School of Business

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Dr. Susan L. Holak has served as the Founding Dean of the School of Business at the College of Staten Island since its inception in 2013. She formerly served as the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, and also holds faculty rank as a Professor of Marketing. As Associate Provost, she provided leadership in academic program review, accreditation, assessment, and the promotion of institutional effectiveness throughout the institution. Professor Holak also served as the area chairperson of marketing in the Business Department (2003-2007) and the Director of the Honors College of CSI/CUNY (2005-2007).

Dr. Holak earned a B.S. in Economics (Magna Cum Laude) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was named to Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honorary society. She received an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Business from Columbia University.

Dr. Holak was the recipient of an AACSB Fellowship and a Richard D. Irwin Fellowship for her doctoral studies. Supporting her interests in international education, she was awarded a 1997 Sasakawa Fellowship to attend the Japan Studies Institute at San Diego State University. She has taught as a visiting professor at the American University of Rome, where she is currently a member of the Business Advisory Committee.

She has volunteered extensively in her community on transportation, economic development, and civic projects.

Scholarship / Publications:

Susan L. Holak’s research interests include new product development, consumer behavior, and cross-cultural marketing.  She has published research on consumer response to innovations, advertising-sales relationships, and the impact of nostalgia on consumer behavior.  Recent work investigates nostalgia-proneness and its measurement in the U.S., Japan, and Eastern Europe.  Dr. Holak’s research has appeared in many publications including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing Letters, Advances in Consumer Research, European Advances in Consumer Research, and Consumption, Markets & Culture.