Catherine Usoff, Ph.D., has been selected as dean of Clark’s Graduate School of Management (GSOM). She previously served as professor and chair of the Information & Process Management Department at Bentley University. She starts her new post on June 1. “Professor Usoff has an impressive track record in spearheading major curriculum innovations at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. I am confident she will ensure our students have the knowledge they need to meet the challenges of the 21st century head-on,” said Provost Davis Baird. Usoff joined the Bentley faculty in 1993; she helped design the university’s first cohort-based MBA program in 1999. She played a pivotal role in Bentley’s Business Process Management course, where teams of students have worked on major improvement projects with area businesses, including prominent companies like Fidelity Investments, Genzyme, EMC, and Children’s Hospital Boston.
‘I am honored to have this opportunity to help GSOM achieve greater visibility for its innovative integrative programs and high quality research.’
— Catherine Usoff
“Professor Usoff’s years of experience developing and maintaining strong relationships with corporate partners and alumni stood out during the selection process,” said Frank Crocetti, who serves on the GSOM Advisory Board. “We look forward to having someone in this role who will help forge those type of connections with our faculty and students to ensure that GSOM becomes a place of consequence.” In 2006, Usoff worked with faculty from three other departments to establish the Information & Process Management (IPM) Department.
During her five-year tenure as founding chair of the new department, she hired three tenure-track faculty members, developed an undergraduate minor and added three new graduate courses. Prior to the launch of the IPM department, she was a senior faculty member in the Accountancy Department. She and a colleague created a joint Finance-Accounting undergraduate major — one of the most popular majors at Bentley — and its required capstone course, Performance Management and Evaluation.
Usoff co-authored a chapter in “Managing Business with SAP: Planning, Implementation and Evaluation” (Idea Group Publishing, 2005) and, with Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi, authored “The Assessment of Task Structure, Knowledge Base, and Decision Aids for a Comprehensive Inventory of Audit Tasks” (Quorum Books, 2001).
She has given presentations on business process, cost accounting and zero-based budgeting to corporate audiences, and published research in the Journal of Information Systems Education, Engineering Management Journal, and the International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management. “Professor Usoff arrives at an exciting time for the Graduate School of Management and for Clark,” said Provost Baird.
Building on the success of the Master of Science in Finance degree, GSOM is launching a new Master of Science in Accounting this fall. Usoff received her bachelor of science in accounting from Boston College, and her MBA and Ph.D. in accounting and management of information systems from The Ohio State University.
She taught at Park College, New Mexico State University at Alamogordo, and Ohio State before joining the faculty at Bentley University. About her new position, Usoff said, “I am honored to have this opportunity to help GSOM achieve greater visibility for its innovative integrative programs and high quality research. I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated faculty, staff, and students and leveraging my interdisciplinary, practice-oriented academic experience for the benefit of the community.”