Meet the New Faculty Helping to Shape Babson’s Students
There are a lot of new faces on campus, and it’s not just the Class of 2027.
This academic year, Babson College welcomes 15 new faculty members across disciplines and divisions. They are helping students launch their Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) businesses and expanding our liberal arts and science and sustainability curriculum. They are building on work they have done as adjunct professors at Babson, and some are even alumni, exploring a new role within our community.
What do they all have in common? They are eager to help develop entrepreneurial leaders across divisions. They want to help Babson students explore career paths and become even more successful, and they want to see the new places their own research can go, too.
It’s an exciting, and excited, bunch. Get to know our newest cohort of educators below.
What They Teach
John J. Ashburne, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice in Finance
“I am teaching an undergraduate course, Corporate Financial Modeling and Decision Tools, which I taught during my time as an adjunct. This is an upper-level course that teaches advanced Excel modeling skills, financial statement analysis, and valuation techniques for students interested in working for investment and commercial banks, and asset management companies.”
Matthew Cummings, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice in Accounting & Law
“I mainly teach Business Law and Ethics. Similar to law school, students are taught about the law and how to use critical thinking to apply legal and ethical principles to real-world business problems. We go over some of the most popular cases taught in law schools and prepare students to take proper steps to limit liability and recognize when something in their careers could become a major legal or ethical issue before it could be too late.”
Mary Durkin, Assistant Professor in Accounting & Law
“I love teaching the introductory undergraduate financial accounting course to our new students because I have the potential to spark an interest in (or even love of) accounting. I enjoy the challenge of making the subject matter more attainable while creating an energetic and welcoming classroom environment. I believe a key role of the instructor is to motivate the students’ interest and curiosity for the subject matter.”
Farbod Farhadi, Associate Professor in Mathematics, Analytics, Science, and Technology
“I will teach courses in the data analytics field, where students learn how to ask scientifically correct questions, and how to answer questions scientifically, using data. In my courses, students will learn to build models to predict future outcomes of probabilistic events and will learn the ethical and responsible frameworks of analyzing and reporting data.”
“I enjoy the challenge of making the subject matter more attainable while creating an energetic and welcoming classroom environment. I believe a key role of the instructor is to motivate the students’ interest and curiosity for the subject matter.”
Mary Durkin, Assistant Professor in Accounting & Law
Asiel Sepulveda, Assistant Professor in Arts & Humanities
“I teach classes in the history of art and visual culture. My classes teach the building blocks of visual communication through the study of painting, sculpture, and architecture. This fall, I am teaching Art as Visual Language. The class offers students an opportunity to survey world artistic traditions through experiential learning, such as guided visits to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and local architectural landmarks.”
Vicky Zhu, Assistant Professor in Mathematics, Analytics, Science, and Technology
“My class, Predictive Business Analytics, provides a ‘big data’ scope to understand insightful business problems. Through a hands-on implementation of some predictive machine-learning algorithms in modern technology, students will develop quantitative literacy and communicate their analyses to the stakeholders effectively.”
What Excites Them About Babson
Alvaro Boitier, Assistant Professor in Economics
“At Babson, I’m committed to inspiring students to engage with the fields of macroeconomics and finance, with the aim of nurturing innovative ideas that have positive ripple effects on society. Additionally, I’m passionate about advancing my research pursuits, which revolve around investigating the complex connections between corporate hedging and the propagation of international shocks.”
Nicole Heron, Assistant Professor in Accounting & Law
“From a teaching perspective, working in a collaborative environment that allows me to try out new ideas in the classroom while working with highly engaged and motivated students is inspiring. I’m looking forward to diversifying my research agenda by taking advantage of different data sources and interdisciplinary collaborations possible at Babson.”
Kerri McKeever ’02, MBA’09, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice in Finance
“As an undergrad and graduate alumni, I am psyched to be back in the Babson community. Babson’s innovative and collaborative environment sets students up for success, and I’m excited to learn from my colleagues and help students see all the opportunities within finance.”
Houman Oliaei, Assistant Professor in History & Society
“The collaborative environment and emphasis on experiential learning are a perfect fit for my teaching style. I look forward to guiding students as they grapple with complex social issues, think critically about culture, and gain practical skills for understanding diverse perspectives.”
Ben Spigel, Visiting Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship
“This is the best place to be an entrepreneurship educator, bar none. I’m excited by the opportunity to develop my skills as a teacher and work with other world-class educators. I’m teaching FME. Speaking with my students this year, the opportunity to take this class and learn about entrepreneurship as they build their own business was one of the biggest draws of choosing Babson over their other options.”
What Expertise They Bring
Mariel Gruszko, Assistant Teaching Professor in History & Society
Mariel Gruszko’s extensive research on cultural anthropology, activism, urban planning, and alternative economies will guide her teaching as she leads anthropology and social science courses on mutual aid, anthropology, and science fiction. That expertise includes how democracy and urban design are connected and how they both influence sustainability and urban planning.
“This is the best place to be an entrepreneurship educator, bar none. I’m excited by the opportunity to develop my skills as a teacher and work with other world-class educators.”
Ben Spigel, Visiting Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship
Shannon Mooney, Assistant Teaching Professor in Arts & Humanities
“My research and teaching expertise is in not only literature but also television, film, and popular culture. I study how identities are constructed through literary and cultural texts, and I’m excited for the opportunity to teach multimedia-based courses that encourage students to critically examine and analyze constructions of racial, gendered, and class-based categories.”
Robert Schultz, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship
“I’m a social entrepreneur and believe in the power of entrepreneurship to change the world. Besides teaching entrepreneurship and (hopefully) inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs, I’m excited to connect students, alumni, and faculty to real-life off-campus opportunities where we can create value. This is my third year teaching FME at Babson. I’m proud to be part of the faculty at the No. 1-ranked program teaching the hallmark course where students are first introduced to Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® (ET&A™) framework.”
Jason Wong, Assistant Professor in Economics
“I’m most excited to continue my research on the economics of connectivity and deepen my experience in running competition-based learning experiences for sustainable entrepreneurship and the circular economy. I’m so impressed with Babson students’ engagement in the classroom, and so first and foremost, I’m looking forward to building close relationships with my students.”
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