UMaine appoints associate dean, assistant dean at business school

COURTESY / The University of Maine Patti Miles, left, and Meghan Gardner have been named associate dean and assistant dean of Maine Business School, respectively.

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By Alexis Wells

Maine Business School, one of the colleges at the University of Maine, has appointed Patti Miles and Meghan Gardner as associate dean and assistant dean, respectively.

Miles, a professor of management, has served as the interim associate dean of business since July 2022. She joined Maine Business School in the fall of 2008 after completing her doctorate at the University of Texas, Arlington.

Her teaching has been in operations management at the undergraduate level and data analysis for business in the graduate program.

“As a faculty member, I was focused on teaching and research, with minimal service,” said Miles. “As associate dean, the job is all service, with research when I can fit it in.” Her focus in her new roles is on helping staff, faculty, and students succeed.

The Orono resident is originally from Thousand Oaks, Calif. Prior to teaching, she spent 25 years in the Army, ultimately serving as a lieutenant colonel in Tulsa, Okla.

Gardner joined Maine Business School in May 2022 as an academic advisor and student support specialist for the Graduate School of Business. She assumed the role of assistant dean in April.

“I love that our student and staff communities have such a wide variety of professional, educational and life experiences,” said Gardner. “It enriches our programs and the work we do here at the Maine Business School and Graduate School of Business.”

Gardner earned her master’s degree in English in 2009. She received her Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Denver in 2014. Originally from Boston, she has lived in Maine for nearly 20 years.

Maine Business School is led by Jason Harkins, executive dean, and Norm O'Reilly, dean of the Graduate School of Business.

The University of Maine is a public research university in Orono. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship school of the University of Maine System, with nearly 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students.