Starting Fresh: How Ross Faculty and Staff Prepared for the Upcoming School Year
A strong academic year starts long before the first day of classes. Michigan Ross faculty and staff used the summer months to sharpen their skills, deepen their expertise, and find new ways to help students thrive. They also enjoyed some summer fun and family time before the pace of fall picks up.
Now, they’re bringing fresh perspectives and a renewed energy to the upcoming academic year. Here’s how a few faculty and staff members laid the groundwork for a successful year ahead and what they’re looking forward to most as students return to campus.
Tim Webb, PhD
Faculty Director
Entrepreneurship Minor
Did you participate in any professional development opportunities over the summer?
This summer, I worked closely with a couple of the start-up companies that I support, as well as completing some consulting work in the field of archaeology.
How have you been preparing for the upcoming academic year?
This year, I am excited to be working with our amazing undergraduates again. Over the
summer, the teaching team and I worked to hone and adjust our classes from prior years. We looked at student feedback, our own notes, and then updated them. This year, we identified a few key areas that we wanted to improve or update with necessary content. For example, we are improving our lectures on data/AI, business law and ethics, and operations to better draw upon advancements and our team’s expertise. We are also tweaking assignments and adjusting the flow of lectures to better support our students’ engagement.
What are you looking forward to the most this academic year?
I love working with our students. It is a privilege to be part of the student journey, and I am always excited to see them back in the classroom on day one. It is always a hard transition back, as my children are also returning to school, but the change in seasons brings such energy to campus, and it is great to be a part of such a great academic institution! As the faculty director for the university-wide entrepreneurship minor, I’m really excited to see how the momentum translates from last year’s Life-Changing Education Student Showcase, which is a two-year, university-wide exploration of how learning changes lives and how we can make that change more intentional, joyful, and widely shared. It was such a privilege to be part of this initiative, and it is amazing to hear the stories from these students about how these projects are continuing or building into next year.
Michelle Austin
Managing Director, Sanger Leadership Center
Adjunct Lecturer, Management & Organizations
Did you participate in any professional development opportunities over the summer?
Yes! Learning is a core value of mine, and I devote time every summer to learning new skills. Currently, I am in the process of becoming a certified leadership coach through the International Coaching Federation. Coaching plays a huge role in developing leaders, and I’m looking forward to helping our students better understand themselves and their journeys. Over the last few years, I have completed more than 100 hours of training through the Co-Active Training Institute. This summer, I am enrolled in a mentor coaching group where I receive weekly feedback on my coaching skills, share experiences with peers, and observe professional coaches.
How have you been preparing for the upcoming academic year?
At the Sanger Leadership Center, summer is a time to balance innovation and team connection. We’ve been working on several new leadership development programs for Ross, including an integration for all 650 BBA juniors during the Ross Integrated Semester and the development of a holistic coaching strategy for the Center. We are also launching our new Michigan Model of Leadership Growth Hub in the fall, an interactive tool that will help students read their leadership assessment reports, brainstorm goals and actions, and recommend resources. On the connection side, our team participated in a team coaching experience this summer, visited Gallup Park for some painting and tie-dye, and generated strategy insights at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Personally, fall is busy for our family, so we’re getting ready! My husband works in K-12, and we have a school-aged daughter, so prepping for fall is all about back-to-school shopping, signing up for after-school activities, and soaking up the last bits of summer, which we like to do by playing the Ann Arbor District Library Summer Game, taking walks with our dog, and enjoying our perennial garden.
What are you looking forward to the most this academic year?
The people, always! Meeting the new cohort of students brings a lot of energy, especially our Ross Leaders Academy cohort and the students I teach in the MBAn Program. Additionally, as a manager, I really look forward to seeing our team learn, grow, and celebrate their amazing successes.
