Kesner Named Dean of Year

Business education website Poets & Quants has named Indiana University Kelley School of Business Dean Idalene “Idie” Kesner its Dean of the Year. Kesner, the first woman to lead Kelley, became dean in 2013.

Kesner is the ninth person, and only the second woman, to receive the honor. The site applauded Kelley’s initiative to increase the enrollment of women and students from underrepresented groups, as well as develop a more diverse faculty. 

Other deans who received the recognition represent Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, the Harvard Business School, the Yale School of Management, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. 

According to IU, undergraduate female enrollment has grown by 94 percent during Kesner’s tenure as dean. Undergraduate underrepresented minority enrollment has risen by 144 percent. 

“Through more than seven years as dean, she has made smart bets on the future of business education by leveraging the school’s early leadership in online learning,” Poets & Quants editor John Byrne said in an article announcing Kesner’s selection. “For an academic, she has made bold and innovative investments to serve the needs of her students.”