Kathy Lund DeanFaculty

Arriving at Gustavus in 2012, I am the inaugural holder of the Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics, a position uniquely designed to engage external stakeholders with students, faculty, and program opportunities. My role supports three main strategic focus areas:

• Increase Gustavus’ national and international footprint through scholarship, research-based engagements, and high profile recognitions
• Increase and broaden career readiness through alumni engagement
  
• Increase and deepen opportunities for experiential learning for all students across campus
  

My scholarship activities include staying active in the Academy of Management and I am thrilled to join the newly re-energized Ethics Education Committee for a two year term beginning in 2024. It was through the original EEC where I met my book co-authors Lorraine Eden (Texas A&M) and Paul Vaaler (University of Minnesota); our ETHICIST blogs became a book published in May 2018 (Routledge/Taylor & Francis press) entitled, "The Ethical Professor: A Practical Guide to Research, Teaching and Professional Life." We collated many of the ethical pitfalls that are common to those in our profession, and we offer a workbook-like way of learning about potential ethical issues, discussing them in community, and creating solutions to preserve ethical integrity as academic professionals. The Chinese language edition of The Ethical Professor has been translated by University of Peking press (2022) and we are engaging with colleagues and newer faculty in China.

I continue my longstanding engagement with two experiential education journals (the Journal of Management Education and our 'sibling' publication Management Teaching Review) through editorial review board membership and author mentoring. My co-authored book "Course Design and Assessment" was published in April 2022, from Edward Elgar press. Written as a resource for doctoral students and faculty using engaged learning for the first time, the book reframes learning within experiential learning theory. My co-authors Nancy Niemi (Framingham State University) and Charles Fornaciari (La Salle University) and I walk educators through essential course planning steps, course running steps, and post-course wrap up and assessment steps. My next book is out now in May 2024, "How to Become an Effective Journal Editor in Business and Management A Guide to Developing Authors" also from Elgar Press, distilled from my 20 years of editorial work. Come to find out: assessing individual manuscripts for publication is only a small fraction of the work editors do. Based on my editorial experience, I show in the book how engaging with authors to help them develop their scholarly capacity and skill set lifts research quality across any disciplinary domain. Values-driven and ethically-bound, the book shares lots of practical examples for editors.

Getting Gustavus' brand recognized outside the United States is the focus of many the opportunities I accept internationally. I won a Fulbright Specialist role to assist institutions in countries under-represented in academic scholarship. Many nascent countries struggle to get their faculty's research published in mainstream journals. Whole blocs of voices and perspectives are not being shared in academic research, and my Fulbright work aims to help with that inclusion and equity issue. In May and June 2024, I will be returning to work with business school colleagues at Rikkyo University supported by a Fulbright award, continuing engagements begun in March 2023. I also work with other institutions around the world, such as the University of Canterbury, New Zealand as adjunct professor, and University of St. Andrews in Scotland as honorary professor in the School of Business. I will see those colleagues at St. Andrews again on site in late June 2024 sharing developmental sessions about responding to student feedback, assessing learning outcomes in engaged courses, and discernment through peer coaching. 

Community-engaged scholarship and teaching remain a long-term commitment, and I am thrilled to have been awarded the 2023 Presidents' Civic Engagement Leadership Award for Gustavus, recognized by Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact. Continuing to partner with the City Administrator and the City of St Peter, we present at the annual League of Minnesota Cities conference in June 2024, sharing techniques for early collaborative conflict resolution among city leaders across the state. Teaching the conflict management course and helping others have productive, authentic discussions about difficult topics is one of my passions. Minnesota Nice doesn't always allow for voicing concerns or self-care, and re-framing conflict as a source of relational investment has been transformative for me, students, and those I assist in conflict situations. I am a certified mediator through the National Association of Certified Mediators and a Minnesota Rule 114 qualified neutral, training that deploys a structured, person-centered approach to resolving very difficult issues. I love conflict situations for the possibilities of strengthening relationships and clearing the air that they provide. 

Engaging students in learning about investing and markets is also a passion of mine. I am thrilled to partner with Trustees and other investment experts as advisor to bring student members onto the Board of Trustees Investment Committee, a group charged with actively managing Gustavus' endowment. Engaging with the group of professionals sharing their talents to secure Gustavus' financial future is truly a signature experience for students, and unique among any college or university. I also advise the E. Terry Skone Investment Club here on campus, where students work with a mid-six-figure portfolio invested in a variety of positions, learning strategies for diversification and ways of analyzing potential positions. In 2024, the Skone Club won a Magnuson Leadership & Service Award for its long-term positive impact on learning, outreach, and philanthropy. To date, the Club has donated over $101,000 in scholarship money back to the College.

From a background perspective, I grew up in Chicago on the north side. I found my way to Notre Dame for undergraduate studies. My combined major of French and Business allowed me to combine a liberal arts discipline with practical business learning. My Masters degree from Aquinas College, staffed mainly by senior managers across industries, was a revelation for my managerial skill set, as I was a bank manager and a small business owner during that program. I earned my Ph.D. in organizational behavior and ethics from Saint Louis University, where again the liberal arts combination was at play: the OB degree was from the Chaifetz School of Business while the ethics portion of the degree was facilitated within the Philosophy department. My current research projects include how political culture intersects with local leadership practices, how experiential learning activities require special attention to ethical facilitation and educator skills, and what the future of academic careers may hold.

My latest c.v. from May 2024 is attached below.

Courses Taught