Shaping the Future: History of Women at Darden

 

SHAPING THE FUTURE: HISTORY OF WOMEN AT DARDEN

Women at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business lead, teach, uplift and support the community in myriad ways, and have since the founding of the School in 1955.

The History of Women at Darden is ever evolving. It is made up of individuals with unique paths, experiences, identities and perspectives that shape the history and impact of UVA Darden, on Grounds and beyond. We invite individuals to share their experiences and reflections. In doing so, you will contribute to a growing History of Women at Darden archive so that others may connect with current and prior generations at Darden who shaped their own and others' stories from far and wide.

 

1920

UVA Graduate and Professional Schools

On January 12th, 1920, the Board of Visitors at the University formally agreed to admit white women as degree-seeking students into the graduate and professional schools.

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Source: University of Virginia Special Collections, Meeting Minutes. 1920.

1955

University of Virginia Graduate School of Business Administration

The University of Virginia establishes the first Graduate School of Business Administration in the South. The School opened its doors in Monroe Hall, its first home, in 1955.

Monroe Hall, University of Virginia Library.

1962

Nancy Milton

Milton is the first woman admitted to the Darden Graduate School of Business. Dean Charles Abbott played a pivotal role in encouraging Milton to apply to Darden, where she was accepted into the MBA program in 1962.
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1965

Betty Sue (Hamner) Peabody (MBA ’65)

Peabody was the first woman to graduate from Darden with an MBA in 1965. 2025 marks a celebration of her accomplishment and a history 60 years of women graduates at Darden.

University of Virginia, Corks and Curls. 1965.

 

1973

Eleanor G. May

May became the first woman to be a member of Darden faculty as an Associate Professor in 1973. Previously, she served as the Research Director of the Tayloe Murphy Institute after joining the University of Virginia Graduate Business School in 1970.

"What I'm most proud of in my whole career is the groundbreaking I did as the first woman in various places.
- Eleanor May

 
Reisler, M. (2005). Darden, a Pictorial History of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va: Darden Business Pub.

 

1976

Charlotte H. Scott

Scott was a trailblazing University professor, economist, banking executive, philanthropist, and community member. The first African American woman to be appointed a tenured faculty member at the University of Virginia,1 she joined the faculty in 1976, as a University Professor of Business Administration and Commerce, and Senior Fellow, Tayloe Murphy Institute at the Darden School of Business.2⠀⠀⠀

"I knew Charlotte Scott in my early years on the Darden School faculty. She was a wonderful and kind colleague with a sharp intellect and a capacity to get quickly to the heart of a question. Most of all, I respected her courage. She was a pioneer – one of the few women faculty members at Darden in those years, and along with her husband, Nathan, the first tenured African-American faculty members at U.Va. Darden benefited by her example." - Charles C. Abbott3
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[1] Slater, R. B. (1998). The First Black Faculty Members at the Nation’s Highest-Ranked Universities. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 22, 97–106. https://doi.org/10.2307/2998851
[2] Reisler, M. (2005). Darden, a Pictorial History of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va: Darden Business Pub.
[3] Bromley, A. E. (2010, March 25). In Memoriam: Charlotte H. Scott. UVA Today. https://news.virginia.edu/content/memoriam-charlotte-h-scott

 

1979

R. Anne Shirley

In 1979, the School awarded degrees to its first small cluster of international students, including Anne Shirley of Jamaica. Shirley also holds the distinction of being the first black female student to receive an MBA from UVA Darden.

Reisler, M. (2005). Darden, a Pictorial History of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va: Darden Business Pub.

 

1984-86

Susan Hurt

Hurt was the first woman to be president of the Darden Student Association (DSA); a group of students, elected by their classmates, which advocates on behalf of clubs and individuals representing the interests, concerns and desires of the student body.

Discover DSA

1990-2023

Jeanne M. Liedtka

Liedtka began her career at Darden in 1990 as a Professor of Business Administration in strategy. In the years following she served in many additional leadership roles including Executive Director of the Batten Institute, the Associate Dean of MBA Programs, and finally the first woman to be Interim Dean of Darden as of 2023.
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[1] Reisler, M. (2005). Darden, a Pictorial History of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va: Darden Business Pub.
[2] Gross, S. Jeanne Liedtka.

 

1990s

The Second Generation of Faculty

Throughout the 1990s, a corps of additional Second Faculty Generation members signed on to the growing academic enterprise in Charlottesville, and quickly became invested in sustaining the School's vision and values and in enhancing its achievements. Among this group were Lynn A. Isabella (1990) in organizational behavior, Jeanne M. Liedtka (1990) in strategy, Patricia H. Werhane (1993) in ethics, and June West (1997) in Communications. These faculty (among others) sank their roots deep into Charlottesville's soil and became pivotal to the School's progress.

Reisler, M. (2005). Darden, a Pictorial History of the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va: Darden Business Pub.

 

1995

Graduate Women in Business (GWIB)

Darden in 1995 became the headquarters of a national The Graduate Women in Business Network (GWIB). Today, GWIB at Darden is a student-led club which serves to empower women to be the fullest expression of themselves by creating inclusive spaces to grow authentic connections, further gender equity and forge partnerships on and off Grounds.
GWIB News

 

2004-Present

Partnering with the Forté Foundation

In 2004, Darden was a founding partner school of the Forté Foundation. The organization's mission is to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, professional development, and a community of successful women. 2024 marked the celebration of 20 years partnering with the Forté Foundation.

Find Out About Forté

2006

The First Executive MBA Cohort

Darden launched the Executive MBA format in June 2006. The first group of women to graduate earned their degree from Darden in 2008. ExecMBA Podcast

2014

Women@Darden

In the summer of 2014, the Darden School created the Women@Darden, a group of alumni, faculty and staff who examine and recommend actions in order to improve the quality of the Darden experience for women who are prospective and current students and alumnae.

“Darden was life-changing — I gained knowledge and became part of a community that enabled my success in business and in life. I’ve devoted much of my time to mentoring, coaching and championing women, but I was convinced I could do more. Naturally, I turned to Darden, where I found a clear way to address this opportunity.” - Sally Genster Robling (MBA ’82), Former vice chair of the Women@Darden steering committee
From 2020-22 Women@Darden expanded with the rollout of 18+ new initiatives dedicated to student entry, experience and engagement. One was held in September of 2022 when Women@Darden brought together members of the community for the Women in Leadership Summit: The Great Reinvention an event focused on leadership, networking and skill-building.2
Discover Women@Darden

 

2017

Network of Executive Women

Kristine Campbell (EMBA ’18) served as the first president of the Network of Executive Women (NEW), which remains one of the longest-running professional student organizations at Darden.
Since its inception in 2017, the club has expanded to include Part-Time MBA students as of 2023. Get to Know NEW

2019-2024

Princeton Review's Best Business School: Resources for Women

Since 2019, Princeton Review has ranked Darden in the top ten business schools for Greatest Resources for Women. In 2024, Darden rose to No. 6 overall, moving up three spots from the previous year. Read the Rankings

2020-21

Darden Case Audit

A student-led initiative by the Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) organization audited Darden’s case-based curriculum. Pam Fischer (MBA '18), as GWIB's VP of Academics, led a team of 15 case reviewers to analyze 300 core class cases. They found a limited range of protagonist perspectives and shared their findings with Darden professors, offering suggestions to diversify the cases. This led to immediate action from alumni, professors, students, and faculty to broaden the range of perspectives in Darden cases. The Forté Foundation later adopted this initiative as a toolkit for other MBA programs.
Read the Story

Lisa, B. (n.d.). How a Student-Led Initiative Helped Diversify Darden’s Case-Based Curriculum. Forté Foundation.

 

2020

KPI Club

Darden offers a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, including many avenues of support available to student founders. A pillar of this community is the KPI Club, an unofficial club of women founders that started by five women of the Full-Time Class of 2022.

“This community of fellow women founders not only gave me the encouragement and focus for my entrepreneurial journey at Darden, it helped me elevate my approach to various challenges I faced. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey – only you truly understand the countless ups and downs that come with turning an idea into a real product. And I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of a group where I get to share that journey with fellow women founders.” - Curie Chang (MBA '24)
Learn More
Bono, N. (2023, December 8). Discover Darden : Building a Community of Entrepreneurs with the KPI Club - KPI Club UVA Darden. Discover Darden.

 

2022

Part-Time MBA First Incoming Class

2022 marked the inaugural Part-Time MBA cohort including women matriculating to the DC Metro based program.

“The Part-Time MBA format grew out of a desire to offer another option for students in the D.C. area to pursue the Darden MBA.” - Dean Scott Beardsley.

 

2023

Billie Jean King Case Series Partnership

UVA Darden and Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative establish a partnership to publish 10 cases highlighting the unique leadership opportunities and challenges facing women in leadership. Darden is taught entirely by the case method, and expanding protagonists in cases has been a priority for Darden faculty.

“These cases will bring a number of pressing issues with broad applicability into classrooms at Darden and around the world.” - Ed Freeman, Darden professsor and academic director of the Institute for Business in Society.

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2024

Darden Disability Alliance

Second-Year student Seiver Jorgensen started Darden Disability Alliance (DDA) student affinity club. The club is dedicated to promoting an inclusive, open, and welcoming space for students with disabilities, promoting professional outcomes for those same students, and increasing awareness and education about disabilities within the Darden community.

“At its core, DDA is about creating a space where students feel they belong,” - Seiver Jorgensen (Class of 2025)
Listen to Experience Darden

 

2024

Martina Hund-Mejean (MBA ’88)

Martina Hund-Mejean (MBA ’88), former CFO of Mastercard Worldwide, was honored with the Charles C. Abbott Award. The highest accolade bestowed by the Alumni Association Board of Directors recognizes a Darden graduate who has made and continues to make significant contributions to the School’s legacy.
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2025

Vice Deans of Darden

Dean Scott Beardsley named Senior Associate Deans Melissa Thomas-Hunt and Yael Grushka-Cockayne as Vice Deans of Darden. The new roles for Grushka-Cockayne and Thomas-Hunt are an extension of their current roles as strategic leaders for Darden. Grushka-Cockayne has led the Darden Professional Degree formats, including the Executive MBA, Part-Time MBA and MSBA with the UVA McIntire School of Commerce since 2020. Thomas-Hunt has led the Darden Full-Time MBA program since 2023 and served as a special advisor to the Dean; additionally she is the Founding Academic Director of the Behavioral Research at Darden (BRAD) Lab.
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Share Your Story

The History of Women at Darden is ever evolving. It is made up of individuals with unique paths, experiences, identities and perspectives that shape the history and impact of UVA Darden, on Grounds and beyond. We invite individuals to share their experiences and reflections. In doing so, you will contribute to a growing History of Women at Darden archive so that others may connect with current and prior generations at Darden who shaped their own and others' stories from far and wide. Submit A Story