Dr. Kenneth R. Lord served as dean of Eastern Michigan University’s College of Business from 2018 until his retirement in 2024.  Prior to his appointment at Eastern, he held appointment as dean of the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics at California State University, Northridge from 2013 to 2017.  In earlier administrative roles he served as associate dean of the Kania School of Management at The University of Scranton and director of graduate programs at Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business and Economics.  He held marketing faculty positions at Niagara University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.  

As a college dean, Dr. Lord managed annual budgets ranging from $15.8 to $20.4 million, full- and part-time faculty complements from 115 to 170, and between 12 and 40 staff members serving a wide array of departments, programs, centers/institutes, student services, and professional functions.  His contributions to central administrations and the broader state systems of higher education included service on presidents’ and provosts’ leadership councils, the CSUPERB (CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology) Strategic Planning Committee, and steering committees for institutional reputation/visibility, faculty governance, financial investments, student-support services, and a regional incubator. As the chief academic officer of the colleges he led, he had responsibility for personnel decisions and evaluations, accreditation, strategy, marketing, fundraising, faculty scholarship, grant-funded initiatives, and curricular review.  He consistently exceeded development goals during my years as dean at Eastern and CSUN, securing some $35 million.  He oversaw the design and launch of successful graduate, undergraduate, and executive programs in business management, entrepreneurship and innovation, enterprise-resource management, finance, FX trading, healthcare management, real estate, strategy, and sustainability.  He leveraged his communications skill and media connections to bring increased visibility to the universities for which he worked, including exposure through such media organizations as CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week, in addition to local media.  Results contributed to prestigious recognition from more than 30 organizations, including more than a dozen top-ten national and global rankings.   

Dr. Lord holds degrees in English, communication, and marketing from the University of Utah and The Ohio State University.  His research has led to more than 80 journal articles and conference presentations, over 6000 citations of his work, his ranking among the world’s top advertising scholars, and a book published in 2013 on the topic of social justice.