Gavin takes on associate dean position at B&E

Mark Gavin, who is not new to the College of Business and Economics in any way, took on the new role in the spring 2015 semester of associate dean for Graduate Programs and Research Impact, as well as being a professor of management. 

Gavin now oversees Graduate Programs entirely, which encompasses each master’s program as well as doctorate programs. Gavin also maintains responsibility for the research agenda for the college, facilitating faculty research while keeping focused on the teaching and program delivery that has been such an important part of B&E’s mission.

Prior to this appointment, Gavin was program coordinator of the doctorate program in the Department of Management and Industrial Relations, working to develop the Ph.D. in business administration. And before he came to West Virginia University to push the research culture at B&E, he spent a 16-year stint at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.

“I believe I was brought here, as well as many others at the time about four years ago, in an effort to move B&E forward in the direction of increasing research productivity and the status of our college. While that hasn’t been the main focal point of our work for the past four years, there has been a big shift, and expectations have shifted up. 

“As I look at our college as of the last decade, looking at certainly the amount and quality of research – as indicated by things such as what outlets we’re hitting, the attention that our faculty are getting, how much our research is impacting those beyond us – when you look at those indicators, you absolutely see growth in our research potential and productivity. And we’re not done.”

Gavin is no stranger to leadership in his new position, having served previously as president of the Southern Management Association (SMA), an affiliate of the Academy of Management whose membership consists of roughly 1,000 professors, doctoral students and executives representing more than 200 institutions in 43 states and several countries. SMA awarded gavin last year with the Hunt Sustained Outstanding Service Award, which is presented to an individual who has consistently helped SMA reach its mission of creating value to its members, organizations and society through professional development, high-impact scholarship and teaching. He was also elected dean of the SMA Fellows.

Despite the aforementioned years of experience he has been through, Gavin said that coming into this position definitely put him through a learning curve.

“In this position, I am seeing a side of the University that I had never experienced before – the way things operate, procedures, policies, protocol that I wasn’t privy to. For example, how to navigate the launching of a new program and how much there is to be done for it,” Gavin said. 

What Gavin referred to is the launch of a brand-new master’s program in business data analytics, which was just approved Friday (September 25) by the WVU Board of Governors.

“It has been an absolute goal of mine, in this new position, to see this program launched. We’ve done everything we can to make it happen,” Gavin said. 

The master’s program will be an online program, which, Gavin believes, will likely attract students of different backgrounds than the typical business graduate students.

“This new program is likely to appeal more than a lot of our other programs to people who aren’t necessarily carrying business degrees from an undergraduate perspective. I can easily see this attracting people with computer science, engineering, even statistical backgrounds, more diverse functional areas and undergraduate degrees that we necessarily haven’t seen before as much,” he said. “I believe that will be the real difference, seeing a wider mix of those types of students.”

As far as the existing graduate programs, Gavin emphasized the strength of the programs, and expressed his enthusiasm for working with faculty and staff members who greatly support the college’s new and existing programs, and its students.

“Our programs are extremely strong, and my job is to assist in the continuing success of these thriving programs, and even help some of them realize even more of their potential,” he said. 

“We don’t sit still here at B&E – this is not a place that is stagnant. There is a lot of excitement in the air and we’re constantly seeing ways to improve our already excellent programs because our work is never done here,” he said. “There’s a lot of positive energy that is shared by our students, faculty and staff. It’s a very dynamic place to be.”