Jim Burroughs
In a celebration of dedication and exemplary service, McIntire is proud to announce that Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Eminent Professor of Commerce Jim Burroughs has been awarded the Whit Broome Faculty Service Award for 2025. This esteemed recognition, endowed by Commerce Professor Emeritus Whit Broome, celebrates faculty members who demonstrate unparalleled community and professional service.
As the fifth recipient since the award’s inception in 2021, Burroughs joins a select group of Commerce School faculty who have substantially contributed to McIntire and beyond. The award itself was created by Broome to honor those who, like him, found serving the community both rewarding and fulfilling. He aimed to elevate faculty members who make commendable contributions, reflecting the kind of service he holds dear. Burroughs’s selection signifies his profound impact on all who work, study, and take part in the many learning and networking opportunities at McIntire.
Some sentiments shared by Burroughs’s colleagues offer insight into his remarkable contributions.
“Jim exemplifies the ideals of service at McIntire that the Whit Broome Faculty Service Award represents,” says Professor Ryan Wright, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research. “His unwavering dedication to supporting our students, advancing the mission of McIntire, and enhancing our School through tireless contributions make him uniquely deserving of this recognition. We’re grateful for his leadership and lasting impact.”
Professor Amar Cheema, the School’s Marketing Area Coordinator, emphasizes Burroughs’s mentorship and contributions beyond his immediate responsibilities, including Burroughs’s previous work as Marketing Area Coordinator himself: “In addition to his commitment to students and the School, Jim has made significant contributions to the Marketing Area, serves as a mentor to our junior faculty, and is a wonderful colleague. We appreciate everything Jim does to make McIntire and the University a better place for us all.”
Upon receiving the award, Burroughs expressed the personal significance it holds for him. “Winning the Whit Broome Faculty Service Award is a huge honor for me,” he says. “I have always considered McIntire a very special place, and a big part of that is that everyone works so hard to make a positive difference.”
Reflecting on his various roles at McIntire, which include serving as Director of the M.S. in Global Commerce Program, Burroughs admits that he enjoys that role most—“for a simple reason.”
“I see a direct positive impact, and the reinforcement is immediate,” he says. “It also puts me in close contact with students in many different ways, and at the end of the day, the job of professor is all about developing students.”
Highlighting the culture of collaboration and perseverance at the Commerce School, Burroughs shares, “What really resonates for me is that this faculty and staff have been willing to take on hard assignments and stay at it until they get it right,” he says. Reflecting on his experience working in the early adoption of the curriculum for McIntire’s hallmark Integrated Core, he credits his colleagues for their teamwork and tenacity, as well as for its ultimate success, despite the many challenges that came with its implementation.
“They believed in this approach and were willing to work very hard, which also made me want to work very hard to make ICE the best it could be,” he recalls. Noting that the program he taught in for nearly 15 years is “a real point of differentiation for the School that takes a very unique and dedicated set of people [to succeed],” he says there have been many other similarly impressive examples of “faculty and staff being selfless” at the School but believes that its sense of community is the reason that “McIntire became such a special place.”
Through his many roles—including ICE Team Leader, Area Coordinator, MSGC Program Director, and others—Burroughs has exemplified a deep commitment to his colleagues, his students, and educational excellence. His service and leadership remain vital to McIntire’s distinctiveness and success. As the McIntire community celebrates this achievement, Burroughs is as a testament to the impactful, service-oriented ethos that the award aims to commemorate.
