UVA Darden Offers 16 New Courses for 2021–22 Academic Year

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business began the 2021–22 academic year with hundreds of new students, nine new faculty members and a variety of new courses.

The new classes are taught by both veteran and new professors, and span topics including marketing, supply chains and cybersecurity, among other areas.

All Darden First Year MBA students take the same core curriculum, gaining foundational knowledge and enterprise-wide perspective in areas such as finance, accounting, ethics and marketing. Beginning with the fourth quarter of the First Year, students begin to customize their Darden journey by choosing from more than 100 elective courses. The new Darden Career Journey and Elective Guides showcase particular, career-focused pathways through Darden’s elective offerings.

New courses for the academic year include “Managing Sustainability From the Inside Out,” taught by Professor Carolyn Miles, in which students will explore the theory and practice of sustainability, with a focus on ESG principles in practice and case discussions focused on the challenge of building sustainability into the business to increase stakeholder value and deliver social impact.

Another course, “What Would I Have Done Differently?,” taught by Professor Greg Fairchild, will offer Executive MBA students direct exposure to senior executives who led organizations during uncertainty. The course aims to expose students to a range of emerging issues and topics faced by startups, multinational companies and nonprofit organizations.

“Thinking of a Master Plan: Nonprofit Management, Metrics, and Impact Making in the Field,” taught by Professor Toni Irving, considers the unique capabilities of the nonprofit organization, many of which are on the forefront of issues of economic opportunity, housing, education and workforce development. The course aims to give students a deeper understanding of the economic, strategic and capacity issues underpinning social impact, while partnering with organizational leaders to strategically leverage assets for greater impact.

In “Cybersecurity & Privacy,” taught by Batten Institute Senior Director David Touve, students consider the world of security breaches, the systems in place to prevent such hacks and how public opinion toward privacy interact with the challenge of securing interconnected networks.

The full list of new courses for the academic year includes:

“Marketing Leadership,” taught by Marc Ruggiano

“Sustainable Global Value Chains,” taught by Professor Vidya Mani

“Analytics for Experiments, Forecasts and Growth,” taught by Professors Casey Lichtendahl and Eric Tassone

“Disruption, Response, and Transformation ,” taught by Professor Ming-Jer Chen

“Emerging and Frontier Markets,” taught by World Bank economist Ayhan Kose

“Telling Financial Stories,” taught by Meghan Murray

“Managing Sustainability From the Inside Out,” taught by Miles

“Thinking of a Master Plan: Nonprofit Management, Metrics, and Impact Making in the Field,” taught by Irving

“Managing Innovation,” taught by Professor Panos Markou

“Leading in Uncertainty and Crisis,”  taught by Professor Vivian Riefberg

“Markets, Government and Society,” taught by Professor Dan Murphy

“Cybersecurity & Privacy,” taught by Touve

“What Would I Have Done Differently?,” taught by Fairchild

“Digital Operations,” taught by Professor Tim Laseter

“Corporate Strategy,” taught by Professor Young Hou

“Foundations and Applications of FinTech,” taught by Professor Ting Xu

Additional classes may be added as the year progresses.