Recognizing the importance of giving students the real-world skills they’ll need to become successful entrepreneurs, Dr. Briana Stenard approaches teaching with a spirit that demonstrates that the best learning prioritizes developing confidence and ingenuity in students.
Dr. Stenard, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship at Mercer University, joined the field of business as a way of merging her interests across social sciences and math. She fell in love with economics after taking an economic history class and decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Georgia.
After completing her undergraduate degree, she became interested in combining public policy and economics and earned a Ph.D. in strategic management from Georgia Tech. In 2010, during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Dr. Stenard wrote her dissertation on the impact of college graduates not being able to find jobs in their field.
“I did a presentation for my professor, and he said the only piece he found interesting was the one slide I had on how people being mismatched between their education and careers impacted small businesses,” she said. “I then took two weeks to redo the paper and did it around the impact of career mismatch on entrepreneurship, and from there that became my research area and what I have dedicated my research to.”
In 2015, Dr. Stenard attended a chamber of commerce meeting where Dr. Susan Gilbert, former dean of Mercer’s Stetson-Hatcher School of Business, spoke about the opening of the Mercer Innovation Center. She knew then that Mercer was the place she needed to be.
“I was looking at a job in Georgia where I could focus on research and teach entrepreneurship, and Mercer was actually a perfect fit,” Dr. Stenard said. “I got my dream job, and I have stayed at my dream job.”
Dr. Stenard spent three years teaching on the Macon campus, where she was able to have a close-knit classroom experience and continue her research. During her time in Macon, she created an annual elevator pitch competition where students present their ideas and receive mentorship from faculty and feedback from peers.
She then transitioned to the Atlanta campus, where she teaches online and in-person classes to undergraduate and graduate students and serves as the Master of Business Administration program director for the School of Business. She also organized a First Pitch Friday competition with the mission of giving underrepresented student founders the chance to present in front of investors.
Dr. Stenard’s commitment to teaching students how to craft and present innovative ideas with confidence has earned her national recognition. Several of the original experiential exercises she created for online entrepreneurship education won the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) 3E Excellence in Entrepreneurship Exercises Awards Competitions in 2021 and 2022.
In 2024, Dr. Stenard won Mercer’s Innovations in Teaching Award for her commitment to education inside and outside the classroom. That same year, she was an honoree for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 award, as well as the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 award for her dedication to improving entrepreneurship education. In 2025, she won USASBE’s OEE Excellence in Online Entrepreneurship Education Awards.
In addition, Dr. Stenard’s research on the role of human capital in shaping entrepreneurial careers has been published in multiple academic journals and other publications.
Dr. Stenard values the importance of students developing and pitching their own ideas, along with collaboration with their peers. She believes it’s imperative students build the confidence that will serve them for the rest of their careers.
“A lot of students are nervous to pitch, but the more you pitch, the better you get at it. I really believe it’s important for students to get that practice in a safe space and be able to present in front of friendly faces and get that feedback now. Every new idea, new feedback, new question allows you to think, ‘Maybe I have something here. This is something I can grow on,’” she said.
Dr. Stenard said her goal is to help students realize their potential as entrepreneurs. She hopes students leave her courses feeling capable of taking a creative approach to business, even when they don’t always think they’re qualified.
“Most ideas are not radical innovation. For most, their idea is something that builds on something else, and that is fine. I think a lot of people have this idea that they have to come up with something new, amazing and super creative, and that’s not the case,” she said. “It’s really important for me to expose people to the idea that you can do something with your current talents. It’s not the creativity and coming up with ideas that’s the hard part. It’s the implementing it that’s the hard part, and I want to teach students a process that makes it easier when they do choose to pursue their ideas.”
