When Erika James became the Wharton School’s dean in 2020, she arrived at a campus transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Classes had moved online, familiar modes of teaching had been disrupted, and James — the first woman and first person of color to lead Wharton — was beginning a job at an institution she had never worked at. Six years later, The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with James to reflect on her tenure and discuss how artificial intelligence and the evolving value of higher education will shape Wharton’s future.
During her first years at Wharton, James said she focused much of her attention on guiding the school through the transition to remote education. As upheaval from the pandemic receded, she turned her attention toward the longer-term work she had been hired to do.
“I wasn’t brought in to respond to the pandemic,” James said. “I was brought in to actually advance the school.”
James said that navigating Wharton through that period changed how she understands the responsibilities of a dean. One lesson from her tenure, she added, has been the importance of placing faculty at the center of academic decision-making.
“Our faculty will outlive any dean. Our faculty outlive our students,” James said. “They are the keepers of the brand, the keepers of the reputation, the keepers of the quality.”
James, who was once a faculty member at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and went on to serve as an administrator at Emory University, advocated for faculty members to occupy leadership positions that allow them to shape Wharton’s educational experience. She feels more strongly about that principle now, even relative to when she arrived at Penn.
“I think it’s really important for them to occupy a space in the leadership structure of higher education that allows them to have the voice necessary to impact change,” James said.
Her own role requires working with diverse groups whose needs do not always align. On campus, much of her schedule consists of meetings with members of the Wharton community. Away from Philadelphia, she frequently meets with alumni and employers.
“This role is the only role that is accountable to all of the different stakeholder groups,” she said, adding that her work depends on both “what’s going on in the world and what’s going on at the University.”
The amount of time she devotes to each constituent changes throughout the year, and although one party may demand more attention at a particular time, James said she works to ensure an “equal” balance over the course of an academic year.
Cultivating those relationships became particularly important in a recent period of broader turmoil at the University. In 2023, several prominent alumni and donors withdrew or threatened to withdraw financial support amid criticism of Penn’s response to antisemitism on campus. At the time, James said that Penn had a “responsibility to repair those relationships.”
Last September, Wharton secured the largest single gift in its history. A $60 million donation from Bruce Jacobs — who holds both a master’s and Ph.D. from Wharton and previously worked at the school — funded the Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Master of Science in Quantitative Finance, the school’s first new degree program in 50 years.
The program, whose inaugural cohort began their studies this fall, was one of the accomplishments James was most proud of. Initially intended for Penn undergraduates with quantitative backgrounds, it allows students to earn a master’s degree with one additional year of study.
“It gives Penn students access to Wharton who aren’t already a part of the Wharton community,” she said. “It ensures that they are learning content and a skill that is a needed skill in the marketplace.”
The degree program is part of the school’s ongoing investment in artificial intelligence. In 2025, Wharton introduced an AI for Business concentration for undergraduates and a corresponding MBA major. James said students frequently combine those studies with an established subject, such as finance or marketing.
“I think that’s actually the best utilization for AI,” she said. “It helps them understand, yes, there’s a focus area for AI independently, but it is most impactful when it is joined with another functional or disciplinary base.”
For James, however, preparing students for an AI-driven economy does not mean concentrating exclusively on technical proficiency. Last month, Wharton expanded access to generative AI tools, such as Claude Enterprise. As AI becomes more widely available, James said, technological knowledge alone will become less useful as a distinguishing feature of a Wharton education.
“What I believe is necessary for Wharton and for Penn is to counterbalance the technological skills that we’re imbuing in our students with the skills that actually make us human,” James said. “It’s those human skills that will become the differentiator for a recruiter or an employer to say, ‘That’s why Penn students are different. That’s why Wharton students are different.’”
She also pointed to the combination of professional and liberal arts education Penn offers. Wharton’s curriculum, for instance, extends beyond quantitative subjects and allows students to take courses housed elsewhere at the University.
As technical tasks grow easier to automate, James also expects interpersonal abilities to become more valuable. Employers, she said, will increasingly distinguish graduates by other factors.
“The skill that I think many employers will be looking for is: Do graduates of Wharton and Penn know how to relate to other people?” James asked. “Do they know how to interpret information and translate information in ways that make it accessible?”
For James, students can develop those abilities through experiential learning, where they encounter unfamiliar ideas with their peers. Penn and Wharton’s emphasis on that form of education, she added, will help their graduates stand out.
Beyond the classroom, James sees entrepreneurship as another area of possible growth. She pointed to Wharton’s San Francisco campus as an early attempt to connect the school with the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
As access to AI lowers barriers to starting a venture, Wharton’s presence in San Francisco places the school in an existing entrepreneurial environment that has become a center of AI development.
James acknowledged that Wharton does not operate alone. Faculty members already collaborate with researchers at institutions such as Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
“Society would benefit by more collaboration across institutions, and yet we still operate in an industry where we are competitors,” she said. “Striking that balance between cooperation and competition will always be a part of the higher education landscape.”
According to James, Wharton’s larger challenge is making the case for higher education at a moment when young people have more paths into the workforce and more ways to learn outside traditional institutions.
She argued that higher education has been uniquely successful in preparing people to advance society, but that universities must continue to prove their relevance as technology changes how students approach learning and work.
“Not everyone needs a business degree, but everyone needs access to business acumen,” James argued.
Wharton should find new ways to offer foundational business knowledge to people who may never enroll in one of its degree programs, she added.
That goal is emblematic of the legacy James hopes to leave behind: a school that can change with the times while advocating for the enduring role of business in society.
“I hope that I have honored the vision of Joseph Wharton and left the school more agile and more focused on understanding how business contributes to broader society,” James said. “To me, that would be a wonderful legacy to have left.”
Senior reporter Ananya Karthik covers central administration and can be reached at karthik@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies communication and economics. Follow her on X @ananyaakarthik.
