WPI may be best known for its engineering power, but Debora Jackson is putting the business school on the map in the region and, most recently, across the world with its newest program in partnership with a university in Nigeria, announced in April.
Jackson took over the top leadership role at the business school in early 2021 after serving on the WPI board of trustees since 2012, and she has been full steam ahead in developing WPI’s uniquely technology-focused business school.
The partnership between WPI and the Nigerian University of Technology and Management will make WPI business analytics courses accessible to students at the Lagos university to catalyze the region’s economic growth. Under Jackson’s leadership, the business school has already established a successful program with FLAME University in Pune, India, a partnership allowing for resource sharing in finance, operations, and supply chain research, and an opportunity for student exchanges.
Closer to home, the business school launched a new accelerator AMP! (Advisors, Mentors, and Partners), an entrepreneurship accelerator out of the business school’s business development lab. The lab supported 22 startup companies throughout this academic year.
How should professionals best use the power they wield? “To make a difference for others. Luke 12:48 says, ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ When you have been given the opportunity to wield power, it must be used to lift others and make the world a better place.”
No cooking necessary: Jackson loves chocolate chip cookie dough, but not chocolate chip cookies.
