Dr. Candida Brush is a Full Professor and holder of the Franklin W. Olin Chair in Entrepreneurship. She formerly served as Vice Provost of Global Entrepreneurial Leadership and Division Chair of Entrepreneurship.
Professor Brush is well known for her pioneering research in women's entrepreneurship. She conducted the first and largest study of women entrepreneurs in the early 1980s, and her research catalyzed numerous studies and dissertations worldwide. She is a co-founder of the Diana Project, a research consortium investigating women's access to growth capital internationally. The Diana Project, now the Diana International Research Institute (DIRI), sponsors the top international conference on gender and women's entrepreneurship in the world. In 2007, she was named the recipient of the FSF - Swedish Research Foundation International Award for Outstanding Research Contributions in the Field of Entrepreneurship.
Prof.  Brush's research investigates resource acquisition, strategy and financing of new ventures, and entrepreneurship education. She has authored more than 230 publications, 14 books and 30 policy reports, appearing in scholarly journals including Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Academy of Management Executive, and Annals of Political and Social Science. She is a Senior Editor for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and serves on the editorial review boards Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Business Horizons and the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship. She has authored two books for educators, Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach, Volume I 2014, and Volume II 2021, as well as book chapters the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on women's entrepreneurship and economic development.
Prof. Brush has more 37,000 citations and an h-index of 80 on Google Scholar, and is ranked in the top 2% of research scientists worldwide. For her research work, she was recognized in 2007 by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers as a 21st Century Entrepreneurship Scholar. In 2015, she was awarded a lifetime membership for her contributions to the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Consortium (BCERC), while in 2018 she was awarded the Max Wortman Award for outstanding contributions to research and entrepreneurship by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), and inducted as a Wilford White Fellow in the International Council for Small Business (ICSB).
Professor Brush is on the advisory board of several companies and non-profit organizations, and is an active member of the Boston Harbor Angels investment group. Prior to joining Babson, Professor Brush was an Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy, Founder of the Council for Women's Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and Research Director for the Entrepreneurial Management Institute at Boston University. Â Prof. Brush has a PhD from Boston University, an MBA from Boston College, and a BA from the University of Colorado. She holds an honorary doctorate in Business and Economics from Jonkoping University, Sweden (2010).Â