Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, has awarded a prestigious fellowship to Wynd Harris, associate professor in-residence of marketing, which will allow her to pursue her interest in learning modern Hebrew, and ultimately assist her in researching the relationship between military expertise and entrepreneurship.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities at UConn’s Stamford campus, Harris is the director of the Sustainable Community Outreach and Public Engagement (SCOPE) program, which promotes social entrepreneurship and social innovation.

SCOPE works to create business leaders who want to make a difference in the lives of others around them. The University’s highly recognized Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV)–which assists veteran who wish to become entrepreneurs—falls under Harris’ supervision.

“Having studied Israel’s success as a start-up nation because of its relationship between military service and entrepreneurial development for the EBV program at UConn, I believe that advancing my skills in modern Hebrew will help me to continue this work,” she said. “I hope to travel to Israel in the future to conduct interviews with entrepreneurs there as part of my continuing commitment to research on the relationship between military experience and success as an entrepreneur.”

Harris said she believes she received the 2016 Jessica K. and Ronald D. Liebowitz Centennial Fellowship award because of her previous studies in Hebrew and ongoing work in global entrepreneurship.

Harris’ areas of expertise include customer relationship marketing, database marketing and global marketing strategy. She has been a member of the UConn faculty for 17 years. Harris earned her bachelors and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Oklahoma and was awarded a post-doctorate fellowship at Yale University. She is currently a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.