Education

1978 Concord University, B.S.
1980 Virginia Tech University, MBA
1994 Virginia Tech University, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Business Plan Development
Creating and Leading New Ventures
Managing Innovation Strategically

Career Specialties

Developing and building academic programs in entrepreneurship education. Primary research and teaching interests are in strategic leadership in equity backed companies and entrepreneurship pedagogy.

Professional and Community Activities

Rebecca J. White is the Walter Chair of Entrepreneurship, professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Entrepreneurship Center at The University of Tampa. She received an MBA and a doctorate in strategic management from Virginia Tech University and a bachelor's degree from Concord University. Her primary research and teaching interests are in opportunity recognition and developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Under her leadership the entrepreneurship program at The University of Tampa was named the 2014 Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship program in the country by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). In 2015, she was named a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow of USASBE. White was named the Tampa Bay Business Journal Business Woman of the Year 2010 in the Education Category, was a 2006 Athena® Award finalist, a 2005 recipient of the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education and was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Supporter of Entrepreneurship in 2003. Prior to her work at The University of Tampa she built a top 25 nationally ranked entrepreneurship program at Northern Kentucky University. She was also founder and director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute, an educational program for female entrepreneurs offered jointly with the New York Times. She grew up in a family business and later started several companies including RiskAware, LLC, (www.riskaware.com) a risk mitigation company for higher education. She is a director at NorthStar Bank and was the 2012 President of United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and is on the Executive Council of The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

White has more than 25 years of experience in education, training, coaching and mentoring. Through her company, WhiteBoard Advising, she works with founders, business owners and top management teams throughout the life of the business. Her model helps owners and top management teams recognize and take advantage of opportunities at each stage of the business life cycle and to adapt and develop their personal leadership styles and skills and those of the top management team, advisory boards and directors to the business stage and the strategic goals of the company and owner(s).

Recent publications include:

White, R and K. Moore. (January 2016). Application of Competency Based Learning to Entrepreneurship Education: Integrating Curricular and Co-Curricular Elements to Enhance Discipline Mastery, In Wankel, C and L. Wankel, Integrating Curricular and Co-Curricular Endeavors to Enhance Intellectual, Intercultural, Global, Community, and Personal Student Outcomes, Emerald Publishing.

Britton, B., W. Jackson, J. Morrow, M. Scaff, D.J. Scott and R. White. (2014). Understanding Community Entrepreneurship Building: A Two Year Reflection on Tampa Bay 6/20, Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 25 (2), p. 169-174.

Hughes, S.T., G.T. Hertz and R.J. White. (2013), “Criminal Background Checks in U.S. HigherEducation: A Review of Policy Developments, Process Implementations and Post-Results Evaluation Procedures,” Public Personnel Management, 42 (3), 421-437.

White, R. Hertz, G. & Koutroumanis, D.A. (2012). Entrepreneurship Literacy: The Language of the New Venture. Journal of Applied Business and Economics 13(5).

White, R.J, G.T. Hertz and R.D. D’Souza (2011). Teaching a Craft – Enhancing Entrepreneurship Education, Small Business Institute® Journal, 7 (2), p. 1-14.

White, R.J., G.T. Hertz and R.D. D’Souza. (2011). “Filtering out Fatal Flaws: Modeling the Early Screening Stage of Private Equity Investment Decisions,” Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 23 (1), p. 68-92.

Honors and Awards

Emerging Entrepreneurship Program in the United States, 2014, by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (University of Tampa).
President's Award for Distinguished Service, The United State Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 2010
2010 Tampa Bay Business Woman of the Year, Education Category
Excellence in Pedagogical Teaching and Innovation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, 2007
Top 50 Universities for Entrepreneurship by Women 3.0, 2007
Top 25 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, 2006
International Athena Awards Finalist, Greater Cincinnati, OH region, 2006
Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, 2005
AACSB Innovation in Leadership of Business Education Award, 2003
Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year – Supporter of Entrepreneurship, Kentucky and Southwest Ohio Region., June 2003
Strongest Influence Faculty Award, Northern Kentucky University Alumni Association, February, 2001
Dean’s Outstanding Service Award, Northern Kentucky University College of Business, Fall 2000

FUNDED GRANTS and PROPOSALS

2006 National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Conference funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Fifth Third Bank. ($70,000)

The Institute for New Economy Technologies funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. ($800,000)

“Creating campus wide entrepreneurship programs grant” funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO ($50,000).

“Creating the Kentucky Entrepreneurship Research Center at NKU and Designing an Entrepreneurial Assessment Tool,” funded by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp, Lexington, KY ($225,000).

“Entrepreneurship Education and Awareness Grant,” funded by The Coleman Foundation,” Chicago, IL. ($25,000).

“Proposal for the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship at Northern KentuckyUniversity.” Funded by The Jacob Schmidlapp Foundation (Fifth Third Bank), Cincinnati, OH ($1,100,000).

Summer Fellowship, Northern Kentucky University - To pursue research on changes in banking strategy and structure 1980-1996 in the states of Kentucky and Virginia.

Summer Grant, Northern Kentucky University - To pursue research on changes in banking strategy and structure 1980-1996 in the states Kentucky and Virginia.