Dr. Liesl Riddle is the Dean of the College of Professional Studies and an Associate Professor of International Business and International Affairs at The George Washington University (GW). She holds a BA and MA in Middle Eastern Studies, a MBA in Marketing/International Business, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Riddle has written extensively about diasporas and development, international entrepreneurship, and trade and investment promotion. In 1999, Dr. Riddle co-authored the first diaspora-focused article to appear in the top international business journal, The Journal of International Business. Since then, Dr. Riddle has conducted action research on developing diaspora investment ecosystems over 30 countries and six continents around the world as a consultant for international organizations, government agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, and the International Organization for Migration as well as several national governments and private-sector organizations. This research informed several national and international policy interventions, organizational diaspora-engagement strategies, and the launch of several new diaspora-investment platforms, products, and projects.
In 2006, she was a founding member of the GW Diaspora Research Program (GW-DRP) and later served as director for several years. GW-DRP not only offers an array of curricular and co-curricular programs related to diaspora roles in development and diplomacy but it also hosts numerous convenings of academics, policy makers, practitioners and students to progress global conversations about diaspora roles in the global economy and society. Under Dr. Riddle’s leadership GW-DRP partnered with the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development to launch the Global Diaspora Forum and the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IDEA).
Dr. Riddle also was a co-founder of GW’s Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) and served for many years as CIBER’s faculty director for its teaching, research and business/policy outreach programming related to diaspora investment and entrepreneurship.
In the classroom, Dr. Riddle taught courses at the undergraduate-, graduate-, and executive-level focused on Migration, Identity & International Business; Globalization; Global Perspectives; International Entrepreneurship; and International Management as well as study abroad courses to explore diaspora investment and entrepreneurship in countries of origin in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Turkey. In her over 20 years of experience as a teacher, Dr. Riddle received numerous teaching awards, including the prestigious university George Washington Award and the School of Business Teaching Excellence Award.
