Vice Provost and Executive Director, USC Office of Continuing Education and Summer Programs
Professor of Clinical Finance and Business Economics
Finance and Business Economics Department
USC Marshall School of Business
213-740-6540
sku@marshall.usc.edu
Suh-Pyng Ku is the vice provost and executive director of the Office of Continuing Education and Summer Programs. With students ranging from adults seeking professional development and retirees seeking personal enrichment to youth seeking individual and academic growth, the office works closely with the schools to expand current continuing education programs and facilitate the expansion of lifelong learning within the USC community. Ku is also a professor of Finance and Business Economics in the Marshall School of Business.
Before assuming her role in the Office of Continuing Education and Summer Programs, Ku served in the Office of the Provost as the chief technology officer for enhanced learning and championed the university's Technology Enhanced Learning and Distance Learning (TEL_DL) initiative. Serving as a central resource for schools, Ku was able to improve university infrastructure, connecting students and faculty with one another as well as the larger community. During her tenure, USC constructed 20 state-of-the-art studio classrooms and established USC on iTunes U and the USC Channel on YouTube, all of which have improved the educational environment for students and placed USC on the cutting edge of technological advances in education. Additionally, Ku and her team created a number of support resources for faculty and staff, enabling interested individuals at all stages of technological implementation to share ideas and best practices.
Prior to her appointments in the Office of the Provost, Ku served the USC Marshall community in a number of administrative capacities. She was the first director of the Center for Investment Studies (CIS), where she worked closely with the seven-member Board of Advisors in seeking global recognition for CIS as a preeminent center of learning and research. Under her leadership, CIS significantly enhanced its technological capabilities by incorporating financial analytics, such as BarraAegis, Bloomberg, WONDA, and Bernstein research. CIS also advanced the experiential learning oriented SIF program by adding a new $1 million fixed-income student managed fund.
From 2001 to 2004, Ku served as chief information officer and vice dean of Academic Information Services (AIS). During her tenure, she reorganized AIS, worked with the IT Faculty Committee and her staff to implement improved information technology support, upgraded Marshall classroom technology, and helped build the first studio-level distance learning classroom. She also worked with representatives of the Marshall community and University ISD to design, develop, and implement the first web-based enterprise information management system, MyMarshall.
As vice dean, she served on a variety of technology-related university-wide committees, including USC's Strategic Technology Forum, Distance Education and Distributed Learning Committee, and Blackboard Steering Committee. She also chaired various Marshall faculty, staff, and student committees. She helped lead the Marshall AIS team in eLearning efforts by working with faculty and an eLearning team to develop and deliver the first Marshall web-based mega marketing course; by working with the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and the School of Policy, Planning, and Development to develop a Master in Long Term Care Administration Program; by working with department chairs to recruit faculty to develop and deliver eLearning courses and developing MBA distance learning courses; by actively participating in the USC eLearning experiments (presented at APRU and USC conferences); and by working with the Center for Distance Learning on eLearning best practices.
Ku also served as the program director and associate dean of the full-time Marshall MBA program for two years. She was academic coordinator for the Finance and Business Economics Department and held the position of China Country Desk Officer for the Marshall Prime Program. She holds a Ph.D. in finance from USC.
Her research and teaching interests include corporate finance, security valuation, and investment management. She is especially interested in international investing and financing strategy and emerging markets.
Education:
M.S. and Ph.D., University of Southern California