Kim Schatzel named Leader of the Year

Kim Schatzel, dean of UM-Dearborn's College of Business, has been named the 2011 Leader of the Year by the Joyce Ivy Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the academic advancement of high school students.

Schatzel will be honored at the sixth annual Joyce Ivy Foundation Summer Scholar Dinner on May 14 in Ann Arbor. She will speak to this year's class of summer scholars about the risk-taking experiences in her life.

"We are delighted to name Kim as our 2011 Leader of the Year," said Greg Lewis, a Joyce Ivy Foundation board member, in a press release announcing Schatzel's honor. "Like all of the Joyce Ivy Foundation's Summer Scholars, Kim chose early in her life to step outside of her comfort zone, attending a college more than 1000 miles from home. And like many of them will do with their futures, Kim made the most of her opportunities in life."

A native of New York City, Schatzel grew up in the Washington Heights section of northern Manhattan. As a high school senior, she applied to and was accepted in the engineering program of Washington University in St. Louis. "There were not many female engineering students, and certainly none from New York City attending this exclusive private university in St. Louis," Schatzel said.

Schatzel graduated from Washington University, and embarked on a career that included co-founding a multi-national company, serving as its chief executive officer, and then subsequently co-founding three technology-oriented start-up businesses. After a 20-year business career, Schatzel received a Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University, joined the UM-Dearborn faculty and has worked as a researcher, consultant and teacher in the areas of new product success, marketing of high technology products and reputation management.

The Ann Arbor-based Joyce Ivy Foundation seeks to provide exposure, encouragement, counsel, financial assistance, and employment support to young women in the Midwest who have the potential to attend or do attend Ivy League and equivalent institutions.