January 14, 2020

Meet UVA’s Latest MBA Professor of the Year, Lalin Anik

Dave Hendrick | Business & Government

Lalin Anik joined the Darden School of Business in 2015 and has been honored for extraordinary teaching several times since. (Darden School of Business photo)

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Poets & Quants has named Lalin Anik of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business as its “MBA Professor of the Year.”

A professor in Darden’s marketing area, Anik joined the school ahead of the 2015-16 academic year and quickly became an integral member of the community. She has been nominated multiple times for the University’s Outstanding Faculty Awards, received the Faculty Diversity Award in 2017 and 2019 and was selected as a faculty marshal for graduation by the Class of 2019.

A skilled facilitator of the case method in the classroom with what Darden Dean Scott Beardsley described as “off the charts” student evaluations, Anik told Poets & Quants she was exceptionally nervous before her first day in the Darden classroom. According to the award announcement and a video from Poets & Quants:

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In addition to establishing herself as a sought-after professor, Anik, who was also named one of Poets & Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors, continues to conduct groundbreaking research, exploring a diverse range of topics, from decision-making within the context of romantic relationships to how people derive feelings of fulfillment, and what that may mean for philanthropies.

For many students at Darden, Anik has become more than a professor, serving as an informal confidant, adviser and even teammate on basketball and soccer teams. Again from the award announcement:

The publication also quotes from a number of student evaluations testifying to her impact in and out of the classroom.

“Lalin is one of the most amazing people on this planet,” one student wrote. “She makes it very clear that she cares about every one of us and that has had a huge positive impact on our section, both in her class and outside of it.”

“She does a spectacular job of challenging all students individually, meeting them where they are to ensure they’re comfortable but still pushing them out of their comfort zone,” another said. “She cares about all her students and wants to get to know us on a personal level.”

Poets & Quants has named an MBA Professor of the Year three times, twice to a Darden professor. In 2017, the publication bestowed the honor on Professor Greg Fairchild.

Read the full story on Poets & Quants and explore a sampling of Anik’s research on Darden Ideas to Action.