After 45 years of service in higher education, Janet Near, associate dean of faculty and research, Howard L. Hawks Chair in Business Ethics and Leadership and professor of management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, retires in May. Joining Nebraska in 2016, she amassed more than 28,000 citations to her work while also amplifying her colleagues accomplishments across the college.

"Over the course of Janet's tenure at Nebraska, she helped elevate the research stature of the Department of Management with an impressive vita showing more than 70 refereed journal article publications, including over 20 publications and working papers with Ph.D. students. Serving as an associate dean for faculty and research for six years, she also lifted up the research accomplishments of her peers within the college and mentored many junior faculty and Ph.D. students," said Kathy Farrell, James Jr. and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean and professor of finance.

Near became associate dean in 2018 when the college was experiencing strong enrollment growth and hiring many new faculty.

"In subsequent years, we experienced a pandemic, enrollment declines and then stabilization, and now budget cuts. Despite all this, the college found ways to support faculty research because of Dean Farrell’s efforts to seek funds from supportive donors, and this led to faculty successes," Near said.

In the last five years, College of Business faculty publications were cited 158,345 times, according to Google Scholar Citations, and 174 articles were published in top business and economics journals that were eligible for summer funding.

Near noted that the college was ranked #68 in 2023 among U.S business schools for publications in 24 premier journals, according to the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in 2023 ratings. The College of Business was not ranked in the top 100 U.S. business schools prior to 2018 so this represented an impressive improvement.

"Since 2019, we've also had 20 assistant professors earn tenure and seven tenured associate professors promoted to the rank of full professor. Fourteen assistant professors of practice also were promoted to associate professors of practice and two associate professors of practice were promoted to full professors of practice," Near said.

Author of three books on whistle blowing, Near was "very pleased" to be named the Hawks Chair in Business Ethics and Leadership at Nebraska because "ethical leadership is extremely important" for any organization’s success.

"Very few business schools or colleges have an endowed chair in ethics, and having that title and chair brings attention to the topic" she said.

Near also took on important service roles at the college and university-wide, such as chairing a campus-level committee that reviewed the Guidelines for the Evaluation of Faculty.

"Janet is a highly regarded scholar who has brought positive attention to the university, College of Business and the Department of Management. She has also been a trusted teacher, working with both MBA and Ph.D. students as a teacher and mentor. Her contributions and mentorship have been pivotal to the development of the Department of Management. Words simply cannot express the value that Janet has provided in her time in Lincoln, her many contributions are appreciated, and she will be missed," said Jake Messersmith, department chair and associate professor of management.

Though admitting it sounds "a little strange," Near plans to do more of her own research during retirement. She looks forward to "scouring a couple of great databases to find their hidden secrets" since she hasn't had time the last few years.

"I will greatly miss the chance to work with faculty as they strive to achieve their goals in teaching and research. Their dedication has been an inspiration; it has been an honor to help them reach their goals by providing the information they need from the college and university to speed them on their way," she said.