UVA Darden Professor Named to ‘Best 40 Under 40’ List

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Roshni Raveendhran has been named to Poets & Quants’ “Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professors of 2021” list.

The publication said it selected the 40 from a list of 2,200 nominations, evaluating professors on teaching and research. Raveendhran, who joined the Darden faculty ahead of the 2018-19 academic year and teaches in the Leadership and Organizational Behavior area in the full-time MBA, Executive MBA and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning, recently received the student-selected Faculty Diversity Award in part for her support and commitment to students.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

My research focuses on predicting and understanding the future of work with the goal of leveraging novel technologies for creating positive social impact. The most significant discovery I’ve made so far is that technology has the potential to reduce concerns about potential negative judgments and can enable us to experience a context as informational rather than evaluative. Therefore, we can leverage technology in situations that can typically trigger concerns about potential negative judgment to enable people to overcome these concerns and experience those situations as informational.

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would probably be an entrepreneur in the higher education space. I’ve always wanted to create effective ways to support young people making crucial choices about education and their careers.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

Care and empathy. I have learned from some amazing colleagues that being successful in the classroom comes down to one thing – showing that you care. I deeply care about my students’ holistic development and strive to be empathetic and see things from their perspective. In my class, I’m learning as much from my students as they are from me.

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What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

Business students are super smart and eager to learn and shine. I thoroughly enjoy walking into Darden’s case classroom and learning something new from my students each time I teach a case. Their eagerness to take on important problems in the world makes each class session incredibly meaningful for me as I know that I am creating a positive impact on the next generation business leaders.

Read the full Q&A and profile on Poets & Quants.