Crown the New Dean
Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School has a new dean. She is Deborah Crown, who has been dean of the business school at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.
Pepperdine Provost Jay Brewster said she “brings an earnest excitement for Christian higher education partnered with proven success as an academic leader.”
In Winter Park, Crown increased overall fundraising by 149 percent during her 5-year tenure there.
Crown will begin her new appointment this fall following the conclusion of Deryck J. van Rensburg’s tenure.
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In this era of job hopping – one recent poll said 43% of employees want to change jobs soon – Grace Leland stands out. She recently retired after 67 years of working at Dignity Health – Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
She was an early employee of the-then new hospital, working in such bygone jobs as typist and switchboard operator. After five years, Leland received her first raise of $5 a month.
Interestingly, way back when, she protested the construction of the hospital because the annoying ambulance sirens would disrupt her neighborhood. Now, she’s proud of that sound. It means a life may soon be saved.
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What does an entrepreneur do when faced with adversity? Dipali Patel knows: push harder. She opened The Coder School in Cerritos because her son was interested in coding but had few options to learn. Soon after opening, however, the pandemic hit. She could have closed, but Patel, a single mother, thought it was important to show her children what an entrepreneur looked like, so she persevered. It paid off. She recently won 2022 Business of the Year Award from the North Orange County Chamber of Commerce, and she plans to open another coding school in Torrance.
The Insider column is compiled by Editor- in-Chief Charles Crumpley. Submit items to [email protected].
