Meet the Dean
Michelle Coussens
As Dean of the School of Business at Kendall College, Michelle Coussens manages the Business School operations, including faculty and curriculum selection and assessment, and program development and direction. As part of Kendall's academic leadership team, she participates in the College's general education curriculum, assessment, and faculty development initiatives, providing vision and perspective.
Coussens previously served as a senior analyst in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She formerly was an adjunct instructor in the management department at DePaul University, and she has conducted training for the American Management Association. Her work in financial literacy initiatives includes an article titled “Beyond Financial Education: Changing Financial Behavior” in the Federal Reserve publication Profitwise News & Views.
Coussens is committed to assisting not-for-profit organizations, frequently serving as a consultant. She has developed, and still teaches, a two-day business planning course for NeighborWorks® America, a Congressionally-funded organization providing funding and technical assistance to community development organizations nationwide. She has also led a partnership between Kendall College and Jobs for Youth Chicago that helps at-risk youth succeed in college, and has recently initiated a business leadership program for Chicago-area high school students between Kendall and the American Management Association.
Coussens was named the first Chairman of the Board of the newly formed Illinois Diversity Council in 2012. She is a member of The Executives Club of Chicago and ExecuNet. She has served on the advisory board of Provena Pine View Care Center and created their first annual fundraiser, and has acted as an annual fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for more than 15 years. She has served on the board of the Chicago Women in Publishing (CWIP) for two years, serving most recently as Vice President of Business Operations and as an economics instructor for Junior Achievement.
Coussens holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Northwestern University and a Masters in Business Administration, with a concentration in marketing, from DePaul University. She holds several professional insurance designations—Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Chartered Property/Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and Registered Professional Liability Underwriter (RPLU) and has completed actuarial exams in Calculus, Statistics, Operations Research and Economics.
michelle.coussens@kendall.edu
Read the latest versions of "From the Desk of the Dean" by Michelle Coussens.
February 2012 Where is business headed? New Skills, News Careers and a Positive Outlook
