Alison Davis-Blake

Alison Davis-Blake (born Alison Marie Davis on November 5, 1958, in Palo Alto, California) is an American professor who served as Dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan from July 2011 until July 2016. Davis-Blake was the school’s first female dean, and at the time of her appointment she was the highest-ranking female dean at any U.S. business school.
She received her B.S. in Economics (summa cum laude and with highest (University) honors) in 1979 from Brigham Young University. After working at Touche Ross, she earned a M.O.B. from the University's Marriott School of Management in 1982. In 1986 she received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University.
In 1990 she was hired by the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin as an associate professor. She was promoted to Chair of the Management Department, and in 2003 became the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
In 2006 she was appointed at Dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota where she remained through June 2011.
On February 14, 2011, it was announced that Davis-Blake would become the new Dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, succeeding Robert J. Dolan. Davis-Blake started as Dean of the Ross School of Business as of July 1, 2011. Her tenure as Dean ended on July 1, 2016.
Davis-Blake's academic service include editor positions with both the Academy of Management Review and Administrative Science Quarterly.

Davis-Blake grew up in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area of Minnesota. Her father was a professor of information systems at the University of Minnesota. She is married with two sons.