The first of three candidates being considered as the next dean of Emporia State’s School of Business and Technology will meet the community at a forum on Thursday, April 30.
Derek Yonai, director of the Brown Innovation Center at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, will meet community at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at Breidenthal University House, 1522 Highland St.
A second on-campus open presentation will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, in Cremer Hall Room 205, the Roe R. Cross Room.
Yonai previously served as an associate professor of business at Emporia State from 2017 to 2023. He earlier served at Southern Methodist University, Florida Southern College and Campbell University.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in English from University of California, Irvine; a juris doctorate from Whittier Law School; and both a master’s degree and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
Yonai’s full curriculum vitae is online.
Two more candidates will visit Emporia on May 4-5 and May 7-8. The next dean follows Ed Bashaw, who retired from ESU at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. Internal administrators have served as interim deans since May 2025.