Amanda Cowen will become the Interim Dean of the McIntire School of Commerce on July 1, 2025, serving a one-year term. A member of McIntire’s Management faculty since 2007, Cowen is the Arthur B. and Claudia Cohen Bicentennial Eminent Professor of Commerce and has served as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs (2020-2022) and as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs (2022-2025). She holds a doctorate and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and earned her A.B. in Economics from Dartmouth College.
In recent years, Cowen has been instrumental in advancing many transformative programmatic initiatives at the Commerce School. She oversaw McIntire’s strategic shift to expand its hallmark undergraduate curriculum into a three-year program, which now admits UVA students at the start of their second year. She helmed the launch of the School’s 15-credit General Business Minor, offering non-Commerce undergraduates from across the University the opportunity to access fundamental business knowledge. After a two-year program hiatus, Cowen oversaw the relaunch of the Master’s in Global Commerce (MSGC) Program with new partner school ESMT Berlin (the program is currently accepting students for fall 2025). She was also instrumental in the creation of the M.S. in Commerce Program’s unique Biotechnology Track, which bridges the gap between the life sciences and business as well the introduction of Commerce Essentials, a portfolio of self-paced, online micro-courses in core business and entrepreneurship subjects.
An All-University Teaching Award-winning professor, Cowen received the honor in 2017 for innovations ranging from her impactful curriculum design in the first iteration of the MSGC to her significant work supporting students, as well as her efforts establishing and refreshing undergraduate courses with rigor and vision. Cowen has taught courses on international corporate governance, strategy, leadership, and organizational behavior at McIntire, Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government.
As a researcher, Cowen aims to develop socially informed theories that help to explain decision-making and outcomes in corporate governance and strategic leadership. She is especially interested in understanding how key stakeholders interpret and respond to organizational failures or controversies. Her research is published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal (AMJ); Academy of Management Review (AMR); Strategic Management Journal; Journal of Management; Journal of Applied Psychology; and Journal of Accounting and Economics. She was previously an Associate Editor at AMJ and currently serves on the editorial review boards at AMJ and AMR.
