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Winnipeg Free Press
38 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Whistleblower's death casts pall on Southern Baptist meeting and stalled sex abuse reforms
DALLAS (AP) — More than 10,000 church representatives are gathered in Dallas for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, which began Tuesday morning with praise sessions and optimistic reports about growing numbers of baptisms. But casting a pall over the gathering is the recent death of one of the most high-profile whistleblowers in the Southern Baptists' scandal of sexual abuse. Jennifer Lyell, a onetime denominational publishing executive who went public in 2019 with allegations that she had been sexually abused by a seminary professor while a student, died Saturday at 47. She 'suffered catastrophic strokes,' a friend and fellow advocate, Rachael Denhollander, posted Sunday on X. Friends reported that the backlash Lyell received after going public with her report took a devastating toll on her. Several abuse survivors and advocates for reform, who previously had a prominent presence in recent SBC meetings, are skipping this year's gathering, citing lack of progress by the convention. Two people sought to fill that void, standing vigil outside of the meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas as attendees walked by. The pair held up signs with photos of Lyell and of Gareld Duane Rollins, who died earlier this spring and who was among those who accused longtime SBC power broker Paul Pressler of sexual abuse. 'It's not a healthy thing for them (survivors) to be here,' said Johnna Harris, host of a podcast on abuse in evangelical ministries. 'I felt like it was important for someone to show up. I want people to know there are people who care.' Past attempts at reforms in the SBC The SBC Executive Committee, in a 2022 apology, acknowledged 'its failure to adequately listen, protect, and care for Jennifer Lyell when she came forward to share her story.' It also acknowledged the denomination's official news agency had not accurately reported the situation as 'sexual abuse by a trusted minister in a position of power at a Southern Baptist seminary.' SBC officials issued statements this week lamenting Lyell's death, but her fellow advocates have denounced what they say is a failure to implement reforms. The SBC's 2022 meeting voted overwhelmingly to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse. That came shortly after the release of a blockbuster report by an outside consultant, which said Southern Baptist leaders mishandled abuse cases and stonewalled victims for years. But the denomination's Executive Committee president, Jeff Iorg, said earlier this year that creating a database is not a focus and that the committee instead plans to refer churches to existing databases of sex offenders and focus on education about abuse prevention. The committee administers the denomination's day-to-day business. Advocates for reform don't see those approaches as adequate. It is the latest instance of 'officials trailing out hollow words, impotent task forces and phony dog-and-pony shows of reform,' abuse survivor and longtime advocate Christa Brown wrote on Baptist News Global, which is not SBC-affiliated. In a related action, the Executive Committee will also be seeking $3 million in convention funding for ongoing legal expenses related to abuse cases. What is on the agenda? As of Tuesday afternoon, attendance was at 10,456 church representatives (known as messengers). That is less than a quarter of the total that thronged the SBC's annual meeting 40 years ago this month in a Dallas showdown that marked the height of battles over control of the convention, ultimately won by the more conservative-fundamentalist side led by Pressler and his allies. That conservative consensus remains in the convention. This year's convention will be asked to approve resolutions lamenting 'willful childlessness' and calling for bans on same-sex marriage and pornography and restrictions on sports betting. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Messengers will also debate whether to institute a constitutional ban on churches with women pastors and to abolish its public-policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — which is staunchly conservative, but according to critics, not enough so. Brent Leatherwood, president of the ERLC, said Tuesday he would address the 'turbulence' during his scheduled remarks Wednesday but was confident in the messengers' support. 'I think the majority of Southern Baptists are going to say once again, like they always have, 'We need an entity that is dedicated to taking a distinctively Baptist voice and speaking in the public square,' ' Leatherwood said. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Southern Baptists to vote on effort to overturn same-sex marriage
Conservative Christian activists hope to build on their movement's success in overturning Roe v. Wade, the now-defunct Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, in 2022, and to apply the legal and political strategies that proved effective for that victory. Public support for legal same-sex marriage remains high, with more than two-thirds of American adults supporting it. As with abortion, activists hope to gain political power despite their minority viewpoints. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Christians are called to play the long game,' said Andrew T. Walker, an ethicist at a Southern Baptist seminary in Kentucky who wrote the resolution. He leads the Southern Baptist Convention's resolution committee, which coordinates proposals from Baptists around the country to be put for a vote at the annual meeting. Related : Advertisement 'There are burgeoning embryonic efforts being discussed at the legal-strategy level on how to begin to challenge Obergefell,' he said. 'How do we take the lessons from Roe that took 50 years? What is the legal strategy to overturn Obergefell at some point in the future?' Advertisement Activists are aware that their mission may take years. But the resolution calling for this concrete action shows 'a deepening of Southern Baptist thinking on this issue' and a recognition of the need for a long-term strategy similar to the one that ended a constitutional right to abortion, said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He said 'there's a great deal of engagement' on this issue between Southern Baptist leaders and lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian legal advocacy group that worked to overturn Roe. 'As in Roe, it is not just a matter of arguing for or against abortion,' he said. 'It is also the larger pattern in terms of constitutional interpretation.' Supporters of same-sex marriage celebrated outside the US Supreme Court following the ruling on same-sex marriage, on June 26, 2015. DOUG MILLS/NYT The Southern Baptist resolution, titled 'On Restoring Moral Clarity through God's Design for Gender, Marriage, and the Family,' reflects a movement within conservative Christianity to see that laws align with their set of Biblical values and a political commitment to pursue those goals. The resolution calls for overturning not just Obergefell, but also any laws and policies 'that defy God's design for marriage and family,' potentially including the Respect for Marriage Act, a law that former President Joe Biden signed in 2022 mandating federal recognition for same-sex marriages. The resolution also specifically calls for the restriction of commercial surrogacy. Related : Lawmakers have a duty 'to pass laws that reflect the truth of creation,' it says, 'and to oppose any law that denies or undermines what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.' The measure also reflects an alignment with other Republican goals, and calls for laws that would 'strengthen parental rights in education and healthcare, incentivize family formation in life-affirming ways, and ensure safety and fairness in female athletic competition.' Advertisement Couples waited to apply for marriage licenses at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004. RUTH FREMSON/NYT To go into effect, the resolution needs to pass by simple majority vote. Organizers say it is widely expected to pass. Passing the measure could be used as evidence to prove to politicians that culturally unpopular positions have support. Public opinion on same-sex marriage shifted drastically over the past 30 years toward overwhelming support. Last summer during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump had the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman removed from the Republican Party platform. 'It now seems the case in many sectors of American society that same-sex marriage is just as American as baseball and apple pie,' Walker acknowledged. 'I understand the political will is probably minute or minuscule.' Related : Of the nine Supreme Court justices, only Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have suggested that the court should reconsider Obergefell, which was decided by a 5-4 majority. Chief Justice John Roberts, now a swing vote, issued a strong dissent in the Obergefell ruling. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that overturned Roe, Thomas directly argued that the rationale the court used to negate a right to abortion should be used to overturn cases that established rights to same-sex marriage, consensual same-sex relations and contraception. Next month Mathew Staver, a Southern Baptist and the chair of the Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, plans to ask the Supreme Court to hear a case about Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015. That request will directly ask the court to overturn Obergefell, he said. Staver has been trying for two decades to use the courts to stop same-sex marriage, ever since states began to legalize it in 2004. Advertisement Earlier this year his group worked with legislators in Idaho on the language of a resolution that passed the Idaho House of Representatives calling on the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell. Republican lawmakers, at times drawing on certain Christian principles, introduced similar measures calling for Obergefell's reversal in states like Michigan, Montana and South Dakota, and partially passed them in North Dakota and Idaho. 'That begins to show a sentiment from legislative officials, and it just begins to build a momentum,' Staver said. And while efforts like the SBC measure and the resolutions in the states have been largely independent of each other, he said, 'that momentum results in more coordination' between ideologically aligned groups, which was effective in overturning Roe. The Southern Baptist Convention, a largely conservative network of churches, has taken a rightward turn in recent years, particularly on issues of marriage, family and sex. It has also struggled following revelations of widespread sexual abuse of women and children, and the mishandling of those allegations over decades. The annual meeting is often regarded as a bellwether for broader evangelical sentiment on various political and cultural issues, even though it technically represents the views of only the 10,000 or so members who typically attend and vote, not of all 13 million members. Last year, Southern Baptists voted to oppose the use of in vitro fertilization, passing a resolution that Walker and Mohler proposed as part of a push to advance the 'fetal personhood' movement. The vote greatly worried many other evangelicals who rely on fertility treatments to have children and who believe IVF is life-promoting. Advertisement In 2023, Southern Baptists decided to expel several churches with female pastors, including one of the denomination's largest and most prominent congregations. An attempt to further expand restrictions on women in church leadership gained traction in 2023 but did not pass a second required vote in 2024. That effort is expected to be revived this week. This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Ape,' ‘monkey' and worse: Former Chick-fil-A employee accuses coworkers of monstrous racist abuse
A Black employee at a Chick-fil-A franchise in Idaho says he endured more than a half-year of racist abuse from coworkers who, among other things, called him the 'n-word,' referred to him as an 'ape,' a 'monkey' and threatened to cage him like an animal, according to a harrowing discrimination lawsuit obtained by The Independent. 'Of course he works at Chick-fil-A; he's Black, so he loves chicken,' one of Thomas Wade's colleagues allegedly said as he stood by in shock. After Wade went to higher-ups about the vile abuse, which his complaint contends also included at least one simulated 'slave whipping,' he was promptly fired. Meanwhile, management let multiple instances of sexual harassment slide because the accused happened to be the boss's son, according to Wade's complaint, which was filed March 13 in Pocatello federal court. On Tuesday, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson told The Independent, 'This matter involves a franchisee, not Chick-fil-A, Inc. Franchisees are independent operators responsible for all employment decisions in their restaurants. Chick-fil-A, Inc. is not involved in or aware of their employment matters.' The franchisee, Lauren Mosteller, Inc. of Woodstock, Georgia, responded in court to the allegations on May 7, denying 'each and every' one of Wade's claims. Apart from calling for dismissal on a slew of technicalities, the response deemed the offending conduct 'groundless,' and 'isolated and sporadic,' and thus, 'insufficient to establish a hostile work environment.' The lawyers representing Mosteller, Inc., listed in court papers as 'doing business as Chick-fil-A,' did not respond to requests for comment. In an email, attorney Ryan Dustin, who is representing Wade, told The Independent, '[D]ue to the ongoing litigation, we have no comment at this time.' A conservative fast-food chain founded in 1967 by a devout Southern Baptist who decreed all stores would be closed in Sundays, Chick-fil-A's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage proudly states that its 'corporate purpose' is 'To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.' In 2020, the founder's son, Chick-fil-A chairman Dan Cathy – who has been extremely vocal about his opposition to marriage equality – spoke out in support of the Black community following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. 'Let's be moved to action,' Cathy wrote on his personal LinkedIn profile. 'Let's join together to build a world that reflects God's love for all of us. At the same time, Chick-fil-A franchises in various parts of the U.S. have faced accusations of anti-Black bigotry. Last year, a Maryland man went public after a Chick-fil-A drive-thru order was labeled with the word 'monkeys,' rather than his name, Marquise. In Pennsylvania, a Chick-fil-A manager reportedly forced a Black employee to stand outside in a violent thunderstorm while calling others back into the store. Still, the mere existence of its DEI program has drawn the ire of the American right for being too 'woke.' Wade began working as a cook on the 'back of house crew' at an Idaho Falls Chick-fil-A in December 2022, according to his complaint. Shortly after getting hired, Wade applied to take part in Chick-fil-A's 'Leadership Development Program,' but was passed over in favor of a white male employee, the complaint states. The next couple of months went by largely uneventfully, according to the complaint. Then, in March 2023, Wade stepped in after seeing two coworkers, one of them his supervisor's son, 'antagonizing a third employee,' the complaint goes on. 'In response to his attempts to intervene and diffuse the situation, [the son] told [Wade], 'Shut up ape, before I put you in a cage,'' the complaint continues. When Wade replied that he would report their behavior to management, the supervisor's son called him 'monkey-looking-ass,' and warned him that 'my parents own this store,' according to the complaint. But, it maintains, when Wade told his supervisor about what had happened, the manager 'did nothing.' The supervisor, Eric Ibarra, and his family are not named as defendants in Wade's lawsuit. Ibarra was unable to be reached for comment. Distressed, the complaint says Wade took two days off 'to give himself some space.' When he went back to work, several other of Ibarra's relatives, who all worked at the same Chick-fil-A, 'resumed making racist comments, which occurred over the next seven months.' In addition to them calling Wade the n-word and likening him to an ape, and a monkey, they at one point told him he was a piece of 'antique farming equipment,' in reference to slavery, according to the complaint. On one occasion, the complaint says Wade walked in on another of Ibarra's sons whipping a colleague with a towel, after which they told Wade that 'he would know about getting whipped since he is Black.' In another instance, Wade heard one of Ibarra's three daughters say he 'look[ed] like a monkey, [and] act[ed] like a monkey,' the complaint alleges. Over the summer of 2023, Wade was subjected to a barrage of racist taunts and remarks, called a 'back of house monkey,' and was shocked to find a variation of the n-word written on the kitchen freezer, according to the complaint. It says Wade's formal grievances continued to go nowhere. However, Ibarra's family members went on acting out with apparent impunity, the complaint asserts. In July 2023, when another one of Ibarra's sons was suspended for sexually harassing a coworker, and continued to do so upon his return, he was fired, according to the complaint. Yet, a month later, he was hired back, the complaint states. In all, Wade made between 25 and 30 reports to Chick-fil-A management about the nonstop racism he was experiencing, according to the complaint. On October 16, 2023, Wade was terminated 'because [he] refused to tolerate and continued to report racist behavior and comments by his coworkers,' the complaint concludes. It alleges the company 'believed it would be easier to terminate [Wade's] employment than take any action to stop the other employees' discriminatory behavior.' This February, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued Wade a 'right to sue' letter, allowing him to initiate the legal process. The following month, he did. Wade's lawsuit seeks to hold Lauren Mosteller, Inc., 'doing business as Chick-fil-A,' for discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, in addition to two sections of Idaho's Human Rights Act. He is seeking compensatory, general, statutory, and punitive damages, plus court costs and attorneys' fees. An in-court status conference is scheduled for July 7.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Poets&Quants' World's Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors Of 2025
If all business is global, then certainly a premier business education must be global as well. Take , an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior who teaches global leadership at University College London School of Management. Yan grew up in Beijing, then lived on a farm in Eastern Tennessee where he attended a Southern Baptist high school and learned to speak English. His hint of a Southern drawl sometimes confuses the MBAs he now teaches in London. Since he was 7 years old, Yan's favorite books are Wuxia, a genre of fiction depicting the legends and adventures of martial artists, often in ancient China. Some of his favorite movies, on the other hand, come straight from La La Land. (He's such a film buff, in fact, he keeps a film-watching journal.) As a professor, he actively works to build bridges between Asia, the U.S., and the United Kingdom, translating research between Mandarin and English. He also serves on the panel of Carolyn Dexter Award, recognizing efforts to internationalize the Academy of Management. Tom Taiyi Yan, University College London School of Management 'In Mandarin there's a phrase that translates to 'mutual learning between students and teacher' (教学相长),' says Yan, 33. 'These cross-cultural experiences give me a unique perspective in today's world, and I use these stories in the classroom to build a safe environment for students from all walks of life.' Yan is just one of 40 standout MBA professors on Poets&Quants' 2025 list of the world's Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors, a list full of compelling contrasts and distinctive voices. Among them is , 38, of Temple's , who blends ancient mindfulness with research on explosive demolitions, exploring how attention and awareness shape operations. , 36, of , studies the moral weight of meaningful work, uncovering how even UN peacekeepers can feel existential boredom. And at , compares teaching MBAs to improv theater. 'Embrace uncertainty,' says Ruzic, 36, Assistant Professor of Economics. 'You might have a perfect script and a polished set of slides … and, within five minutes, someone derails it with a question about Bitcoin, Taylor Swift, or both. And that's when the real teaching begins.' Today, P&Q proudly presents the 13th edition of our 40-Under-40 MBA Professors. Our goal remains unchanged: to identify and celebrate the most talented young professors currently teaching in MBA programs around the world. Elena Fumagalli, INCAE Business School The professors represent 39 different business schools, including 17 schools outside of the United States — more than in any other year. After the U.S., the United Kingdom has boasts seven professors, while Spain has three and France has two. The list also includes professors from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Costa Rica — home to . Fumagalli, 38, discovered education's lasting impact from watching her mother, a devoted primary school teacher, interact with past students. 'Her students both feared and respected her, and I remember how meaningful it was for her to reconnect with them years later and see who they had become,' she tells P&Q. 'One story stayed with me: a girl once told my mom she wanted to be an astronaut and, years later, she studied aerospace engineering. That's the kind of legacy I've always admired.' Today, the Associate Professor of Marketing and Leadership studies how emotions like loneliness, disgust, or overconfidence shape the way people spend money and make decisions. She also explores how behavioral science and neuroscience can improve leadership development and build more inclusive workplaces. She leads INCAE's Center for Inclusive and Sustainable Leadership and, in 2024, was the keynote speaker at the Forbes' 'Mujeres Poderosas Centroamérica' summit. P&Q received more than 1,700 Best Professor nominations from MBA students, colleagues, business schools, and professors themselves. Our editorial staff evaluated each nominee on teaching (given a 70% weight) and research/business impact (given 30% weight). For teaching, we considered both the quality and quantity of the nominations received. For example, if we received a hundred or more nominations with little substance for a single professor, they weren't as likely to score as highly as a professor who received a few in-depth and thoughtful nominations. We also considered any teaching-related awards the professors have won. For research, we looked at the volume and impact of the professor's scholarly and professional work. To do this we examined Google Citation numbers as well as major media attention received by the professor and his or her research work. Lastly, akin to teaching, we considered research awards and grants the professors have received. NEXT PAGE: Firsts, Youngests, Bests + Teaching the AI Generation We love a good superlative at P&Q, and 2025 has several examples of the youngests, the firsts, and the rising stars. At 28, , is the youngest honoree on this year's list. The Assistant Professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at has already built the kind of career many could only dream of: During COVID-19, he contributed to one of the first AI applications to accelerate a large-scale clinical vaccine trial. He is a founding member of the AI in Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialization Consortium. And, he is winner of multiple research honors including the Innovative Applications in Analytics Award, the Edelman Laureate Award, and the Kuhn Award. Michael Lingzhi Li, Harvard Business School His students love him, at least judging by the couple of dozen nominations from MBAs and colleagues. Patrick Falzon, HBS MBA candidate, perhaps summed Li up best: 'Crazy good teacher on top of ridiculous accomplishments outside of the classroom, all while being younger than some of his students.' , meanwhile, is the 2025 winner of the prestigious Fischer Black Prize, awarded biennially by the American Finance Association to a finance scholar under age 40 whose body of work demonstrates significant original research and relevance. Muir, 39, is the Donnalisa '86 and Bill Barnum Endowed Term Chair in Management at and Director of the Fink Center for Finance and Investment. Talk about interesting juxtapositions: Muir tells P&Q he's currently reading 'The Dow Jones Averages 1885-1990' – 'a real page turner' – but also posts on his personal website. And, , 37, Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at The University of Chicago , won the 2023 Carlo Alberto Medal, a biennial prize given to the best Italian economist under 40. He also designed Booth's first MBA course on VC and PE in emerging markets. Despite the U.S.' current political, um, situation – so long DEI, climate crisis mitigation, and the last remaining vestiges of international goodwill – many of 2025's professors continue to deploy business education in the service of people and planet. Take and , both training MBAs to confront climate change in their future work. Yücel, 37, Associate Director of the Business of Sustainability Initiative at Georgetown University's , developed a likely first-of-its-kind course that focuses on the business case for sustainability, as opposed to the moral or ethical case. Students learn to evaluate emerging business models across wind, solar, energy storage, electric vehicles, and even carbon removal. Bellon, 34, Assistant Professor of Finance at , is reshaping how business schools and capital markets think about climate risk. His dissertation, which won the UN PRI Best PhD Paper Award along with several other top honors, found that increasing the legal environmental liability of lenders can lead to better environmental practices by firms, all without tanking economic output. Rita Mota, Esade Business School And, at , , 39, prepares MBAs to lead with empathy, integrity, and systemic awareness. Her popular elective, Racial (In)justice, won her the MBA Teaching Excellence Award in 2024. Mota is Esade's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Faculty Coordinator and an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation. Her award-winning research explores corporate moral agency, human rights, digital ethics, and gender equity within an indigenous social enterprise in Mexico. A lawyer by training, Mota for years has worked with the on the case, perhaps the biggest climate change case in the world. In 2017, six Portuguese youth sued 32 European governments following devastating wildfires that ravaged their country, arguing that insufficient governmental action infringed upon their fundamental human rights. Mota transitioned to business academia when she realized the extent of the impact, both positive and negative, that businesses could have on people, communities, and the environment. 'I came to believe that real change could happen faster and more effectively through business than just through regulation,' she tells Poets&Quants. As with our past 40-Under-40 lists, 2025's professors work at the cutting edge of business, technology, and the future of work. Many aren't just preparing students for a world powered by AI, they're actively building it. At , Assistant Professor of Operations , 33, created Kai, the school's AI teaching assistant that now supports more than 1,000 students and 15 professors, responding to over 120,000 student queries per quarter. He's also built AI-driven case studies and co-leads a large-scale randomized trial to evaluate the impact of AI on education. The trial involves more than 50 professors and 40 universities. Sébastien Martin, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management 'I think we've barely scratched the surface of what genAI technology can do for education, and I'm incredibly excited about this,' Martin tells P&Q. , 39, is also using AI to reshape education, but in the K12 space. The NBD Bancorp Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations at University of Michigan spent three years as a Teach For America corps member, teaching 9th grade math at KAPPA International High School in the Bronx. Now, as a business professor, she is studying how the hype of generative AI stacks up against reality for rank-and-file educators. Across the Atlantic, explores how humans and machines can make better decisions together. 'When humans and AI form an 'ensemble', they often outperform either the manager or the AI working alone,' says Marchetti, 37, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, who teaches LBS' first AI-based strategy elective. 'Each brings something valuable: the human offers experience, intuition, and gut feeling, while the AI contributes the power to process large datasets and model complex patterns.' And, at in Spain, is developing a 'sociology of AI' approach to large language models to study how they interact, communicate, and even negotiate as if they were social entities. His team found that models developed their own intermediary languages that they are now starting to chart and understand. 'This insight opens new possibilities for business applications across industries. In our latest publication, we demonstrated that when properly tuned, these models can serve as effective negotiators, potentially transforming how organizations approach complex business transactions,' says Junqué de Fortuny, 38, Assistant Professor of Managerial Decision Sciences. 'Once we fully understand these mechanisms, the next phase is steering models toward more ethical and effective decision-making.' NEXT PAGE: Presenting the 2025 40-Under-40 Best MBA Professors Over the last decade, Poets&Quants has honored 520 up-and-coming star MBA professors as part of our 40-Under-40 honor roll. You can see past winners by clicking the year below: 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2011 Nominations will open for the 2026 list next spring. Please keep an eye out at Poets& as well as on our various newsletters and social media platforms for the start of our open nomination period. Our full 2025 class of 40-Under-40 Best MBA Professors is presented below. Each winner filled out a P&Q questionnaire we hope reveals some insight into their backgrounds, teaching styles, and research. We asked about their hobbies, favorite music, and why they wanted to become business school professors. We encourage you to read each profile by clicking the professor's name. Their answers are quite candid, surprisingly funny, and always insightful. We congratulate each man and woman on this year's list. No matter what they study, the courses they teach, or where they work, all are among the most promising young professors training the leaders of tomorrow. Aleksander A. . Aleszczyk Title: Assistant Professor of Accounting Age: 34 New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business Emmanouil Avgerinos Title: Associate Professor of Decision Sciences Age: 39 IE Business School Aymeric Bellon Title: Assistant Professor of Finance Age: 34 University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School Hayley Blunden Title: Assistant Professor of Management Age: 39 American University's Kogod School of Business Emanuele Colonnelli Title: Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship Age: 37 University of Chicago's Booth School of Business Kristen Duke Title: Assistant Professor of Marketing Age: 33 University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management Elena Fumagalli Title: Associate Professor of Marketing and Leadership Age: 38 INCAE Business School Negin (Nikki) Golrezaei Title: W. Maurice Young (1961) Career Development Associate Professor of Management Age: 39 Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management Christian Hampel Title: Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Age: 36 Imperial Business School Richard Hodgett Title: Associate Professor in Business Analytics and Decision Sciences Age: 39 Leeds University Business School Enric Junqué de Fortuny Title: Assistant Professor of Managerial Decision Sciences Age: 38 IESE Business School at the University of Navarra Samantha Keppler Title: NBD Bancorp Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations Age: 39 University of Michigan's Ross School of Business Kristoph Kleiner Title: Associate Professor of Finance Age: 38 Indiana University's Kelley School of Business Ryan Krause Title: Professor of Strategy and Duncan Faculty Fellow Age: 38 Texas Christian University's Neeley School of Business Ravi S.. Kudesia Title: Associate Professor of Management Age: 38 Temple University's Fox School of Business Ambar La Forgia Title: Assistant Professor Age: 36 University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business Michael Lingzhi Li Title: Assistant Professor Age: 28 Harvard University's Harvard Business School Ke Michael Mai Title: Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour Age: 39 China Europe International Business School Arianna Marchetti Title: Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Age: 37 London Business School Sébastien Martin Title: Assistant Professor of Operations Age: 33 Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University Rita Mota Title: Associate Professor Age: 39 Esade Business School Tyler Muir Title: Associate Professor of Finance Age: 39 University of California Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management Samir Nurmohamed Title: Associate Professor of Management Age: 39 The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania Anthony Palomba Title: Assistant Professor of Business Administration Age: 38 University of Virginia's Darden School of Business Voni Pamphile Title: Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy Age: 39 Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business Jean Pauphilet Title: Assistant Professor of Management Science and Operation Age: 32 London Business School Madeleine Rauch Title: Associate Professor Age: 36 The University of Cambridge's Cambridge Judge Business School Ignacio Rios Title: Assistant Professor of Operations Management Age: 36 The University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management Francesco Rosati Title: Associate Professor Age: 39 Technical University of Denmark Dimitrije Ruzic Title: Assistant Professor of Economics Age: 36 INSEAD Anthony Salerno Title: Associate Professor of Marketing Age: 38 Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management Sydney Scott Title: Associate Professor of Marketing Age: 34 WashU Olin Raghav Singal Title: Assistant Professor Age: 33 Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College Suhas A. Sridharan Title: Associate Professor of Accounting Age: 38 Emory University's Goizueta Business School Irina Surdu-Nardella Title: Professor of International Business Strategy Age: 36 Warwick Business School Ghassan Paul Yacoub Title: Associate Professor of Strategy and Innovation Age: 39 EDHEC Business School Tom Taiyi Yan Title: Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior Age: 33 University College London School of Management Şafak Yücel Title: Associate Professor of Operations Management Age: 37 Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business Laurina Zhang Title: Associate Professor in Strategy & Innovation Age: 39 Boston University's Questrom School of Business Weiming Zhu Title: Associate Professor in Innovation and Information Management Age: 36 The University of Hong Kong Business School The post Poets&Quants' World's Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors Of 2025 appeared first on Poets&Quants.
Buzz Feed
10-05-2025
- Health
- Buzz Feed
Breaking The Silence: My Father's Hidden Secret
Family secrets are nothing new. It's safe to say that almost every family has probably hidden something from others, and maybe even one another, out of fear, shame, self-protection or even love. Not everyone feels the press of those reasons so acutely that the silence threaded into the secret-keeping lingers long after the secret has been revealed and becomes a crushing burden, eventually too difficult to carry. But I did. In 1985, when I was just 13 years old, my 42-year-old surgeon father underwent a quadruple bypass after suffering a heart attack. Eight months later, he received the news that the transfused blood he'd been given during surgery was contaminated with HIV and he'd contracted the virus. Almost 40 years later, those who contract HIV can live long, healthy lives with the help of medication. But in 1985, being diagnosed with the disease was nothing less than catastrophic — a nearly certain death sentence. AIDS was still a mystery back then. Misinformation, ignorance, bigotry and stigma fueled people's views. We lived in a frightened society — one that largely believed people diagnosed with HIV were responsible for their own infection. In a feature piece in the fall of 1985, Time magazine called people with AIDS 'The New Untouchables.' Inconsistent and conflicting messages about how HIV spread made people afraid to even come into contact with someone infected with the virus. Many individuals known to be HIV positive or to have AIDS lost their jobs, their homes and the support of their friends and neighbors. Making matters worse were members of the evangelical Christian right who were among the loudest voices about AIDS in the 1980s and early '90s, claiming it was a weapon of God's wrath. Jerry Falwell, an influential Southern Baptist preacher, televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority political organization, declared, 'AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.' Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, a close adviser to President Ronald Reagan, called AIDS 'nature's revenge on homosexuals.' This harmful theology played a considerable role in the way my father coped with his diagnosis. As a devout Christian who'd grown up in a fundamentalist church tradition that believed homosexuality was a sinful lifestyle choice, he struggled to reconcile his situation with society's and the evangelical church's stance on his disease and its causes. He feared for his personal reputation. Though he was an accomplished physician, he felt disempowered by the limitations of his — and the greater health system's — knowledge about the facts of HIV. The only certainties were that the disease spread at a rapid rate and there was no cure. He expected, like most patients he knew or knew about, that he could die at any time in any number of terrible ways. My father was unwilling to chance infecting his patients, and he made the painful choice to end his medical practice, taking an advisory position in a national medical legal association. He refused to allow my mother, brothers or me to endure any form of ostracism because of his HIV status. His illness would be a secret. When my parents first found out about Dad's infection, they didn't tell me. They did, I know now, tell my two older brothers, but they left me and my younger brother out of the conversation. Trauma researchers say that our brains can hide experiences to protect us from having to relive them. To protect us from overwhelming fear or stress that is tied to them. Sometimes those experiences remain hidden forever. Maybe this is what happened to me, because even though how I knew remains a baffling hole in my memory, I knew Dad had AIDS within days of his diagnosis. As I felt my world being upended with this unwanted knowledge, I took inventory of the facts: The news was flooded with stories of people, mostly gay men, developing horrible illnesses because of the virus. Magazine covers on newsstands described AIDS with words like 'plague' and 'epidemic' and 'threat.' Parents picketed outside schools carrying signs with hateful slogans to keep away children who'd tested positive for the disease. A group of boys in my eighth-grade class had started bullying other kids on the playground with the taunt, 'Careful not to get too close to him. You might get AIDS!' Some people at church had said God was using this disease to launch his revenge on sinners. AIDS had no cure. Since no one was talking about any of it with me, I understood I couldn't talk about it either. I couldn't talk about this thing that had stolen my sense of security and safety. I couldn't talk about how sad I was. How alone I felt. How confused. Terrified. I couldn't tell anyone about the nights when sleep refused to come and I'd sit with my back pushed into the wooden headboard of my bed, my knees squeezed against my chest, clutching my bedspread to my chin. I stared into the darkness, my eyes burning with the strain of trying to glimpse the thing hiding just beyond where I could see. The thing hovering over everything. I tried, but failed, to shut down the blur of frightening thoughts and images that cartwheeled through my brain as I imagined all of the possible ways Dad would die. Dad lived for 10 more years. With no road map for these circumstances, my parents were desperate to keep life as normal as possible for my brothers and me, and they hoped, I think, that not talking much about Dad's illness would protect us (even after it was clear to them that I knew). I understood that not talking about the pain I was feeling would protect them. So we all learned to pretend. Pretending was easy. Even though Dad developed AIDS after five years and suffered (I learned much later) one opportunistic infection after another, until the final year of his life, he didn't look sick. He didn't look different from any other dad I knew. Most days he could get up, put on a suit and go to work. He mowed the lawn and weeded the garden on weekends. He downhill skied and ice-skated and swam and boated. He took our golden retriever on long walks. Life moved forward, and we moved with it. Just beyond the façade, though, the anguish of our circumstances hung heavy in the air. I could see my beloved dad, the man whose charisma and brilliance had always made him seem larger than life to me, shrinking beneath the stigma and shame of his illness. My dear mom, who shouldered the bulk of Dad's physical and emotional care on her own, bent with the burden. We were all suffering, but the culture of silence created by the secret kept us from sharing in that aching grief together. Instead, we each traveled our own lonely paths of coping. Two years before he died, Dad started writing a book. It began as a personal, therapeutic attempt to try to understand the mess of what had happened to him. As his narrative took shape, he read passages to my mother, and she added thoughts of her own. An idea bloomed between them: Maybe they had something to say. Maybe their experience living with HIV and AIDS could help someone else. Maybe their unique story could dispel some of the myths that swirled in the AIDS climate of the early 1990s and add a different voice to the mix. Maybe, as Christians themselves, they could call out the Christian community for its destructive and narrow-minded views toward victims of this devastating illness and encourage a more loving, Christ-like response in the face of suffering, no matter what form it takes. Maybe their story mattered enough to break a nine-year silence and spill their secret. Our secret. I treaded carefully around the concept of the book. I knew how risky writing it was for Dad. To me, the endeavor felt precarious, like a fragile cord being woven together, thin thread by thin thread, to create a lifeline that might finally pull us out of our isolation. The book was published in 1995, six months before Dad died. My parents had broken free of the secrecy, experiencing the relief of finally talking to others about what they'd endured. And when it ended up on the Globe and Mail's bestseller list for a couple of weeks, they were met with an outpouring of support from friends and strangers. Support that bolstered them in the final months of Dad's life. Ironically, though, the book's contents remained largely unspoken within my family circle. By then I was newly married and living a thousand miles away. Lost somewhere in that distance and physical separation was the permission I believed I needed to break free, too — the new set of family rules that would help me navigate a world where the secret was no longer necessary. I packed away the fear, the grief, the loss, the anger, the confusion, the shame, and I kept on pretending. My silence hung on for two more decades until I just couldn't carry all of those stored emotions anymore. Pretending wasn't doing me or anyone else any good. I wasn't OK, and I hadn't been OK for a long time. So without having any idea where the tandem endeavors might lead, I started therapy and I started writing. The road to finding the answer to what happened to me was a long and painful one. I had to look back at that moment that divided my life into a before and an after. I had to dig into memories of living in the after that sometimes felt too hard to face. Felt too frightening to reveal. That sometimes made me feel like looking at them would actually kill me. I had to pull back the curtain on the shame and fear that were still embedded in me and give them words. With the careful guidance and support of writing mentors and an excellent therapist, I finally figured out how. Until then, I realized, I had never truly been myself. All those unspeakable things stood directly in the way. Replacing that long-held silence with an honest recounting of the experience helped break down that barrier. My path to processing and finding meaning in my family's experience is carved in words. For my mother and brothers, it has taken different shapes. Two of my brothers are physicians, following in Dad's footsteps and making his calling to caring for others in their times of suffering their own. My oldest brother is the president of a global relief organization that works specifically with marginalized communities around the world, many of which have been devastated by HIV/AIDS. After my father died, my mother changed careers and worked for a time as a family therapist, channeling her compassion and lived experience of loneliness and isolation to offer companionship to others coping with difficult circumstances. These days, I stand directly in front of readers of my story, speaking with a confidence I've never felt before. Sometimes it's to a room so packed that extra chairs are needed. On other nights, just a single soul shows up. But each time, I feel a deep sense of connection to those in attendance. I have no idea the specific stories or suffering carried by those who read my book or who raise a hand at an event and nudge the topic of spilling the secret. I can only know what I've carried and speak authentically about how good it feels to put it down. I can only hope that my words might help someone else put their unspoken burdens down, too. Melanie Brooks is the author of 'A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All' (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and 'Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art From Trauma' (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate of Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Psychology Today, Yankee Magazine, The Washington Post, Ms. magazine and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college) and a chocolate Lab.
