With the first day of classes set to kick off on Monday, Darden is embracing both the familiar and the new with a hybrid learning model to start off the school year. Seven new faculty will join the ranks of Darden’s world-renowned professors in leading Darden students through the obstacles and opportunities of the 2020-21 academic year.
Great professors certainly aren’t made overnight. Darden does its very best to comprehensively develop its new faculty by pairing new professors with seasoned faculty who attend mock case discussions to provide coaching, serve as informal mentors and provide a network of intentional support systems.
The new faculty members will fortify Darden’s strengths in areas, including Quantitative Analysis, Communication, and Global Economies and Markets, among others, and help the School grow abilities in the health care arena.
The new Darden faculty members include:
Joe Andrasko (MBA ’11), who joins the Quantitative Analysis area as a professor of practice. Andrasko, who has taught Decision Analysis and finance courses at Darden, was previously the director of investments for the family office Murray Enterprises LLC and is a partner and co-founder of Fry’s Path Capital, a private investment partnership based in Charlottesville.
Max Biggs, who joins the Quantitative Analysis area as an assistant professor. Biggs, who holds a Ph.D. in operations research from MIT, is interested in data-driven optimization and analytics, and exploring how to incorporate machine learning models and insights within operational optimization problems.
Rupert Freeman, who joins the Quantitative Analysis area as an assistant professor. Freeman, who most recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Microsoft, completed his Ph.D. at Duke University in computer science.
Toni Irving, who joins Darden as a professor of practice. Irving was most recently executive director of Get IN Chicago, where she launched and led a $45 million social impact fund. She previously served as the deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois and has been a professor in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame.
Anthony Palomba, who joins the Communication area as an assistant professor. Palomba, who was most recently a professor of communication arts at St. John’s University, has taught classes on data analytics, market research and media management.
Vivien Riefberg, who joins Darden as a professor of practice and as the first to hold the David C. Walentas Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professorship. Riefberg, who retired as a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. in the spring, has been teaching on leadership in health care in the Executive MBA program, and recently co-taught with others on leading in uncertainty in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Felipe Saffie, who joins the Global Economies and Markets area as an assistant professor. Saffie comes to Darden from the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, where he taught courses in international finance and computational methods.
Read the full story on the Darden Report.
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