By Joy Vann
Erika Marsillac, Ph.D., was named dean of the Old Dominion University Strome College of Business on March 10. She served as the college’s interim dean since June 2024 and was associate dean and assistant dean prior to that. Under her leadership, the college completed a revision of the Master of Business Administration degree, developed and implemented department-based retention plans, created a safety committee, initiated a review of the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration core and implemented new fiscal strategies. Also leading up to her appointment, Dr. Marsillac revised graduate and undergraduate programs, increased Strome College enrollment by 3% and led nearly $350,000 in development giving.
In his announcement of the appointment, Brian K. Payne, Ph.D., interim provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, said “Alongside her excellent leadership skills, Dr. Marsillac is also a seasoned and highly regarded scholar, whose research appears in top journals and has been presented and published in national and international conference proceedings. She has received numerous awards for her teaching and service contributions, including the college’s E.V. Williams Fellowship for Teaching, Outstanding Tenured Faculty Teaching Award, E.V. Williams Fellowship for Service and Outstanding Faculty Service Award, among others.”
Dr. Marsillac came to ODU as an assistant professor in 2010 and became a professor in 2022. While she didn’t foresee a life in academia when starting out, Dr. Marsillac now sees how each job was a step in that direction. Prior to joining the University, Marsillac worked in research at the University of Toledo, held positions with a national insurance provider and was a youth mental health professional. She earned a Ph.D. in manufacturing management and engineering at the University of Toledo; an MBA in Information Technology and a Comprehensive MBA from Goldey-Beacom College; and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Pennsylvania State University.
Born into a military family, Marsillac has lived all over the world and credits that for her resiliency and ability to adapt, both of which are central to her leadership style and what she teaches her students. Her time at ODU is the longest she’s spent in any one place, a testament to her love of the University.
“One of the reasons I love ODU is its intimate feel. Even though we have a lot of students, there's a lot of direct interaction with students and colleagues. It feels small, even if we have connections and outreach that go a lot of places,” she said. “Also, coming from a military family, I feel that ODU has a similar representation of the country as a whole.”
Another reason she feels so comfortable at the University is that she was like the many adult and military students who choose to attend ODU.
“I was an adult student. Every academic program I've been in has involved me working either full time or part time, so I understand the balance that's needed for the nontraditional student, which is the majority of our student population now,” she said. “I think that it was very helpful for me to have industry experience. I didn't start my doctoral program until I was in my mid-30s, and I didn't become a fulltime assistant professor until I was 40.”
Although she’s taught organizational behavior, international human resource management, marketing and business statistics in the past, at ODU, her teaching and research focus more on her doctoral degree specialties, with topics including operations management, sustainable supply chain management and reverse logistics.
When she accepted the interim dean position, her initial goal was “to keep the trains running and the lights on.” And while she did that, she also saw new projects to tackle.
“I could see things to be improved upon—and the mission of our college is problem solving. So, that's a good fit for me, because if I see something that I don't think is working right, I want to try to get it working right,” she said.
A primary objective for Marsillac as dean is “defining our place in a changing landscape” and adapting new problem-solving techniques.
“I tell my students no boss is going to say, ‘Here is a nice, neat problem. I know exactly how I want you to fix it. Here's the perfect solution.’ Instead, they will come to you and say, ‘I have no idea what's going wrong. I just know something isn’t right and it’s your responsibility to make it right by Tuesday’,” she said. “Problem solving helps our students strengthen their critical thinking skills, with resilience, trying stuff out and reminding them that it's okay if it doesn't work the first time you try it—it’s a prototype.”
Marsillac also wants to continue enhancing the involvement of the University’s industry partners with programming.
“I want, and emphasize, that our students need experiential learning because every business has a problem that is always on its to do list but never quite makes it up to the top priority. Industry partners can bring us those consistent problems and we can have a class of 20 or 30 eager students working on solving that problem for you and with you, which gives the students access to real life data and experience and you potential solutions. It becomes a symbiotic relationship,” she said. “The students learn about the company and the employers also get access to a workforce pipeline that they might never have known about.”
She explained the three foundational pillars of the college as talent, insights and impact.
“The strong talent is the students that we produce who are prepared for the workforce. The insights are the research developments that we produce, whether practical applications or guidance about what's to come. The impact is our community engagement, how we are embedded in the community as an institution, as a partner and as a contributor to Hampton Roads.”
Marsillac has been described as a visionary leader who enjoys collaboration and provides clear direction.
“I see what I want to accomplish and I am focused on collaborating with others to get there. I can provide direction on how I might want things to get done, but it's not just to do it my way,” she said. “My goal is to get from point A to point B and I don't care if we take a bicycle, walk, or borrow a scooter,” she said. “I can visualize that we need to get from point A to point B, and I want us to figure out together what's going to be the best way to do it.”