Marketing Professor Ursula Sullivan, who has been teaching students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at NIU for the past 13 years, was recently chosen as the university’s provost fellow for 2023-24.
In this fellowship, Sullivan will help facilitate faculty leadership development initiatives, including being responsible for the university’s Emerging Faculty Leadership Program.
“Ursula has shown great potential for academic leadership, and she is ready to take on new, big challenges to help with the success of NIU,” said NIU vice provost for Faculty Affairs Barbara Gonzalez. “She is an alumna of our Emerging Faculty Leadership Program (EFLP), which she is now running. She also helped launch a new program this fall — the Department Leaders Initiative — which is aimed at enhancing the leadership capabilities and effectiveness of department heads, directors and chairs at NIU.”
“This role will allow Sullivan to learn about the processes and activities of the provost’s office that faculty or chairs do not normally have knowledge of,” said Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Alicia Schatteman, who served as the provost fellow last year. “I gained a great understanding of the academic leaders who support our students and areas I may want to consider in my own career in the future.”
Sullivan added that the provost fellowship came about to help facilitate more “homegrown” types of administrative roles.
“I am most excited to gain a better understanding of how the hierarchy works in our university setting. This opportunity will help me to really understand what is going on in the provost’s office and to identify where I might want to go in university leadership,” she said.
Sullivan, who is the Cynthia and Douglas Crocker Endowed Professor in business, is eager to help other faculty members discover their strengths and leadership potential through her new role.
“I have administrative tendencies, so to speak,” Sullivan said with a laugh, outlining her ability to organize, plan ahead and strategize long-term. “And, you know, as a professor, I can touch the lives of students directly, but there are only so many students I get to impact on an annual basis, right? So, the idea is, if I take a more administrative role, maybe I can be even more impactful in a broader way to students and faculty.”
At NIU, Sullivan is the chair of the Department of Marketing Curriculum Committee and is the assistant chair on the College of Business Curriculum Committee. She is the faculty advisor for two student groups — Women in Business Professions and the Hispanic Business Student Association. At the university level, she serves on the University Assessment Panel and is an alumna of the Emerging Faculty Leadership Program.
In addition to her courses and leadership roles on campus, Sullivan currently serves on the board of the Marketing Management Association, as well as the editorial review board of the Marketing Management Journal. She enjoys serving in varying capacities with the Ph.D. project which encourages and mentors students of color as they work on their doctoral degrees.
“I’ve been the program chair and am currently the conference chair for the Marketing Management Association, so I’ve been working a lot with organizing events and bringing people together to talk about what they’re doing,” Sullivan said.
With all this impressive experience, Sullivan is looking forward to helping other faculty members achieve their short- and long-term career goals. She noted that this emphasis on faculty success will allow her to help department chairs, directors, and heads of departments and divisions in identifying opportunities for success and employee retention. Roundtables, scenario discussions and networking events for faculty across the university are already in the early planning stages, with more on the horizon.
“I think, especially for faculty, sometimes we feel a little lonely because we’ve got our own classes, we’re doing our own stuff and we’re doing our own research,” Sullivan said. “So, to be able to branch out and talk with people, not just across the hall but across the university … that was probably one of the reasons I was picked for this fellowship. I’ve been very good at doing that already, and so I want to continue doing that for others.”
The value of community is not lost on Sullivan. While growing up in Austin, Texas, she started from very humble beginnings as one of six children. Her parents, who worked manual labor jobs, never went to college but they instilled a love for learning in their children. She credits her parents, as well as the many leaders in her community and schools, for “looking out for her” while she pursued her dreams.
“It was kind of assumed that (college is) where I would go,” Sullivan said. “And so, I did, and I had great people during my college experience at the University of Texas, where I worked for the dean of graduate studies. That kind of started me thinking along the lines of actually going into higher ed.”
After earning her bachelor’s degree in international business and marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, Sullivan got a job as a purchasing manager for Procter & Gamble, where she stayed for four years.
While in this role, she began doing research on supply chain management with the products she was responsible for such as Downy fabric softener. Her interest in marketing research led her to return to the classroom, as she earned her M.S. degree and, eventually, her Ph.D. degree in marketing from Northwestern. Since the late 1990s, Sullivan has been a lecturer and professor for several universities, landing at NIU in 2010.
“When you begin working in the provost’s office, you bring your own background and experiences from your home college,” said Vice Provost Schatteman. “Ursula will take her knowledge from the College of Business and gain a better understanding of the various programs, support services, operations, policies and practices at the other colleges at NIU, as well as units across campus.”
“I really enjoy bringing people together, having them talk with each other and help each other out,” Sullivan said. “I think that peer assistance is really, really valuable, and I am looking forward to helping that happen across the university.”
