Field of Study USA: Business

Jared Mazzanti

Mr. Jared Mazzanti currently serves as the director of Strategic Initiatives in the Dean’s Office at the University of California (UC), Berkeley School of Public Health, where he has designed and operationalized multiple programs focused on health innovation internationally and domestically. He spearheads a novel partnership with J.P. Morgan that brought a new healthcare conference to Asia, oversees a Health Innovation Accelerator for Taiwanese start-ups, and previously built a Social Impact Innovation Grant Program to provide student teams resources and training to effect positive change in their communities.

A Boren scholarship to China in 2009 ignited Mr. Mazzanti’s lifelong drive to build bridges between peoples and cultures, especially in Asia. He has launched and sustained multi-country partnerships in his previous roles at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, UC Berkeley’s Office of the Chancellor, and the HNA Group in China.

Mr. Mazzanti received his BA in political economy with the distinction of magna cum laude from UC, where he concentrated in East Asia and minored in Chinese. He received his MBA in 2016 after completing a Chinese-taught program at Central South University (中南大学) in China’s Hunan province. He is an active member of UC Berkeley’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council, regularly volunteers for the Asia Society of Northern California, and maintains professional credentials in HR and project management.

Mr. Mazzanti’s Fulbright project is conducting a comparative analysis on how universities in India (Indian Institute of Science), Japan (Tohoku University), and South Korea (Seoul National University) are bridging the gap between invention and innovation, especially in health-related deep tech; this is to identify success stories and pain points, the latter preventing faster uptake of university research by industry. His research aims to answer one key question through surveys and stakeholder interviews: what factors best position a university to integrate into local and national innovation ecosystems and drive entrepreneurship among its faculty, students, staff, and alumni?

Lumina S Albert

Dr. Lumina Albert is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics and Management, a Daniels Ethics Fellow, and the OtterBox Faculty Fellow in the College of Business at Colorado State University. She also serves as the Executive Director of the CSU Center for Ethics and Human Rights. Her research seeks to extend knowledge of social justice, ethical behavior, and interpersonal relationships in the business world. She has an MBA (with a dual specialization in Marketing and Human Resource Management) and a PhD in Business Management. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Albert received the prestigious AAUW International Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research at the Department of Psychology at Stanford University and at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. She is an award-winning teacher and has been honored with the College of Business Excellence in Teaching Award and the ‘Best Teacher of Colorado State University’ Award, which is given to outstanding educators at CSU by the CSU Alumni Association and Student Alumni Connection. Her research has been published in scholarly journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Ethics, Human Resource Management Review, Organizational Psychology Review and Group & Organizations Management. Dr. Albert’s service at CSU and to the Northern Colorado Community has been recognized with the College of Business Outstanding Service Award, CSU Multicultural Distinguished Service Award, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Office of International Programs at CSU. She has served as a consultant with organizations such as Procter & Gamble, International Justice Mission, and Child Relief & You (CRY) on issues ranging from strategic public relations to organizing social marketing campaigns. She serves on the Board of Advisors of New Horizons House, an international organization providing holistic restoration for survivors of human trafficking and sexual abuse. She is also a central organizer of the Northern Colorado Human Trafficking Symposium, a premier and distinctive conference that seeks to engage and educate on the issue of human trafficking through research, training, and collaboration. In her spare time, Dr. Albert enjoys cooking for her friends and family, interior designing, and traveling around the world!

The proposed Fulbright-Nehru project focuses on the ethics and human rights impact of corporates on people and communities in India. The project intends to examine the macro- and micro- level aspects of the ethics and human rights practices of global business organizations. Specifically, this research utilizes a norms-based framework to assess how corporate ethics practices impact the emergence of individual behaviors and community outcomes. Areas of research and teaching include how these businesses impact their stakeholders (i.e., consumers, employees, workers, the environment, and the community in which they operate).

Ramesh Dangol

Dr. Ramesh Dangol joined Youngstown State University (YSU) in 2012 after completing a PhD in strategic management from Purdue University in Indiana. Since joining YSU, he has published manuscripts in Strategic Management Journal, International Journal of Production Economics, International Business Review, and Journal of International Management. His research focuses on how individuals and organizations develop capabilities and their implications on individual/ organizational performance.

Having examined the links between capabilities and performance, Dr. Dangol’s new research focuses on identifying obstacles (frictions) that prevent individuals from developing capabilities, and delineating the mechanisms by which capability frictions negatively influence individuals’ wellbeing. His new research will help government worldwide enact policies and invest in resources to circumvent capability frictions.

Dr. Dangol’s Fulbright-Nehru project seeks to examine the impact of violence against women (VAW) on their employment capabilities and, subsequently, economic wellbeing. Authors argue that VAW reduces women’s ability to develop employment capabilities by limiting spatial mobility. Consequently, women’s ability to secure employment essential to realize economic wellbeing is curtailed. Authors also posit that human extensibility can alleviate the adverse effects of VAW on employment capabilities by supplanting spatial mobility. This research calls for investments in human extensibility infrastructures to help women in high violence areas develop employment capabilities and realize economic wellbeing.

Caroline Bennet

Caroline Bennet is a scholar from Denver, Colorado. She recently graduated from Yale University with simultaneously awarded bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. In her undergraduate degree, her focus lay on international security studies, diplomatic history, and urban history. She spent her graduate degree studying the history of the American Southwest. Caroline wrote her undergraduate thesis and her graduate dissertation on the history of Denver’s urban growth.

Caroline was a participant in Yale’s highly selective Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, which is aimed at addressing the large-scale and long-term strategic challenges of statecraft, politics, and social change. Through this program, she received a fellowship to research private-sector strategies for combating poverty, gender inequality, and environmental destruction in New Delhi.

At Yale, Caroline served as the director of Civic Education in Every Vote Counts, a student-led organization committed to making voting accessible to young people. She also worked for Gary Community Ventures, a Denver enterprise that mobilizes policy, philanthropy, and venture capital to address inequity and improve the lives of Colorado kids and families. While there, she helped design a high-dosage tutoring program to address COVID-interrupted learning among low-income students. She has also contributed articles to Refinery29 and the New Hampshire Union Leader, and has presented her research at various conferences and events.

Caroline’s favorite pastimes are running, reading, and watching terrible television with her little sisters. In the winter, she spends every moment she can shredding on the ski slopes.

Community-ownership business models designate various community stakeholders (producers, suppliers, employees, the environment) as shareholders. In theory, this model ensures that an enterprise’s missions will align with its stakeholders’ interests: cultural preservation; healthcare; livable wages; and environmental protection. However, practical applications of this model require investment in the business. Garnering the necessary buy-in is difficult, especially at large scales. Caroline’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the factors that reinforce communities’ trust in businesses which claim to represent their interests. She believes that understanding the aspects of the community-ownership model that promotes trust could reveal crucial information about how it can generate social impact.

Arpita Joardar

Dr. Arpita Joardar got her PhD in international business from the University of South Carolina. Currently, she is an associate professor of management and the director of the MBA program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has presented her research in national as well as international conferences and received recognitions like the FIU/AIB Best Theory Paper Award and nomination for the Carolyn Dexter Award. Her research has been published in various high-quality peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of International Management, International Business Review, and International Journal of Cross Cultural Management.

Dr. Joardar’s research draws from and integrates theories from multiple disciplines such as organizational behavior, strategy, economics, psychology, and cultural anthropology to examine international business phenomena. More recently, Dr. Joardar has been engaged in researching best practices for teaching in business programs. She draws from her more than 15 years of teaching experience in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs using multiple teaching modalities for identifying the most effective pedagogical tools for business faculty.

India’s growing demands of entrepreneurs means that it is essential to develop business programs that provide quality training on critical skills to navigate the challenges of a dynamic global business environment. Dr. Joardar is using her Fulbright-Nehru grant to work with the business academic community in India to develop curriculum that is designed for future management professionals interested in global business. In this regard, she is presenting her research and engaging in exchange of ideas with both faculty and students there. Dr. Joardar is also exploring opportunities for future collaboration in India. Besides, she is teaching management topics with international focus for courses on Cross-cultural Management and International Business. She is also helping the faculty in curriculum development and discussing research opportunities for collaboration. Similarly, she is exploring the possibility of mutually beneficial exchange programs between her home institution in the U.S. and her host in India.