FAU Alumna Kathleen Brush Gives More Than $1.3 Million to Establish College of Business Women in Leadership Program

BOCA RATON, Fla., May 30, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kathleen E. Brush, Ph.D., a business executive, strategy consultant and author, has donated more than $1.3 million to Florida Atlantic University's College of Business to establish the Kathleen Brush Program for Women in Leadership.

Brush, who earned an M.B.A. from FAU in 1980, approached a few other universities with her idea to create a program for women in leadership, and they all expressed some degree of interest, she said, "but FAU was the only one that said we support gender equality in leadership, we want to be part of the solution."

At lower levels of management, Brush said, women are almost at a point of parity with men, but at each successive level the gap grows wider.

"When you get to the top, women are almost non-existent," said Brush, who has created three scholarships for the program. "In the Fortune 500 today, only 4.8 percent of CEOs are women."

The Kathleen Brush Program for Women in Leadership will be launched as part of FAU's Executive Education offerings and will eventually be integrated into the College of Business' undergraduate and MBA programs. The program will feature a mentoring program and emphasize applying theory-to-practice and networking. Each cohort of students, Brush said, provides a great opportunity to develop a lasting network that helps one another move forward.

Brush, who has been an executive with several companies, has been working as a global leadership, business and strategy consultant since 2009. A resident of Seattle, Brush will be actively involved in the program at FAU. The target market initially will be mid-career female executives, she said.

Daniel Gropper, Ph.D., dean of FAU's College of Business, said the program will allow the university to expand on the leadership education it offers to all of its students.

"The College of Business prepares students to become the business leaders of tomorrow," Gropper said. "We are thankful that one of our graduates, Kathleen Brush, has given us this opportunity, through her financial gift and the experience she has gained as a successful business leader in the tech industry, to design a program that will provide women with the education and the tools they need to reach the top of the corporate ladder."

SOURCE Florida Atlantic University College of Business

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