Liliana Deck joins Western Washington University’s Small Business Development Center

Western Washington University’s Small Business Development Center welcomes Liliana Deck to the team of talented certified business advisors (CBAs) serving Whatcom and Kitsap Counties.

Returning to the Pacific Northwest, Deck brings her transnational leadership in the private and public sectors working with local and global organizations with an emphasis on education, social services, and health care in Colombia, United States, and beyond. She earned her doctorate at the University of San Francisco in International and Multicultural Education and her master’s degree at Western Washington University.

Deck is also a lecturer at Western Washington University’s College of Business and Economics where she shares her passion with future generations teaching Nonprofit and Social Marketing in the Finance and Marketing Department.

Deck’s interdisciplinary research focuses on migration, family, and education in fragile contexts. Her multinational personal experience and professional career include work in corporate, nonprofit, and academic settings serving vulnerable populations.

As the first certified business advisor at the WWU SBDC to hold a doctorate, the SBDC team will look to Deck to help guide the center towards a more inclusive service delivery model, part of Western’s university-wide commitment to equity, justice, and respect for the rights and dignity of others.

In addition to her traditional business advising responsibilities, Deck will support the SBDC’s outreach to entrepreneurs farther from opportunity, help identify structural barriers to business technical assistance, and develop strategies to eliminate underlying obstacles to entrepreneurial success.

 

ABOUT WWU
Western Washington University offers more than 200 academic programs on its main campus located in Bellingham, and at additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles and Poulsbo.
 
Western is recognized nationally for its successes, from being named 
the top master’s-granting institution in the Pacific Northwest for 22 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report, which also named WWU as one of the best public schools in the West for veterans, to its recognition as one of the most sustainable, green campuses in the nation by the Sierra Club.
 
Western is also known for 
being a top producer of prestigious National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hollings Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, and Peace Corps volunteers, and nationally ranked for graduates who go on to earn research doctorates.  The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Academic Workplace report named Western as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, winning honors in two categories:  teaching environment and tenure clarity and process.

 

ABOUT THE SBDC

The WWU SBDC is part of the most comprehensive small business assistance network in the United States, made up of over 1,000 SBDC programs. Centers are hosted by leading universities, colleges, and state economic development agencies, and are funded in part through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The SBDC serving Whatcom County is hosted by University Relations and Marketing at Western and receives additional support by Whatcom County, the Port of Bellingham, and the City of Bellingham.

Since 1983, the Small Business Development Center has made it possible for Western Washington University to give back to the business community and has helped to shape the economic future of Whatcom County. The SBDC provides confidential advising, technical assistance, and research to business owners and managers at no cost, to help businesses thrive.

For more information, please call (360) 650-7232 or email sbdc@wwu.edu, and visit the WWU SBDC website at sbdc.wwu.edu.