ABOUT THE DEAN

Message From Dean Russell
"If one thing stands out to me at the Villanova School of Business, it’s the energy. Whether it’s the first day of classes or near the end of finals, there’s a constant undercurrent running through our classrooms, our offices and beyond—and it comes from an intense commitment to our mission and our values.
Developing Business Leaders for a Better World® guides all that we do at VSB, along with a commitment to truth, community, love and service. From our faculty to our staff, students, alumni and partners, there’s a shared purpose that drives us and ultimately leads to great things.”
Profile
Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, serves as The Helen and William O’Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business (VSB) and Professor of Management. In this role, she serves as the chief executive, academic and fiscal officer for VSB and represents the school locally and nationally, to the University community and to all external constituencies, including the business community. The Villanova School of Business boasts numerous top rankings for its undergraduate program and its portfolio of specialty master and MBA programs that serve over 2700 undergraduate, graduate, and executive students. Under Dr. Russell’s leadership, VSB was recognized as the #1 school in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Online Graduate Business specialty programs ranking. During this time, VSB also partnered with KPMG to launch an innovative new Master of Accounting with a focus on Data Analytics.
Dr. Russell was recentley elected chair of the Women Administrators in Management Education (WAME). WAME is an affinity group within the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) that includes women business education leaders such as: female deans, associate deans, assistant deans, program directors, center directors, and academic department chairs and seeks to “transform business schools and business education.”
During her tenure, VSB opened its Laboratory for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research (LAIR), a behavioral research lab that provides a physical space for VSB faculty and students in the fields of marketing, management, and economics to conduct research alongside students. In 2019, under Dr. Russell’s leadership, VSB opened The Gmelich Lab for Financial Markets – a state-of-the-art facility where students and faculty can study and research in an environment parallel to a Wall Street trading floor with greater exposure to real estate, analytics, management information systems and other fields.
Dr. Russell is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion and has launched numerous programs to enhance the diversity of faculty, staff, and students in VSB as well as programs designed for middle and high school girls and diverse students to aspire to education and careers in business.
Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD
2016 - present
Patrick G. Maggitti, PhD
2012 - 2015
James M. Danko
2005 - 2011
Thomas F. Monahan, PhD
1996 - 2003
John A. Pearce II, PhD
1995 - 1996
Alvin A. Clay
1977 - 1995
Rev. Philip F. Barrett, OSA
1962 - 1976
Rev. Joseph C. Bartley, OSA
1922 - 1962