Summer 2020

Office Hours: Always Moving Forward

Professor Nan Langowitz
Listen

Over 28 years of molding entrepreneurial leaders at Babson, Nan Langowitz has become the embodiment of an entrepreneurial leader herself, identifying opportunities and pursuing solutions.

The longtime professor of management was the founding director of Babson’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL), serving in that role from 2000 to 2007. She has been a pioneer in digital education on campus, teaching courses in the Blended Learning MBA program for 15 years. And, since September, she has been the inaugural faculty director for Babson’s Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT).

“I’ve been able to invest at Babson,” Langowitz says, “to imagine changes and create new things.”

The impact she made at CWEL, in particular, endures. Among other things, CWEL has helped increase undergraduate women on campus from 34% to about 50% of the student population and graduate women from 24% to almost 40%.

“I’m pretty proud that a little idea that got started with a group of us 20 years ago has helped the College move forward in that way,” Langowitz says. “It’s done a lot of good for the campus community.”

Now, in her role with CELT, she’s on the front lines of the College’s digital education efforts. Working with the Academic Technology Innovation Center, CELT launched a robust Online Teaching Training Program in June, preparing all faculty for a fall semester that will make all courses accessible virtually, depending on student needs.

“The idea is to really try to give faculty an opportunity not only to learn whatever the next set of tools is that they feel they want to improve on,” Langowitz says, “but also to have a chance to come together and talk with each other about online pedagogy.”

Langowitz knows good teaching is good teaching, regardless of the method. This spring was no exception, when the pandemic interrupted her undergraduate elective, Leadership, but didn’t disrupt the unique opportunity she created for her 41 students.

They worked in groups to develop concepts to create and scale a new Entrepreneurial Leadership Village, the centerpiece of the new Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership. In the last session of the class, students presented their best ideas to President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD and D.R. Widder MBA’99, vice president of innovation, via Webex.

“I was able to use it to get them to think creatively to imagine something that doesn’t yet exist,” Langowitz says. “It was a true entrepreneurial leadership activity.”

The kind she has been creating on campus for 28 years.

“The most important thing to me personally,” Langowitz says, “is how I can help Babson move forward.”

Posted in Community

More from Babson Magazine »

Latest Stories

Three creative business people look at a window filled with post-it notes
What Is Creative Thinking in the Workplace? And How Does It Fuel Innovation and Problem Solving? Creative thinking is one of the most essential skills for the workforce. Here’s why those skills are so important, especially in this era of rapid change.
By
September 12, 2025

Posted in Insights

Babson Alumnus speaks with Babson College students about sales.
How Babson Is Reimagining Sales Education—and Launching Careers Along the Way The Sept. 17 Sales Leadership Summit celebrates Babson’s ongoing growth in sales education and alumni engagement, a winning combination that translated to jobs for two recent Babson alumni.
By
Hillary Chabot
Writer
Hillary Chabot
Hillary Chabot is a writer for Babson Thought & Action and Babson Magazine. An award-winning journalist, she is known for her insightful reporting and dedication to detailed storytelling. With a career spanning over two decades, she has covered a wide range of topics, from presidential campaigns and government policy to neighborhood issues and investigative series. As a reporter for The Boston Herald, Hillary earned a reputation for tenacity and integrity. Her work at Babson College fuels her passions—to learn something new every day and conduct thoughtful, empathic interviews. She’s thrilled to be at Babson College, where students, faculty, staff members and classes provide compelling copy daily.
September 11, 2025

Posted in Community, Outcomes

The field of Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Four Lessons from a Summer Internship at an NFL Stadium This past summer, Ethan Metaferia ’27 served as a stadium operations intern at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Here are four key lessons that he learned.
By
John Crawford
Senior Journalist
John Crawford
A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.
September 10, 2025

Posted in Insights, Outcomes