Bio: FIU’s College of Business Administration is South Florida’s business education leader with unique expertise in international business, entrepreneurship, information technology and a broad range of financial service industries. It serves approximately 6000 undergraduate students in its Landon Undergraduate School of Business, more than 1150 graduate students in its Chapman Graduate School of Business and about 1000 business executives in its professional and executive education programs.
Under Dean Elam’s leadership (1997-2007), the College has been transformed from a conventional undergraduate teaching school to one of the world’ leading international business schools. Capitalizing on the school’s hub international business and trade location in the Miami area, she supported the development of a strategic focus on expanding the school’s research and teaching expertise to link South Florida to Latin American and the world economy.
US News and World Report currently ranks the FIU undergraduate business program as one of the ten best in the nation and its graduate international business program among the top twenty. Meanwhile Business Week includes FIU among the top 25 public business schools. The school also ranks among the top ten nationally for Hispanic and Latino students.
After her success in directing the FIU Executive MBA program that included two-week residencies in India, China, Singapore, Australia and Europe, Dr. Elam’s assumption of the deanship was associated with internationalizing the curriculum throughout the college and building its graduate school. Among the College’s recent accomplishments are:
- Launching a full-time International MBA Program
- Establishing the Chapman School of Business
- Redesigning the Master of International Business program to include an MIB/MBA track and partnerships with 24 schools around the world
- Offering graduate programs in Jamaica, Bolivia, Germany and the Dominican Republic
- Designing a Global Executive MBA program including residencies and online classes
- Launching a unique Master of Science in International Real Estate
- Obtaining continuing grants to support the college’s CIBER
- Obtaining grants and gifts to establish a global entrepreneurship center
- Obtaining grants for the college’s Knight Ridder Center for Excellence in Management, including assistance and training to farmers in Honduras and Guatemala and distance learning for senior level officers studying at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, DC
- Putting greater emphasis on global logistics in the College’s Ryder Center for Supply Chain Management
- Expanding an already strong cadre of international business faculty (including three new faculty members in 2006-2007, whose focus is primarily in international business)
Dean Elam was instrumental in helping FIU students establish the first national chapter of the International Business Honor Society, which since has led several Global Leadership and Service projects to Bangkok, Thailand and Guatemala City. Members of the honor society recently launched an online undergraduate international business journal, the Journal for Global Business and Community.
Dean Elam’s professional activities include significant research and publication activity in her discipline (management information systems), serving on AACSB review teams for institutions around the world, and membership of several public and non-profit positions, both at state and international levels, including the presentation of her study about women-led business in Florida at a recent conference in the United Arab Emirates.
After completing her undergraduate and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Elam was Assistant Professor at the Wharton School and a Marvin Bower Fellow at the Harvard Business School. She also taught at her alma mater prior to joining the FIU faculty in 1990 as a chaired Professor of Management Information Systems. She directed the College’s executive MBA program for three years prior to assuming her current duties as Executive Dean in 1997
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Joyce J. Elam is an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of International Business as the recipient of the 2007 AIB Fellows International Educator of the Year Award.
Last Updated: June 2007