Dean's Bio

Alanah Mitchell serves as the Dean of the Zimpleman College of Business at Drake University and Aliber Distinguished Professor. In this role, she serves as the chief academic and administrative officer for the college and participates in the collaborative leadership of the university.

Before serving as the Dean, Alanah (pronounced A-lāy-nah) served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in Zimpleman, where she oversaw college faculty and curriculum development. During her tenure as Associate Dean, she led significant efforts to streamline course offerings, effectively reducing redundancies and optimizing resources to achieve substantial cost savings for the institution. By closely analyzing course structures and enrollment trends, she led efforts to implement strategic changes to enhance efficiency while continuing to achieve student outcomes. Relatedly, Alanah worked to develop a new faculty onboarding process, ensuring incoming faculty were well-prepared to meet the evolving demands of the curriculum. She also worked with faculty to update college structure and policies, aligning them with the changing AACSB accreditation requirements and reinforcing the college's commitment to maintaining high academic standards and continuous improvement.

Alanah's research is in the field of information technology and is focused on technology-supported collaboration. Her work has been published in premier information systems journals and cited in popular press outlets ranging from Harvard Business Review to The Washington Post. She is also co-author of a book titled The New Workplace: Employee Alignment in Remote-First, Office-Forward, and Hybrid Work Organizations, published by Palgrave Macmillan. In 2019, Alanah was inducted by the Association for Information Systems (AIS) into the inaugural class of AIS Distinguished Members, Cum Laude. Her service with this organization has included roles as the President for the AIS Special Interest Group on IT Project Management from 2013-2016 and the President of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (MWAIS) from 2022-2023. Her conference leadership positions include serving as a Program Co-Chair for the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2016 in San Diego, CA, Program Co-Chair for MWAIS 2020 in Des Moines, IA, and Program Co-Chair for AMCIS 2023 in Panama City, Panama. Alanah also served as the inaugural Associate Vice President of Conference Management Systems for AMCIS from 2018-2020. In recognition of her leadership and service, Alanah received the AIS Saundra Slaughter Service Award (2019) as well as the AMCIS Outstanding Conference Service Leadership Award (2022).

Alanah joined Drake University as a faculty member in 2015 and has taught undergraduate, graduate, and executive education courses during her tenure. Before joining Drake University, Alanah was a faculty member and researcher in the John A. Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. Her doctorate is in Information Technology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.