Dean took long road to NMSU

The journey from serving on a nuclear Naval ship to becoming dean of a university’s business college is an unusual one, but not as circuitous as you might think.

Bryan Ashenbaum, New Mexico State University’s College of Business dean, grew up in landlocked southwest Ohio, but joined the Navy right out of high school, and spent six years in the service, much of it aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of the United States’ original nuclear ships.

He spent time on the ship off of Florida and Connecticut doing, as he called it, “doing Homer Simpson’s job,” operating nuclear panels. The Bainbridge was commissioned in 1962, and in January 1965 was pictured on the cover of National Geographic, highlighting an article on the Navy’s nuclear fleet. The ship was decommissioned in 1996, just a couple of years after Ashenbaum left, presumably with no causal connection.

“But thanks to the magic of eBay, I have a copy of that issue of National Geographic,” Ashenbaum said.

After the Navy, Ashenbaum made his first foray into the desert, winding up in Phoenix, working for an industrial company doing supply chain logistics.

He liked Phoenix, and began thinking about going to college. Arizona State University was in nearby Tempe, so he began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in, unexpectedly, microbiology.

Ashenbaum never did much microbiology with his degree, but continued his work in logistics with Honeywell, getting started in e-commerce, and with Procter & Gamble in “strategic sourcing procurement.”

But he had enjoyed school and became interested in pursuing further academic life. So Ashenbaum decided to “live on some ramen noodles for a few more years” and went to graduate school. He stayed with ASU, earning his master’s in what he’d been doing in business, supply chain management, then earned a Ph.D. in business administration.

Upon entering the academic world, Ashenbaum found himself back in his native southwest Ohio, at Miami University, not to be confused with the Miami in Florida. (For the record, the University of Miami in Florida was established in 1925.)

“Miami in Ohio was founded in 1809, so we think of it as the older and colder Miami,” Ashenbaum said.

For 16 years, Ashenbaum was an assistant professor of supply chain management and eventually became associate dean.

As many academics do, he began to explore the possibility of becoming a full-fledged dean, which led to his return back to the desert, albeit New Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert versus Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.

Thinking back to the last time he walked off a ship, almost exactly 30 years ago today, Dec. 17, 1993, Ashenbaum reflects: “That 24-year-old kid had no clue what a business dean even was.”

Landing in Las Cruces

Ashenbaum’s first day on the job as business dean at NMSU was July 5, 2022.

Among the things that attracted him to NMSU was the business college’s instructors’ devotion to what he believes should always be the primary mission – student success.

He also was impressed by the students, calling them “hardworking, and instilled with a strong work ethic.”

He believes the students “know how to acquire the hard skills,” those abilities learned in core business classes. He also believes the college could help them move to a higher level by building up “a book of soft skills,” and that falls into one of the four strategic initiatives Ashenbaum has implemented for the college.

The strategic initiatives are:

• External Engagement and Growth. This includes items such as a student advisory council, a young professional advisory council (former students 4-10 years post-graduation to provide advice for current students), branding, alumni engagement and rekindling giving efforts of alumni.
• Professional Development and Placement. This includes a center to develop those soft skills (people skills, writing resumes, behavior at business meals, etc.), increasing recruiting for the college and better use data for access to information on student placements.
• Strengthen the Curriculum. This includes experiential learning, growing high-demand programs, online and global programming, and diversity and inclusion.
• Research and the R1 Journey. R1 is the top designation for universities conducting research and Ashenbaum wants to help NMSU get there. This initiative includes items such as raising more funds to dedicate to research and establishing endowments, professorship and centers; research projects with other universities as well as cross-disciplinary research within NMSU; prioritizing research that has both practical and theoretical contributions; and expanding grant-based research projects.

As he begins what he calls an “evangelical effort” to guide the business college to a higher level, Ashenbaum and his wife, Molly, are settling in nicely in Las Cruces.

They originally met in Arizona, so the Southwestern desert is familiar.

“I like the food and, obviously, the weather,” Ashenbaum said.

In his down time, he loves strategy board gaming.

“Go to boardgamegeek.com if you want to go down that rabbit hole,” he said.

More seriously, though, he adds that a monthly night of friends and family sitting around a table playing board games can be healthy, especially in this “world with lots of isolating, digital distractions.”