Announcing Mark Anner as the Dean of School of Management and Labor Relations

April 2, 2024

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Mark Anner as Dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR), a role he will assume on September 1, 2024.

Dr. Anner, an internationally recognized scholar of workers’ rights in supply chains and an accomplished higher education administrator, is poised to lead SMLR, the leading source of expertise in the world of work. SMLR is home to research that has informed New Jersey’s earned sick leave and paid family leave laws; has produced world-leading scholarship about disability and employment; hosts the world’s first academic research center dedicated to the study of capital shares, a key driver of wealth for the middle class, women, and people of color; and hosts the nation’s only STEM-designated Human Resources graduate program.

Dr. Anner currently serves as Professor of Labor and Employment Relations and Political Science at The Pennsylvania State University, a position he has held since 2005. He is the founding director of Penn State’s Center for Global Workers’ Rights and the university’s Master of Professional Studies in Labor and Global Workers’ Rights program. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University.

Dr. Anner is the author of more than 75 academic publications, including work that has appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, International Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Politics & Society, and Review of International Political Economy. Among other recognitions, he is a recipient of the Susan C. Eaton Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award, the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award, the Luis Aparicio Emerging Scholar Prize, the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and three Penn State Liberal Arts Research Appreciation Awards for number of external grants and years of consecutive external funding. Before his academic career, he lived for 12 years in Central America and Brazil, and he has conducted extended research visits to Bangladesh, India, Mexico, and Vietnam.

Dr. Anner will succeed Dean Adrienne Eaton, who last year announced her decision to step down after completing seven years of outstanding service as leader of SMLR. Dean Eaton, who also serves as Distinguished Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations and remains active in research, has led the establishment of diversity initiatives including the formation of SMLR’s first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, the creation of the position of Associate Dean for DEI, and the creation and implementation of the school’s DEI Strategic Plan. She has led SMLR to regularly exceed its goals in development, including by securing SMLR’s first multimillion-dollar legacy gift; two large, endowed scholarship funds; and more than $10 million between 2020 and 2022, among many other accomplishments. Dean Eaton assisted my office in the nationwide search that recruited Dr. Anner, and she will continue to serve Rutgers and SMLR as a faculty member.

Please join me in welcoming Dean Anner and in thanking Dean Eaton for leading SMLR through many successes that have benefited our students, the State of New Jersey, and the nation. Our thanks as well to the SMLR Dean Search Committee, chaired by Dean Stuart Shapiro of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Rutgers University–New Brunswick