Meet Babson’s New Dean of Faculty: Donna Stoddard
Donna Stoddard P’21 believes in the personal touch.
She has been a Babson faculty member for nearly 30 years, and through those decades in the classroom, she has found joy in teaching and in interacting with students.
Students always have questions, and sometimes those questions extend beyond the day’s lesson. They may want guidance, about their potential career, about their path in life, and that’s where the personal touch is so critical.
“My hope here is that every student should have a faculty mentor, someone they can talk to,” says Stoddard, a professor of information technology management.
That relationship, between a professor and a young person about to set off into their adult life, can be a meaningful one. “A faculty member can change the trajectory of a student’s life,” Stoddard says. “The faculty can make all the difference.”
Stoddard recently was named the dean of faculty at Babson. It’s an important role. The focus of Stoddard’s new job is in the very title itself: the faculty. She will be an advisor, supporter, and cheerleader for Babson’s more than 200 full- and part-time faculty members.
“It is all about the faculty and how I can enable their success,” Stoddard says. “It is a lot of interactions with the faculty, understanding their needs and where we’re headed as a college and the faculty’s role in that.”
In short, the role will require conversations, relationships, and a personal touch, something that suits Stoddard well.
Many Roles
The dean of faculty position is just the latest leadership role that Stoddard has taken on at Babson. Previously, she served as associate dean of faculty, chair of the Operations and Information Management Division, and faculty mentor to a cohort of Posse Scholars, an experience she found particularly rewarding. Stoddard also is a Babson mom—her son, Alvie Stoddard, graduated from the College in 2021.
Through all these many roles and experiences, Stoddard has enjoyed the company of her campus colleagues and admired their commitment to students. “My colleagues are what make Babson special,” she says. “I have worked with so many faculty and staff that work hard to make a difference to our students, and because of that, they are endeared to me.”
As she settles into her new role as dean of faculty, Stoddard will focus on communicating with her fellow professors. Given her knack for the personal touch, Stoddard, perhaps not surprisingly, isn’t the biggest fan of email. Instead, she prefers to meet with people face to face. “I like to talk to people,” she says. “I hope faculty come to my office and talk to me.”
When she talks with faculty members, she can get personal. She wants to know about their plans for their careers, their lives, and their time at Babson. “I want to talk to my colleagues about who they want to become,” she says. “What are their career aspirations? What do they want to experience?”
She thinks of her own career, of how she has served in multiple positions at Babson, of how those diverse experiences informed and inspired her. Having an openness to trying new roles is something she recommends to others. “One thing that has kept me energized has been doing different things,” she says. “You do different things, you learn different things.”
A Voice for Faculty
Stoddard’s role as dean involves making sure that professors are productive in the two most important aspects of their job: teaching and researching. That means ensuring professors, for instance, have the resources they need through the Babson Faculty Research Fund, and the classroom tools and training they require through the College’s Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching.
Teaching and connecting with students have long been something taken seriously by Babson professors. “Teaching is very important at Babson. It always has been,” Stoddard says. “I want to make sure faculty are successful in the classroom.”
“A faculty member can change the trajectory of a student’s life. The faculty can make all the difference.”
Donna Stoddard P’21, Babson’s dean of faculty
She also wants to make sure faculty members are successful in their research. Those two sides of being a professor, teaching and researching, are linked, as faculty members’ work outside the classroom can influence their teaching inside it. “They bring it into the classroom,” Stoddard says. “That is so energizing to our students.”
The dean of faculty position isn’t a new one at Babson, though Ken Matsuno is the last one to hold it several years ago before he transitioned to being the Murata Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College. Now that Matsuno has returned to the ranks of faculty, the College has named not only Stoddard as dean but also Ariel Armony as provost and executive vice president.
Stoddard will report to Armony, who comes to Babson from the University of Pittsburgh, and both will serve on the College’s President’s Council, a gathering of campus leaders. These organizational changes mean that the interests of faculty will be well represented at the council’s meetings. “I’ll have the voice of the faculty,” Stoddard says.
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