2:00 PM - 6:00 PM Conference Registration
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM MABDA Board and Officers Meeting
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Cocktail Reception
Sponsored by BoodleBox
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM Breakfast
Sponsored by QuantHub
7:30 AM - 10:00 AM Conference Registration
8:30 AM - 8:45 AM Welcome Remarks
Melissa Gruys, Ph.D., President, MABDA 2026; Dean, Cleveland State University Monte Ahuja College of Business
Jennifer Percival, Ph.D., Vice President & Conference Chair, MABDA 2026; Dean, Bowling Green State University Schmidthorst College of Business
8:45 AM - 8:50 AM Sponsor Moment
Dow Jones / Wall Street Journal
8:50 AM - 9:35 AM AACSB Presentation
Libby Rozell, Regional Head of the Americas, AACSB International
9:35 AM - 9:50 AM Innovation in Business Education Awards - Winner 1
Terry Daugherty, Ph.D., Dean, University of Akron College of Business
9:50 AM - 10:20 AM Eduvantis Presentation
Emily McMahon, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing, Eduvantis
10:20 AM - 10:40 AM Refreshment Break
Sponsored by Eduvantis
10:40 AM - 11:35 AM Dean Panel: Leading in a Time of Change - Real Problems and Real Solutions
Sonia Dalmia, Ph.D., Dean, Governers State University College of Business; Director, GSU Supply Chain Innovation Center & Business Incubator
Michael J. Mazzeo, Ph.D., Judy and Jerry Kent Dean & Knight Family Prof. of Economics, WashU Olin Business School
Chuck Pierce, Ph.D., Dean & Professor of Management, Oakland University School of Business
11:35 AM - 11:50 AM Innovation in Business Education Awards - Winner 2
Nodir Adilov, Ph.D., Dean & Professor, Purdue Fort Wayne Doermer School of Business
11:55 AM - 12:00 PM Sponsor Moment
WIBE
12:05 PM - 1:15 PM Luncheon
Sponsored by Bloomberg.com
1:20 PM - 1:25 PM Sponsor Moment
AristAI
1:25 PM - 2:10 PM Industry Panel
Munu Gandhi, President, Xerox IT Solutions; Chief Technology Officer, Xerox
Wendy S. Garvin, Executive Vice President, NASBA
Monica Lopez, Founder & Principal HR Consultant, LumenX Inc.
Clancy Ryan, Director, Covetrus
2:10 PM - 2:25 PM Innovation in Business Education Awards - Winner 3
Laurie Miller, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Curriculum & Professor of Practice Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business
2:25 PM - 2:45 PM Refreshment Break
2:45 PM - 4:45 PM Break Out Table Topics
Conversations on Today's Hot Topics
4:45 PM - 6:30 PM MABDA Annual Business Meeting & Reception
Sponsored by AristAI
6:30 PM Dinner on your own in Chicago!
8:00 AM - 8:30 AM Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM - 8:35 AM Sponsor Moment
Executive Education Advisory Group
8:35 AM - 10:05 AM Gen AI Use Cases
Mark McNeilly, Professor of the Practice, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; Chair of the Provost's AI Committee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Natasha Vijay Munshi, Ph.D., Founder & CEO, Executive Education Advisory Group, LLC
Joel Reynolds, Ph.D., Associate Prof. & Director of Undergrad Programs, Dreihaus College of Business DePaul University
Sean Wheelock, Co-Founder & CEO, Inner Peak AI
10:05 AM - 10:25 AM Refreshment Break
Sponsored by Coursera
10:25 AM - 11:55 AM AI Design Lab: Turning AI into Administrative, Academic, and Strategic Capacity
Presented by: Dr. Tawnya Means, Founding Partner & Principal, Inspire Higher Ed
Format: 90-minute hands-on workshop. Laptop required.
Description:
Most AI conversations in business schools center on classroom and research applications. This workshop centers on the dean's office. Where is AI eating your time, and where could it give it back? What can a dean responsibly hand to AI, and what must stay with you?
Participants will document a recurring workflow from their own office, build a reusable prompt with confidentiality and accreditation defensibility built in, test it on realistic content, and leave with a 30-day plan for who actually runs the workflow going forward. Worked examples include AACSB faculty qualification status mapping, meeting transcripts to follow-up action plans, and curriculum review summaries.
Each participant will receive a 30-day license to BoodleBox, a secure AI platform designed for educational contexts, so the workflows built in the room can be put to work on real institutional content immediately after the session.
You will leave with:
A documented workflow from your own office
Two working prompts tailored to your real recurring tasks
A verification approach that holds up to AACSB scrutiny and personnel review
A delegation plan so the workflow doesn't depend on you running every prompt
A clear list of inputs that should never enter any AI tool
A 30-day BoodleBox license to put it all into practice
12:00 PM Adjourn for Lunch in Chicago and Travel