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Entrepreneur chosen as new EMU graduate dean They now run one of the leading hospitality businesses in Pennsylvania‑Dutch country. They are the ultimate managers of 450 employees who run the Bird‑in‑Hand Family Inn, Restaurant and Bakery, as well as other places of lodging in the area, including Amish Country Motel, Mill Stream Country Inn, Travelers Rest Motel, Bird‑in‑Hand Village Inn and Suites, and Country Acres Campground. A graduate of Goshen (Ind.) College, Smucker holds master’s and doctoral
degrees from (respectively) the University of Scranton and Walden University. Both degrees were in management, with a focus on effectiveness in leadership and organizational change. He has taught these subjects on an adjunct basis at EMU and other colleges. His blend of experience in business and academe gives him a unique perspective on workplace values. “Most people spend more time each week at work than they do in church, or even with their families,” Smucker says. “This means that a work environment that includes developing and empowering employees as part of its mission can have a significant positive impact on their social, emotional, and spiritual development.”
As graduate dean, he will oversee and coordinate the fastest‑growing component of EMU, with master’s degree students accounting for about a third of EMU’s enrollment. EMU offers master’s degrees in biomedicine, business administration, conflict transformation, counseling, education, and nursing & leadership. Smucker and his wife, Anna, have three adult children. He is known as a longdistance runner, having completed 23 marathons, including three Boston Marathons and six ultra‑marathons. Smucker begins July 1, succeeding David Glanzer, who filled the role part‑time while teaching in EMU’s graduate counseling program. — Bonnie Price Lofton, EMU news service
Photo by Kevin Kilbrei
Jim Smucker, president and major shareholder of the Bird‑in‑Hand hospitality corporation in Pennsylvania, has been appointed the first full‑time graduate dean of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va. He will bring a skill-set not typically seen in academic leadership — decades of success as a business owner. Smucker and his brother John have expanded what began in Smucker 1968 as a motel built by their Amish‑born father on family farmland.
Jeff Huebner utilizes Skype technology to connect an April 9 meeting of the Winnipeg MEDA Chapter with Veronica Herera, CEO of MiCredito, MEDA’s microfinance institution in Managua, Nicaragua, and Octavio Cortes, longtime MiCredito associate. Herera and Cortes explained how MiCredito makes affordable loans to microbusinesses and responded to chapter members’ ques-
The Marketplace May June 2013
tions about interest rates and delinquencies. Huebner is associate professor of international business at Canadian Mennonite University’s Redekop School of Business. He regularly brings students from his international microfinance course to Nicaragua to interview MiCredito staff and clients, carry out research on microfinance, and assist with field audits.
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