Jennifer Koski named a “Favorite Professor” by Poets & Quants

Jennifer Koski, a professor of finance at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, has been named one of the “Favorite Professors of the MBA Class of 2022” by the business school site Poets & Quants.

Koski was recognized for her extraordinary ability to make even the most baroque of fiscal concepts comprehensible for students—regardless of their degree of interest or experience in finance.

Case in point: Sasha Duchin (MBA 2022), who described herself as acutely finance-phobic before taking Koski’s Problems in Business Finance elective last year.

“Professor Koski’s passion for finance and her ability to break down cases so that anyone could follow along helped build the confidence I now have in the subject,” says Duchin, who was named an “MBA to Watch” by Poets & Quants. “After a year of virtual learning, it was refreshing to take her class as she was kind and engaging throughout the entire quarter, empowering students to participate throughout class.”

Deeper understanding

Koski serves as the Kirby L. Cramer Endowed Chair in Finance and associate dean for academic and faculty affairs at Foster.

She joined the school’s faculty in 1991, after earning a BS in applied mathematics from Brown University, an MBA from Harvard and a PhD in finance from Stanford.

Jennifer Koski

Koski’s dedication to deeper learning was inspired by an early experience working in investment banking after graduating from Brown. She never really got past the processes, figuring a bond price by following directions on a cheat sheet, for instance. “Somebody told me how to do it, but not why,” she says. “Then I went to get my MBA, and the light went on.”

Her career has been about replicating that epiphany for nearly 32 years of students at Foster. Koski has long been known for dynamic finance sessions, bringing the real world into the classroom through contemporary cases (many of which she and her colleagues create in-house), and helping even the most finance-averse students understand and appreciate their utility. That, and a tireless dedication to her students.

Door is always open

Koski’s growing mountain of accolades is testament to her sustained excellence at Foster. She has received the Charles E. Summer Outstanding Teaching Award (2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2015), the Daniel R. Siegel Service Award (2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016), the MBA Core Professor of the Year (1994, 1996, 2001-2008, 2015), the MBA Elective Professor of the Year (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019), the Dean’s Citizenship Award (2004), the Andrew V. Smith Faculty Development Award (2003), PhD Mentor of the Year Award (2001), MBA Core Teaching Team of the Year (1997, 1998, 2000), the Lex N. Gamble Family Award for Excellence in Case Development (2012), the Ron Crockett Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2014) and Innovation in Education (2014), and the Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award (1993).

Paramount among these honors is a trio of PACCAR Awards (2001, 2008 and 2015), the Foster School’s highest faculty honor, which is selected annually by MBA students.

For her most recent PACCAR Award, one student described Koski as “the professor whose door is always open, who has put a great deal of thought and care into the structure of the course, emphasizes and facilitates supportive discussions that truly lead students to the conclusion or crux of a case, and—I speak from personal experience—will go out of her way to wave to students halfway across a parking lot.

“She’s an NPV-positive professor with incalculable value-add.”