Leadership

Erik Noyes is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College. An expert in innovation, growth strategy, and AI, Noyes teaches courses in entrepreneurial thinking, new venture creation, and business innovation. His research examines entrepreneurship, disruptive innovation, and AI in entrepreneurship and innovation. He teaches Entrepreneurial Opportunities in AI at Babson, among other graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship courses. Prior to joining Babson, Noyes consulted with companies like Nokia, Motorola, BMW, and Hewlett-Packard Healthcare to explore new growth businesses.

Recent publications

“Entrepreneurship Education at the Dawn of Generative Artificial Intelligence.” Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy (EE&P).

Dr. Fixson concentrates his work on helping people and organizations build innovation capabilities, an increasingly important aspect of the future of work. In his research, he investigates how factors such as structure and governance of innovation processes, practices like design thinking, and the use of digital design tools affect the nature and outcome of innovation work. He teaches innovation, design, and operations management related courses, and has developed new ways of how to teach innovation, including programs, spaces, and simulations.

Recent publications

Schweitzer, J., BenMahmoud-Jouini, S., Fixson, S.K. (2023). Transform with Design: Creating New Innovation Capabilities with Design Thinking. Rotman - University of Toronto Press.

Marion, T.J., Fixson, S.K. (2021). “The Transformation of the Innovation Process: How Digital Tools are Changing Work, Collaboration, and Organizations in New Product Development.” Journal of Product Innovation Management. Vol: 38, Issue: 1, Page: 192-215. Wiley.

Marion, T.J., Fixson, S.K., Brown, G. (2020).“Four Skills Tomorrow’s Innovation Workforce Will Need.” MIT Sloan Management Review. Vol: 61, Issue: 3, Page: 8-13. MIT.

Ruth Gilleran is a Professor of Practice in the Operations and Information Management division. She teaches courses in digital technologies as well as entrepreneurship and her research interests lie at the intersection of the two, namely tech entrepreneurship. For the past several years, Gilleran served as the co-coordinator of Babson’s core undergraduate technology course, and she now co-leads its year-long flagship entrepreneurship program. Prior to joining Babson, Gilleran served as Assistant Vice President of Computer Associates’ enterprise business and data analytics applications.

Recent publications

“Supervised Machine Learning: An Experiential and Reflective Session.”

Kristi Girdharry is an Associate Teaching Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Babson College where she teaches courses in writing, tutoring, and social media. Her research interests include teaching-for-transfer, community engagement, inclusive pedagogies, and how AI is enhancing or disrupting each of these areas. In addition to research and teaching, she is on the Executive Committee for the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC), reviews for various journals, and is a co-editor for the Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition series, which offers annual snapshots of the exigent themes, trends, and ideas within Writing Studies.

Recent publications

“Meaningful Writing in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence” Double Helix (co-written with Davit Khachatryan)

Jonathan is an educator and leader with nearly two decades of experience dedicated to innovation, technology, and fostering inquisitiveness in students and educators alike. Currently he leads the Weissman Foundry at Babson College, a transformative cross-college initiative and makerspace. The Foundry empowers students to create with purpose, embrace entrepreneurship, and make their ideas a reality. He has expanded the Foundry’s impact exponentially, delivering hands-on training to thousands and nurturing a unique community culture. Prior to this, he served as a Curriculum Developer, Advisor, and Teacher helping schools adopt impactful curricula and fostering collaboration across disciplines.

Davit Khachatryan is a data scientist specializing in machine learning and natural language processing. His pedagogical innovations include the development of Playmeans, a web app for inclusive data science education using live data from Spotify; as well as Cases used in teaching time series analysis. Before Babson College, he was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), focusing on predictive modeling and advanced data analytics for clients in healthcare, finance, and government sectors. At Babson, he teaches courses in machine learning, data science, and statistics.

Recent publications

Girdharry, K., & Khachatryan, D. (2024). Meaningful Writing in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Double Helix, 11.

Khachatryan, D. (2023). Playmeans: Inclusive and Engaging Data Science through Music. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 31(2), 151-161.

Eloyan, A., Yue, M. S., & Khachatryan, D. (2020). Tumor heterogeneity estimation for radiomics in cancer. Statistics in medicine, 39(30), 4704-4723.

Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh is a philosopher, literary theorist, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Babson College. His scholarly work explores concepts of chaos, illusion, violence, disappearance, delirium, silence, secrecy, and apocalypse. He has published nine books to date, including: The Chaotic Imagination (2010); Inflictions: The Writing of Violence (2012); The Radical Unspoken (2013); Insurgent, Poet, Mystic, Sectarian (2014); a two-volume project on “night” titled Night: A Philosophy of the After Dark (2020) and Night II: A Philosophy of the Last World (2022); and a two-volume project on “madness” titled Omnicide: Mania, Fatalism, and the Future-In-Delirium (2019) and Omnicide II: Mania, Doom, and the Future-In-Deception (2023). He is also the Founding Director of the Future Studies Program and Editor of the Futures Theory book series with Bloomsbury Press.

Recent publications

Omnicide: Mania, Fatalism, and the Future-In-Delirium (MIT Press, Urbanomic Series, 2019)

Omnicide II: Mania, Doom, and the Future-In-Deception (MIT Press, Urbanomic Series, 2023)

Jonathan Sims is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College. A scholar of strategy and innovation, Sims teaches courses in strategy, problem-solving, and moonshot innovations. His research examines open innovation, entrepreneurship, and teaching pedagogy.

Recent publications

Sims, J.P., Woodard, C.J. (2020). “Community interactions at crowd scale: hybrid crowds on the GitHub platform.” Innovation. Vol: 22, Issue: 2, Page: 105-127. Routledge.

Sims, J.P., Gichoya, J., Bhardwaj, G., Bogers, M. (2019). “Write Code, Save Lives: How a Community Uses Open Innovation to Address a Societal Challenge.” R & D Management. Vol: 49, Issue: 3, Page: 369-382.

Bhardwaj, G., Crocker, A., Sims, J.P., Wang, R.D. (2018). “Alleviating the Plunging-In Bias, Elevating Strategic Problem-Solving.” Academy of Management Learning & Education. Vol: 17, Issue: 3, Page: 279-301. Academy of Management.

Beth Wynstra is Associate Professor of English and Faculty Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching at Babson College. Beth teaches courses in Dramatic Literature, Theater History, Acting, and Public Speaking, and she regularly directs plays and musicals. Beth’s research interests include American drama, political theater, and gender studies, and her book Vows, Veils, and Masks: The Performance of Marriage in the Plays of Eugene O’Neill (University of Iowa Press, Theater History and Culture Series) was published in 2023. She regularly lectures and serves as a dramaturg or researcher at prominent regional and professional theaters across the U.S.

Recent publications

“The Heart/Roots Project and a Pandemic Pivot.” Journal of American Drama and Theater 35.2 (2023).

Vows, Veils, and Masks: The Performance of Marriage in the Plays of Eugene O’Neill. University of Iowa Press, Theater History and Culture Series (2023).

“From Page to Stage: Dramaturging the Female Voices of the Provincetown Players” in Teaching Modernist Women Writers in English. Modern Language Association of America (2021).

Patty Patria is the Chief Information Officer at Babson College. She is an innovative, strategic thinker with 20+ years of experience in higher education, collaborating with faculty, staff and students to envision and implement transformative solutions. She has passion for leveraging AI in higher education to improve outcomes and operations, and works collaboratively with faculty, staff and students on academic, student and administrative AI endeavors. Patty also has a strong risk and security background, and is helping Babson understand and manage that risks associated with AI through policy, process and technology.

Eric currently holds the position as the Senior Director of Academic Technologies at Babson College where he leads a team of instructional designers, instructional technologists, and graphic designers. His responsibilities for the group include strategic thinking and planning around curriculum and faculty research, creating content for blended and online learning, training faculty, coaching, and implementing innovative academic technologies. In addition to his role in academic technology, Eric also teaches in the fields of UI/UX, graphic design, communications and collaboration in virtual environments.

Phil Ahn is a Senior Director, Data Analytics & AI at Babson College, and an expert translator between business and technical. He has led digital and AI transformation across diverse industries including insurance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Phil is helping drive AI experimentation and scaling within the Babson community.

Cathleen currently holds the position of Program Manager for The Generator Interdisciplinary AI Lab where she provides essential organizational and administrative strategy, business analysis, and leadership skills to bring into focus and build out the academic vision and operational goals of The Generator AI Lab.

In addition to her role with The Generator, Cathleen is also Program Manager for the Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching at Babson College. In this role, she is responsible for implementing the College’s strategic initiatives and making resources available that support faculty development, as well as expanding the external visibility and teaching reputation of the College through the development, publication and distribution of innovative teaching materials and methods.

Saskia Kusnecov is a Research and Instruction Librarian for Horn Library, and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Arts and Humanities division. She holds a Master's in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University.