Seton Hall Dean Emerita Earns Prestigious Fulbright Award

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — A professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange has earned a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award.

Karen Boroff, a professor of management and dean emerita, Stillman School of Business, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Madrid, Spain, for the 2025 spring semester from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Here’s what Boroff will be working on, according to Seton Hall:

“Following 35 years of distinguished academic service at Seton Hall, Professor Boroff will wield her expertise in management, human resources, labor relations, and negotiations for her Fulbright project, ‘Leadership, Creativity, Collaborations: Transforming Concepts into Practice,’ at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), in Madrid, Spain. UPM is a partner school with the Management Center Innsbruch, Austria, where Boroff served as a visiting professor and Seton Hall has a thriving relationship. The project will focus on equipping leaders with competencies in change management, as all higher education institutions seek to navigate the ever-changing landscape of academe.”

Boroff has been in discussions with her faculty collaborator and mentor Isabel Ortiz-Marcos, a mechanical engineer who holds a doctoral degree in industrial engineering from UPM, where she is also an associate professor of engineering projects and project management. Ortiz also is a certified project manager professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute since 2006.

Boroff will offer workshops throughout the spring 2025 semester.

“Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is among the best engineering universities in Spain,” said Katia Passerini, provost and senior executive vice president.

“This is a fitting cap to Karen’s legacy and her impact on our university,” Passerini said.

Seton Hall offered some extra background about Boroff:

“In addition, her academic achievements, Boroff has served with several volunteer associations; she currently volunteers her time at her local parish, St. Patrick in Chatham, New Jersey, where she is a Eucharistic Minister and teaches religious education to elementary school children. Boroff earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, an M.B.A. from Lehigh University and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is married to Joel Boroff and has two children, both who are majors in the United States Army.”

“The Fulbright award is a perfect opportunity for Dr. Boroff, whose empathy, leadership and cultural sensitivity are well known at Seton Hall,” said James Kimble, Fulbright liaison for the campus and professor of communication.

“I have no doubt that she will make vital contribution as a Fulbrighter in Spain,” Kimble said.

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