It gives us great pleasure to announce that Ruthie Pyles has agreed to join Olin as our next assistant dean and director of graduate programs admissions and financial aid. Ruthie joins us from Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe where she has served as director of MBA and graduate admissions and recruitment for the past five years.

Previously, Ruthie had worked in admissions, student services, and career services at the University of Southern California (USC). She holds a BFA in theatre as well as a master’s degree in communication management – both from USC. The degree in theatre will become self-evident when you have the chance to meet Ruthie in person.  In addition to her exemplary academic record and work history – the search committee felt that Ruthie’s energy, style, personality and character were a perfect fit for Olin and for this position.

Ruthie Pyles

This announcement is the culmination of a six-month intensive, international search process, with dozens of applicants and eight initial semi-finalist candidates who were eventually winnowed down to three finalists.  This search process was spearheaded by an exceptional search committee who worked hard, worked well together, and worked towards a common goal. Our thanks to the search committee:

Co-chairs: John Horn and Joe Fox

Staff: Sarah Miller and Brad McLeod

MBA students: Delisle Warden and DeAngela Hayes

Faculty: Radha Gopalan and Jackson Nickerson

And our very, very, very valuable internal search consultant: Mark Prosperi  (from the University HR department)

Terry Wirtel also deserves our immense gratitude for supporting the committee in every way, especially with juggling multiple schedules to keep everything on track.

More thanks go out to the dozens of folks who participated in the finalist interview process over the past several weeks. You provided us with very valuable feedback and made a very favorable impression on the candidates.

Ruthie will join Olin on July 11 ready to swing directly into high gear. I believe that is the only gear that Ruthie uses. But there will be one minor swerve in the road – Ruthie will need to take a few days off at the end of July in order to get married to her St. Louis-based fiancé, who also happens to work in higher education at another university. After much deliberation, she has been granted those few days off by her very benevolent supervisor.

Once again – thanks to all and welcome to the Olin Nation Ruthie.