Monica Adya Named First Woman Business Dean at Rutgers University–Camden

On Jan 13, 2020

The appointment of Monica Adya, a noted business education innovator and a scholar in the area of IT workforce issues, as dean of the Rutgers School of Business–Camden was announced by Phoebe A. Haddon, chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden.

When the appointment becomes effective March 30, Adya will become the first woman to serve as dean of the Rutgers–Camden business school.

As dean, Adya will develop the academic and administrative operations of the Rutgers–Camden business school, which has 1,488 undergraduate and 451 graduate students. Established in 1988, the school has 52 full-time faculty, 49 part-time faculty, and 25 staff members and is the first business school in southern New Jersey to earn international accreditation.

The Rutgers School of Business–Camden delivers a portfolio of programs that promote business growth across a wide spectrum. The Rutgers–Camden Small Business Development Center helps new and potential entrepreneurs in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem counties, while the Rutgers Executive Education unit provides customized training programs for organizations of every size, as well as a comprehensive set of online certificate programs for individuals.

The Daniel J. Ragone Center for Excellence in Accounting at Rutgers–Camden is a prominent regional resource for teaching the next generation of high-performing accounting professionals and serves as a hub for continuing and collaborative education for practicing accountants.

Adya, 53, currently serves as chair of the management department at Marquette University’s business school. In this position, she led the growth of four undergraduate majors and two master’s programs. She developed and launched an online master’s program in supply-chain management and a master’s program in management, as well as a forthcoming interdisciplinary sports management minor.

While at Marquette, Adya has developed programming to help students emerge as socially responsible leaders in industry and in their communities. Her “Project Management” course, offered in collaboration with engineering students at Glasgow Caledonian University (UK) and with systems development teams at the Management Development Institute in India, provided students with multidisciplinary opportunities to develop socially responsible technology solutions. Her capstone course, “Systems Analysis and Design,” provided a service-learning platform that has enabled students to deliver software solutions to assist more than 40 organizations in the Milwaukee area.

She has earned many honors throughout her career, including Marquette University’s Teaching Excellence Award and the Instructional Innovation Award from the Decision Sciences Institute, as well as a special recognition award from the American Council on Education.

Adya’s research consistently appears in peer-reviewed journals that include Decision Support Systems, Information Technology & People, Information Systems Research, and Human Resource Management. She serves as associate editor of the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education and the Journal of Forecasting. Her scholarship has appeared as chapters in books such as Global Women in Computing (Cambridge University Press) and the Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology (IGI Global).

“Dr. Adya is an exceptional administrator and scholar, and an energetic visionary. I am confident that she will help to advance the Rutgers School of Business–Camden as a premier center for education and business development in our region and state,” says Haddon. “At Rutgers–Camden, we believe that effective professional education must provide students with both a solid scholarly foundation and the practical skills to implement that knowledge. Monica Adya has an exceptional record of success in developing the type of programs that will expand opportunities for our students and for Rutgers to advance New Jersey’s business and economic growth.”

Adya affirms that business schools play an increasingly crucial role in shaping and transforming future business leaders who must not only deliver value to their employers and shareholders but also collaborate with stakeholders to uplift their communities and serve the greater good.

“Rutgers–Camden provides business students with the tools they need to be innovative thinkers who creatively respond to disruptive forces,” says Adya. “Our students must evaluate existing practices and environments to identify opportunities for organizational transformation. Most importantly, they must become courageous leaders who are well-informed, inclusive, and ethical decision makers, who can effectively advocate for all, and who can thoughtfully lead and inspire others to be righteous leaders themselves.

“The Rutgers School of Business–Camden is widely respected for its commitment to quality education and transformative student experiences. I am honored to be given this opportunity to lead this school and build on its strong foundation of teaching, scholarship, and civic engagement. I am excited to be working with Rutgers–Camden’s distinguished faculty, staff, alumni, and students, and with the business and civic leaders of South Jersey and the Delaware Valley.”

Adya earned her Ph.D. in management from Case Western Reserve University in 1997, her master’s degree in computer systems management from Creighton University in 1991, and her bachelor’s degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce in India in 1989.

She is married to Neeraj Adya, head of diagnostics at Genmab in Princeton. They have a son, Tanmay, and a daughter Megha.

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