The School of Business and Public Administration welcomes Dr. Deborah Cours as the new dean and executive director for the Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Dr. Cours — who comes from California State University, Northridge — is taking over the position from Dr. Seung Bach, who had been serving as interim dean since last September.
“I am thrilled to join CSUB BPA and the Bakersfield community. It feels like coming home,” she said. “I grew up in a smaller but similar city — Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is a thriving city surrounded by small towns, agriculture, transportation hubs and industrial outposts. The people there are like here: they value education and opportunity, working to make a better tomorrow for their families and each other."
Dr. Cours recently served at CSUN as interim associate vice president for undergraduate studies and assistant vice president of academic and community partnerships. She was also a professor there in the Department of Marketing.
Dr. Cours has also served as the director of community engagement, director of graduate and evening programs and interim dean at the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics.
Business acumen is something Dr. Cours is passionate about. She was the founding director of the Wells Fargo Center for Small Business and Entrepreneurship at CSUN and is a past president of the Small Business Institute.
As AVP, Dr. Cours represented CSUN through the APLU Commission on Economic and Community Engagement, Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. She was campus lead for CSUN Connections — a partnership among local community colleges — and UNITE LA for degree attainment, including reverse transfer and improved transfer pathways.
She also oversaw the Matador Achievement Center for academic support for student-athletes and the Office of Community Engagement. She facilitated high-impact practices in off-campus student experiences such as community-based (service) learning and academic internships.
Dr. Cours has been deemed a “Top 40 Under 40” by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and received a Volunteer Service Award from the CSUN Alumni Association in 2007.
Dr. Cours received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa. She later received her Ph.D. in marketing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her husband Shawn is a regional planner and they have two young adult daughters, Morgan and Keara, who will be a senior in college this fall.
Dr. Cours said she's ready to do her part to make a difference for the students at CSUB.
"Exciting things are happening in the School of Business and Public Administration, and I’m pleased to help build upon the work completed to prepare our students for careers and lifelong learning, to partner in our community and to recognize the impactful scholarship and teaching our faculty provide and staff support."
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