Dr. Donde Plowman is the James, Jr. and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean of the UNL College of Business Administration
and Professor of Management. With her arrival at CBA in the summer of 2010, also came the news that
UNL would join the Big Ten Conference. She had one year to prepare the college to be competitive with
the elite business schools of the Big Ten.
Dean Plowman went to work with UNL administration and the NU Foundation and quickly initiated
improvements that have positioned CBA for success. Major initiatives include:
- Hiring new faculty in all departments to better serve students and increase the enrollment capacity to
meet UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s five-year plan.
- Adding a new MBA Director to give the program its own strategic vision to help maximize the on-campus and
distance program’s ability to serve students.
- Creating a new Supply Chain Management major that provides a much needed career track that will make
our business students extremely valued in the work force.
- Creating a new business minor for non-business majors to emphasize the importance of a business
education for any UNL student who may one day work in a business setting.
- Creating the Career Services at CBA office -- and hiring two career coaches -- which will help
business students, who need jobs, and help Nebraska businesses who want to hire competent graduates.
- Initiating a new professional enhancement curriculum for graduates of CBA. These 1-hour courses
will require students to prepare for the job market and engage in career planning.
- Planning and moving toward a new CBA building, which is now in the master plan stage at UNL. The new
facility will be essential in creating competitiveness with other Big Ten business schools and building
an environment for creative faculty, students and staff to succeed in making Nebraska the place to be for
business education!
Prior to assuming the position of dean, Dean Plowman was Department Head of the Department of Management
at the University of Tennessee where she was responsible for starting the Ph.D. in Organizations and Strategy.
She began her academic career at the University of Texas at San Antonio where she advanced to the rank of
Professor and also served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research.
Her publications have appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review,
Organization Science, Leadership Quarterly, Decision Sciences and many other journals. In 2008, she
was awarded one of the most highly coveted awards in her field – the Academy of Management Journal Best
Paper Award for her paper, “Radical Change Accidentally: The Emergence and Amplification of Small Change.”
Her research on mindfulness was featured in the Wall Street Journal in April 2012 and her publications
have appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Leadership
Quarterly, Decision Sciences and many other journals. In 2008, she was awarded one of the most highly coveted
awards in her field – the Academy of Management Journal Best Paper Award for her paper, "Radical Change
Accidentally: The Emergence and Amplification of Small Change."
Kathleen A. Farrell is the senior associate dean at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of
Business Administration and the State Farm Professor of Finance. Farrell began her career
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993.
Farrell's publications have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Business, Journal
of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance,
Journal of Financial Research, and Advances in Financial Economics. Farrell enjoys teaching
courses in corporate finance, managerial finance, and bank management at the undergraduate
and graduate levels. In 1996, she received the Distinguished Teaching Award and 2004 she received
the University Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Business Administration. Farrell
also serves on the Board of Directors of Nelnet, Inc. Farrell received her Ph.D. in finance from
the University of Georgia, and a BBA in finance and accounting from Kent State University.
Gordon Karels is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research in the College of Business
Administration and the Nebraska Bankers Association College Professor of Banking in the finance
department. He oversees the college’s graduate programs and research efforts.
Karels joined the college in 1986. He received his MS and Ph.D. from Purdue University. Prior
to his current position, Karels was the Chair of the Finance Department at UNL. He served as the
Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration from 1995 to 2006. He has also served as
Interim Director of the Raikes School, as Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and as Director of the Summer Sessions Program. In 1993, he was the first visiting American
Professor in the Business School at Technical University Chemnitz (Germany) and has also visited
at Bayreuth University (Germany).
Karels has teaching and research interests in the areas of financial institutions, managerial
economics, and managerial finance. He has published over 40 refereed journal articles, textbooks
on capital markets and on financial mathematics along with a number of cases and textbook supplements
in banking and economics. He has served as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
has provided testimony on banking issues to the House Ways and Means Committee and has served as an
expert financial witness for the Department of Justice.
D’vee Buss is an Assistant Dean of the University Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business
Administration for Undergraduate Programs. Buss administers student programming for the
college, including recruitment, academic advising, study abroad, learning communities, and
academic success. She also supervises the development and delivery of BSAD 101, Business
Leadership Development, a course required for all new freshmen in the College.
Buss originally joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1975. She received her
Ph.D. in Education-Administration, specializing interests in higher education and
college student development. Her doctorate, along with her M.A. in Educational Psychology,
and a B.S. in Business Administration are from UNL.
Rik Barrera is the Assistant Dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business
Administration for Business and Fiscal Affairs. He oversees all business operations, financial
reporting, budget preparation, facility/plant management, IT operations and staff development.
Barrera joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1994 as the Chair of the Military Science
Department, and following retirement from the US Army in 1998, took the position of Business Manager
of the Beadle Business Center at UNL. Barrera joined the College of Business Administration in
October of 2011. He earned his M.A. in Management and Human Relations from
Webster University and a B.A. from the University of Arizona.
