Dawna Clarke Steps Down As Darden’s Admissions Chief

After an extraordinary career in MBA admissions spanning four decades and nine deans, Dawna Clarke has stepped down as senior assistant dean of admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She isn’t stepping away from the school she has called home for 23 years, however. Clarke is moving into a new part-time role as special advisor to Darden Dean Scott Beardsley and as an ambassador for the school.

Over the course of her admissions career, Clarke has led an unprecedented 40 admission cycles and served as the final decision maker on more than 70,000 applicants—the overwhelming majority MBA hopefuls. She has reviewed application files for hundreds of thousands of candidates and interviewed anxious prospects at four institutions: UVA Darden, Dartmouth Tuck, UNC Chapel Hill, and Allegheny College, her alma mater. At Darden alone, Clarke has had a hand in admitting more than half of the school’s 19,000 living alumni.

Across those many years, she has brought a warm heart and uncommon compassion to an opaque, often anxiety-ridden process. Her openness, enthusiasm, and attentiveness reflect a genuine joy in people. One of the first officials to make standardized tests optional, Clarke challenged the assumption that a GMAT or GRE score is a prerequisite to evaluate a business school candidate. She also advanced much-needed transparency in MBA admissions through greater accessibility and open information-sharing.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN MBA ADMISSIONS

Only last year, Poets&Quants presented its first Lifetime Achievement Award in Business School Admissions to Clarke for extraordinary empathy, innovative leadership, and strategic acumen. At the time, P&Q noted that no other high-ranking admissions official at a major business school had served as long as Clarke—or with the distinction of cultivating and retaining a team with little to no turnover in a field where careers are often transient.

“Dawna’s leadership has shaped Darden’s community and reputation for decades,” Dean Beardsley said in a statement. “Her strategic insight, warmth and integrity have helped define the Darden experience for thousands of students. We are thrilled that she will continue contributing in her new capacity as a trusted advisor and ambassador for the school.”

Clarke says her long tenure reflects a genuine love for the work. “I found admissions to be highly engaging and one that continuously cultivated a variety of skills over the course of my career—ranging from leading teams and innovating to personifying the brand of each school, to intimately learning the nuance of each admissions cycle and thinking through the implications of industry and geopolitical dynamics on the outcome of each cycle,” she tells Poets&Quants. “No two admissions cycles are ever the same, which has kept it highly interesting and dynamic. It’s ultimately a career that resonated with me because the focus is playing a role in helping applicants achieve their dreams, and that felt good.”

RECORD-SETTING APPLICATION VOLUME

As for the timing of her move, Clarke says she is excited to take on a new challenge. “As interesting as admissions has been, after 40 admissions cycles, I’m thrilled to work as an advisor to Scott and the Dean’s staff on even broader issues and to serve as an ambassador for Darden across a multitude of stakeholders, including admissions, alumni, current students, faculty emeriti, and others,” she says. “I’m grateful to have more time with my husband, who just sold his business of 43 years in New Hampshire, and my aging parents, who relocated to Charlottesville last year. I also have a ton of hobbies and personal interests, including writing a book, which I started during a short break between roles.”

Since returning to Darden in 2017 after leading admissions at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Clarke has transformed Darden’s recruitment strategy, strengthened global outreach, and built an outstanding team. In partnership with Communications & Marketing, Admissions delivered record-setting applicant volume and enrolled exceptional classes. Under her leadership, Darden expanded its Executive MBA to the Washington, D.C., area and launched its Part-Time MBA program.

During her most recent tenure, the school set records for application volume, academic quality, and the experience of incoming classes; launched new scholarship programs; enhanced its global reach; and grew enrollments. Innovations included a new Early Action application, a deferred-admissions option, on-campus conferences and symposia for prospective students, and greater flexibility with standardized testing.

MOST GRATEFUL FOR HER TEAMMATES

Asked what she is most grateful for, Clarke doesn’t hesitate: her colleagues. “I am incredibly proud of and attached to my team,” she says. “Many meaningful long-term friendships have evolved from my career in admissions and include friends over the decades from the Ten School Group, S7, GMAC, ETS, P&Q, AIGAC, The Consortium, MLT, Forté and others. One former member of my team at both Darden and Tuck officiated my wedding in 2012, one former marketing colleague wrote my profile on Match.com (because I was too reluctant to do so), and two others were bridesmaids. I truly have adored my teams and am so grateful for the bonds we formed through travel, hard work, and lots of great times. I’ve told them they are stuck with me for life.”

The job also opened doors around the world, allowing Clarke to connect with applicants and hear their stories. “I can’t imagine I would have seen as much of the world had I not been working for global business schools,” she says. “I’ve had the opportunity to represent Darden, Tuck, and UNC-CH in almost 40 countries—many of them several times—and that’s been so educational and fulfilling. I’m grateful for the international friendships I have around the world. I just returned to Mexico City last month on a recruiting trip and had the meaningful opportunity to reconnect with alumni friends whom I recruited 25 years ago. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with alumni in my new role as a Darden ambassador. It’s been an honor to read applicants’ essays from around the world—ranging from stories of grit and resilience to their signature strengths. I can’t express how inspiring and meaningful this element of the admissions job has been to me.”

Clarke also singles out the deans she has worked with at Darden and Tuck. “Another highlight was eight years ago when Scott Beardsley called me at a garlic festival in Vermont, and the way he made the job offer was to say, ‘We want you to come home.’ Coming back to Darden really did feel like coming home. An ongoing highlight has been working for Darden under Scott’s leadership. The momentum has been—and continues to be—contagious, and it makes it so easy to authentically represent Darden.”

TWO LONG-TIME ADMISSIONS OFFICIALS AT DARDEN ARE NOW INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

“Paul Danos at Tuck was a highlight, and I’ll always be grateful for his friendship and mentorship. From him I learned, ‘Always do what’s in the best interest of the applicant, not the admissions office,’ which fostered a highly applicant-centric approach. Finally, for about half of my career, I was a single mom to my son, Josh. I’m incredibly grateful to so many people—Jon Megibow, Dia Draper, Ted Snyder, Jeanne Liedtka, and Bob and Leonne Harris—who believed in me and enabled me to balance those responsibilities with flexibility and a ‘we’ve got your back’ kind of support. I could not have taken on these roles as a single parent without the love, support, and involvement of my parents, Pat and Dave Clarke, and my sister and brother-in-law, Lauren Clarke and Robert Radifera, who were all involved in helping me raise Josh.”

As the school begins a search for Clarke’s successor, two long-time admissions leaders will step in as interim executive directors: Whitney Kestner, who has been in Darden admissions for the past 18 years, and Brett Twitty, who has been at Darden for nearly 11 years. Kestner has served as an associate director of admissions at Darden, joining the school in 2007 from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, where she was senior associate director of admissions. Twitty has been managing director of admissions for professional programs for the past four years.

The school notes that qualified candidates are invited to apply as Darden seeks an experienced, strategic, and inclusive leader to build on its strong admissions foundation and global reputation. Nominations can be sent to Adam Seid, UVA ESG, at seid@virginia.edu.

DON’T MISS: LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN MBA ADMISSIONS: DAWNA CLARKE AT UVA DARDEN 

 

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