Message from the Dean 

Welcome to the School of Business at Whitworth University.

I'm honored to serve as dean of a school where education is still, at its heart, a relationship. Our faculty know their students by name – they teach, advise and mentor every one of them personally, in classes that average 20-30 students. That scale isn't an accident; it's a conviction. We believe business leaders are formed, not just trained, and formation happens in close community.

Before joining Whitworth, I spent 15 years in higher education at UMass Global (formerly Brandman University, a Chapman University System institution), where I earned the rank of full professor, served as associate dean of the School of Business, and most recently, served as associate vice chancellor for institutional curriculum, assessment and academic policy, overseeing curricular and university-wide policy renewal. Across every one of those roles, my passion has stayed the same: to serve, facilitate and empower the teaching and learning process. My lamppost is Colossians 2:2 – hearts encouraged, knit together in love, growing toward the full riches of complete understanding. That vision aligns with and shapes what we cultivate in our students, through internships, consulting projects, service-learning and study abroad so that they enter the professional world ready not only to perform, but to lead with integrity.

Our faculty pair deep academic credentials with real-world experience at leading regional, national and international companies. Their scholarship is alive and applied: research on how mentoring shapes careers and workplaces, on supporting the well-being of students studying abroad, and on how people actually make economic decisions. What our faculty study, they bring straight back into the classroom and into the Spokane business community we're proud to serve.

One Standard, Every Program

The Whitworth School of Business is an accredited member of AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and that accreditation covers every business program we offer, undergraduate and graduate alike. Whether you are a first-year student declaring accounting, a working adult finishing a bachelor's in business management, a veteran completing your MBA, a professional pursuing the Master of Science in Financial Planning, you are studying in an AACSB-accredited school. There is no tiered version of a Whitworth business education. The same standard applies on campus, in the evening classroom and online. 

That matters more than it may sound. Fewer than 6 percent of institutions offering business degrees worldwide hold AACSB accreditation; that's roughly one in 20. And in March 2026, following peer review, our accreditation was extended.

AACSB accreditation is not a plaque on a wall or a one-time achievement. It is a multiyear process that examines how a school actually operates, includes guidance from an AACSB advisor, and culminates in a peer review centered on continuous improvement, measured against standards for strategic management and innovation, research, and teaching and learning. 

For you, that means a credential employers recognize worldwide, and a learning environment that outside peers have examined and found to deliver on what it claims – at every level we teach.

Our Graduate Programs

Our graduate programs, the MBA, the Master of Business Leadership, the Master of Science in Financial Planning, our graduate certificates and the Whitworth Institute of Leadership are built for the person who is already leading: the manager stepping into a wider scope of responsibility, the professional changing fields, the entrepreneur who wants discipline behind the instinct, the fifth-year athlete looking to play another year! We offer them in low-residency, hybrid, online formats because flexibility should serve the learner, not the calendar.

What I want you to notice is what we did not trade away to get there. Extending our reach online has never meant relaxing what makes a Whitworth education worth having. Faculty own the curriculum. Courses are designed for engagement, application and genuine human interaction. Every course should give you something you can use in your work the following Monday. Small cohorts, faculty who know your name and a formation-centered approach travel intact into the online classroom. We aren't trying to imitate the large national universities, rather we're extending what Whitworth already does well to learners who might never otherwise have had access to it.

The Institute of Leadership deserves particular mention. It brings working professionals together in cohort with one another and with Whitworth faculty, industry leaders and mentors, and it has long been one of the school's most direct connections to the leadership community of the Inland Northwest. It is a reminder that our reach isn't measured only in degrees conferred.

The rarest thing about our programs, though, isn't the accreditation. It's the combination, the rigor and global recognition of an AACSB school, delivered inside a community small enough and intentional enough that faculty still know who you are and what you're building.

An Invitation

My first commitment as dean is to listen – to our students, faculty, alumni, and the employers and civic partners who count on Whitworth graduates. The best questions build the best organizations, and I'd welcome yours. Please call me at 509.777.4305 or send me an email (lgalloway@whitworth.edu) if you'd like to learn how the Whitworth School of Business can help you reach your academic and professional goals.

Laura Galloway, Ph.D.
Professor and Charles L. Boppell Dean