Sandra Kauanui, Ph.D.

Director of the School of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Entrepreneurship, FGCU

Dr. Sandra Kauanui is the Director of the School of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Kauanui created the curriculum for the Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Major and Minor at FGCU along with her team, which just became the School of Entrepreneurship on July 1, 2019. Due to the success of Entrepreneurship at FGCU, she also planned and executed the Runway Program Incubator that helps students from across campus to start and build their businesses while pursuing their degree.

Dr. Kauanui received her doctorate in Organizational Behavior with a secondary degree in Entrepreneurship from The George Washington University and has an MBA from William & Mary University.  Dr. Kauanui joined Florida Gulf Coast University in September 2007. Prior to Dr. Kauanui’s current appointment, she was at the College of Business at California State Polytechnic University for eight years. When leaving the University in 2007, she was awarded Emeritus status. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Kauanui started and ran her own successful business for twenty years. The business, which employed up to forty employees, provided financial, strategic planning and accounting services to entrepreneurial firms.

Dr. Kauanui is an active researcher, keynote speaker and workshop presenter and has authored and co-authored over eighty publications in her academic career primarily in Entrepreneurship. She has been an invited guest speaker in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Israel, and Romania.