The Kogod School of Business at American University announced today the addition of two new faculty members and a new Executive-in-Residence who will be joining its award-winning sustainability program this fall.

Dr. Julie Anderson is joining Kogod as a professorial lecturer in the Management Department and Associate Program Director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program. She joins Kogod from BlackRock, where she is currently serving as a Director and the Head of iShares US Sustainable exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Institutions. At BlackRock, Dr. Anderson manages the company’s $55B suite of Sustainable ETFs across product development, marketing, thought leadership, and distribution strategy for asset owners and asset managers. Dr. Anderson brings a wealth of private sector experience as a trader, economist, portfolio manager, and global business strategist across both sustainable and traditional investing to her new role as a member of the Kogod faculty. Dr. Anderson will teach and conduct research on sustainability issues, and will help drive curricular and programmatic initiatives and external engagement for the Sustainability Program.

Dr. Paul (Chinwang) Yoo is joining Kogod as an assistant professor in the Finance Department. He joins Kogod from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he recently completed his Ph.D. Dr. Yoo is a leading expert in sustainable finance, fintech and banking, and monetary economics. His dissertation empirically identifies investors' non-pecuniary Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) preferences through asset prices. He received the top prize at the 3rd Annual FIASI-Gabelli School Student Research Competition on ESG and was a finalist at last year's BlackRock Applied Research Award. Dr. Yoo will teach and conduct research on Sustainable Finance and related topics.

Stacy Swann, founder and former CEO of Climate Finance Advisors, is joining as Kogod’s newest Executive-in-Residence. Ms. Swann is an experienced executive with expertise in investment, climate finance, climate-related financial risk, governance, and ESG. Since 2017, Ms. Swann has been an adjunct professor with Kogod, teaching the popular course Managing for Climate Change: The Business and Financial Implications of a Warmer Planet. During her residence, she will expand her work with the school to include overseeing student research at the nexus of investment decision-making and climate, convening discussions with leaders in climate finance around topics relevant for students in Kogod’s MBA and MS in Sustainability Management (MSSM) who are interested in tackling some of the most challenging issues companies and investors face today.   

The three latest additions to the Kogod School of Business follow the sustainability program’s continued expansion in 2022, with new hires Danielle Vogel, an entrepreneur in the sustainability space, and Garima Sharma, a tenure-track faculty member and an expert in sustainable systems. The business school is also beginning the process of hiring another full-time professor in sustainability to bring the number of new faculty additions to the Kogod sustainability program to six.

“We are thrilled to welcome these distinguished experts to the Kogod School of Business,” said Dean David Marchick. “We are committed to ensuring that our students are learning from some of the most experienced sustainable business leaders, and the substantial investments that we are making should speak volumes about our commitment to this program at both the undergraduate and graduate level.”

Founded more than 10 years ago, the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program at the Kogod School of Business is one of only a few sustainability-specific programs housed in a business school. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability, Kogod's sustainability curriculum integrates courses offered by non-business units at AU including the School of International Service, School of Public Affairs, College of Arts & Science, and Washington College of Law. Applications to the sustainability management program increased by 70%.

Kogod recently received an award for the best sustainability curriculum, joining previous winners Harvard, Duke and Northwestern. In addition, Kogod students recently launched the Kogod Sustainability Review, a student-run, bi-annual publication of sustainability scholarship on people, the planet, and prosperity in a rapidly changing world. And longtime AU professor Jennifer Oetzel of Kogod’s management department recently received two best book awards from the Academy of Management for her latest publication, Business Adaptation to Climate Change.

In addition to these recent investments in the sustainability program, Kogod has made sustainability a core part of its business school curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The MBA program is one of the few programs in the nation to require a sustainability course as part of its core curriculum, and sustainability is incorporated into the research and teaching in all five faculty departments at the school. American University was the first campus in the United States to become carbon neutral.