Georgia Southern professor blends industry experience with mentorship and research

Dr. R. Gabrielle Swab, a tenured management professor at Georgia Southern University, is being featured for combining corporate experience, scholarship, and student mentorship in her work. Her profile highlights her research, new book, and efforts to expand experiential learning for business students.

Why it matters: - Dr. R. Gabrielle “Gabby” Swab’s career shows how industry experience can shape management education, research, and student support. - Her work touches business students, academic colleagues, and future leaders who learn from more practical teaching methods. - Swab’s focus on experiential learning reflects a broader push to make business education more applied and accessible.

What happened: - Influential Women featured Swab in a profile on Oct. 2, 2026. - Swab is a tenured associate professor of management at Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business in Statesboro, Georgia. - She joined Georgia Southern in 2022 after serving on the faculty at Towson University. - Swab also serves as Faculty Fellow of the Parker Business Scholars Program. - She is president of the Eastern Academy of Management and secretary of the Southern Management Association. - Swab recently published her first book, "Leadership Lessons from the Upside Down." - Learn more about Dr. R. Gabrielle Swab.

The details: - Swab built her early career in the corporate world with leadership roles at Juicy Couture and nearly five years at Dell Technologies. - At Dell Technologies, she worked in sales, global operations, and project management. - Swab earned her Project Management Professional certification during that period. - Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing from Belmont University, an MBA in human resources from Morehead State University, and a PhD in business administration with a management focus from the University of Mississippi. - Her research sits at the intersection of organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, and family business. - Swab studies how competition and cooperation shape outcomes in teams, startups, and family firms. - Her work has appeared in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Business Research, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. - Swab is also exploring experiential pedagogy and business education methods that use board games and other hands-on approaches. - "Leadership Lessons from the Upside Down" uses characters from Stranger Things to examine leadership themes including adaptability, integrity, and risk-taking. - The book is aimed at Stranger Things fans and readers looking for a simpler way to understand leadership concepts.

Between the lines: - Swab’s profile underscores a growing value in academia for professors who can connect theory to real workplace experience. - Her emphasis on mentorship and networking suggests she sees career growth as a mix of personal discipline and community support. - Her interest in board games and pop culture as teaching tools points to a broader shift toward more engaging business education. - The feature also highlights how women mentors in industry shaped Swab’s view that professional success and a fulfilling personal life can coexist.

What's next: - Swab plans to keep building scholarship around experiential learning and innovative teaching methods. - She expects board games, management, and entrepreneurship to remain central themes in her pedagogical work. - Her ongoing roles in academic associations and student programs position her to influence both research and mentoring in management education. - Swab encourages aspiring academics to seek guidance early, pursue pre-doctoral consortiums, and prepare for rejection as part of the field.

The bottom line: - Swab’s profile presents her as a professor who blends research, industry credibility, and mentorship into a practical model for management education.