Mona Olsen

Mona Olsen (Com ’08) has been promoted to academic director of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. Ms. Olsen, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship, previously served as the center’s associate director. Before joining the faculty, she was a U.S. Fulbright Grantee to Norway, and earlier was the assistant director of the Mason Small Business Development Center at George Mason University.

Mona Anita K. Olsen (Com ’08) has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student grant to study in Norway for 2012-13. She will be exploring the plausibility of using appren-ticeship models to inform innovation in traditional entrepreneurship courses at the university level. Ms. Olsen is the founder of I Make a Difference, Do You?, an educational nonprofit that provides mentoring and apprenticeship opportunities to aspiring student entrepreneurs. She is also the assistant director of the Mason Small Business Development Center, a program of the Mason Enterprise Center at George Mason University. Ms. Olsen is a PhD candidate in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, specializing in entrepreneurship education.