Josephine (Jo) Olson teaches courses in managerial economics and international economics, and she has conducted graduate and undergraduate study tours to Europe and Latin America. She has led previous programs to Argentina, including the GRP and the College of Business Administration’s Global Business Institute.
She is an associate of the Center for Latin American Studies, the European Union Center, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Asian Studies Center, and the Global Studies Center. From 2006 to 2014, she was Director of the International Business Center, and she now serves on its Advisory Board. She previously served as Director of MBA Programs and later as Associate Dean of Katz. Prior to coming to the University of Pittsburgh, she was on the faculty of Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York.
Her first international experience was working for a joint venture in Mexico between her junior and senior year in college. In 1991, she was a Fulbright Fellow at the International Management Center in Budapest, Hungary. She was visiting professor of economics at the Czechoslovak Management Center in 1992. In 1993-94, she was a visiting professor at Nyenrode University in the Netherlands and in 1994-95, she was Academic Dean and Interim CEO of the Czech Management Center. She has also taught short courses in Brazil, the Czech Republic and Ecuador. Jo's research interests include topics in international economics and a study of career paths and income determinants of MBAs. She has done educational consulting in Australia and Peru. She currently serves on the District Export Council of Western Pennsylvania.