Professor, Entrepreneurship and James W. Walter Distinguished Chair of Entrepreneurship; Director, Entrepreneurship Center

401 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Box: O
Tampa, FL 33606
(813) 257-1760
rwhite@ut.edu

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Rebecca J. White

Education

1978 Concord University, B.S.
1980 Virginia Tech University, MBA
1994 Virginia Tech University, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Business Plan Development
Creating and Leading New Ventures

Career Specialties

Developing and building academic programs in entrepreneurship education. Primary research and teaching interests are in strategic leadership in equity backed companies and entrepreneurship pedagogy.

Professional and Community Activities:

Rebecca White is a 2006 Athena® Award finalist, a 2005 recipient of the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education and was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Supporter of Entrepreneurship in 2003. Under White’s leadership the NKU program was named one of the top 25 undergraduate entrepreneurship education programs in the country by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine and one of the Top 50 MBA programs for entrepreneurship by Women 3.0. In addition, the program won the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) 2007 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award and in 2004 the AACSB Innovation in Leadership of Business Education Award. White has been awarded several distinguished research and service honors, and she currently serves on the Executive Council of the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers and the Executive Board of the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and is a director for Northstar Bank and Muzime, LLC.

White is founder and director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute, an educational program for female entrepreneurs offered jointly by NKU and the New York Times. She has also started several companies including RiskAware LLC, www.riskaware.com, a risk mitigation company for higher education and adEsse LLC, a consulting company specializing in helping startup ventures and established firms integrate and utilize an entrepreneurial mindset.

Recent publications include:

White, R.J., G.T. Hertz and R.D. D'Souza (2011). Teaching a Craft - Enhancing Entrepreneurship Education, Small Business Institute Journal, 7 (2), p. 1-14.

White, R.J., G.T. Hertz and R.D. D'Souza (2011). "Filtering out Fatal Flaws: Modeling the Early Screening Stage of Private Equity Investment Decisions", Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 23 (1), p. 68-92.

Hertz, G.T., R.J. White and F. Beasley. (2009) “Selecting a Legal Structure: Revisiting the Strategic Issues and Views of Small Business Owners” Journal of Small Business Strategy; 20(1), p. 81-102.

Hughes, S.T., G.T. Hertz and R.J. White. (forthcoming), “Criminal Background Checks in U.S. Higher Education: A Review of Policy Developments, Process Implementations and Post-Results Evaluation Procedures,” Public Personnel Management.”

White, R., R. D’Souza and J. McIlwraith. 2007. “Leadership in Venture Backed Companies: Going the Distance,” Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(4): 121-132.

Rhee, Ken and Rebecca J. White. 2007. “The Emotional Intelligence of Entrepreneurs,” Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 20(4).

Honors and Awards

President's Award for Distinguished Service, The United State Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 2010
2010 Tampa Bay Business Woman of the Year, Education Category
Excellence in Pedagogical Teaching and Innovation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, 2007
Top 50 Universities for Entrepreneurship by Women 3.0, 2007
Top 25 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, 2006
International Athena Awards Finalist, Greater Cincinnati, OH region, 2006
Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, 2005
AACSB Innovation in Leadership of Business Education Award, 2003
Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year – Supporter of Entrepreneurship, Kentucky and Southwest Ohio Region., June 2003
Strongest Influence Faculty Award, Northern Kentucky University Alumni Association, February, 2001
Dean’s Outstanding Service Award, Northern Kentucky University College of Business, Fall 2000

FUNDED GRANTS and PROPOSALS

2006 National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Conference funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Fifth Third Bank. ($70,000)

The Institute for New Economy Technologies funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. ($800,000)

“Creating campus wide entrepreneurship programs grant” funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO ($50,000).

“Creating the Kentucky Entrepreneurship Research Center at NKU and Designing an Entrepreneurial Assessment Tool,” funded by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp, Lexington, KY ($225,000).

“Entrepreneurship Education and Awareness Grant,” funded by The Coleman Foundation,” Chicago, IL. ($25,000).

“Proposal for the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship at Northern KentuckyUniversity.” Funded by The Jacob Schmidlapp Foundation (Fifth Third Bank), Cincinnati, OH ($1,100,000).

Summer Fellowship, Northern Kentucky University - To pursue research on changes in banking strategy and structure 1980-1996 in the states of Kentucky and Virginia.

Summer Grant, Northern Kentucky University - To pursue research on changes in banking strategy and structure 1980-1996 in the states Kentucky and Virginia.