School of Business and Technology Dean Dr. Ed Bashaw announces retirement

Dr. Ed Bashaw, dean of Emporia State University’s School of Business and Technology, needs no help reciting the disparate list of places his career in higher education and business has taken his family. They’ve lived in nine cities that stretch across five states and two time zones: El Paso, Dallas, Texarkana and Waco in Texas; Portland, Oregon; Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock and Russellville in Arkansas; and, finally, Emporia.

The 67-year-old Bashaw, a Jones Distinguished Professor who came to ESU in 2016, will be retiring at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, but that doesn’t mean he and his wife Sara — both native Texans — are making another immediate move. They are home, for now.

“We're in no hurry to get out of Emporia,” he said. “We like Emporia. We like the community here. We've made a lot of friends. Both of us would tell you this has been our best stop. This is the best combination of town and gown that we've ever served in, and so we're taking advantage of that.”

Bashaw is proud of the consistent thread that has run through his nine years at ESU and more than three decades in higher education. He considers himself both an academic and a practitioner — for obvious reasons. Given his seven years of experience in sales and marketing, Bashaw considered it important to build effective relationships with community business leaders who “would ultimately hire our students.” Throughout his tenures as dean at ESU, Arkansas Tech University and Texas A&M University-Texarkana, and as a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Bashaw’s practitioner mindset and commitment to empowering students has remained present.

“My personal mission statement is that I create opportunities for others to take advantage of,” he said. “That was my overriding goal as a dean. It occurred to me that that's what a business school dean should do — be able to scout out those opportunities and create as many as possible.”

At ESU, Bashaw is particularly proud of a number of the school’s academic achievements and the Cybersecurity Research and Outreach Center, or CyROC, that opened in January 2024 on the fifth floor of Cremer Hall. Directed by Leticia Rust, CyROC features an instructional lab with state-of-the-art equipment for students whose degrees include concentrations in the fast-growing field of cybersecurity. “I still maintain that down the road when people think of Emporia State, they're going to think of The Teachers College and they're going to think of the Cybersecurity Center.”

Likewise, Bashaw touts the School of Business and Technology’s Dean’s Leadership Class, an effort he imported from his tenure as dean at Arkansas Tech. Each year, 20 selected ESU students gain practical experience and real-world insights in a hands-on learning environment under Bashaw’s guidance. Part of Bashaw’s enjoyment has come from the monthly classroom interactions with students, a perk rarely afforded educators who move from classroom instruction to administrative roles. “That's where I filled that void, is that kind of contact with the students,” he said, “because that’s what I miss the most.”

When he retires, Bashaw intends to focus on two of his passions: travel and family. The Bashaws have two grandchildren, and their adult children live in Missouri and California. He also anticipates enjoying pastoral afternoons while walking across Kansas fairways and chasing birdies, elusive as they can be.

“I won't turn down any weekday golf outings,” he said.