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The World Builder
New board chair D. Ellen Wilson ’79 leans on a big business background and a passion for people to craft a bold new future for Bryant.
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On an immersive tour of Prague and Berlin, graduate students learn about international industry and discover their own potential.
The age of AI is upon us. How is Bryant addressing academic and ethical implications while also preparing students for evolving industry demands?
Editor-in-Chief Casey Nilsson
Managing Editor
Stephen Kostrzewa
Associate Editor Emma Bartlett
2communiqué
University Photographer Pamela Murray
Bryant Editorial Advisory Group
Inge-Lise Ameer, Ed.D., Vice President of Student Affairs/Dean of Students and Chief Diversity Officer
Michelle L. Cloutier, ’05MBA, Vice President for Enrollment
Management
Chuck LoCurto, MBA, Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer
Donna Ng, MBA, Vice President of Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer
Tim Paige, Vice President for Human Resources and Secretary of the Corporation
Rupendra Paliwal, Ph.D., Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Bill Smith, J.D., Vice President of Athletics and Recreation
Edinaldo Tebaldi, Ph.D., Vice President for Strategy and Institutional Effectiveness
David Wegrzyn ’86, P’23, M.Ed., Vice President for University Advancement
Bryant magazine is produced twice-annually by the office of University Marketing and Communications. Questions, comments, or stories to share? Reach the editor at cnilsson@bryant.edu.
For more news from Bryant, visit news.Bryant.edu. To give back to Bryant, visit Bryant. edu/giving.
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Greetings, Bulldogs! Welcome to the relaunch of Bryant magazine. This edition celebrates the heart of our community and spotlights the leaders, changemakers, and innovators who have shaped Bryant University.
One of the most rewarding aspects of being president is interacting with our alumni community. Their stories of transformation at Bryant resonate deeply, and the common thread through our conversations is an enthusiasm for Bryant's future and a desire to deepen their connection to our university. Bryant magazine provides that connection through storytelling and offers a platform for information and engagement as Bryant undergoes its most significant transformation in more than 50 years.
Within these pages are narratives celebrating the achievements of stu-
Photograph by Dana Smith
dents, faculty, and alums, as well as stories charting our bold path forward. So many hands touched this publication, but I especially want to thank the editor, Casey Nilsson, and the Bryant University editorial team for bringing the magazine to life.
Our Vision 2030 Strategic Plan keeps the institution agile, innovative, and student-focused with a top 1 percent return on investment for education while positioning Bryant to be a university of choice for delivering transformative educational experiences — all while preparing students to achieve success on a global scale. I urge you to explore the enhanced opportunities offered by Vision 2030 throughout the magazine.
Turn to page 41 for a glimpse inside the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center. Delve into the details of Bryant's first doctoral program, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.), on page 7. And on page 18, get to know Bryant’s new board chair, D. Ellen Wilson ’79.
I hope these stories inspire you to broaden your participation in Bryant's journey. Whether attending a campus event, mentoring students, or reconnecting at an alumni gathering, we encourage your involvement. Through continued engagement, together, we will realize the goals of Vision 2030 while developing the next generation of purpose-driven leaders.
Warm Regards,
Ross J. Gittell, Ph.D. President
It is exciting to see the enthusiasm and support for Bryant's future from alums all around the world. During my recent travels, I visited with alumni who represent six decades of Bryant graduates who are leaders in finance, technology, and health services.
Last summer, while visiting London, I connected with Jude Addo ’11. I was so impressed by his character and his career in fintech that I invited him back on campus as our first Presidential Executive in Residence (EIR). You can read more about Jude and his visit in the "Impact" section on page 51.
In addition to Jude and Kurt Last ’78, our second EIR, Bryant recently hosted author Ijeoma Oluo, Nobel Prize winner Sir Oliver Hart, Rhode Island's newly elected Congressman Gabe Amo, WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie, and Karen Lynch, president and CEO of CVS Health.
These are just a few examples of enriching events happening at Bryant. I hope you have the chance to visit us on campus or meet up with me on the road sometime soon.
The Spring Teaching Summit, organized by Bryant’s Center for Teaching Excellence, provides an opportunity for faculty to exchange ideas and support one another. Sit in on the conversation as they explore the science of burnout and discuss strategies for cultivating learning environments that foster resilience.
news.bryant.edu/teaching-summit-2024
Relive Commencement 2024 at Bryant, including coverage of the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies in May as well as the Physician Assistant ceremony in March. Plus, read profiles of graduates who’ve made their mark at Bryant, including Odette Mansour ’24, an international student who founded Bryant’s Arab Student Association, and Chris Goulart ’24MBA, a small business owner who leveled up his horticultural career with the university’s Two-Year MBA. news.bryant.edu/commencement
During the spring semester, Bryant's Archway Investment Fund's student-run portfolio topped a record-breaking $3.1 million in valuation. In this deep dive, portfolio managers for the Equity Fund share their top five investments of the spring within their individual sectors. news.bryant.edu/archway-2024
On March 14, Bryant University welcomed more than 1,000 engaged, joyful attendees to the 27th annual Women’s Summit®. Read coverage of keynote speakers, including WNBA All-Star Lisa Leslie, and stories about breakout sessions led by Bryant faculty, including Marketing Professor Stefanie Boyer, Ph.D.’s tips for avoiding the six major conversation mistakes. news.bryant.edu/womens-summit-2024
In April, Bryant’s Management Association surprised local children experiencing serious illnesses with custom-made, full-sized playhouses created in collaboration with local high schoolers and wish-granting organizations.
news.bryant.edu/project-playhouse-2024
Read the latest on Bryant News, which features daily coverage of the Bulldog community — including faculty research, student profiles, alumni stories, major announcements, and more.
Nia Scott ’27, a Communication major who plays on the women’s basketball team, participated in this year’s Innovation and Design Thinking for All (IDEA), Bryant’s three-day design thinking program for first-year students held each January. Here, Scott and her groupmates create a prototype of a physical therapist’s office, which incorporates field and court surfaces to aid athletes in their recovery. The design won first place in their cohort.
“Knowing what I know now about design thinking, I’m able to open up my mind, think outside of the box, adapt, and problem-solve in my classes and even as an athlete.”
—NIA SCOTT ’27
Photograph by Alex Gagne BRYANT | SPRING 2024
Danielle Latty ’24 knows what it’s like to have the odds stacked against you. “My mom and I used to joke that I have three things going against me: I’m an African American, a woman, and I’m also a lefty — the world isn’t made for any of those,” she reflects with a laugh. But she’s working to change that, both for herself and for others.
Throughout her four years at Bryant, Latty, a Politics and Law major, has been an activist, an advisor, a firebrand, and a changemaker. From spearheading a Black Women’s Blueprint conference to ensuring that all voices are heard through serving on the Bryant Senior Advisory Council, Latty has been at the forefront of progress at Bryant.
Driven by passion, she’s worked hard to learn how to channel it into positive change. In her junior year, Latty was asked to serve on Bryant’s Belonging Task Force, where she and the other committee members investigated the issues facing Bryant’s women-identifying students, held focus groups with members of the community to find solutions, and met with university administration to form an action plan.
“I think I was a confident person going into college, but you gain a whole new form of confidence when you're sitting in the room with the university’s cabinet,” she reflects.
Throughout Bryant University’s 161year history, women have played an invaluable role as students, faculty, and staff. In the classroom, on the court and field, and as members of the university community, Bryant’s women have found their voice, made key contributions to the campus, and become the leaders of tomorrow that the world needs.
To watch a video about some of Bryant's changemaking women, visit news.bryant.edu/women-bryant.
This past semester, Latty found a new way to spark important conversations by directing Extravaganza, Bryant’s annual Black History Month celebration of fashion, culture, music, history, and activism. She chose the theme “The Strength of Black Resistance,” she says, to highlight not only the adversity the Black community has faced, but also the joy and resilience they have found throughout that struggle.
As she prepares to attend Washington and Lee University School of Law this fall, Latty is considering a career in intellectual property law, which will allow her to continue to fight for people to receive the recognition, and results, they deserve.
“I was drawn to the law because of the diversity within it,” she says. “Everyone needs a lawyer, so the profession allows me to do anything. The horizons are endless, and that was really important for me because I could be an advocate for so many different people.”
In January, School of Health and Behavioral Sciences Associate Director and Professor of Psychology Joseph Trunzo, Ph.D., became president of the Rhode Island Psychological Association; his primary role is to ensure that psychologists and clinical services throughout the state are well prepared to serve people in need. Below, Trunzo, who is also a practicing clinical psychologist, shares his insights into what’s happening in the field today and what the future could bring.
Technology is enhancing access: “We're currently seeing a tremendous need for broadening access to services. New technology, such as telehealth, has enhanced access. Prior to the pandemic, there were many questions as to how effective providing services that way could be. Post-pandemic, we've found that the model works for certain populations, but not all. We're also seeing a proliferation of self-help apps that companies and individual practitioners have designed to help people — either in conjunction with a behavioral health service or on their own.”
AI’s role in psych should be limited: “I've read articles that say artificial intelligence will replace psychologists, but I doubt that will happen, because so much of the success of good behavioral health services lies in the nature of the relationship between the client and practitioner. Realistically, we need more real human interactions, not less; too much interaction with technology is possibly fueling some of the increased rates of depression and anxiety we see.”
We need to act on the clinical psychologist deficit: “We’re in need of more behavioral health providers and clinical psychologists, which Bryant’s new doctoral program in clinical psychology (Psy.D.) will help to address. The program has two concentrations: one in child and adolescent psychology to help increase the number of providers who can provide services to children and youth, and a second in health psychology to focus on the treatment and prevention for behavioral health and medical illnesses. Our first cohort will be on campus in fall of 2025.”
—Emma Bartlett
—Stephen KostrzewaShe’s also resolved to keep fighting the good fight. “I love when someone tells me I can't do something,” she reflects. “I want to rise to that challenge, succeed, and tell everyone, ‘I'm here, and I'm staying.’”
Photographs by Alex Gagne
Supply chain students tour Edesia production facilities.
As the Bryant students tour the North Kingstown headquarters of Edesia Nutrition, the weight of their assignment is never out of mind — or out of view.
Hung throughout the facility are giant portraits of children who overcame malnutrition with the aid of Edesia’s products. The photos bring home the directive that Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management Chris Roethlein, Ph.D., P’15, P’24, founder and director of the Global Supply Chain practicum, shared during the student team’s first meeting.
“We’re going to have a special metric for this project,” he tells the students assigned to aiding Edesia in its efforts — one of five teams working with different organiza-
tions this semester. “We’re going to measure this project not just in money saved, but in lives saved.”
Through the supply chain practicum, Bryant seniors help real companies solve real business problems — from finding sourcing partners for Tiffany & Co. to examining automation options for Barrett Distribution Centers to streamlining purchasing strategies for Sikorsky-Lockheed. Since 2010, the student consultants have saved their clients more than $256 million.
“Our clients trust our students with their data and trust the way they go about understanding an issue and solving a problem; they also believe in our students and their skillsets,” says Roethlein. “There is nothing more thrilling to
our students than knowing that they have solved an industry problem, contributed to a company’s success, and their client is very happy.”
The course is perfect preparation for the real world because it is the real world, advises Roethlein. “This work will require nothing less than your A game,” he warns the students. He also informs them that failure is not an option.
That maxim is especially true for the students working with Edesia, a nonprofit social enterprise founded by Navyn Salem ’14H. To date, Edesia — which partners with humanitarian aid organizations including UNICEF and USAID — has saved more than 23 million lives with its ready-to-eat, shelf-stable peanut paste that can cure malnutrition in a child in eight weeks.
The recent recipient of a $137 million gift from the Bezos family to help grow the nonprofit’s operations both locally and abroad, Edesia is currently undergoing a major expansion to increase its production
One box of Edesia products saves one life.
capacity. In the meantime, though, they’re looking to the Bryant students for help with planning the transition — because any disruption in production could mean lives lost.
Throughout the semester, the students, aided by a company advisor and Bryant Executive in Residence June Youngs P’26, will create a streamlined inbound/outbound delivery flow that will be more efficient and cost-effective. They’ll also determine cost savings opportunities across the transition plan, including equipment, technology, and training.
It’s a herculean task — and step one involves getting the lay of the
land. That means consulting with the organization’s staff and taking an in-depth tour of the warehouse and production facility led by Operations Project Leader Sarah Rumsey.
Throughout the visit, the students pepper Rumsey and other Edesia staff for information ranging from the exact grant stipulations to the warehouse doorway dimensions to the storage conditions for Edesia’s various products.
For Jose Espinal ’24, the assignment is both logistical and personal: Espinal and his fellow group member, Eduardo Peralta ’24, both came to Bryant from the Dominican Republic, where they witnessed the
hunger and poverty that afflicted neighboring Haiti in the wake of earthquakes and other disasters. “We know how important this work is and all the good it can do — especially for children,” Espinal says.
The tour ends at the site of the temporary warehouse, currently a pristine, echoing shell. “We’re so busy operating in crisis mode that we don’t always have the opportunity to look around and see all the options,” Rumsey notes. “That’s where you come in, we hope.”
Over the next few months, the Bryant students will test everything they’ve learned and discover solutions that could help Edesia save money, and therefore help save thousands of lives.
➔ FROM OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS
“We always look forward to collaborating with Bryant Supply Chain seniors when we have the opportunity. They bring fresh perspectives to the table and are excited to play a role in supporting our mission. These students are the future of supply chain leadership, and we always learn a lot from each other.”
—ANDREW KAMARA, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, EDESIA NUTRITIONPhotographs by Pamela Murray
For now, though, the Bryant students can only see possibilities. The visit over — and the necessary knowledge gained — the group, accompanied by Youngs, adjourns to a nearby coffee shop, ready to begin their work and help Edesia save lives.
Emerson Swartz ’24. RI-based Edesia fights malnutrition in 65 countries.Christopher Reid, Ph.D., has always been captivated by what he calls “slick science,” the unlikely discoveries that result from ingenuity, determination, and stubbornness. “I like the idea that small ideas can lead to something really big,” notes Reid, a professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.
As lead investigator in his microbial glycoscience lab, he works to develop antibacterial and antifungal compounds that could one day save lives. But he’s also invested in preparing a new generation of scientists, researchers, and medical professionals for their own careers.
Since starting the Reid Lab in 2010, he and his fellow researchers have developed three patents, with another on the way; published multiple journal articles with student investigators featured prominently; and earned highly competitive National Science Foundation grants, including $390,000 awarded this spring.
“I'm actually kind of impressed by the sheer amount that we've
been able to get accomplished over the years,” he admits. “We just keep plugging away.”
Currently, Reid and his team are working to address a rising tide of antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them — making some diseases difficult, if not impossible, to treat.
The resulting problem, notes Reid, is approaching “near crisis-level proportions,” citing sources ranging from the Pew Research Center to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls it an “urgent global public health threat.”
Combating a wily and resilient enemy requires new weapons and
the size of a molecule of masarimycin, the antibacterial compound the Reid Lab is testing
new ideas — and the lion’s share of that work has been left to small biotech firms and academic labs like Reid’s. Today, much of his team’s focus is on masarimycin, a chemical compound developed in the Reid Lab that exhibits promising antibacterial applications.
Science is an iterative process, Reid notes, and masarimycin is the product of more than 10 years of tweaking, evaluating, and reconfiguring compounds to increase their efficiency. It’s the descendant of a previous, less successful molecule developed in Reid’s lab and, hopefully, he notes, the precursor to a more effective third molecule.
As much as Reid enjoys discussing his work, his face lights up when he mentions his students, who have found their own success across a range of fields. An undergraduate research position in the Reid Lab can be an important differentiator for students preparing for their careers. “This is on-the-job training for them,” he points out.
17 publications, featuring 16 unique undergraduate authors, resulting from the work 550.21g/mol
14 grants awarded to the lab for a total of more than $2 million in direct and indirect costs
DuVal conducted research on fungi during Bryant's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.
“You don’t have to have it all figured out. Your path will find you.”
—JETT DUVAL ’24
Jett DuVal ’24’s time learning lab techniques, working under the fume hood, and mentoring others unearthed her desire for a career in research. Confi-
dent yet humble about her achievements at Bryant, the Biology major spent the past four years fine-tuning her lab skills so she can one day teach undergraduates like herself.
During the spring semester of DuVal’s first year, Professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Christopher Reid, Ph.D., invited DuVal to take part in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, where she would conduct research on fungi.
“Being a first-generation college student, I had absolutely no expectations of college, which is why I tried so many new things to get the most out of the experience,” says DuVal, who jumped at Reid’s offer.
million global deaths directly caused by antimicrobial resistance, one of the top global public health and development threats, in 2019
She will now take her passion to the next level this summer when she starts working with the University of Georgia’s Christine Symanski, Ph.D., — one of Reid’s postdoctoral mentors — on uncovering the protective benefits of host milk oligosaccharides to develop novel therapeutics and vaccines. Come August, she will begin the University of Georgia’s integrated life sciences program and rotate through three labs before choosing one to work in at the start of January 2025. After obtaining her Ph.D. in microbiology, she hopes to become a college professor.
Looking back at her achievements from the last four years, DuVal leaves parting advice to those who are still finding their way.
“You don't have to have it figured out,” DuVal says. “Your path will find you.” —EB
Reid’s masarimycin is the result of more than 10 years of tweaking, evaluating, and reconfiguring compounds.
student investigators who have worked with Reid in the lab
Inside a nondescript warehouse bounded by aged brick mills in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, something new is brewing. The Lil’ Rhody Coffee Company, an upstart helmed by Vincent Emery ’26, is creating a splash in the regional coffee market.
The Bryant rising junior and Student Government Association president — a self-described “coffee
nerd” who drinks five lattes a day — founded the company in 2022, while still a senior in high school. It was profitable within four months.
“I’m shocked we did it that quickly,” he admits, adding his thoughts on the power of entrepreneurship: “When you create a business, you own your destiny.”
While Emery’s parents are largely hands-off, they do pitch in twice a week for aromatic roasting days, filling 12-ounce bags — up to 700 per week — for sale online and at local retailers, including the Newport mansions gift shops.
his carbon capture roasting technology. The bean varietals originate from tropical locales such as Kenya and Honduras, but the brand stays true to the Ocean State, with blends labeled Rocky Point, Big Blue Bug, and Federal Hill (his favorite).
Emery’s path to coffee entrepreneurship began in early childhood, with sips from his family’s stovetop moka pot. That early supping progressed to steady sampling when they embraced the Keurig craze.
At 15, though, urban coffee shops activated an obsession. “On my dad’s work trips to Boston, I’d tag along and we’d always get coffee,” recalls Emery, who also cites his Italian genes as an influence. “I was drinking $9 coffee brewed in a way I’d never been exposed to.”
He pored over books and articles to understand the complex evolution of bean to beverage. The biggest takeaway: freshness fosters flavor. To that end, Lil’ Rhody uses just-intime manufacturing to ensure a fast journey from field to customer.
“Coffee is perishable, just like fruit or a cut of meat,” explains the Global Supply Chain major, who never has more than a month’s worth of raw beans in inventory.
Emery aspires to innovate his industry and grow coffee within U.S. shores — primarily to stabilize the supply in uncertain times — but that requires expensive R&D that is likely 20 years off. For now, the growth of this startup is driven by very real successes, like a robust holiday season: “To know that on Christmas morning, families were opening my product as a gift — that hit differently.”
There’s a conscious effort to work sustainably; using air roasting, for instance, produces 80 percent less carbon emissions than traditional processes. In May, Emery earned a $5,000 grant to further develop —Jennifer Skuce Spira
As a former captain of the Bryant football team, Darnel Shillingford ’23, ’24MBA knows how important it is to look out for your teammates. Now, though, he’s extending that ethos by creating a playbook to help the next generation of athletes secure their financial futures.
“A first contract for $2 million is more money than most people have ever seen in their lives. In sports, though, it’s commonplace,” notes Shillingford, a former portfolio manager with Bryant’s student-run Archway Investment Fund. But having that money isn’t the same as stewarding it wisely, he points out, and many athletes lack the support, and the advice, they need to manage their wealth — which often leads to
financial trouble post-retirement.
“It’s a big problem that affects athletes in every sport. So, I wanted to dive in and see what could be done to help solve it,” says Shillingford, who is considering a career in financial advising.
His financial guidebook is inspired by Joshua Medcalf’s Chop Wood Carry Water, which tells the story of a boy's journey to achieve his lifelong goal of becoming a samurai warrior through simple lessons and small victories.
Shillingford’s guidebook will be composed of short chapters, each bearing a lesson for aspiring high school and college athletes. Some deal directly with finances, such as learning how to invest or building
a savings plan. Others are broader, such as tips on choosing trusted advisors, or finding a fulfilling course of study that will sustain you beyond your chosen sport.
“If you just tell someone they need a 401(k), or to get a Roth IRA, it might not stick,” says Shillingford, who credits his family with teaching him the importance of responsible financial stewardship. “This is an attempt to present that same information in a more engaging way.”
The book’s origins lie in Shillingford’s undergraduate honors thesis, in which he worked with Finance Lecturer John Fellingham. He drew upon interviews with athletes from the Bryant network and found that many of those who were most successful at managing their finances had someone close to them they could turn to as a trusted advisor — but not everyone has that advantage.
His book, he hopes, can fill that gap. Because no team succeeds unless its members support one another. —Stephen Kostrzewa
When swimmer and 2024 Olympics prospect Natalia Kuipers ’24 hits the water, it’s like an explosion goes off. “I tend to take off pretty fast and then do my best to stay ahead and let the adrenaline keep me going to the finish. Some of my coaches might say that I just fly and die,” she chuckles, a familiar sound to anyone who spends time with her.
That passion has made Kuipers a superlative competitor, and she’s been swimming on behalf of her home, the U.S. Virgin Islands, since she was 11 — making appearances at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, the 2019 and 2023 Pan American
Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. “I like pushing myself, and I like doing things that I thought I couldn't do,” she says.
But sometimes that same level of devotion can get you in trouble. “I tried sailing competitively for a little bit when I was a kid, except I wasn't very good,” she recalls. “I would always capsize my boat on purpose just to go for a swim, and the coach would come over and be like, ‘What the heck! There wasn’t even any wind!’”
Kuipers’ swimming career has taken her all over the world, helped her make connections with people
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“When the people around you do things that you don’t think are possible, you start to think, ‘I can do that too.’”
—NATALIA KUIPERS ’24
Kuipers’ time in the 400 free at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (a Virgin Islands Olympic record)
she never would have otherwise met, and created indelible memories. Carrying her country’s flag at the Tokyo Olympics, she says, is one of her favorites. “My phone was in my pocket, and it was buzzing the whole time because all my friends from around the world saw me on television and were texting me,” she says with a laugh.
At Bryant, Kuipers, who studied Data Science, was part of a women’s team that won back-to-back Northeast Conference Championships. Her favorite wins are the tough ones, she says, the come-from-behind victories where she and her team aren't supposed to prevail.
Those are the moments, she says, where your faith in your teammates pays off. “When the people around you do things that you don't think are possible, you start to think, ‘I can do that too,’” she reflects.
2
NEC Team Championships
Olympian and NEC Champion
Natalia Kuipers ’24
To outsiders, the multitude of high notes hit by the Bryant University men’s soccer team last fall, under first-year Head Coach Ruben Resendes, came out of the blue. It’s a program perceived as a rising phoenix, emerging from the meager results of the previous season — three wins total, zero in conference play — to an NCAA Tournament playoff game last November under the lights of Beirne Stadium.
Inside the Bulldogs locker room, though, the bar was set high from the start. Year one of the Resendes era focused on thriving and surpassing the expectations crystalized by a coach who didn’t believe in settling — or building a Division I program brick by brick.
“For us, the bare bones were to make the NCAA Tournament, whether it was by winning the conference or as an at-large bid,” says Resendes, who came to Bryant from Franklin Pierce University. “Once we got there, we wanted to get closer to the [four-team College Cup].”
The season’s ending — a 1-0 loss to Yale in the NCAA playoffs — fell short of the Bulldogs’ ambitious goals, but there’s no debating the solid foundation on which the program stands entering Resendes’ second year at the helm. The hallmarks of their memorable campaign included a double-overtime win at the University of New Hampshire to claim the America East Championship — the first conference title in Bryant soccer history — and a spot in the national rankings.
To Resendes, the most remarkable aspect of the 16-2-2 season, which featured five players garnering all-conference honors, was the increased attendance at home games. An announced crowd of 2,333 witnessed Bryant’s NCAA game against Yale.
“Bryant soccer didn’t have many people at their games in the past. We changed that,” says Resendes. “We created youth nights and did a lot of things around campus to get students to the games.”
From connecting with the local community to establishing program bedrocks that are non-negotiable for every Bryant player who puts on a uniform, Resendes swears by an all-encompassing approach to building a prideworthy program.
Many of Bryant’s student-athletes have landed careers in athletic industries — including these four Bulldogs:
A former member of the men’s basketball team, Oakley graduated from Bryant with a Communication degree and currently works as a basketball analyst and insights lead for the NBA’s Basketball Strategy and Analytics department.
A former member of Bryant’s field hockey team, Glenn, a Marketing major, currently works for the Boston Celtics as the senior director of member experience, retention, and operations.
Graduating with dual concentrations in Marketing and Analytics, Campise was a cross country and track and field athlete while at Bryant. She now works as a sales planner for HOKA, a sportswear company that designs and markets running shoes and apparel.
“To be honest, there’s no secret. It just requires a lot of hard work,” he says. “But if you have the right tools and right pieces, it makes everything else easier.”
—Brendan McGair
Sjogren, a member of the Bryant University Athletics Hall of Fame, played on the baseball team while he earned his degree in Management. A former head coach of the Bryant University baseball team, today he is the head baseball coach at Rollins College.
From student-led events to international phenomena, Bryant was a hub of activity during the 2023–2024 academic year. Homecoming welcomed thousands of celebratory alumni to campus for athletic attractions and tours of new facilities, while the i2i international music and dance performance in December displayed the university’s global reach. Rainy spring afternoons were spent in far-flung lands via virtual reality in the Data Visualization Lab. The first real taste of summer aligned with the solar eclipse, where faculty, students, and staff flocked to the pond for safe viewing. As the academic year came to a close, Bryant's Class of 2024 celebrated Commencement and bright futures ahead.
Go Dawgs!
TUPPER II
As Bryant’s iconic four-legged celebrity, Tupper II is easily the star of any campus event he attends. Whether he’s letting kids put party hats on him during Project Playhouse or being swarmed by students and alumni at Homecoming, the Bryant mascot is always ready to meet his fans.
With his chocolate-colored eyes, soft fur, and contagious smile, Archie the community comfort dog is frequently stopped across campus by his human friends who greet him with back rubs and ear scratches. Named in reference to the archway located in the heart of campus, Archie loves rolling in the grass and playing with his Webkinz beagle when he's off duty.
Avantika Sengupta ’27 and Vaishnavi Velagapudi ’23, ’24MBA perform at i2i.
The solar eclipse
“Being part of i2i afforded me the amazing opportunity to showcase my culture, including Bharatanatyam dance, which meant more to me than words could ever express. Through events like i2i, Bryant’s campus life fosters appreciation for diversity, promotes understanding, and celebrates the richness of human expression.”
—VAISHNAVI VELAGAPUDI ’23, ’24MBA
Marcus Moody ’24, Jett DuVal ’24, James Tiner ’24, Odette Mansour ’24, and Luke Lamontagne ’24 soar with excitement by the Archway as Bryant's Class of 2024 celebrates their achievements at Commencement.
LUNA
Bringing a combination of boisterous and lovable energy to campus, Luna, a certified therapy dog, is known for her work in Counseling Services and her trips exploring the university’s walking trail. Luna and her owner lead wilderness walks through nature to help students, faculty, and staff destress.
MR. CLEO
Like many of his four-legged companions, Mr. Cleo is extremely treat-motivated. Serving as a certified pet assisted therapy dog, Mr. Cleo helps those visiting Bryant’s Counseling Services and can be found in the university library during finals where students spend their study break petting him.
Photographs by Pamela Murray, Kerri Rubino, and Kevin TrimmerThe most influential woman in institutional history, new board chair D. Ellen Wilson ’79 leans on a big business background and a passion for people to craft a bold new future for Bryant.
BY CASEY NILSSON
As a child, D. Ellen Wilson ’79 dreamed of digging into the dusty earth to uncover remnants of past civilizations. Wilson, who grew up in a small dairy town east of Hartford, Connecticut, admired how archaeologists could piece together the fullness of the human experience and, in the process, deduce how our forebears worked together, lived together, and created together.
Little did she know, she’d grow up to do some world-building of her own. Her innate curiosity about people, and how they connect, helped her conquer the C-suite as a human resources powerhouse, orchestrating successions and assembling dream teams at Fidelity, UnitedHealth Group, and other international companies.
Today, she’s paying this success forward as the new chair of the Bryant Board of Trustees — the first woman in institutional history to hold the role — and founder of the university’s Ellen Wilson Leadership Center, slated to open this fall.
But her trajectory would not have been possible without a little redirection from her parents, Wilson admits. If she’d had it her way, she might’ve ended up excavating pottery in Mesopotamia.
“My mother, a high school guidance office assistant, and my father, an engineer, were the ones who gave me a gentle push to pursue business,” she says.
They encouraged her to explore career paths that would afford her a secure future. When it was time to choose a university, Wilson weighed two options: the University of Connecticut, which was a short drive from her family’s home, and Bryant.
“I was enamored by the campus,” she recalls. Just three years before, Bryant had moved from the East Side of Providence to a lush property donated by the Tupper family. The glossy buildings and new residence halls had an incredible allure, notes Wilson, who enrolled at Bryant to study Management.
She took business classes within her major and loved courses led by History professor John Jolley, who wore turquoise rings and taught subjects including contemporary religion and Russian culture.
“I learned at least as much outside of the classroom as in the classroom,” says Wilson, who pledged a campus sorority her first year of college and went on to be its president.
During one Greek life event, Wilson met Rich Siden ’80, who was pledging a Bryant fraternity. In the bustle of the Rotunda, Siden was tasked with serenading sororities — Wilson’s included — with the Schaefer Beer jingle.
“We fed off each other’s energy,” says Siden, who studied Market-
ing and works in corporate partnerships at WGBH in Boston. They had fun, he acknowledges, but they also did some good on campus. When the Blizzard of ’78 blanketed Bryant for two weeks, Wilson, Siden, and their Greek life brothers and sisters coordinated food drop-offs via helicopter to ensure the community stayed fed.
“We all go through Bryant with the same opportunity, and to see her thrive has been truly inspiring,” says Siden. “To me, though, she’s my best friend Ellen.”
Wilson’seducational opportunities at Bryant didn’t immediately translate to a job, though. She and her peers graduated into an economy marred by rising inflation and high unemployment.
“Those were the years when you would bring your rejection letter to the campus pub for a free pitcher of beer,” she says wryly. “We were all in the same boat.”
After Commencement, Wilson temped for Telex Corporation in Hartford, spending a summer on Nantucket assisting the CEO and, in the fall, joining the firm’s Boston office full time. She then moved on to a role at Haemonetics, a medical technology company, where she met her first mentor.
“He was the one who told me it was important to go and get my MBA,” she says. “I knew I needed to get my strategic and analytical skills really polished; if I was going to succeed in HR, I needed to be able to understand business.”
Wilson completed her MBA at Babson College while working at Bank of Boston — now Bank of America — as
head of HR for commercial banking. The company, where she stayed from 1988 to 1992, paid for her to finish her advanced degree. It was also where she met her then-husband and several lifelong friends, including Sue Sgroi.
“I met her and immediately felt like, ‘I’ve got to get to know her,’” says Sgroi, who heads up HR and technology at Eversource Energy. “Ellen is a very engaging person, but she’s also a very poised leader.”
Wilson’s most influential piece of advice, recalls Sgroi, sounded simple: Just be yourself.
“To become a leader, you have to invest in knowing yourself so you can empower and influence others,” Sgroi says, a skill she witnessed firsthand in Wilson.
When Wilson transitioned to Fidelity Investments, she recruited Sgroi to join her. At the time, Sgroi was working at Citizens Bank, managing mergers and acquisitions nationally — read: three apartments in three cities — while also parenting a young child. Wilson, whose daughter Caroline was still young at the time, understood the challenge of balancing a career and home life.
“She thought of me for this role, as head of HR for the asset management division, and her outreach to me was professional as well as personal,” Sgroi says.
While Sgroi found stability in her life and career, Wilson sought a new challenge. In 1999, she left Fidelity for a role at an internet startup, Viant, and had a hand in taking the company public.
“It was an awesome experience,” Wilson says. “I’d go in there and I could be building a culture. I also could be building a bookcase.”
The space had all the trappings of an offbeat startup. She remembers a life-size, motion-activated cutout of Austin Powers beside her desk in the wide-open loft space, taunting her as she took calls.
“I’d be on the phone trying to recruit a senior person, someone would walk by, and it’d say things like, ‘Shagadelic, baby!’” she says with a rich, infectious laugh.
Despite the excitement of the role, a Fidelity executive lured her back.
“He asked me, ‘Have you had enough yet?’” she remembers. “And I said, ‘I think I have.’”
In her new role, Wilson served as head of HR for several businesses and worked closely with Fidelity’s then-chairman. “He was so smart, and so willing to take risks. I was fortunate to know him, and he really could make work an adventure,” she says.
Then, a new president took over at Fidelity and became another important mentor for Wilson — even after she stepped away at age 51 so she could spend more time with Caroline, who would soon head to college at the University of Richmond.
Wilson’s retirement lasted a mere year and a half — an artistic walkabout that, in time, led her right back to her career. She studied cooking at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. She apprenticed with a silversmith, making fine jewelry.
“I learned that I love the design phase and end result,” she says. “But the middle — I can’t tell you how tedious handmaking jewelry can be. You could be sanding for a week.”
She took art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, specializing in still lifes. In the sitting
room of her Boston condo, which overlooks Back Bay and the waterfront, a small easel hosts watercolor lake scenes of Maine, where Wilson and her husband, Mark, who were married last October, live full time. Beside the front door, one of her delicate charcoal portraits hangs below a photograph taken by the actor Richard Gere — “my husband’s only competition,” she jokes.
But, even throughout her temporary retirement, Wilson began each morning with The Wall Street Journal. She never lost touch with the business world, and it didn’t forget about her, either. One day, out of the blue, the former president of Fidelity, who had since joined the board of UnitedHealth Group — called her.
A former colleague had been tapped to lead Optum, a healthcare services company in the UnitedHealth portfolio that had acquired 40 companies — none of which were integrated: No product rationalization, no assimilation, nothing. And he wanted Wilson to lead the charge. She signed on without many details; she didn’t even know the title or salary of the position.
“It was really kind of cool. There was a purity to it. That was the gift I got: to enjoy the work. I figured it would be a one-year gig, and I ended up there 10 years,” she says. “You know, I was really liking retirement. But it ended up being the best job I ever had.”
A year and a half into her role, she was asked by UnitedHealth’s CEO to take over HR for the whole operation. Wilson wasn’t interested.
“I’d done that for a very long time, and Optum was my fun job,” she says. “I said no.”
UnitedHealth’s CEO asked again.
“I’m of an era where, if the CEO asks you to do something more than once, you really should do it,” she says.
The CEO was a strategic and financial genius, Wilson says, but she wasn’t sure how much time he spent thinking about the people side of the business.
“It ended up being perfect timing for us to cross paths, because I was at the point in my career where I wasn’t going to convince anyone that people were important. I had no patience for that anymore,” she says. “And he was at a place where that’s exactly how he felt, too.”
When she first began working for the CEO, he told her he spent more time with her than any other direct report.
“And I was like, ‘Of course you do, because you’re the CEO of a 400,000-person company.’ There’s always going to be a people issue, a structure issue, a design issue, a leadership issue, a succession issue,” she says. “I love when people say HR is the soft side of the business. For me, HR is incredibly complex. Numbers are fairly predictable. But, people? They are beautifully unpredictable.”
Building teams, from her own 3,000-employee outfit at United-
“Numbers are fairly predictable. But, people? They are beautifully unpredictable.”
Health to the company’s executive suite, became one of her specialties. That focus stayed with her long after she went home.
“I’d lay in bed at night thinking about the business challenge, agonizing about how to even start to solve it,” she says. “But then, I guess unconsciously, I would think about the people who could solve the problem: this dream team, whether you can get them or not. And then, I’d be able to go to sleep.”
Getting it right meant she had to listen to employees across sectors, particularly when mergers and acquisitions were underway. Wilson worked Monday through
Friday out of the company’s Minnesota office, returning home to Boston on weekends to be close to Caroline, who still lives in the city. In between, she traveled the world visiting UnitedHealth employees.
“It was important to me to understand the different cultures and how to keep the teams engaged, particularly the serial entrepreneurs who would be part of this huge company,” she says. “Knowing the employees enabled me to give them a voice in the C-suite, and that made a difference.”
Wilson understands this need for diverse voices at the table. As an undergraduate at Bryant, she was one of only a handful of women in her courses.
“Did that make me quieter, in terms of class participation? You know, I remember thinking that way,” she says.
That male-to-female ratio extended into her career, which she combatted by taking on the hard assignments and finding the right mentors. But gatekeeping could be fierce from all sides.
“If you did find that rare woman who made it, we used to joke that they would pull that ladder up behind them,” she says. “You could feel like there’s no way in. And that, to me, is the puzzle to be solved.”
Now, Wilson is intent on creating opportunities for all future leaders. In March, she gifted the university $5 million to develop the Ellen Wilson Leadership Center, which will be anchored in the new Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center. A cohort of 20 Wilson Leadership
Fellows will join campus this fall as part of the Class of 2028; throughout their four years at Bryant, they will have access to intensive co-curricular leadership training, stipends, and other opportunities.
Also under the center’s umbrella is a Women’s Leadership Institute, which offers programming across themes including applied leadership; industry-specific leadership development; and, most importantly for Wilson, mentorship.
“For women who are at the top of the game — and a lot of those people are Bryant alumni — there’s an onus on us to not only keep the ladder in place for the next generation, but to reach back and pull them up, as well,” she says. “Having a daughter has helped me understand the importance of being a good role model to her and, by extension, to other young women.”
Wilson says she’s passionate about Bryant, and higher education in general, because she believes it’s the great equalizer.
“Yes, it’s the gateway to economic freedom but, to me, the definition of success is choice. It’s not money. It’s not status. It’s the opportunity to make choices for your life,” Wilson says. “So, if we can make sure that both men and women have a great education that prepares them for the real world, not some ethereal world they want it to be, we’re affording them a huge opportunity.”
As the new chair of Bryant’s board of trustees — a role she assumed from David Beirne ’85 —– Wilson recognizes that to provide students with that opportunity, the university must grow. One of her chief goals is to deliver the university’s Vision 2030
Strategic Plan. Through investment and broad campus development, the plan has the potential to elevate Bryant from “best-kept secret” to “best in class,” she says.
“It’s critically important for us to expand our reach,” says Wilson. “We know every company in Rhode Island loves us. Boston companies love us. But what we have to offer transcends a single region.”
She’s watched Bryant grow in leaps and bounds over the years, including its expansion into the liberal arts and health sciences.
“I wish I could be a student again, because the experience would be so different,” says Wilson. “It’s so exciting to see what we offer our students. I mean really, truly exciting.”
Wilson, who retired from UnitedHealth in 2022, joined the board in 2019 and took on the chair position in May because she’s intent on giving back to an institution that set her on a path to success. It’s become a passion, she says, in the same way that art and history and human connection have captivated her over the course of her life.
“I used to say that I got really lucky in my career, but I’ve been corrected by people who tell me: ‘You took advantage of the opportunities, and you made your own luck.’ And I guess that’s true. We all have opportunities thrown in front of us. It comes down to the question: Did you pick the right one?” she says. “I’ve loved my career. I’ve never not loved it. And, yes, of course there have been those days...
“But, honestly, I’m not sure I would’ve felt the same level of satisfaction if I was digging up pottery in Mesopotamia.”
On an immersive tour of Prague and Berlin, graduate students learn about international industry and discover their own potential.
BY STEPHEN KOSTRZEWA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOBIAS RITZ
There are 287 steps to the top of St. Vitus Cathedral’s Great South Tower in Prague. Syeda Zaidi ’19, ’24MBA can confirm because, amid the bitter Czech cold, her group counted every single one. The climb was tough, she admits, but from the top, the reward is a spectacular view of the entire city — and that change in perspective is worth the extra work.
Tyler Haskins ’24MBA goes for a stroll, followed by Mikayla Gempp ’24MBA and Christopher Goulart ’24MBA. The Charles Bridge is one of the Czech Republic’s most famous monuments. The MBA students explore Old Town, including the Church of Our Lady before Týn.
This January, Zaidi and 70 other students from Bryant’s One-Year and Two-Year MBA programs, accompanied by faculty and staff, traveled to Prague and Berlin for 10 days through the Global Immersion Experience, (GIE), an important cornerstone of both programs where students explore other countries and learn about international business. In recent years, the program has also visited Chile, Panama, China, Germany, Iceland, and Dubai.
The 2024 expedition is the third led by Professor of Marketing Srdan Zdravkovic, Ph.D. An international business expert, he notes that having the chance to examine another country firsthand gives students an important advantage in the professional world, as well as an opportu-
nity to see what they’ve learned in a new light.
But the GIE’s benefits, he says, extend far beyond the bottom line and even beyond the curriculum. “It is always wonderful to see the transformation in the students at the end of the trip,” Zdravkovic states. “They learn a lot and have a lot of fun, but they also feel more confident and worldly. This trip is something they’re going to be thinking about and turning over in their heads for a long time. They’ll be asking themselves: ‘What comes next? What’s my next big adventure, and how am I going to use this experience to move forward?’”
That philosophy defines how Zaidi, an assistant store director for Shaw’s Supermarkets who one day
aims to be president of the company, and her traveling companions are approaching the trip. Her group spends much of their free time exploring, from touring Prague Castle to visiting the John Lennon Wall to sampling the local cuisine.
Plus, it’s a chance to test their adaptability in a new but supportive environment. Zaidi’s group is an eclectic bunch — including a farmer, an IT consultant, and a manufacturing executive — but, together, they are forming bonds that will last throughout their time in the MBA program and their careers. By working together, reckons Evan Urban ’24MBA, they can handle anything, in Prague and beyond.
Their mission to study the intersection of business and culture
A tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery offers a firsthand look at the intersection of business and culture.
includes a deep dive into the Pilsner Urquell brewery — literally.
From the aged catacombs beneath the brewery to the modern production facilities, the students receive an education in the time-honored process used to create pilsner since its invention in the Czech Republic in 1842.
On one section of the tour, the scent of beer ingredients hangs in the air, a sour miasma so strong that it seems to carry weight.
“That’s the smell of business,” one of the students jokes to a cluster of laughs from his companions.
And then there are moments of transcendence. During one cold evening, the students gather to attend a classical music concert in the historic
St. Nicholas’s Church. With a few heat lamps and a sound system as concessions to modernity, the students listen in silence as they are immersed in Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and transported back in time.
Bryce Antoch ’24MBA is a classical music aficionado, a trait he picked up from his grandfather, who recently passed away. But he’s never been to a performance like this, he admits. For the entire concert, he sits with his head down in contemplation and remembrance. When it finishes, the corners of his eyes are wet. Hearing this music here, in this environment, truly carries a different resonance, he reflects. “You begin to understand what it meant to them,” he notes quietly.
MBA students survey the rich history of brewing.
Tour guide Jan walks the group through the ingredients, including malted barley, in Pilsner Urquell.
The Bryant tour group looks out at the Pilsner Urquell bottling facility.
The GIE trip has been carefully planned to the last detail, and the students have spent the previous semester learning about local customs, regional economics, politics, and history. But there are some things you can’t prepare for.
On a day trip to Dresden en route to Berlin, the group is beset by tractors. At first just one — seemingly innocuous — then a second — merely a coincidence — and then another and another, until a swarm of them clog the road. The German government has recently ended an important farming subsidy, and the people have taken to the streets.
Once the bus finds a place to park, the students take some time to explore — and discover more than they imagined. Upon turning
a seemingly quiet corner, Diego Rodriguez ’24MBA and Gustavo Rodriguez ’24MBA (no relation) find themselves in the city’s historical center at the edge of a sweeping demonstration. As they take in the humongous crowds waving flags and signs and hear impassioned speeches in another language, Zdravkovic, also watching at the edge of the crowd, is there to offer context.
The duo finds the scene fascinating, and lingers for a while just to take it all in. But they also resolve to learn more. “This is what immersion truly means,” reflects Gustavo. “To be out there with the people, to see how they lead their lives, and to understand what is truly important to them.”
Mathias Koeckeritz, senior commercial specialist and policy advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, provides an economic overview of Germany.
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin opened in 1791.
A guided tour through Berlin further drives that message home. If classical music is the soundtrack to Prague, Berlin carries a punk vibe. The city is young and built on a history of conflict and division that has left its mark on society here, and on the people as well.
Tour guide Pip brings students to the historic Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and the remains of the Berlin Wall — familiar sites come to new life when viewed in person. But she also takes care to show them “Trabi World,” a garish tribute to the Trabant, the small, largely unimpressive East Germanproduced car that opened up travel to the citizens of Soviet Berlin. This
is history as well, Pip reminds her charges: the hopes and joys and struggles of everyday people — the pieces of our lives that don’t end up as headings in history books.
That same day, the GIE group turns its sights from the past to something akin to science fiction at the state-of-the-art BMW Motorradwerk. There, they witness firsthand the motorcycle production process — from the automated warehouse to a new engine production line that just opened in November.
As they make their way through the production facility, the students observe the complex dance between man and machine as robots and mechanics work together to build up to 900 motorcycles a day.
“It’s like looking at the future,” notes James Galleher ’23, ’24MBA.
On the second to last day of the trip — which is really the last, as the following day will be consumed by travel — Jihad Edmond ’23, ’24MBA sits quietly in the booth of a restaurant near the group’s Berlin hotel. He’s tired, the result of more than a week of adventures, but he has a gleam in his eye. He’s also taken so many pictures throughout the trip, and sent so many home to New Jersey, that he needed to purchase a bigger data plan.
In a little more than a day, he’ll be back in Smithfield, but the young man who’s never been overseas before is already thinking about his next international trip. For now,
A tour of Olympiastadion Berlin includes the stadium’s chapel (above) and the arena (right).
though, he’s in a reflective mood.
So much of what he saw and did, he says, will linger with him long after he touches down in the United States: from the old-world beauty of Prague to the futuristic BMW factory to the taste of the new foods he’s sampled and knows his mouth will water for back home.
What will stay with him longer than the pictures, Edmond says, is the opportunity he’s had to explore and grow, to discover new things about himself and the world around him. After traveling more than 4,000 miles over the course of the trip, he says that he feels like he’s on top of the world.
And the view is phenomenal.
Simi Bakare ’24MBA plays football for the Bryant Bulldogs, but soccer was always his first love. As he stares out at the Olympiastadion Berlin, he finds himself speechless.
A few minutes from now, he’ll be given an all-access, behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium, including the press and locker rooms, where the professional soccer team Hertha BSC plays. He’ll sit in the very same seats as the prime minister outside of the Hall of Honor. He’ll hear about the stadium’s history, from Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games to Usain Bolt shattering his own 100-meter record to win the World Championship title in 2019. And he and his teammates will exchange information and questions with their tour guide, comparing their very different brands of football.
Right now, though, he’s overwhelmed, daydreaming about the glory he knows was won on the field before him. Suddenly, he cups his hands around his mouth and calls out a soccer chant down to the pitch. He can’t explain why he did it, he admits, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time — only to have his answer a second later as someone down on the field echoes the chant back to him, causing him to break into a wide grin.
BY POORNIMA APTE AND EMMA BARTLETT
The age of AI is upon us. How is Bryant addressing the academic and ethical implications while also preparing students for new, and evolving, industry demands?
One brilliant spring day in March, as the sun pours through floor-to-ceiling windows in Bryant’s Quinlan/Brown Academic Innovation Center, a think tank of national experts is shining its own light on the most polarizing topic in higher education today: Artificial intelligence.
The agenda for the seventh annual Analytics Without Borders conference, hosted by Bryant with hundreds of attendees across industry and academia, includes a series of compelling and timely workshops, research presentations, and keynote addresses, including one delivered by Microsoft Education’s Chief Innovation Officer Michael Jabbour. During his talk, Jabbour shares that he recently used AI to create an elementary school schedule that championed flexibility and fluidity. His 45-minute experiment, Jabbour reports, saved the district 10,000 hours of planning time.
The AI anecdote sends murmurs through the crowd, which reverberate two buildings across campus to Lecturer Carrie Kell’s first-year “Writing Workshop” course. Here, students like Anna Boranian ’27 are learning to leverage generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, in their academic pursuits. As Boranian pastes her rhetorical analysis paper into ChatGPT’s message bar, she informs the generative AI chatbot that she will ask it a series of questions based on the provided draft.
“What’s ChatGPT telling you?” Kell, interim coordinator of First-Year Writing, asks her student.
The chatbot, Boranian answers, has pinpointed areas of repetition within her text. In response, the first-year student’s fingers get moving to make the changes, and in seconds, her draft is stronger than before.
Since its headline-grabbing debut in the fall of 2022, ChatGPT has stirred a range of responses on college campuses. Some educators see wide avenues of potential in the new technology; others worry that students might compromise learning at the altar of easy answers.
Reactions from Bryant faculty have been similarly mixed, reports Rupendra Paliwal, Ph.D., provost and chief academic officer. And there is some evidence to support their concerns: A January 2024 survey by Intelligent found that more than two-thirds of college respondents used the tool for help with writing assignments; a third of the students used ChatGPT to write entire essays.
At the same time, Paliwal says he has been impressed by how quickly Bryant’s faculty have committed to constructive discussions about how to work with, and leverage, this groundbreaking technology — one that will reshape both academia and business forever.
Days after the Analytics Without Borders conference, university leaders released a comprehensive set of guidelines for use of generative AI that emphasizes responsible handling as well as maintaining data privacy and security. The work was informed by a January board retreat — attended by both university leaders and trustees — that included a morning devoted to AI.
Senior Paycor executives, including CEO Raul Villar Jr. ’89, discussed the evolving demands of employers, emphasizing the imperative for the talent pool to adapt, and strategically distinguish itself, in the age of AI. An engineer from IBM Watson filled in the landscape further, sharing research, applications, and how industries are changing in the age of thinking machines.
Bryant cabinet members also offered their own thoughts on AI to the board so there would be “full alignment across the institution,” says Edinaldo Tebaldi, Ph.D., vice president for strategy and institutional effectiveness. “Our board members had very good questions about what institutions like Bryant should be considering, and how we can strategically position ourselves to respond to AI.”
Built into the new policy is a tacit understanding that a purely punitive approach will not work in the classroom; rather, the focus should be on embracing it responsibly. “We can’t control behavior; it’s better that we learn about how people behave and then respond, rather than try to write policies that are not enforceable,” says Tebaldi.
Instead, Assistant Director/Man-
ager of Research and Instruction Services Allison Papini, who has published research on AI and learning and speaks nationally on the subject, encourages “candid conversations about AI, setting clear expectations, and having an open dialogue with students and peers.”
Acknowledging the need for longrange strategies, the university is also taking part in a two-year, 18-school project, helmed by research firm Ithaka S+R, that aims to offer guidelines and guardrails around the use of generative AI in higher education.
Bryant leaders recognize that assembling a policy framework now, especially one attempting to negotiate a rapidly changing field, can feel much like flying a plane while building it. “I don’t expect us to arrive at answers today; it’s going to be a journey,” Paliwal says.
The university’s north star, Tebaldi adds, is its emphasis on transformational learning experiences. “With a focus on fostering exceptional outcomes and nurturing passionate, purpose-driven leaders, Bryant is poised to capitalize on AI opportunities, particularly ones that have real-world applications for our students.”
For more than a year, Bryant has been systematically examining a myriad of AI touchpoints from student, faculty, and operational perspectives. A distinct steering committee, focusing on a variety of areas including student success, has been making impressive headway, says Chief Information Officer Chuck LoCurto. Echoing Paliwal, he admits “it’s the kind of race where everybody’s sprinting, but no one knows where the finish line is.”
The key takeaway, says LoCurto, is that AI will impact practically everything at Bryant, from the academic (how to teach and what to teach) to the organizational (how the university can make processes more efficient with AI technologies).
Bryant leaders are currently working to weave AI into the fabric of the school without losing sight of the university’s core values, including a rigorous focus on interdisciplinary education. In this new educational age, this will take root in an AI minor, which will be introduced in the 2024-2025 academic year and will not be housed in any one college or school. “We want it to be interdisciplinary so any student can take it,” Paliwal says.
Did you know Bryant has its own version of ChatGPT? AskTupper, named by the Bryant Senior Advisory Council with software developed in collaboration with Alliant Digital’s Chris Stephenson, is an AI-powered chatbot designed to assist the campus community by providing answers to questions based on publicly available information from Bryant’s websites. Whether you’re seeking details about policies and procedures, the academic curriculum, or the athletic calendar, AskTupper will be a resource for students, faculty, and staff.
“I don’t expect us to arrive at answers today; it’s going to be a journey.”
—RUPENDRA PALIWAL, PH.D.
The goal, he suggests, is to offer a nuanced and thorough education in AI. One of the minor’s courses will provide a basic overview of the technology and its evolution; another dives into broad applications with an emphasis on ethical and responsible use; additional electives will focus on AI’s applications in specific disciplines including healthcare, accounting, and other industries. The minor will be supported by the launch of an AI lab in the new Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center, which will debut during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Paliwal notes that Bryant’s AI emphasis will set students ahead of the curve as they enter their careers, no matter the field. “The exceptional outcomes we deliver for our students are in our DNA, and we want to preserve that important differentiation of the Bryant education,” he states.
Partnerships with industry are helping the university explore this new frontier: With input from professional services firm Pricewater-
houseCoopers (PwC), Bryant has launched an Accounting and AI fellowship program. Tech companies such as HP and Microsoft are also providing critical input on how students can use AI to boost their experiential learning takeaways.
The AI focus is showing up in student life, too. The annual Appa-Thon, in which students develop and present apps that will improve life on campus, got a makeover as well, says LoCurto. This year, the students took part in a Prompt-aThon, where the competitors who find the most innovative ways to use generative AI will win.
Gamifying is a strategic way to enable students to grasp AI concepts, adds Papini: “so this is just an extension of that goal.”
Back at the Analytics Without Borders conference, Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Director Terri Hasseler, Ph.D., and CTE Associate Director of Teaching Support Constanza Bartholomae are running a workshop
on how faculty can approach AI detection systems from a teaching and learning perspective.
According to Hasseler, the accuracy of these systems is low, and detectors only do well if something is either 100 percent human-written or 100 percent AI-written. She also notes that the systems have unfairly targeted the speech and writing patterns of multilingual speakers.
And while some have recommended that students analyze ChatGPT output as part of the curriculum, that doesn’t go far enough, argues Geri Louise Dimas, Ph.D., assistant professor of Data Science. Dimas, who attended Hasseler and Bartholomae’s presentation on AI detection systems in March, started out with a strict no-ChatGPT policy in her courses; she has since softened her stance.
The workaround: Students must let her know when they use the tool — a rule aligned with Bryant’s institutional generative AI policy, which requires students to disclose AI assistance. This way, she can tell which
sections of the lesson she might need to review with students to deepen their understanding of the material.
“We need to make sure that students are taking advantage of a learning experience where making mistakes and not understanding something is actually beneficial,” says Dimas, whose research harnesses machine learning to detect patterns in human trafficking. “It’s not just about getting through the class and getting the grade, but really making sure you’re learning, because that’s what’s going to make you successful.”
Bryant’s educators are keeping these concerns in mind as they unpack new rules for instruction. The CTE is helping faculty think through the various aspects of how AI is used in research and in the classroom, including ethical angles. This work is supported by a Davis Educational Foundation grant — one of the first such grants the nonprofit committed to AI in higher education, says Edward MacKay, the foundation’s board chair.
What prompted you to launch RNMKRS?
Stefanie Boyer, Ph.D., professor of Marketing, tapped into the power of artificial intelligence for the app she co-founded, RNMKRS (pronounced “rainmakers”), which helps new and established sales professionals perfect their conversational approach with role-playing.
More from Boyer:
“I want to teach my students how to be great sellers. To sell, you need to be able to have great conversations. You must ask the right questions, listen, dig deep, and understand and help the customer. But I didn’t have enough time to watch all the practice role-plays I had assigned my students and give them the in-depth quality feedback they needed to be successful.
“Luckily, I met Scott Randall, who has been a game developer since the early ’90s. He designed a tool called the interpersonal communication engine that allows you to have a dialogue with the program. The best use for this technology is in sales because you have a huge
“The Davis Educational Foundation supported the Bryant grant request because it engaged faculty in how to effectively use AI to improve teaching and learning at a time when many institutions were struggling — and still are — with this challenge,” MacKay says. “There appears to be genuine, widespread faculty interest in continuing to explore the AI-related possibilities, bringing AI experts into campus convenings and deliberations, and sharing those outcomes with other institutions — initiatives consistent with the foundation’s mission.”
“The key part is recognizing that AI is going to change every discipline and every industry, from accounting to healthcare,” Paliwal says. “So, knowing that, our question to faculty is: ‘How are you going to adapt what you teach, and how you teach?’”
How to assign papers and other at-home coursework is another big question. “The discussions around AI have prompted faculty to take another look at student learning styles and learn from their differ-
ences,” Papini notes. It’s each professor’s responsibility, she says, to “look at how you assess students and ask: ‘Does this need to be a paper or a presentation?’ Maybe giving students a couple of different paths they can take to reach the same goal would be wiser.”
In addition to AI’s use in academia, Bryant leaders are evaluating how to apply the technology to internal operations. “As an organization, we want to truly integrate what we’re preaching, so we’re looking at how our processes can be improved in terms of efficiency and experiences,” Paliwal says.
But before AI can be harnessed in this way, the university must clean and sort its data and ensure compliance with privacy and security regulations, LoCurto says — and he’s working on laying the groundwork for AI usage across university operations. For starters, most IT employees will have to take a LinkedIn Learning course on AI; three staffers are also participat-
chunk of the workforce not getting enough training or feedback — and then they become desperate and become bad sellers. We launched RNMKRS in 2019 to enable people to train and get feedback, no matter where they are in the world or in their career.”
How does the AI-driven training work?
“There’s a typical rubric you follow if you’re going to have a good conversation. In the college sales program, we adopt the same rubric with five phases, which is what the bot uses, as well. The students practice and get feedback immediately, allowing them to continue to train over and over again.
ing in a 14-week program on Azure machine learning tools.
The opportunities for AI to improve the student and faculty experience are endless, Paliwal notes. And with its focus on the forefront of business, Bryant has its aim set on preparing students for a future of infinite possibilities.
“If we do AI right, it should serve as a teaching assistant for every teacher and as a tutor for every student,” he says.
The key, Paliwal suggests, lies in the university’s most important differentiator. Rarely will you see the CIO and the chief academic officer and provost of an institution working closely together to ensure that academic and organizational strategies are aligned, he notes.
“We’re taking an integrated, intentional, and interdisciplinary approach; we’re not working in silos,” he says. “That’s the agility we have at Bryant, and that’s why we will lead the nation on AI.”
To read more about AI efforts at Bryant, visit news.bryant.edu/AI
“This is not pitch practice; you don’t just memorize a script and deliver it. It’s practicing the art of the conversation. As students get better, the program gets more challenging, and the bot gets harder. It keeps the students engaged.
“My students do not like role-playing. It can be nerve-racking, especially if you’re role-playing with your boss, which makes it difficult to get the right kind of training and practice. With the bots, people can practice on their own. There are data analytics that are baked into the technology and the feedback that students are getting, so they can keep getting better.”
$72,500
median starting salary for the Class of 2023 (Bryant Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategy)
99%
percentage of the Class of 2023 in jobs or grad school within six months post-Commencement (Bryant Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategy)
TOP 7%24th
in the nation, higher ed institutions (The Wall Street Journal)
in the nation, online MBA (Poets&Quants)
This fall, the Bryant campus will grow by 250,000 square feet with the opening of the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center, a cutting-edge building gifted by Fidelity Investments. The new building will be home to the College of Business, the Ellen Wilson Leadership Center, high-tech institutes and labs, spaces for campus clubs and organizations, and administrative offices.
Bryant 3.0 is here. Scan to read more about the Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center and how Bryant’s transformational Campus Master Plan is taking shape.
The AI Lab also features a robot center.
The Financial Markets Center features stock ticker displays and Bloomberg terminals.
The Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center grows Bryant’s campus by 250,000 square feet and 30 acres.
and
A spacious facility equipped with the field’s most innovative technologies, Bryant’s Exercise and Movement Science Lab, housed in the university’s School of Health and Behavioral Sciences, launched at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, providing a range of experiential learning opportunities for students in collaboration with expert faculty.
“Bryant’s students are getting access to the best equipment in the
exercise science field,” says Exercise and Movement Science Program Director Jason Sawyer, Ph.D. “They will graduate with skills that are beyond what a normal exercise science undergraduate comes out with.”
Here are some of the high-tech highlights:
n A bioelectrical impedance analysis scale, which sends a low-voltage electrical current through the body and can determine body composi-
tion to a high level of accuracy
n The BOD POD, an egg-shaped device that determines a person’s body composition using air pressure
n High-end treadmills with harness safety systems
n A motion capture system in which reflectors are placed on strategic body parts and 10 infrared cameras capture a person’s movements; instant feedback is then digitally documented
A view of the new Exercise and Movement Science Lab. Brooke Donatelli ’24 Colin Elliott ’24 test out metabolic cart technology.
The BOD POD uses air pressure to determine an individual’s body composition.
In April, Bryant announced a transformational gift from Frank M. ’81 and Marion (Sheahan) Hauck ’81, P’08, which will support the development of the Hauck Sales Performance Lab in the new Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center. The 5,000-squarefoot space — with gamified leaderboards, high-tech breakout rooms, and boardroom — will welcome students across disciplines to learn sales skills in real time.
Below, Marion and Frank, a Bryant trustee who recently retired as president and general manager of banking for NCR Corporation, share their vision for the lab and why they made this important gift to Bryant.
Why will this new sales lab be an important asset for Bryant?
Marion Hauck: “It would sell coming to Bryant. The lab will offer realworld, sophisticated sales training experiences that other colleges and universities just can’t match.”
Why are you choosing to invest in the future of Bryant?
MH: “We invest in things that are our passion first. Frank and I both met here, graduated from here, got married here. Our daughter went here, met her husband here. Our niece and nephew went here. We’ve always believed in giving back, and we get more out of it when we give back — when we think of the impact on the students.”
FH: “The students’ competencies, and their desire to get better and succeed, are infectious. That’s why we’re doing this.”
This feels reminiscent of the ice-skating rink you donated to campus during the pandemic.
FH: “Yes, the students were looking for an outlet, a place to go and be outside and socialize.”
How do you hope Bryant students will make use of this lab?
n Portable metabolic testing systems that an individual can carry like a backpack and walk around in while wearing a mask
As for the student research opportunities that these and other pieces of equipment make possible, Sawyer’s answer is simple: “If you want to test it, we can measure it in this lab.” —EB
Frank Hauck: “The hard work in sales takes place in the office, right? It might take hundreds of hours of preparation for that one-hour meeting. If students could have that philosophy in school, their likelihood of success is going to be incredibly high. Sales is a craft. You have to develop it. There are tools we will leverage where you can get realtime feedback in the classroom, such as ZoomInfo, RNMKRS, and other new technologies, that will set students ahead of the curve when they graduate.”
FH: “My hope is it will be a cross-disciplinary resource that every major can rely on to enhance their skill set, whether they’re going to school to be in sales or a physician assistant or an economist. I wish I had it when I was here.”
MH: “And we want them all to use it.”
FH: “Yes, wear it out. When I was a kid at church, they’d give every third grader a bible and they told us: ‘Wear it out; we can always get more.’ So wear it out — we can always get more!”
The president of HP Federal LLC and head of U.S. Public Sector at HP Inc., Todd Gustafson ’86 — who received Bryant’s Nelson J. Gulski Service Award this spring — celebrates his 36th year at the company in June. Here, he shares what he’s learned over the course of his career:
CHAMPION INTEGRITY
“Never compromise your integrity, because it’s the most important thing you have. Find ways to do things the right way, and don’t look for shortcuts.”
LIFE IS CONTINUOUS LEARNING
“Waking up at 5:30 a.m., I have Google alerts set to topics that interest me, and I spend the first halfhour of every day updating myself on what I should know in the marketplace.”
EMBRACE CHANGE
“Some humans like to change, and others are completely resistant to change. I love it. Look to embrace an agile environment where you can recommend what happens in your company.”
CONSIDER YOUR CAREER MAP AND GOALS
“At least twice a year, reflect on what you want to do and how you want to do it, and pick a few trusted advisors to share that career journey with. At home, I have a sticky note on the mirror of what I want to do, and I look at it every morning and night.”
by Jesse BurkeWELCOME CRITICAL THINKING
“You’re going to run into people who won’t appreciate you for critical thinking, and others who will. Find environments where they won’t hinder you, and take advantage of that.”
Photograph
Major Jennifer Coleman ’08 had no idea, when she first began to study Psychology at Bryant, that it would one day lead her to East Africa serving alongside Navy Seals and Marine Corps Raiders.
In less than two decades, Coleman, who went on to earn a Ph.D. after Bryant, has forged a path of scholarly and professional adventure. Here, she shares her journey from undergraduate to an activeduty military psychologist who, today, is completing a fellowship in investigative and operational psychology to support the Office of Special Investigation, the Air Force’s federal law enforcement and counterintelligence agency.
What led you to study psychology at Bryant?
Jennifer Coleman, Ph.D.: “I knew I wanted to major in psychology from very early in life. The person who really convinced me that Bryant was the place for me was Professor of Psychology Ron Deluga, who is just an amazing human being; his passion for teaching and intensity was a really good match for me.”
What steps did you take postCommencement?
Coleman: “After graduation, I worked as a research assistant at Butler Hospital for four years, and during that time, I completed my master’s degree in mental health counseling at Boston College. Following that, I went to Kent State University in August 2011 and completed my clinical psychology Ph.D. in 2016.”
What led you to the Air Force?
Coleman: “While at Kent, a colleague of mine had joined, and I’ve always felt passionate about serving our veterans. This was a great opportunity for me to have a direct path to working with military personnel by serving alongside them as a psychologist. I pursued that process and ended up commissioning in 2013 through the Air Force’s Health Professions Scholarship Program. I entered active duty in 2015 and completed my residency and related military training.”
What has been your most rewarding tour to date?
2022, I was deployed to East Africa for almost seven months to provide support to Special Operations Task Force East Africa and the Navy Seals and Marine Corps Raiders. I was part of a team that worked with component interagency and partner nations to protect the interests of the United States and our allies in East Africa. We helped combat violent extremism and supported partner nations in the region.
“I operated in what they call the ‘human performance team,’ composed of a physical therapist, chaplain, and psychologist. We were entrusted to provide support, increase resiliency, and assure continued effectiveness for our Navy Seals and Marine Corps Raiders who were in that area.”
You were also a flight commander; can you tell us about that role?
Coleman: “First, it’s important to know that this role had nothing to do with flying. As a flight commander in a mental health unit, you’re responsible for managing that unit and its components, which include specialty clinics focusing on topics like substance abuse, family advocacy, and traditional mental health and well-being.
“I would say that while my time deployed to East Africa is certainly the most unique and was a challenging and wonderful assignment, it has also been an absolute honor to serve as a flight commander three times; people entrusted me to take care of them, and I took that role to heart.”
Coleman: “During my assignment at Little Rock Air Force Base in —Kerri Tallman
Serial entrepreneur Nick Cianfaglione, Class of 2021, knows a great company is like a party: If you bring the right people together, you can expect a huge success. As Cianfaglione, an avowed fan of the saying “Your network is your net worth,” works to grow his newest company, RestauRent, he’s turned to his Bryant network for support.
The idea for the company came to Cianfaglione in May of 2022 when he assumed the responsibility of organizing multiple receptions after his grandparents’ passings. Convinced there must be a better path, Cianfaglione began to develop RestauRent — a one-stop online platform that allows individuals to connect with a range of venues for any occasion.
As he built his team, Cianfaglione thought back to how his own spark of determination was fanned by his time as a member, and eventual president, of Bryant Ventures — Bryant University’s startup incubator. In Ventures, student entrepreneurs work together to create and grow their businesses, pool their knowledge, offer support, and inspire one another.
“When you’re surrounded by other people who are also hustling to make their ideas come true, it makes you want to hustle even harder,” he states.
In preparing to navigate his latest endeavor — in a field that was largely new to him — Cianfaglione drew upon Bryant connections for advice and assistance. Ann-Marie Harrington ’86, a
member of the Bryant Board of Trustees and a longtime mentor of Cianfaglione’s, was a key early advisor. Ed Brady ’06, co-founder of the Thirsty Beaver Hometown Pub and Grub restaurant group, brought his industry expertise to the table. Relationships he made through Ventures — to which he frequently returns as a guest speaker — and Bryant’s thriving entrepreneurial community provided invaluable insight and talented co-workers.
Today, RestauRent represents more than 500 venues across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City, and Texas. The company has raised more than $3.5 million in funding and processed more than $3 million in private event requests or local hospitality businesses since July 2023.
The staff is largely Bryant alumni and students, and the company just set up a summer internship program to bring more Bulldogs onboard. The university’s community members make good business partners because they have more than a high business acumen, Cianfaglione says — they have a drive to excel.
“We’re not seen as this big Ivy League entrepreneurship powerhouse, but there are hundreds of entrepreneurial and leading business ventures that have come out of Bryant,” states Cianfaglione. “We have the skill set to succeed, but we also see ourselves as underdogs, which makes us all work that much harder.”
Development
Nick Cianfaglione ’21 Founder
Ed Brady ’06 Co-founder Will Tondo ’19 Co-founder
Ann-Marie Harrington ’86 Advisor
Bradley Adams ’17 Founding Team and Insurance Product Lead
Alie Guilmette ’19, ’20MBA Digital Content Strategist
Kacie Galligan ’20 Business Success Manager
Xavier Perez ’23 Senior Business Development Representative
Brianna Reed ’23 Business Development Representative
For Juan Camilo ’07, the name “Dyckman” is more than just the moniker for his successful beer business; it’s home. Born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Camilo moved to the vibrant Dyckman Street in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood at age five and found himself among a close-knit community of fellow Dominican Americans. Although his education took him to Smithfield,
Rhode Island, for college and California for an entrepreneurship fellowship at Stanford, Camilo never lost touch with the sights, smells, and tastes of his past.
Camilo entered the working world with a degree in Finance and a minor in Legal Studies, but admits that he was unsure of what lay ahead for him. After working in sales and trading back home in New York, he dabbled in global invest-
ments for seven years before hitting a wall. Camilo toyed with going back to school but, while making his own home brews, found inspiration in the explosion of craft beer options across markets.
“I thought, ‘It’d be great to have a Latin-inspired beer company,’” he says. In 2014, Dyckman Beer Co. was born.
From the brewing to the packaging, the beer carries Camilo’s memories, from the D.R. to the heart of the Heights. The Highbridge Summer Ale, a fruited beer, offers a slight sweetness to bring out the chinola, or passion fruit, while the seasonal chocolate stout is made with authentic cacao imported from the Dominican Republic.
Although Camilo traded his business suits for brewing barrels, he built his startup by using his finance background to gather stakeholders and create a plan; he put his legal studies education to use when forming contracts with vendors. One of his largest is Yankee Stadium, which proudly offers his flagship pilsner Dyckman Brew, a Munich-style malt beer, to quench fans’ thirst during hot summer games.
“It was the perfect validation that I needed,” Camilo says of securing the storied ballpark. “I guess I’m in the big leagues now.”
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for further expansion. Camilo’s brews can currently be found in more than 100 bodegas throughout New York City, but he hopes to open a second location and bring the beer to hops lovers in New Jersey, New England, and Florida. —KT
Backed by a lively mural of cheering fans, Melissa Little ’07 welcomes a cluster of Bryant students into the lobby of WWE in Stamford, Connecticut. The two-dimensional applause is nearly audible as Little, director of operations for creative services and photo at WWE, leads the undergraduates on an exclusive tour of the media company’s new world headquarters. Passing a 60-foot-tall rendering of Andre the Giant holding his title belt, there’s a sense that, with a little creativity, the students could jump into their own proverbial ring and claim their belt as well — wherever their journey takes them.
The January visit to WWE is part of Bryant’s Arts in the City trip, a five-
day program that exposes students to the arts, arts-related internships and careers, and alumni working in creative industries. As the undergraduates travel the halls, they discover imagery of WWE superstars, golden statues, title belts hanging from the ceiling, and mannequins sporting iconic outfits worn by some of the company’s legends. Little also leads them on a tour of WWE’s photo studio, a wrestling ring set, and state-of-the-art soundproof studios.
Later, in a Royal Rumble-themed conference room, Little, who graduated from Bryant with a degree in Marketing, tells the students that she always dreamed of working for an entertainment company. While she loved her classes at Bryant, Little says she was more interested in real-world experience and sought to gain college credit through internships, taking gigs with MTV Networks, Radio Disney, TracyLocke, and NBC 10 WJAR.
“Keep in touch with those you meet along your journey,” says Little, whose first job came through a connection at MTV. After a stint at an advertising firm, Little landed a position at WWE through a family friend.
Now in her 13th year at WWE, Little oversees a team of 65 talented artists, photographers, project managers, and writers, some of whom she counts among her closest friends. Her workload is diverse, from directing photoshoots with WWE talent (her most memorable: co-producing shoots with the “Total Divas” reality show for E! Networks) to coordinating wardrobe fittings to managing budgets, travel, and equipment.
Because she followed her passion to a fulfilling career — one that’s both creative and supported by her Bryant business education — Little says each day is fast-paced and challenges her in a rewarding way.
“You truly have the power to choose your path in life,” notes Little, who was recently appointed to the College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Council. “If you work hard and keep moving forward, you will find success.”
The late Gladys (Kinoian) Lujan ’56 “always felt that Bryant gave her the boost she needed to succeed,” writes her husband, Jerry, in a note to President Ross Gittell, Ph.D. Lujan, who passed away last May, graduated from Bryant with a four-year teaching degree. While living in New York, Lujan secured a secretarial position with the State Department, which brought her to Algeria, Greece, Vietnam, Haiti, and other far-flung locales over a 33-year career.
In Port-au-Prince, she fell in love twice: with her husband, who also worked in the foreign service, and with Haitian art. At left is one of 20 Haitian paintings Lujan donated to Bryant over the course of her life. She is survived by her husband and two sons.
The pandemic launched a thousand life-altering decisions. For Courtenay McHugh ’01, it led to a new path after a 20-year career that had taken her across the U.S. and Europe, managing supply chain operations first for Reebok, then Adidas and Starbucks, then back at Adidas.
During COVID-19-related shutdowns, McHugh was putting in 70-plus hours a week, helping her staff of 50 adjust to remote work, while managing supply chain crises. “I loved the challenge, but I realized I didn’t want my boss’s job,” she says. “I saw the devastating impacts of climate change and understood how supply chain pollution was contributing. I wanted the rest of my career to have more of an impact.”
In 2021, McHugh left the corporate world and took a sabbatical at Harvard, graduating 16 months later with a Master of Liberal Arts degree that focused on sustainability. She’s now at Nike, where, as director of climate and energy with the Responsible Supply Chain team, she focuses on corporate sustainability.
Also known as corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability is a concept that dates to at least the 1980s, when companies as diverse as Ben and Jerry’s and the Body Shop began returning part of their annual profits to social and environmental causes. This was a big departure from the previously accepted corporate aim of solely satisfying shareholders and
coincided with a heightened global awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.
There’s more to this business awakening than feel-good sentiment, though. “There are some real benefits to companies,” McHugh says. “It’s about reducing both the regulatory and financial risk, which also means a better return to shareholders.”
And there’s the people side, with a goal of having a positive effect on communities and employees, she says.
Today, Nike, like other corporations, reports annual performance numbers related to its effects on the environment, including recycling programs and its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions — efforts that can be costlier to carry out in the short term but have long-term benefits.
Additional corporate programs promote access to underserved communities. Teenage girls, for instance, tend to lose interest in sports; in response, Nike developed tights and leggings that are leakproof, as well as modesty swimwear. It’s important for young women in different cultures to have that option, McHugh says. Nike is an industry leader and thus can inspire other companies to make similar changes, she adds.
“Many of Bryant’s alums work in the business world, but not everyone has a full-time job in sustainability,” says McHugh. “It’s important they know that almost everyone can still influence society at large through the work decisions they make. You can have a positive effect and start from wherever you are.” —Sarah Francis
Join fellow Bulldogs at these Bryant events, on campus and beyond.
ALUMNI RECEPTION IN LONDON
13-14
Enjoy an evening of networking and socializing at the East India Club, a private members’ club in the heart of London, alongside Bryant alumni, students, and university leaders.
REUNION WEEKEND
Reunite with friends and classmates during Reunion Weekend, which coincides with this year’s Homecoming celebration. Pack your tailgating gear and light the grill before the Bulldogs take on Holy Cross at 2 p.m.
BRYANT GIVING DAY
09
Advocates around the world are signing up to encourage their network to give back and compete for prizes. On campus, the Koffler Rotunda will be the center of Bryant Giving Day celebrations, with live performances by student groups, raffles, giveaways, and food for students and faculty throughout the day.
Jude Addo ’11 began his working lunch with Bryant’s student entrepreneurs modestly. “I don’t have a magic blueprint or game plan to show you,” Addo — the founder and CEO of JA Group in Ghana, a diversified holdings company, and the co-founder of Cornerstone Partners, a venture capital firm that supports diverse founders — told the group. “I just hope we can have an honest conversation.”
Over the course of his threeday visit to Bryant in February, Addo would have many of those conversations, each designed to spark inspiration. In his capacity as Presidential Executive in Residence — a platform that brings industry executives and leaders to campus to share their expertise — Addo gave guest lectures, met with Bryant community members, and worked with students to help them prepare for their futures.
Throughout his visit, Addo’s message was simple: “Do hard things, but always take the path of least resistance,” he urged. Try your best to change the world, but find smart ways to do it, he said.
To do both, he suggested, requires finding your passion. “I think the most important thing about being an entrepreneur is having a mission,” noted Addo. “My mission is to democratize the finance industry: to find ways to address inequality and provide access to those who haven’t always had it.”
The decision to return to Bryant, he said, was easy. “When a place like Bryant makes such an impression on you and invests so much in you, you want to repay that,” noted Addo, a William E. Trueheart Scholar who graduated magna cum laude. “When I look back on my life, I see that so much of my success can be attributed to what I learned here.”
His visit culminated with Addo leading a community conversation on artificial intelligence, emotional intelligence, and human connection. “The competitive advantage and value that you and I have is our humanity: to love, to care, to empathize and, surprisingly, even to make mistakes, and to ask for forgiveness,” Addo advised. “Deep care trumps deep tech.” —SK
by Pamela Murray
PhotographDave Beirne ’85 embodies the tenacity of the Bulldog. A perennial trailblazer, Beirne has disrupted established industries — and invented new ones — over the course of a career worthy of the cover of Forbes
His professional success began in the early 1990s at his first firm, Ramsey/Beirne, where his team flipped the recruitment industry on its head by building executive search specs for clients; they also took equity in lieu of payment with promising startups, including Netscape. Beirne then applied his tech and team-building expertise to Benchmark, where he and his venture capital partners invested in — and helped build — eBay, Twitter, and other Silicon Valley giants.
Today, he heads up X10 Capital, a wholly new private equity model that invests in professional athletes, and gives back to his alma mater in myriad capacities, from supporting Bryant athletics with the David M. ’85 and Terry Beirne Stadium Complex to serving on the Board of Trustees. In his four years as chair, from 2020 to 2024, Beirne ushered in a new president, a new School of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and the university’s Vision 2030 strategic plan.
Below, Beirne muses on his path to, and through, Bryant and where the university is headed next:
On his role model: “My father was a manufacturing guy at General Motors. He was one of the smartest people I ever met, but was never afforded the opportunity to study anywhere. At 17 years old, he forged
his birth certificate to get the job. His family needed money; he was the oldest of four, and times were tough. He rose through the ranks and had a wildly successful career.”
On being first-gen: “The eight closest friends I have in the world I met within the first 24 hours of coming to Bryant — and every one of them was the first generation to go to college. It’s classic Bryant. Today, six out of the eight are multimillionaire entrepreneurs; the two others are in corporate America, and they’ve done very well.”
On Bryant’s underdog rep: “The first thing anyone ever asks you when you go to a cocktail party is: ‘What year did you graduate from Stanford?’ I don’t even have my MBA; I went to this gem in Rhode Island. I went to the school of hard knocks, and I learned by building businesses from 22 years old on.”
On the road to no. 1: “There is no reason we can’t run all the way to the number one undergraduate business school in America. What we teach is what the world is looking for right now. Every person I’ve ever hired from Bryant — they’re high achievers. They’re switched on. They really make a difference.”
On giving back: “There are a lot of places you can give your time or your money. But there are few places where you’re going to have a greater impact than Bryant. You can move the dial for an entire generation of students who are learning the right stuff to be successful. Impact is everything.”
by Tucker Beirne
1150 Douglas Pike
Smithfield, RI 02917
“Br yant offers opportunities that no other universities have. To work on a project with a real business that will save lives is something I’ll remember for a long time — and helped me realize what I’m capable of.”
—EDUARDO PERALTA ’24, WHOSE SUPPLY CHAIN PROJECT IDENTIFIED COST SAVINGS FOR A GLOBAL HUNGER NONPROFIT (P. 08)