Bringing Entrepreneurs to Campus

"Having entrepreneurs on campus is great, because we actually get to see what we've learned in the classroom being applied in the real world," said Niloo Mirani, describing how she and her fellow MBA candidates benefited from their time with Rick Miller, the founder and CEO of the Avamere Family of Companies, one of the Pacific Northwest's largest senior care and housing providers. As a participant in our Entrepreneurs on Campus program this winter, Miller shared his insights with undergraduates and MBA candidates in a variety of venues--including discussing staffing strategies for startups in an interactive event cosponsored by two student clubs. Real-world learning--a long-held value of the Lundquist College--is about to become even more deeply enmeshed in our culture, thanks to a generous gift from Miller that has enabled us to create the Avamere Professor of Practice at the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. This new, nontenured professorship will let an accomplished practitioner spend two or more years teaching from experience. A search for the college's first professor of practice is currently underway. Read more about the professor of practice in a letter from Dean Kees de Kluyver.