Established in 1983 by Oscar and Pearl Husby and Joseph and Mary Husby to honor Senior Vice President David E. Johnson ’38, the purpose of this Chair is to enhance the general reputation of St. Olaf by bringing to St. Olaf a person of recognized competence in the field of business or economics. Oscar Husby served on the St. Olaf Board of Regents from 1966 to 1980, and as chairman of the Board from 1976 to 1980. The first holder of the Husby-Johnson chair was Leon Hollerman, a specialist in Asian economies; subsequent holders have been professors of economics, Bruce R. Dalgaard, Kathy Chadwick, Paul Wojick, David Emery, Anthony Becker, Rebecca Judge, and Rick Goedde.
Current Chair:
Sian Christie has been at St. Olaf since 2004 teaching in management studies: Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Storytelling and Management Policy and Strategy. Her professional experience includes being the general manager for a New Zealand retail chain for over a decade. Sian arrived in the U.S. in 2000 where she worked at Dartmouth College in the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. She was recently accepted into the Fulbright Specialist Program which will allow her to bring teaching innovation and curricula strategies to international host institutions that might benefit from a broad vision.
Christie enjoys critically evaluating curriculum to ensure student needs are met effectively. As the Director for the Business and Management Studies program she made changes in our overall curriculum to support diversity and access and to improve student outcomes.