Gonzaga Faculty Help Shape the Future of Jesuit Business Education

For nearly three decades, Gonzaga University's School of Business Administration has played an important role in shaping and advancing Jesuit business education through its involvement with the Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education (CJBE).

Gonzaga has been part of CJBE since the organization was founded in 1998. Among its founders were Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., who served at Seattle University before becoming President of Gonzaga University, and Professor Emeritus Paul Buller, whose leadership helped establish a community dedicated to integrating Jesuit values into business education.

The School of Business Administration's connection to CJBE has continued through generations of faculty leadership. Both Dr. Paul Buller and Dr. Molly Pepper have served as presidents of the organization. Dr. Buller also helped found the Journal of Jesuit Business Education, while Dr. Pepper currently serves on the journal's editorial board.

Gonzaga faculty attend CJBE conferences, publish in its journal, and work with colleagues at Jesuit institutions around the world. Several have been recognized by the organization for this work. Dr. Buller received the Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. Award for Leadership and Service, and Dr. Peggy Sue Loroz and Dr. Vivek Patil have each received awards for their scholarship.

Current faculty remain closely involved in CJBE's work. Dr. Patil, for example, has taken part in three recent projects.

Dr. Patil has been involved in the redesign of the CJBE website, which now brings together information about the organization's history, annual conference, and journal in one place. Educators can use the site to find resources on Jesuit approaches to business teaching and scholarship.

He has also been involved in developing the Jesuit Business Companion, a multilingual artificial intelligence tool that supports teaching and research. The companion draws on all volumes of the Journal of Jesuit Business Education, the Journal of Management for Global Sustainability, social encyclicals, and Jesuit education documents. Faculty can use it to connect ideas from these sources to their own courses and research, with citations to the original material. They can also upload syllabi and other course materials for a structured mission audit.

In addition, Dr. Patil leads the CJBE Board's new AI and Digital Products subgroup. The group is producing videos and podcasts that make Jesuit business education resources and conversations easier to find and share. Its work so far includes the Mission & Management podcast and a collection of videos on scholarship and perspectives from across the CJBE community.
From CJBE's founding to its newest projects, the School of Business Administration's faculty have taken an active part in advancing Jesuit business education.