Sandra Kauanui Profile

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Kauanui, Sandra (Ph.D.)

Associate Vice President for Community Entrepreneurship Initiatives
Strategy and Program Innovation

    Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship, The George Washington University (1997)

    Dr. Sandra K. Kauanui is Director of The Institute for Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management. She received her Ph.D. from The George Washington University and has an MBA from William & Mary University. Dr. Kauanui has over 30 years professional experience in the field as an entrepreneur, educator, researcher, and consultant. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Kauanui started and ran her own successful business for twenty years. The business, which employed up to forty employees, provided financial, tax and accounting services to entrepreneurial firms.

    Dr. Kauanui is an active researcher, keynote speaker and workshop presenter and has authored and co-authored over eighty publications in her academic career. Her primary areas of teaching, consulting, research and specialization are entrepreneurship, negotiation, spirituality at work, leadership, organizational behavior and financial/ strategic management. She has been an invited guest speaker in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa and Romania. Dr. Kauanui has received numerous awards for her contribution to the field of Entrepreneurship, including her acceptance into the Wilford L. White Fellows, which recognizes individuals who have made a major contribution to Entrepreneurship worldwide.

    Prior to Dr. Kauanui’s current appointment at FGCU in 2007, she was a tenured Associate Professor at the College of Business at California State Polytechnic University for eight years. When leaving the University in 2007, she was awarded Professor Emeritus. Dr. Kauanui is currently serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion and the International Association for Management, Spirituality and Religion. She has also served as an officer and board member for the International Council for Small Business, a fifty year old organization whose mission is to serve Small and Medium Enterprises worldwide, eventually becoming the second woman to serve as president of the organization. During her presidency, she had the opportunity to meet and discuss issues surrounding Entrepreneurship with numerous researchers, as well as public officials, including several presidents from around the world.

    March 28, 2015: Dr. Kauanui Receives Junior Achievement Award

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