Lynda de la Vina Named Dean of the UTSA College of Business
Lynda Y. de la Viña has been named dean and Peter Flawn Professor of Economics at The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business. She is the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as UTSA College of Business dean and the only female Hispanic business dean in the University of Texas System. She was named interim dean in September 2004.
“We are delighted that Lynda de la Viña has agreed to serve as dean of the College of Business,” said Ricardo Romo, president of The University of Texas at San Antonio. “In the past year she has left an indelible mark on the San Antonio business community. Her passion and vision will help lead UTSA and the College of Business to national recognition.”
During the past year, de la Viña has developed a strategic plan for the College of Business that includes raising the academic profile of the college to become one of the nation’s best business schools and creating national distinction through strategic threads of excellence. She has enhanced Latin American partnerships, raised funds for two endowed professorships and developed alliances with other nationally and internationally recognized institutions.
“My goals for the college are to receive AACSB reaffirmation, become a nationally ranked flexible format M.B.A. program and become the school of choice for graduate students from Mexico and Latin America,” said de la Viña, who also directs the Center for Global Entrepreneurship in the College of Business.
De la Viña returned to San Antonio following six years on the East Coast. She previously served as associate dean of the Graduate Division of Business and Management and chair of the Department of Finance and International Business at Johns Hopkins University. She also worked as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Mexico Foundation and the U.S. Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to her academic service, she was a presidential appointee to the U.S. Department of Treasury and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy until 2001. Although her work portfolio was expansive dealing with domestic and international economic policy issues, she led Treasury teams on issues of personal commitment such as financial literacy, small business development and U.S.-Mexico border development.
Prior to her career in Washington, D.C., de la Viña served 19 years at UTSA in ascending positions of administrative responsibility. She began her career at UTSA in 1979 as assistant director of the Human Resources Management and Development Program. Following that she joined the Department of Economics faculty in 1982 and was named executive director of the Institute for Studies in Business in 1985. She served as associate dean of graduate studies and research in the college from 1993-1998.
De la Viña received her master’s and doctorate in economics from Rice University and her bachelor’s in government and economics from UT-Pan American. She was the first Mexican-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States.
UTSA’s College of Business is the largest undergraduate business program in the UT System and one of the 40 largest business schools in the nation. Accredited by AACSB International, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the college offers a broad portfolio of programs at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level.
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
