Freedman Selected as Dean of the William S. Spears School of Business at OSU
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 meeting of the Oklahoma
State University/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.”
Prior to accepting the deanship at Mississippi State, 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 the University of Houston in 1976, and received the College of Business
Administration Distinguished Faculty Award in 1985.
She also was a Teaching Fellow and research assistant at the University of North
Carolina 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 at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Freedman has served as president of the board of governors of Beta Gamma Sigma 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 across the nation.
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.