By: Adam Cohen Issue: Education & Workforce Development Section: Advisory Board
Dean, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder
Dennis A. Ahlburg is the Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Before joining the Leeds School on August 1, 2005, Ahlburg was the senior associate dean, and professor of human resources at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis. His administrative responsibilities included faculty and research, budget, human resources, executive development, information technology, learning excellence, and the Ph.D. program.
Ahlburg received his bachelor’s in economics with first class honors from the University of Sydney in 1972 and a master’s in economics from the Australian National University in 1973. In 1979 he received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dean Ahlburg has taught human resources management, labor economics, and quantitative methods. He has consulted for the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the U.K. and Australian Governments on human resources, health, and education issues. He has also served as an expert witness in age, sex, and race discrimination cases.
Ahlburg’s areas of interest include demographic economics, forecasting, labor economics, and the economics of higher education. He currently conducts research in the following areas: college dropout and youth labor market success, retention of employees, employment and poverty, and population growth and economic development.
Ahlburg is the recipient of many awards and honors, including a Fullbright Fellowship. In 1994 he was appointed by the Australian government to head enquiry into effects of population growth on economic development.