Wilder Teaching Professor and Professor of Finance Donna Fletcher Brown has been awarded the 2017-2018 Dr. Gregory H. Adamian Award for Lifetime Excellence in Teaching.
Fletcher Brown has been a member of the Bentley faculty and community for 26 years. During this time, her dedication to teaching, including her mentoring role during her term as Wilder Professor, has been exceptional. Her commitment to excellence in the classroom and her leadership have enhanced Bentley’s reputation for pedagogical innovation at the intersection of business and the arts and sciences.
Fletcher Brown’s collaboration with other faculty led to Bentley’s recent participation in a large grant proposal to the National Science Foundation focusing on pedagogy related to undergraduate sustainability education.
Her service as an endowed Wilder Teaching Professor focused on supporting teaching innovation across campus with seminars and workshops ranging from pedagogical scholarship to undergraduate research. She worked to disseminate these tools in a “Teaching Matters” flyer to other universities, raising Bentley’s teaching profile.
Fletcher Brown constantly strives to challenge students with intellectual rigor and depth, encouraging them to achieve. A former student attested to her impact by saying, “Professor Fletcher Brown made herself a part of every student’s career journey. She offered practical advice in class and in her office. She refused to let students be complacent, but instead encouraged them to go out and take the job that they wanted. She became an important mentor to me during senior year and she still is today.”
Fletcher Brown holds a PhD from Lehigh University, and her research and teaching focus on derivatives, international finance, investments, capital markets and corporate governance and compliance. She has published in the Journal of Fixed Income, Journal of Financial Engineering, Journal of International Money and Finance, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Project Management Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Sloan Management Review. She has also worked as an auditor for Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., and as an accountant and tax associate for Goldman Sachs & Co.
Celebrating leadership in teaching
The Adamian Award acknowledges pedagogical leadership demonstrated by Bentley’s most distinguished faculty. It was established in 2016 by Debbie Adamian and family and the trustees of Bentley University in honor of Dr. Adamian, who served as Bentley’s president from 1970-1991 and then as its chancellor and president emeritus until his death in 2015. Last year’s inaugural award went to Professor Emeritus Alex Zampieron.
The $10,000 award is designed to recognize a long-serving Bentley faculty member whose exceptional pedagogical contributions, including outstanding classroom teaching and the development of teaching-related materials, have clearly enhanced the reputation of the university and the development of its students.