Dr. Griffy-Brown is a tenured full-professor at Pepperdine University who has trained hundreds of executives in the areas of business innovation leveraging digital systems, analytics, and optimizing cyber risk. She is a seasoned board member, and currently serves as a Director on two Corporate Boards and two non-profit boards as well as the California Technology Council. Charla has worked with business leaders and executives to deploy a risk-based approach cyber security working with leaders in organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Paramount Pictures, and Nintendo. Her research on emerging technologies, digital innovation, and risk has been funded by a Denny Endowment, an SAP University Alliance Grant, the Pacific Telecommunications Commission, the Rothschild Research Endowment, and the Graziadio School of Business Funds for Excellence. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal, Technology in Society. At Pepperdine University, Charla is Associate Dean of Executive and Part-Time Programs at the Pepperdine Graziadio School and Professor of Information Systems and Technology Management. She teaches in the Executive MBA, Part-Time MBA, Full-Time MBA, and the Masters of Science in Applied Analytics programs as well as the Digital Innovation Concentration. She received the university’s top teaching award, The Howard A. White teaching award, in 2011 and was recognized in 2016 as one of the most cited scholars at the University. In 2019, she was recognized by the Pepperdine Graziadio School with the “George Award” for outstanding scholarship, teaching and service. In 2020, she received the Pepperdine University Award for Excellence in Leadership. Dr. Griffy-Brown graduated from Harvard University, is a former Fulbright Scholar, and holds a Ph.D. in Technology Management from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. Dr. Griffy-Brown also served as an associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. During 2012 she served as a Visiting Fellow at Tsinghua University in China and Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan. In 2017, she was a visiting fellow at Jyvlaskyla University in Finland. She was an invited guest speaker for the US State Department in the area of emerging technologies and development. She has also worked with NASA, the European Commission, and the UN Global Environmental Facility.
Charla has lived and worked in Japan, China, Indonesia and Australia. Her favorite place to be is with her two children, tall Australian husband, and their hairless cat named Louie, in the forests of the Pacific Northwest where they live.