Kate Walsh MPS ’90 - The Hotelie Dean
By Robert Mandelbaum '81
The Cornell Hotel Society salutes one of our own, Kate Walsh MPS ’90 for her ten years of service as the Dimond Family Dean of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.
Kate was the first Hotelie to serve as dean of the Hotel School since Robert Beck, Hotel ’42, retired after his twenty-year tenure in 1981. Like many Hotelies, Kate developed a passion for the lodging industry before arriving in Ithaca.
Journey to Cornell
After graduating from Fairfield University in 1985 with a degree in accounting, Kate joined a Connecticut-based mining company. Her role took her around the world conducting internal audits at remote operations. Spending more than half the year on the road, she became both a frequent hotel guest and a keen observer of the hospitality industry.
Wanting to transition from accountant to hotelier, Kate began searching for a graduate program in hospitality management. Naturally, Cornell University rose to the top of the list.
To strengthen her application, Kate accepted a position with Loews Corporation, expecting to audit hotels. Instead, her early assignments focused on the company’s energy, entertainment, and tobacco divisions. Fortunately, Cornell’s admissions office apparently assumed she had already developed extensive hotel accounting experience, and she arrived on campus in 1988—sight unseen.
While pursuing her master’s degree, Kate focused on human resources and organizational studies. She took full advantage of the small faculty-to-student ratio in the program and formed close relationships with several professors, including Florence Berger, who helped her secure a summer position at Westin’s headquarters in Seattle, where she joined the development team.
As a master’s student, Kate also experienced the power of the Hotelie network for the first time. After graduation, she connected with Peter Klein ‘69 and joined Harvey Hotels as a corporate training manager. She later held a similar role with Nikko Hotels.
The faculty relationships Kate developed at Cornell also inspired her desire to teach. Pursuing an academic career required a doctorate, and while she would have loved to remain at Cornell for her Ph.D., doing so would have prevented her from later joining the Cornell faculty. Instead, she enrolled at Boston College, where she earned her doctorate in organizational studies in 2000.
Opportunity to Join Faculty in 2000
Fortunately, two positions opened at the Hotel School that same year, and Kate joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the fall of 2000. Before being named dean in 2016, she served as assistant professor, associate professor, and later as the Fred G. Peelen Professor of Global Hospitality Strategy.
Connecting to the Hotelie Network
For Kate, the Hotelie network is a uniquely close-knit community that has brought great joy throughout her career as a student, professor, and dean. Her 1990 MPS cohort remains in close contact to this day.
Kate has intentionally attended Cornell Hotel Society events around the world to maintain strong ties with alumni. Among her most memorable experiences were the annual EMEA Regional Conferences in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Cannes, France. Seeing the strength and passion of the alumni community overseas reinforced her belief in what makes the Hotelie community so special.
In 2017, Kate launched the inaugural Faculty Immersion Trip to Washington, DC, the first of seven immersions she organized with the support of the Dean’s Advisory Board, including a memorable trek to London. The program gives Hotel School faculty members opportunities to connect with hospitality industry executives—many of them alumni. Those relationships provide professors with valuable access to research data, industry insights, and emerging trends.
To expose students to the Hotelie network, Kate and the school’s faculty invite more than 400 alumni back to Statler each year as guest speakers and mentors. Kate reminds students that they are “receiving a gift” through the opportunity to learn from alumni and build relationships that will benefit them professionally throughout their careers. She also encourages graduates to remain active in CHS and eventually return to Ithaca to support future generations of Hotelies.
Dean Walsh’s Lasting Legacy: The Student Success Hub
As part of Kate’s legacy to the Nolan School, the dean’s advisory board and other dedicated alumni have funded The Student Success Hub, a dedicated student support space within Statler Hall. The new area will serve as a hub where students can receive academic support, including tutoring and mentoring, from Nolan faculty and staff.
Not Retiring – Back to The Classroom
Kate happily is not retiring from Cornell. Instead, she is returning to the classroom to continue her teaching and research, her first passions, while remaining actively engaged with alumni through CHS.
What It Means to be a Hotelie for Life®
For Kate, being a Hotelie for Life® is both a privilege and a responsibility. Through hospitality, Hotelies create human connections, what Kate calls ‘other-centered leadership’. Every day, she takes pride in hearing stories of Hotelies around the world bringing joy to the lives of others and in essence, making our world a better place.
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The Cornell Hotel Society thanks Dean Kate Walsh MPS ’90 for her ten years of service as the Dimond Family Dean of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.
