Kathy Naasz is currently the Innovation Strategist at Centenary University and has launched innovative programs and spaces, such as Innovation Alley with an Innovation Cave for ideation and a STEM Lab to bring prototypes to life. Kathy created the Social Media Center of Expertise, which has received national recognition, and is proud to state that it offers the only Bachelor of Science in Business degree with a concentration in Social Media Marketing in the tri-state area. Students and businesses can collaborate in the hip, modern center, called #theVIBE, in both Hackettstown and its newly expanded location in Parsippany. Kathy was published in the Huffington Post with an article entitled: “Can I actually get a degree in Tweeting?”. Kathy is enthusiastic about bringing the opportunity for a Social Media Marketing career to NJ students and is pursuing new models for dual enrollment with area high schools.
Kathy enjoys teaching and was elected by the students as Centenary University’s “Distinguished Teacher of the Year” in 2013. She brings the real-world into her classroom and has completed over 75 student-powered projects for small businesses. She served as the Director of Enactus for nearly five years and is enthusiastic about applying business principles to help people in need through social entrepreneurship. She led students to launch a social business in Guapi, Colombia, growing revenue over 410% in one year, increasing the standard of living of impoverished artisans, and re-investing the profit back into Guapi via a micro-financing program. Another example project involved designing a new fashion line for women going through Chemotherapy.

The majority of her professional career was at AT&T, where she started in the prestigious Bell Laboratories (the dream job for engineers at the time) and advanced to become one of the youngest Global Executive Directors, holding several positions in Sales, Marketing, and Strategic Planning. In 2004, she was honored to be selected for Leaders Council, a recognition reserved for the top 1% of sales people. As a business consultant, she worked with several large corporations, such as American Express, JP Morgan, and EuroTel, where she served in leadership positions applying technology to transform business operations. Kathy has extensive global experience: she speaks three languages, worked in over 15 countries, traveled to over 45 countries and lived in Spain, the Netherlands and France for a combined total of 5 years. At AT&T, she launched four businesses: Consulting in Europe, e-Business, VoIP for Business, and expanded the Network Integration business globally, where she set up core global business processes and partners, resolved legal, export, import, financial and regulatory matters, in over 50 countries all while exceeding sales quota with 363% attainment. Kathy also created her own online company, Professors On Demand, an innovative virtual resource pool of global online teaching talent.

Kathy holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College and an M.S. in Management from Stanford University. She loves to continually learn and has achieved certificates in Social Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, Innovation Masters Series from Stanford University, and Strategic Doing from Purdue University. Kathy is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership.