Austin Hall. Austin’s neighbor to the north, the Learning Innovation Center classroom building, makes its debut Thursday; together LInC and Austin combine for arguably the most technologically integrated, innovatively designed, collaboration-focused 1-2 punch on the OSU campus.

After announcing Walker’s victory, Montoya wished all of the incoming students well on their first day of class at Oregon State and looked forward to the college helping them join the ranks of Beaver alumni “in the very near future.”

 

 

 

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COB welcomes dean, starts new chapter

Mitzi Montoya.
Mitzi Montoya.

Six dozen faculty and staff from the College of Business got together on the fourth floor of Austin Hall on Aug. 31 for an hour-long reception for the college’s new Sarah Hart Kimball Dean, Mitzi Montoya.

Montoya, who comes to Oregon State from Arizona State University, officially began her role at OSU just a few hours before the welcome event, which took place outside the dean’s suite.

Grateful for the comparatively cool weather that greeted her arrival in Corvallis, while also noting that she’s aware much chillier, and wetter days, are just around the corner, Montoya was all smiles as she visited with new colleagues from throughout the college.

At Arizona State, Montoya was vice president and university dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Before going to ASU, she worked for 15 years at North Carolina State University, where she held the Zeinak Chair in Marketing and Innovation in the Poole College of Management. She also founded and led the Innovation Lab, a collaborative effort between different NC State colleges and private industry.

Montoya replaces Ilene Kleinsorge, who retired in June, as the College of Business dean.

Montoya took time to visit with seemingly everyone in attendance.
Montoya took time to visit with seemingly everyone in attendance.