A person with short dark hair smiles warmly at the camera. They are wearing a light beige jacket over a black top with a white trim. The background is a simple, muted grayish-brown, making the person the focal point of the image.

Deborah Pembleton

Professor
Biography

Dr. Deborah J. Pembleton is a Professor in the Global Business Leadership Department at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in central Minnesota.  She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative International Development Education with an emphasis on global leadership from the University of Minnesota, an MBA from St. Louis University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame.

She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in human resources, organizational behavior, management strategy and intercultural communication, all from an international perspective. She has been actively involved in international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary activities. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Pembleton held various positions at IBM Corporation and 3M Company where she developed marketing strategies and sales training programs. Her strengths lie in her ability to build relationships and drive business strategies that enable business outcomes across cultures.

As a recipient of the Bush Leadership Fellowship, she has continued to fulfill her commitment to leading students on transformative study abroad trips that cultivate cultural intelligence and deepen their global awareness.

She has led students on the semester-long study abroad trip to China. She developed and led students on short term trips to Thailand and the Bahamas.  She is a recipient of the CIBER (Centers for International Business Education and Research) Teaching Fellowship through the University of Minnesota, where she assisted students studying abroad in Australia. She is a recipient of the ASIANetwork Faculty Enhancement Program (ANFEP) Fellowship during which she conducted research in China and India.

Her professional affiliations include the Academy of Management (AOM), the Management Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS), and the Society for International Education, Training and Research (SIETAR), and the PhD Project.

Education
  • Ph.D., Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development University of Minnesota
    • Specialization: Comparative and International Development Education
  • MBA, Finance and Marketing, St. Louis University
  • B.A, American Studies, University of Notre Dame
Teaches
  • Human Resource Management
  • International Organizational Behavior
  • International Organizational Behavior in the Bahamian Context (Bahamas Embedded Study Abroad Program)
  • Introduction to Asian Studies: History of the Hmong in Minnesota
  • Thai Culture, Society, and Business (Thailand Short-term Study Abroad Program)
  • International Organizational Behavior: An Asian Perspective (China Study Abroad Program)
  • Strategic Management in a Global Context
  • People in Organizations
  • Global Management Principles
Research Interests
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Cross Cultural Leadership
  • Intercultural Competence Development
  • Internationalization of Business Education
Selected Publications

Pembleton, D. J., & Fry, G. W. (2022). Reimagining the field of international education through the vision of a Renaissance internationalist: The Minnesota case. In Mestenhauser and the Possibilities of International Education (pp. 44-57). Routledge.

Pembleton, Deborah J. (2021) “Review of Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World,” The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 103-105.

Pembleton, Deborah, “ASIANetwork Faculty Enrichment Program: providing a gateway to collaborations in China and India” (2018). Forum Lectures. 392. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/forum_lectures/392

Pembleton, D., Friend, J., & He, Z. (2018). The Role of Sociocultural Context in the Leader–Follower Relationship: An Analysis of Lee Kuan Yew’s Authentic Transformational Leadership. Authentic Leadership and Followership: International Perspectives, 139-163.