Discussion with Julie Shields, USASBE president and CEO

Julie Shields of USASBE, left, tours future home of Isley Innovation Hub with Dr. Mike Harris.

Julie Shields is the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) president and CEO. She recently paid a visit to ECU, the College of Business and the Miller School of Entrepreneurship. Not only did she tour the campus, the Brody School of Medicine and the under-construction Isley Innovation Hub, Drs. Mike Harris and Dennis Barber gave Shields a rural tour of the Greenville area. Shields says USASBE has a strong relationship with the Miller School of Entrepreneurship because both entities are passionate about promoting rural entrepreneurship. So much so, a new USASBE fellowship program recently named three fellows who will be dedicated to the advancement of scholarship needed for rural entrepreneurship.

During her visit, we spoke with Shields to learn more about USASBE, its mission, and how the Miller School of Entrepreneurship will help USASBE meet its mission.

“When it comes to boldly advancing entrepreneurship education, our mission is about inclusivity,” says Shields. “We have researchers to help us have a greater depth about how we teach entrepreneurship. We have teachers who say, ‘let’s do this. Let’s make this work.’ And, we have actual entrepreneurs who are passionate about educating the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

How was USASBE’s mission challenged in 2020, and how did it meet those challenges?

2020 was wildly different, but we were in a good place. USASBE’s board had been looking at changing governance structures. So, we were able to get those items shifted and squared away. And, we made the early call that our Jan. 2021 conference was going to be completely virtual. We saw it as an opportunity to learn new skills and competencies because it would help our members have better access to information even after we’re able to come back together in a real, in-person conference. We wanted to bring that knowledge (found at our conferences) and make it available for all members because not everyone can travel.

We used 2020 as an opportunity to build competencies and develop some additional platforms to collect content, catalog it and have it as a repository.

Our plan moving forward is to have a hybrid conference for the accessibility factor.

What opportunities are on the horizon for USASBE?

Stories are a major part of how we learn and how we start to connect with each other. We just launched our Bold Entrepreneurship Education television initiative (B.E.E.Vision). We’ll collect content over the spring and summer, and we’ll release fresh content every Thursday.

How do you see the role of the Miller School in helping USASBE meet its mission?

I’ve been very pleased with their willingness to support from a financial perspective, of course. But, as you know, they won both the Pedagogical Innovation Award and the Model Emerging Program Award. Those examples are so critical for the rest of our USASBE members to see. All of our members like to build their own thing (programs, curriculum); that’s part of the entrepreneurial process. The Miller School can say, ‘look, we’re setting this bar and opening our doors so you can see behind the curtain and see how it works.’ That’s important because (the Miller School) is not holding things close to the vest. They are active participants in USASBE and actively share best practices. And, they’re doing so all over campus, which certainly is a trend; saying it and doing it well are two different things, and I think that’s really happening on ECU’s campus.

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