Mary Gowan, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, has been named to The Business Journal of the Triad’s 2009 list of Women in Business, an annual award honoring the region’s most accomplished female leaders in education, law, medicine and industry.
The Business Journal’s Women in Business awards program celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and in a special section published May 1, Gowan is lauded for her efforts to enhance volunteer opportunities for students, expand internship opportunities and bring national business leaders to campus.
Gowan was one of 18 women praised by the newspaper.
A Business Journal profile written by Bart Ganzert delves into the qualities that led university leaders to select her as business dean in 2007. Her “professionalism and passion for change and innovation won her the job,” Ganzert writes, noting that Gowan “has not let the school rest on its laurels.”
Elon University President Leo M. Lambert spoke with Ganzert about that decision.
“You have a gut instinct about ‘the one,’” Lambert said in the profile. “A lot of us had that feeling about (Gowan).”
The full profile is not currently available online but can be found on page B12 of the May 1, 2009, special section in the weekly business newspaper. The award is sponsored by Guilford College and RBC Bank.
Gowan came to Elon after from her position as associate dean for undergraduate programs at The George Washington University School of Business. She joined George Washington in 2002, serving as visiting associate professor and associate professor before being named associate dean in 2005.
Before joining GW, Gowan was associate professor at the University of Central Florida and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has also served on the faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso and University College of Mercer University, and was a visiting professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Additionally, she has taught for the Helsinki School of Economics in South Korea and in Finland.
Gowan began her higher education career in the 1980s working in student life and career services programs, including positions at Mercer University, where she was dean of students in Tift College and a career development specialist.
Gowan has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri, a master’s degree in counselor education from Appalachian State University and a doctorate in business administration with an emphasis in human resources management from the University of Georgia.