The SUNY Oswego School of Business welcomes Me’Shae Rolling, executive director of the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance (UMEA), as their 2024 Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Fellow.

In her role as Diversity Fellow, Rolling is co-teaching two courses, MBA 650: Capstone with Michele Thornton and MGT 395: International Business with Paul Babiarz. She will provide opportunities to connect students with valuable applied projects through UMEA, mentorship and contributing to the School of Business DEI Committee with strategic insight and new perspectives. 

Rolling is Oswego’s second DEI Fellow awardee, made possible by generous support from the Shineman Endowed Fund.

A native of Anderson, Indiana, Rolling traveled northeast to pursue her master's in public administration with an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Upon graduation from S.U., she moved to New York City.

Rolling began her career as an auditor/evaluator for what is now named the U.S. General Government Accountability Office. She made a career transition into special events and conference management, studying at New York University and eventually working as a senior events coordinator in the City of New York Office of The Mayor.

Rolling returned to Central New York in 2007 and worked as an events, conferences and public relations director at Syracuse University for a decade.

She is a franchise owner/operator of EventPrep, Inc., a national firm with a global reach specializing in hotel contracting/procurement, and meeting and event planning. This was a historic occasion, as she became the brand's first owner/operator in New York state and the northeast territory. 

In September 2020, Rolling was appointed executive director of the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance, Central New York's regional minority chamber of commerce. Rolling is also a certified financial literacy educator and presently serves on a number of Syracuse and regional foundation and advisory boards serving the community.

She received the New York State 2023 MWBE Impact Award and the 2022 inaugural Anthem Award, worldwide recognition celebrating purpose and mission-driven work.

The School of Business developed this program to bring professionals from underrepresented minority backgrounds who have significant executive experience in their profession, and are strong champions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to engage with the campus community for a semester. Thornton, who oversees the program said the three main objectives of the DEI Fellow program are to:

  • Promote applied learning activities and projects that involve curricular, co-curricular or extracurricular student participation on campus and enable the Oswego business community to engage with practitioners on DEI as it applies to business;

  • Provide mentorship and immersion experience for our students, especially underrepresented minority (URM) students through on-campus engagement with URM executives; and

  • Provide in-class instructional opportunities for the visiting fellow to teach in the area of their expertise.