Dean Yannis C. Yortsos with members of the newly created USC Viterbi Emerging Leaders Board
The new Emerging Leaders Board of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering held its inaugural meeting on Friday, March 22, 2013. The board was constituted with three goals in mind: To champion the school, advice the dean and help in friend-raising and fundraising. Inaugural Emerging Leaders Board members include: Ali Fakhari (Chair); Farzana Ansari; Dwipal Desai; Tracy Dooley; Reed Doucette; Mike Ghaffary; David Hodge; Justin Jameson; Amy Lin; Kyle Patterson; Charles Ralston; and Timur Taluy.
Because of their relatively recent graduation from the school, these young alumni are particularly likely to act as school ambassadors to constituencies such as technology startups, recent alumni, and current and prospective students. They will also help advise the dean on important strategic and tactical issues from their own unique perspective.
The inaugural meeting at Ronald Tutor Hall focused on the Viterbi School’s message and identity, student recruitment, communications and marketing, and alumni engagement and entrepreneurship. Also discussed were career services, social media, and alumni events.
In his presentation to the Board on the State of the School, Dean Yortsos highlighted USC Viterbi’s commitment to multidisciplinary research and learning, a term he often refers to as “Engineering +,” for finding solutions to today's most challenging global problems, including the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. The Board noted that the recently released rankings in which the Viterbi School was ranked among the top 10 graduate schools of engineering in North America and No. 1 in best online graduate programs, provide a solid testament to the quality and strength of the school and likely to energize the alumni and other constituencies bases.
The next business of the ELB will be to increase its membership and to proceed with the formation of committees on Career Services, Technology/Social Media, Alumni Engagement, and Fundraising and Advancement.
