Academic Affairs News
From the Provost
February 13, 2012

Dear Clark community,
 
I am very pleased to announce that we now have a new Dean Designate for the Graduate School of Management (GSOM). Catherine Usoff, currently Professor at Bentley University, will assume the position of Dean on June 1, 2012.
 
Catherine brings three key assets to Clark. She is an experienced and successful program builder. While at Bentley she was the founding Chair of the Information & Process Management Department, which she chaired from 2006 until 2011. She launched the joint undergraduate Finance/Accounting major, which has become one of the most popular majors at Bentley and spearheaded a cohort MBA program and its centerpiece Business Process Management course.
 
She brings a wealth of experience in developing relationships with corporate partners. The Business Process Management course involves teams of students working on “real world” projects with corporate partners. While at Bentley she has worked closely with over 65 such projects involving more that 30 partners sponsored by prominent companies, including Fidelity Investments, Genzyme, EMC and Children’s Hospital Boston.
 
She has a highly honed collaborative approach to bringing constituencies together. This is shown in her success building programs and developing corporate relationships. But it also is immediately evident on meeting her. I am very much looking forward to working with Catherine in the days and months and years to come.

I am really excited that we have brought this search to a successful conclusion. I want to thank all those who helped in the search process, including members of the Search Committee: Andrea Aiello, Adam Brissette, Frank Crocetti, Bill Fisher, Laura Graves, Rich Spurgin; the staff and faculty in GSOM who arranged for multiple campus visits and provided invaluable feedback on candidates; and several members of Clark’s Board of Trustees who helped at various stages interviewing candidates, Bob Stevenish Jr., Steven Swain and Jeffrey Siegal.
 
I also want to recognize the tremendous leadership that Professor Joe Sarkis has provided as Interim Dean for two years, 2010-12. Among other things, he has guided the Department through reaccreditation, the site visit for which is later this month, and he has worked with the faculty to develop a new Master’s of Science program in Accounting, which was approved to launch this fall by the Board of Trustees at its last meeting. He has done a superb job continuing to move GSOM forward through this search for the next Dean.