Five Questions with Beth Embry
In our Five Question series, faculty at the University of Kansas School of Business share their insights, experiences and advice for students.
Elizabeth (Beth) Embry is an assistant professor in the school’s Management and Entrepreneurship academic area. She researches entrepreneurial opportunities to address the pressing social issues of our time. With a background in public health and disaster management, she specially focuses on innovations in the built environment to address climate change.
What got you interested in your field, and what is the most rewarding part of being involved in it?
Prior to academia, I worked for the World Health Organization and various nonprofits in public health and disaster management. My career moved me around the world to work on policy and infrastructure to improve community resiliency, while also responding to disasters as they occurred. With the significant lag time for governmental response, I quickly realized that local entrepreneurs in the impacted community were truly some of the most effective first responders in mobilizing resources and communication channels. This led me to the field of entrepreneurship, where I focus on understanding how we can utilize innovation and engage entrepreneurs in better addressing pressing social issues.
The most rewarding part of my work is the ability to examine novel solutions to issues like climate change, and work with entrepreneurs to amplify their experience and voices in hopes of creating a more widespread impact. I also love bringing students into these conversations as they have a different vantage point and often unique ideas to enhance the work that is being done.
What is your favorite part about being a Jayhawk?
It is nice to now officially be a part of the KU community! I grew up cheering for the Jayhawks because of my mom. Many members of my extended family are alumni. Their college stories portrayed Lawrence as a very special place, and my experiences these past few weeks has solidified that notion. Everyone has been so welcoming and supportive. I look forward to enjoying all of the long-standing KU traditions!
What would you see yourself doing if you weren’t a professor?
There are so many innovative individuals and startups in public health and environmental sustainability that are working on incredible new products and services. Their ideas are failing to gain traction, not because they are bad, but because they do not have business acumen. If I was not a professor, I would leverage my cross-disciplinary background to support these entrepreneurial endeavors and help broker connections in the business community that can support and amplify their work.
What advice would you give your college self?
If you had told me in college that I would eventually be a faculty member in a School of Business, I would have laughed so hard! And yet, looking back at all of my experiences, it makes sense that this is where I would find a home to combine all of my passions.
The advice I would give is, the path you are on may lead to a different destination than others who start the same journey with you — and a different destination from where you thought you were headed. The world needs people who can cross disciplinary boundaries and speak the language of different industries or sectors. Don’t be afraid to be curious about why things are done in a certain way. Be brave enough to keep asking questions to the professors, mentors and colleagues around you when you see a new possible solution to an existing problem.
If you could require students to read one thing before graduation (outside of your class reading), what would it be and why?
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy is a book that everyone should read and relish. It is the story of a boy in search of home, but it is truly about the unlikely support and friendships he develops along the way. The book captures the human experience of seeking, failing, loving and preserving — and that regardless of who we are, we are not alone in these experiences. We can learn a lot through listening to another person’s perspective — a message we all need to be reminded of regularly. (As well as the mole’s reminder that cake makes everything better!)
What makes the book especially powerful is that the author is actually an artist who never intended to write a book. The characters developed through his Instagram page that he created during the pandemic as a way to put his art out in the world to bring hope. In many ways, the illustrations in the book convey even more than the written words do.
By Lauren Hartwig
