Alison Davis-Blake (born November 5, 1958) was the eighth president of

Bentley University Bentley University is a private university focused on business, accountancy, and finance and located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Bentley moved to Waltham in ...

. Before Bentley, she served as dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. At Ross, Davis-Blake was the school’s first female dean, and at the time of her appointment she was the highest-ranking female dean at any U.S. business school.

Early life

Davis-Blake was born on November 5, 1958 in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. She grew up in the

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

area of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. Her father was a professor of information systems at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Davis-Blake received her B.S. in Economics (summa cum laude and with highest (University) honors) in 1979 from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

. After working at

Touche Ross Touché, Touche, Latouche, La Touche, or de la Touche may refer to: Sports * Touché (fencing), French for "touched", a term used to acknowledge a hit Arts and entertainment * ''Touché'' (Hush album), by Australian band Hush, 1977 * ''Touch� ...

, she earned a M.O.B. from the University's

Marriott School of Management The Marriott School of Business is the business school of Brigham Young University (BYU), a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and located in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1891 and renamed i ...

in 1982. In 1986, she received a Ph.D. in

Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself".Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995) ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Career

In 1990, Davis-Blake was hired by the

McCombs School of Business The McCombs School of Business (McCombs School or McCombs) is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. In addition to the main campus in Downtown Austin, McCombs offers classes outside ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

as an associate professor. She was promoted to Chair of the Management Department, and in 2003 became the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In 2006, Davis-Blake was appointed as Dean of the

Carlson School of Management The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...

at the

where she remained through June 2011. On February 14, 2011, it was announced that Davis-Blake would become the new Dean of the

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, succeeding Robert J. Dolan. Davis-Blake served as Dean from July 1, 2011, to July 1, 2016. She was succeeded by Scott DeRue. On July 1, 2018, Davis-Blake became

's eighth President and its second female President after

Gloria Cordes Larson Gloria Cordes Larson is a prominent lawyer, public policy expert, and business leader. Larson was named president of Bentley University in 2007 and served in that role until June 2018. She was the seventh president of Bentley and the first woman ...

.Krantz, Laura
"Bentley chooses new president"
''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', Utah, 6 February 2018. Retrieved on 7 August 2019. She stepped down in June, 2020. Davis-Blake's academic service included editor positions with both the

Academy of Management Review The ''Academy of Management Review'' (AMR) is a peer-reviewed academic journal on management. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal's 2021 impact factor is 13.865, ranking it 3rd out of 226 journals in the categories "Manageme ...

and

Administrative Science Quarterly ''Administrative Science Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of organizational studies. The journal was established in 1956 and is published by SAGE Publications for the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Manage ...

Personal life

Davis-Blake is married, and has two sons. She is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

References

External links

Bentley profile for Alison Davis-Blake

SSN Author Page for Alison Davis-Blake

Interview with Alison Davis-Blake, April 21, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis-Blake, Alison 1957 births Latter Day Saints from Texas Marriott School of Management alumni Living people Stanford University alumni University of Minnesota faculty University of Michigan faculty Business school deans Women deans (academic) Latter Day Saints from California Latter Day Saints from Minnesota Latter Day Saints from Michigan Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts