“I don’t feel like my career trajectory post-graduation is the norm for an MBA graduate,” Dudash said. “I had to do some soul searching and pursued something different that aligns with my values.”

Before enrolling in ������Ƶ’s MBA program, Dudash worked at Duke Regional Hospital as communications manager, serving as the only communicator on site for the entire hospital and supporting more than 2,000 employees.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped support emergency preparedness efforts, including a command center that operated for months, and later supported community vaccination clinics.

“I learned so much throughout that experience,” she said. “I saw the best of the best and the worst of the worst and saw health care workers give their all.”

As the pandemic unfolded, mentors encouraged her to return to school. A nurse manager would ask her regularly, “When are you going back to school?” Dudash also had two mentors who recommended ������Ƶ’s MBA program.

“She would say, ‘It’s never a good time to go back to school,’” Dudash said. “They encouraged me to take the step.”

For Dudash, the MBA offered the flexibility to build leadership skills while keeping her options open.

“I can apply it across industries,” she said. “I wanted to strengthen my leadership skills and get a broader view of how organizations operate.”

She started the program in September 2020, a decade after graduating from the University of Florida with a journalism degree. Returning to school felt like a significant transition.

“I remember being nervous,” she said. “I was 10 years out of school and didn’t know how it would feel to be a student again.”

Rather than rushing through, Dudash took one class at a time and completed the program over four years, graduating in May 2024.

“I wanted to fully immerse myself in each course and build relationships with my classmates and professors,” she said.

She also described the program as a place where she could participate fully and grow, especially in courses that challenged students to share ideas and respond to feedback.

“It opened up my confidence in pursuing new ideas,” she said. “Your ideas are valid.”

As graduation approached, Dudash began thinking more intentionally about what kind of work would be fulfilling.

That summer became an opportunity to reflect. Dudash leaned into theater, a longtime passion through improv, including teaching improv comedy and pursuing operations work in the arts nonprofit space.

This past year, she balanced roles between Durham arts nonprofit Mettlesome Theater and nationally recognized DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) while also serving as chair of the Meals on Wheels Durham board.

But most recently, she was appointed Mettlesome Theater’s first full-time operations director.

“My ������Ƶ MBA gave me the confidence to say, ‘I want to help with this, and I want to pursue this,’” she said. “My dream job was to be an operations director or executive director of an arts nonprofit, and the program gave me the high-level perspective to lead that work.”

The school improved five spots from last year’s No. 38 ranking.

Among the individual components of the 2026 ranking, ������Ƶ:

• Improved its career outcomes ranking to 18, up from 24 last year
• Ranked 21 among private universities, up from 24 last year

Additional rankings include:

• Maintained its admissions standards ranking at 54
• Ranked 26 in academic experience

The continued rise reflects the school’s focus on preparing students for meaningful careers through hands-on learning, mentorship, and real-world experiences that lead to strong postgraduate outcomes.

“Our continued rise in the rankings reflects the intentional work behind our programs,” said Haya Ajjan, dean of the Love School of Business. “The strength of our career outcomes is one example of how mentorship, hands-on learning, and strong industry connections are preparing students for meaningful careers.”

Poets&Quants for Undergrads compiles its rankings based on school-reported data and . The considers three primary components:

• ������Ƶ Standards: student quality and diversity, including acceptance rates, academic performance and representation of first-generation and underrepresented students
• Academic Experience: how effectively a business school challenges and supports students, based on alumni feedback and major learning experiences
• Career Outcomes: how graduates perform in the job market, including internships, employment rates, and starting salaries

The rankings include 110 business schools and are designed to provide a comprehensive view of undergraduate business education in the United States.

About Poets&Quants

Poets&Quants is led by Editor-in-Chief John Byrne, founder of C-Change Media and former executive editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Businessweek.com and Fast Company. Byrne originated the first regularly published rankings of business schools in 1988 and has authored several business school guidebooks.

The conversation was moderated by Jose Cerecedo Lopez, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.

Niven, who majored in English while at ������Ƶ, now leads the Greensboro-based, family-owned restaurant company founded in 1966 that operates locations across North Carolina and Virginia.

Niven said her path to the restaurant industry was not a straight one. She originally planned to attend law school, but an unexpected opportunity to help rebuild a struggling restaurant changed her perspective.

“A family friend bought a defunct restaurant and asked me to help get it running again,” Niven said. “I quickly realized it was like a mini-MBA. There was nothing she didn’t trust me with. I was running operations, figuring out inventory and even helping with advertising.”

The experience gave Niven an inside look at nearly every part of the business. Within several years, the restaurant had become one of the top-performing locations in the brand.

That early opportunity helped launch her career in the restaurant industry. She later held leadership positions with brands including Krispy Kreme, Burger King and Quiznos before joining Biscuitville in 2011.

Niven said she quickly saw something different in the company’s values and culture.

“What stood out to me was the integrity of the leadership at Biscuitville,” she said. “They source their products locally, make everything from scratch and are committed to doing things the right way.”

That commitment to authenticity and long-term thinking continues to shape how Niven approaches leadership today.

“Culture comes first,” Niven said. “If you want to grow without losing what makes your company special, you have to start there.”

One of Niven’s proudest accomplishments has been helping define Biscuitville’s culture through a set of shared norms developed with employees across the company.

“Until you put your money where your mouth is on culture, you don’t really have a culture,” Niven said. “It only works when leaders are willing to uphold those values consistently.”

Niven also shared advice for students preparing to launch their careers.

“You don’t walk in the door and say, ‘trust me,’” she said. “Trust builds slowly through consistent decisions and actions over time.”

She also reflected on leading through the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that brought significant challenges across the restaurant industry.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Niven said. “But we decided that if we went down, we were going to go down taking care of our team. That meant showing up for our employees and supporting them the best we could, even in the middle of so much uncertainty.”

As the event concluded, Niven encouraged students to think carefully about the organizations they choose to join.

“Interview companies more than they interview you,” she said. “Make sure their values align with yours.”

About Lessons from Leaders

Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small group discussions, and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program helps bridge classroom learning to real-world decision-making and strategy, and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and meaningful career insights.

The co-authored study, “,” published in Organization Management Journal, examines how diversity climates, both within the organization and in the geographical community, influence employees’ ability to think creatively and implement new ideas.

Singh’s research treats diversity as a strategic resource, not a surface-level initiative. Grounded in the Conservation of Resources theory, it argues that inclusion strengthens employees’ sense of meaning at work, which in turn boosts innovation.

Key Findings

• Employees who perceive their organization as supportive and inclusive may be more likely to feel their work is meaningful.
• Innovation isn’t shaped by the workplace alone. The study explores a “community-to-work spillover” effect, examining whether inclusive communities, in addition to organizations, can positively influence how employees perform.
• The relationship between an organization’s diversity climate and meaningful work may be stronger for non-managerial employees. For employees without formal authority, inclusion may play a critical role in how they feel valued and purposeful.

“These findings give students an evidence-based way to think about leading in diverse workplaces,” said Singh. “In my organizational behavior and leadership courses, I use the research to show how inclusion, meaningful work and status dynamics can influence performance and innovation.”

The research was co-authored with Stephanie Solansky at Texas State University San Marcos, Donna Stringer at the University of Houston Clear Lake and Sarthak Singh at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Singh, who joined ������Ƶ in 2017, teaches courses in organizational behavior, human resource management and business ethics. His research has appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business Ethics and Human Resource Management.

The conversation was moderated by Jack Ryan P’17, owner and principal at Jack Ryan Advisory and chair of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business Board of Advisors.

O’Leary leads , an aerospace company developing a blended wing aircraft design aimed at rethinking what commercial aviation can be. In 2025, JetZero announced plans for a at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, projected to create more than 14,500 jobs with an average wage above $89,000.

Ryan opened with a lightning round to introduce the person behind the title.

Favorite place as a kid? “Waterfalls.”
First job? “Paperboy.”
Best part of being a CEO? “Bringing a dream to reality.”
Worst part? “Resistance.”
One word for leadership? “Vision.”

That theme resurfaced as O’Leary reflected on his undergraduate years.

“I wrote my political science thesis that the media will be diffused by technology,” O’Leary said. “We will retreat into echo chambers where we get the information that will reinforce our faith quickly. I received a C-,” he said, because the professor noted there were no citations.

O’Leary credited his liberal arts education with preparing him to move across sectors, from education and sales to automotive, technology and aerospace.

“I’m a huge fan of liberal arts,” he said. “I think you all are making an incredibly wise decision coming to ������Ƶ.”

He told students that a broader education can make it easier to adapt when industries change.

That adaptability became critical when he transitioned from automotive leadership roles, including time at Tesla, into aerospace. He described immersing himself in the industry during JetZero’s early days, dedicating hours each morning to study and spending afternoons and evenings learning directly from seasoned engineers.

“I’d get a quad shot from Starbucks to power up, and from about 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., I was deep in the matrix,” O’Leary said. “At 1:00 p.m., I’d get on the phone or on Zoom with some of the best aerodynamics experts and basically get a PhD in aerodynamics from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., then continue those conversations with experts on the West Coast. That was the first two years of JetZero.”

Throughout the conversation, O’Leary urged students to question assumptions.

“The first principles of business are not settling for, ‘This is the way things are always done,’” he said. “Have the audacity to question why.”

Students asked why JetZero chose Greensboro. O’Leary pointed to workforce potential, infrastructure and alignment of long-term vision across state and local leaders.

“We can’t underestimate the power of a vision,” he said.

He also encouraged students to expect setbacks and keep moving forward.

“Buckle up,” O’Leary told students. “You are going to fail at something, and you may as well embrace that.”

As the event concluded, he encouraged students to seek perspectives beyond their own.

“If you want to know the future and predict change for the market,” he said, “have diverse and oftentimes uncomfortable perspectives.”

About Lessons from Leaders

Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small-group roundtables and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program bridges classroom learning with real-world decision-making and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and an actionable career insight.

Suggs shares what he hopes to accomplish in his new role and how ������Ƶ students can benefit.

What was your most recent role with Toyota?

My most recent role was president of Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina, where I led the startup and operations of Toyota’s first in-house battery manufacturing facility in North America, a $14 billion dollar investment. In this position, I was responsible for organizational development, talent cultivation and managing extensive manufacturing operations aligned with Toyota’s long-term electrification strategy.

How would you describe your career path?

My career path has been progressive leadership roles within manufacturing and operations, with a strong focus on people development, operational excellence and continuous improvement. Over time, I have had the opportunity to lead increasingly complex organizations and projects, culminating in launching and leading a transformational manufacturing facility.

I started on the shop floor, so I learned not only how to lead but also how to be brilliant at the basics. My eight years of military service also played a big part in shaping my leadership style and approach to teamwork.

What does serving as an Executive in Residence at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business mean to you?

Serving as an Executive in Residence is a meaningful opportunity to share real-world leadership and innovative manufacturing experiences with students and to help them connect academic learning with practical applications. It also allows me to give back by mentoring, coaching and developing students as they think about their careers, leadership styles and professional goals.

What kinds of conversations and experiences do you hope to create for ������Ƶ students during your time on campus?

I hope to foster honest, engaging conversations about leadership, teamwork and decision making in complex organizations. I want students to gain insight into what it takes to lead large teams, manage uncertainty and balance technical, operational and human challenges in significant business settings.

What perspectives from your work in manufacturing and battery production are you most excited to share with ������Ƶ students?

Battery manufacturing is at the center of innovation, sustainability and global competitiveness. I am excited to share perspectives on building operations from the ground up, developing a skilled workforce, managing risks and leading through change, as well as how manufacturing plays a critical role in the future of mobility.

What advice would you offer students who are interested in leading teams or managing large, complex projects in their careers?

My advice is to put people first with passion, communicate clearly and stay curious. Strong leaders create environments where teams can succeed, learn from mistakes and continuously improve. It is also important to seek out challenges, be patient with your growth and remain adaptable as industries evolve.

Beyond your résumé, what should people know about you and what you enjoy outside of work?

Beyond my professional background, I value family, my wife, Janet, our six children and five grandchildren along with mentorship and lifelong learning. Outside of work, I enjoy playing golf. I have now played in all 50 states and on six continents, which helps keep me grounded and energized. I am also the on my life story, my golf journey and leadership.

Students may reach out to Suggs through . His contact information will be added to the next edition of the Love School of Business newsletter.

Snell oversees Delta’s end-to-end customer journey, including airport customer service, flight service, reservations and customer care, and about 60,000 employees across those divisions.

“This is an awesome place that you are super lucky to be in,” Snell told students. “Take advantage of every moment you have.”

After graduating with a major in economics at ������Ƶ, Snell attended Emory University to complete his MBA. A required internship between his first and second year led him to Delta Air Lines.

“I spent the summer at Delta and traveling around and got kind of addicted to travel, addicted to the industry. And I’ve stayed ever since,” he said.

Snell shared how moments of rejection turned into opportunities. As a student, he tried out for the ������Ƶ basketball team and did not make the roster.

“I was very sad about that,” he said. “It turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me, because I turned that competitive, athletic focus into wanting to do better and improve every year.”

Years later, he was turned down for his first general manager promotion at Delta.

“I ended up getting a different offer six months later,” Snell said. “That led to many more doors opening and opportunities than I ever would have had I accepted the first one. If a door closes, other doors will open.”

Early in his career, Snell tried to map out every step. Over time, he learned that rigid planning can get in the way of growth.

“My best plan for success is to throw out the plan that I created,” he said.

Moving from finance and analytics into operations and customer roles pushed him out of his comfort zone and gave him experience leading across the business.

Snell said that in the commoditized airline industry, Delta has differentiated itself with a model centered on people and reliability.

“Brand loyalty for us really rests on four pillars,” Snell said. “First are our people and the empathy they bring. Second is reliability, getting you there safely and on time with your bags. Third is premium products. And fourth is personalization as we move from a one-to-many model to a one-to-one relationship with our customers.”

Snell said he prefers to think about “augmented intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence and expects AI tools to help speed up airport journeys, support recovery after disruptions and answer routine questions so employees can focus on complex issues.

When students asked what matters most for their own careers, Snell highlighted curiosity, energy, passion, communication and collaboration, and cautioned them not to get stuck simply reporting information in their roles.

“Do not report the news,” Snell said. “Create the news.”

Two phrases guide his approach to leadership and change.

“If I had tattoos, one of them would say ‘speed wins,’” he said. The other is a reminder not to let fear of mistakes stall progress: “Perfection is the enemy of progress. If you wait for anything to be perfect, you will never improve.”

About Lessons from Leaders

Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small-group roundtables, and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program bridges classroom learning with real-world decision-making and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and an actionable career insight.

The program featured three panel discussions on entrepreneurship, leadership and young alumni career journeys.

For Elizabeth Shum ’27, an accounting and finance major from Shreveport, La., hearing those stories in person helped her picture what her own path might look like after graduation.

“Hearing the panelists talk about their career paths and challenges was very inspiring,” Shum said. “Their stories about being first generation and always learning reminded me to keep growing and to be intentional in whatever role I am in.”

������Ƶ alumni were well represented throughout the program. Alumni panelists included:

• Entrepreneurship Panel
  • Andy Lund ’96, CEO, Vision Stairways and Millwork

• Leadership Panel
  • Kathie Niven ’89, president and CEO, Biscuitville
  • Kristen Yntema ’95, president and CEO, AuthoraCare Collective

• Young Alumni Panel
  • Taylor Casey ’16, founder, Kahmino
  • Megan Hussey ’20, market development representative, Sazerac

Alongside other regional executives, the alumni spoke about launching companies, leading teams, taking smart risks and learning from setbacks.

“I especially connected with the Young Alumni Panel,” Shum said. “Hearing graduates only a few years ahead of me, especially Megan Hussey’s path from the Carolina Hurricanes to the beverage industry, made it easier to picture my own next steps. It showed me I can stay curious, say yes to opportunities and carry my strengths into different fields.”

The event was hosted by Rich Nowalk ’97, chief strategy officer, and Courtney Humphrey, CEO at Opex Technologies.

Poets&Quants, a leading publication focused on undergraduate business education, selects just 50 professors each year from more than 1,000 nominations submitted by students, alumni, colleagues and school leaders around the world. Professors are chosen for their impact on students, contributions to their disciplines and distinctive approaches to teaching and mentoring.

For Akben, who joined the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business in 2022, the recognition reflects both what happens in his classroom and the work he leads across campus as ������Ƶ’s director of artificial intelligence integration.

“Mustafa represents the future of business education at ������Ƶ,” said Haya Ajjan, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. “He advances AI research, helps our community use these tools thoughtfully and ethically, and creates learning experiences that build confident, compassionate leaders. This recognition reflects what our students already know when they step into his classroom.”

Akben teaches Principles of Management and Organizational Behavior and Human Resources for Competitive Advantage, courses that introduce students to foundational management concepts and the realities of leading people at work.

His classes are designed to feel more like labs than lectures. Students may find themselves working through an escape-room style challenge to practice teamwork, building and selling cardboard “houses” to see how organizations coordinate across roles, or pitching final projects to local leaders in a Shark Tank style event.

“My classroom is a place where students experiment, reflect and grow,” Akben said. “There is no textbook for life or work. You must improvise and use critical and creative thinking to find an answer, and watching students grow into that mindset is one of the greatest joys of teaching.”

Akben’s research focuses on generative AI, managerial cognition and organizational psychology. He studies how AI tools influence creativity, proactive behavior and decision making at work and how organizations can design human and AI partnerships that bring out the best in both.

Beyond his teaching and scholarship, Akben serves as ������Ƶ’s director of artificial intelligence integration, helping academic and administrative units develop responsible AI strategies and hands-on learning experiences for students.

Before entering academia, Akben worked as a general manager in Turkey and completed mandatory military service.

“Those experiences made it impossible for me to treat leadership as abstract theory,” Akben said. “Leadership is never just about performance metrics. It is about people’s lives, and that realization is what guides my research and my teaching today.”

He went on to earn an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University. His work on social networks and information sharing has earned recognition including a Best Paper Award from the Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division of the Academy of Management. He is also a two-time award recipient in the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s Machine Learning Competition for his AI-based workplace solutions.

“I am grateful for the colleagues, mentors and students who have shaped my journey, and for my family, who believed in me not just as a professor but as a person,” he said. “This honor belongs to all of us who care about making leadership and work better for the future.”

Guided by faculty and Associate Dean Margarita Kaprielyan, teams focused on supply chain, legal, human resources and innovation. Each group had 15 minutes to respond to a real-world scenario, draft questions for the other teams and then refine their thinking before sharing their assessments.

“We wanted students to feel the complexity of decision-making and the collaborative nature behind it, not just read about it in a textbook,” said Kaprielyan. “Hearing Mr. Suggs respond directly to their questions highlighted how teams across different functions work together and how the concepts they study connect to real projects, real people and real organizational dynamics.”

Suggs, former president of Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina and a longtime manufacturing leader with Toyota, listened as teams talked through issues such as environmental impact, safety standards, career pathways and supply chain constraints.

“Think about your internal impact and then the external impact,” Suggs told students. “You have to protect the people who work inside your facility and remember that your neighbors are paying attention to what you do in their community.”

After the case study exercise, Suggs shared his own leadership journey, from growing up in Baltimore and serving in the U.S. Army to starting on the shop floor at Toyota and rising through roles in quality, production, human resources and strategic planning.

Throughout his talk, Suggs emphasized courage, authenticity and continuous learning as essentials for what he calls “catalyst leaders.”

“Great leaders are always looking for a better way,” he said. “You cannot do that alone. The team is the most important if you want to get big things done.”