Partnerships powered by philanthropy

Scott Dust shares how his professorship supports his work and the college

Scott Dust, PhD, associate dean and Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor in Leadership, is leveraging the best of the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business to strengthen local companies in the greater Cincinnati area and create new leadership opportunities for students.

Dust has always been fascinated by organizational behavior — how business owners, enterprise leaders and employees interact with one another, and how those interactions influence workplace dynamics and business potential. His interest has influenced a vast body of research.

Over the years, Dust — a professor of management and associate dean of partnership development — has studied leadership as it pertains to authenticity, mindfulness and supportive management approaches to boost performance and morale.

Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor in Leadership strengthens Lindner’s mission

Now, Dust is venturing into exciting areas of “New Age” research, focusing on topics like AI’s impact on day-to-day performance and productivity in the workplace. Beyond his own research interests, he is strengthening the college’s core mission of empowering students to develop strong leadership potential. He’s also positioning Lindner to become the place businesses in Greater Cincinnati and beyond turn to for help tackling the many challenges they’re contending with in a rapidly shifting world.

The Perry Professorship has given me the time and resources to take a step back and think strategically about how we can channel our efforts to create the best opportunities for our students.

Scott Dust associate dean and Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor in Leadership

“The Perry Professorship has given me the time and resources to take a step back and think strategically about how we can channel our efforts to create the best opportunities for our students, and how to best serve the overarching goal of the university, our region and our city,” Dust says.

To that end, Dust is working to strengthen existing partnerships and cultivate new ones with companies in the Greater Cincinnati and extend to them the vast and varied expertise at the Lindner College of Business. Many companies, he says, have questions about the future; they’re leery of AI and afraid that not understanding it properly will negatively impact their future. Companies are also unsure of how best to upskill entry-to-mid-level management to ensure they have a pipeline of talent that’s well equipped to become leaders with the skills and strength needed to take on the pressures of AI and other challenges.

To address this need, the college has increased its executive training sessions available to business leaders and is creating new modules in partnership with its nine institutes. The participation of business leaders in summits like one recently hosted by the Center for Business Analytics strengthens the bridge between the university and enterprise, Dust says, ensuring more opportunities in the workplace for students.

Industry partnerships a win-win

Man speaking to a group of three at desks.

Dust, center, works with a group from the Valvoline Executive Leadership Development Initiative. Photo/Suzanne Buzek.

Dust is also helping integrate former high-level executives to the school — “people who say, ‘I’m ready to do something different,’ or, ‘I’m ready for the next, or final, chapter of my career and I’d like to give back. I’d like to be around students.’” Experts like Phil Collins, Bus ’89, founder and CEO of Orchard Holdings Group; Juan De Paoli, vice president Our Brands Kroger and Steve Valerius, Bus ’79, a former Ameritas executive and now executive fellow in Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management have decades-worth of invaluable experience to offer students; “bringing in people with that level of expertise and network into our ecosystem can give us a whole new layer of partnerships,” Dust says.

Now that the college has moved to a universal co-op model, students graduate with multiple, paid professional experiences. “We want to make sure that there’s great opportunities for them to take advantage of,” Dust says, “which means we need to get proactive with our industry partners and also bring on new partners.” His goal, he says, is to make the college “the number one co-op school in the U.S.” and offer students the kinds of opportunities that will prepare them to “serve our region and our city in a way that’s at the speed of business.”

It's an approach that, Dust believes, resonates with Kirk Perry, BBA ’90, HON ’15, whose success as a local business leader underscores the importance of strong leadership, and whose experience and vision for the future are invaluable to Lindner. Perry has supported multiple programs in the business school, extended scholarships to many students, and endowed professorships supporting the research interests of faculty like Dust and Jeff Shaffer, the Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor of Analytics and director of the Applied AI Lab.

“One of the best investments the University of Cincinnati ever made in a specific individual was to offer Kirk Perry a scholarship, so he could stop working nights and continue his studies uninterrupted, in exchange for taking on specific leadership positions,” Dust says. “He has never stopped paying it forward as a mentor and a leader for the Lindner school.”

Featured image at top: Scott Dust. Photo/Chris Radcliffe for the UC Foundation.

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By Savita Iyer

Iyer is a freelance writer.