Margaret Shih Named Interim Dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management

In light of Antonio Bernardo stepping down as dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management at the end of the 2024–25 academic year, I am pleased to share that Margaret Shih — UCLA Anderson department chair and deputy dean of academic affairs, Neil Jacoby Chair in Management, and professor of management and organizations — has agreed to serve as interim dean, effective July 1, 2025. She will serve in this capacity while we conduct a national search for the next dean of the school during the 2025–26 academic year.

Deputy Dean Shih has been a faculty member at UCLA Anderson since 2008. As the department chair and deputy dean of academic affairs since July 2023, she has recruited five new ladder faculty to join UCLA Anderson and updated the Anderson bylaws and personnel process. She also serves as faculty special advisor in the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), where she was associate vice chancellor for Research and Bruin Engagement (formerly BruinX) until 2022. Her experience in administration has enhanced her scholarship on EDI issues, including enhancing her understanding of how systems can contribute to different types of inequities and observing the obstacles in bureaucracies that can impede EDI initiatives. An accomplished scholar, Deputy Dean Shih’s research focuses on stereotyping and implicit bias. She is currently studying the psychological impact of political polarization and recently published a paper on the effects of political polarization on people’s perceptions of threats to democracy. 

Previously, she served as senior associate dean of the fully employed MBA and full-time MBA programs at Anderson from 2014 to 2018. Prior to joining UCLA, Deputy Dean Shih was a faculty member at the University of Michigan for eight years and worked at RAND Corporation. 

Deputy Dean Shih served on the executive committee for the International Society for Self and Identity and was a consulting editor for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. She was also an editor for the special issue of the Journal of Social Issues. She has received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, John Templeton Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Deputy Dean Shih holds a B.A. in psychology with honors from Stanford and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard.

I am confident that, given her extensive experience in leadership positions and her many contributions to UCLA, Deputy Dean Shih will be an effective leader for the Anderson community — and a valuable contributor to the mission and strategic direction of our university.

We will have the coming months to share our appreciation for outgoing Dean Bernardo’s outstanding leadership and wish him success as he returns to research and teaching as a 30-year veteran of the school’s finance faculty. I look forward to working with both leaders on ensuring a smooth transition for UCLA Anderson. 

Sincerely,

Darnell Hunt
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost