faculty/staff

Leann Mischel, Ph.D.

Associate Professor | Management

I came from corporate America where I worked for a number of years with JPMorgan Chase, and served as a vice president. It was a big company then, but much smaller and more entrepreneurial than it is now. I also worked with Priceline during the height of the dot-com bubble. That was an incredibly interesting experience, to be part of the excitement and creativity.

I teach several entrepreneurship courses at Susquehanna. I help students learn how to organize, operate and assume the risk for a business venture. I can teach it because I live it—I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mind. I often find myself thinking “I need to start a company to do this or that to solve a problem.” And I’ve started a number of companies. I am always looking for new business opportunities, new market niches. Being able to share my passion for entrepreneurship with students has been a lot of fun, I am really enjoying it.

I believe it’s very important for students at Susquehanna to get a background in the basics, but also to learn by doing rather than just reading about how others do things. Students get to work through a number of real-world business projects. In one class, students work in teams to develop business strategies to help different companies throughout the semester. At the end of each project a business executive from the company will judge the team presentations.

The entrepreneurship program at Susquehanna is hands on – our students do business for themselves as part of our courses. They are going to make mistakes, but they are going to figure things out, and gain an incredible amount of confidence. When they begin their careers, they will be able to deliver from the start.

Every time one of my students drops by my office and says, “I’ve got an idea for a company—can you give me some help?” I get excited for them. They are incredibly creative and their energy and inspiration are contagious. I love to help them create their companies and see them succeed.