Freedman selected as dean of the William S. Spears School of Business

Friday, January 27, 2006

Dr. Sara M. Freedman, dean and professor of management in the College of Business and Industry at Mississippi State University, has been named the 17th dean of the William S. Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.

Her appointment was approved and announced during the Jan. 27 OSU/A&M Board of Regents meeting in Muskogee.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Freedman has accepted our offer to become dean of the William S. Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University,” said OSU System CEO and President David J. Schmidly. “With her leadership ability and extensive experience, we look forward to this already outstanding school becoming even more recognized across the nation.”

Before accepting the deanship at MSU, Freedman served as dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Houston for three years and was associate dean for Academic and Research Programs for 10 years. She joined the faculty at Houston in 1976 and received the College of Business Administration Distinguished Faculty Award in 1985.

She was also a Teaching Fellow and research assistant at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from 1972-76 and was a Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in 1974.

She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston University and her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the College of Business Administration.

Freedman served as president of Beta Gamma Sigma's board of governors for two years and is on the board of directors of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. She is a former president of the Southwest Business Deans’ Association and of the University of Houston’s Women’s Network and was on the board of governors of the Academy of Management.

She is the author of numerous publications and has presented papers nationwide. She has served as an associate editor and on the editorial board of “Academy of Management Executive,” and was on the editorial boards of the “Journal of Applied Psychology” and the “Journal of Management.”

She holds memberships in the Academy of Management, Southern Academy of Management, Southwest Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, Southern Business Administration Association and Southwest Business Dean’s Association.