This fall, the College of Business Administration appointed two senior directors who bring a wealth of graduate business education and admissions experience to LMU. Dustin Cornwell joins as senior director of MBA/M.S. programs and Nola Wanta fills the newly created role of senior director of business development and strategy.
Dustin has held director-level positions at DePaul University in Chicago, the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He most recently served as director of MBA programs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dustin received a B.B.A. in international business from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. He also earned an M.A. in public relations and advertising from DePaul University and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“In my first few weeks in this position, I’ve enjoyed learning what makes the graduate experience at LMU unique in the eyes of our students, alumni and faculty,” said Dustin. “What I’ve consistently heard is that CBA’s programs challenge our students to incorporate an ethical, community-oriented point of view in their actions and decision-making. I look forward to helping students develop their expertise beyond traditional b-school skills to become impactful business leaders.”
In this new role, Nola will help strengthen CBA industry connections by establishing partnerships and relationships with employers to better align our graduate education initiatives to industry needs. Additionally, she will play an integral role in advancing online initiatives and student services as well as developing new executive education offerings.
Nola most recently served as director of program services for the MBA for Executives (EMBA) Program at UC Irvine (UCI). Prior to joining UCI, Nola held various leadership positions in graduate program management, recruitment and admissions at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, UCLA Anderson and UCI The Paul Merage School of Business. Currently, she is completing her Ed.D. at UCLA. Nola earned an M.A. in social science specializing in demographics and social analysis, and a B.A. in anthropology and social science from UC Irvine.
“From an external perspective, I’ve learned that the business community in Los Angeles is impressed with LMU and its graduates,” said Nola. “One executive said that ‘when something good happens in Los Angeles there is usually an LMU alum involved.’ I think that CBA has a great opportunity to not only be embedded in Silicon Beach, but to go beyond the west side and impact business across Los Angeles, the U.S. and the world.”
